A demographic dividend is not only contingent on a rapid decline in fertility and mortality. It also requires strategic investments in promoting equality, health and family planning, education and skills development, and job creation. When countries harness the demographic dividend, their young people become more empowered, healthier, better educated and have more equal access to opportunities.

Former Botswana President Ian Khama is well known for disregarding the established etiquette amongst Africa’s political elite that turns a blind eye to the pursuit of self-interest by fellow leaders in the name of diplomacy. He repeatedly called for Zimbabwe’s former President Mugabe to step down and openly criticised him. On the surface it seems that Khama’s moral grandstanding can be justified given Botswana’s reputation for good governance and economic stability. Yet looking back at the decade of his rule, this narrative has been hollowed out by a man that showed himself to be less of a leader and more of a ruler.

The Court of Appeal reaffirmed that the refusal to register a gay organisation was both irrational and in violation of the right to freedom of association. In an important judgment for the LGBTI community, the Court emphasised that there is no legislation in Botswana which prohibits anyone from being homosexual.

Discovery Metals built Boseto Mine at a cost of $175 million and Cupric Canyon bought it for $35 million. Workers put in their sweat and tears and were driven out in buses.

When we commemorate May Day we rarely reflect on why it is a public holiday in Africa or elsewhere. Sian Byrne, Paliani Chinguwo, Warren McGregor, and Lucien van der Walt tell of the powerful struggles that lie behind its existence.

In 2004, a Botswana Minister said there was no mining nor any plans for future mining anywhere inside the Central Kalahari Game Reserve. In 2014 a $4.9bn diamond mine opens

The second thematic session of the Leadership for Change initiative started today [March 17] in Gaborone Botswana, with 12 participants selected from South Africa, Mauritius, Mozambique, Malawi, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Swaziland, Lesotho.

A landmark ruling on 12 October by Gaborone’s High Court found that gender discrimination based on Botswana’s customary law is unconstitutional. The court ruled on a case brought by three sisters, all over 65 years old, challenging a Ngwaketse customary law that holds the right of inheritance to the family home belongs to the youngest son. 'Critically, the judge made it clear that discrimination cannot be justified on cultural grounds before rejecting out of hand the argument put forward by the Attorney General that Botswana society was not ready for [gender] equality,' Priti Patel, deputy director of the Southern Africa Litigation Centre (SALC), said in a statement. SALC supported the sisters’ case.

Green Berets from the famous 10th Special Forces Group (Airborne) out of Fort Carson, Colorado, trained with the Botswana Defense Forces Special Forces (BDFSF) on marksmanship, close quarter battle, medical and tracking training in an effort to strengthen relationships and to promote and support Special Operations Capabilities. This was all part of field training exercises called 'Eastern Piper 12'. Exercise Eastern Piper 12, conducted by US Africa Command (AFRICOM) and Special Operations Command, Africa (SOCAF), was a three week Foreign International Defense (FID) structured counter-terrorism base exercise, which took place at the Thebepatswa Air Base in Gaborone, Botswana.

While Botswana’s government has never officially admitted to forcibly relocating the G/wi and G//ana communities of the Basarwa indigenous group to make way for diamond-mining operations in the Central Kalahari Game Reserve (CKGR), critics have long suspected this to be the main motivation for the removals. When it became known in late 2010 that Gem Diamonds would begin mining operations in the CKGR, suspicions seem to have been confirmed. Basarwa were granted the rights to occupy land within the CKGR, as a result of a court ruling in 2006, after years of attempted negotiations, struggle and litigation. There is concern over monitoring and ensuring that the needs of the communities in the CKGR are met, says this article from

Botswana has condemned the African Union (AU) for enticing Malawi to host Sudan president Omar al Bashir at the AU summit that was supposed to be held in Malawi in July. The summit has now been relocated to Ethiopia after Malawi refused to host Al-Bashir and threatened to arrest him if he attended over crimes al Bashir committed against humanity in Darfur and is on the wanted list of the International Criminal Court.

Botswana’s security forces are arresting and intimidating Bushmen, despite the tribe’s legal right to live and hunt in the Central Kalahari Game Reserve (CKGR), says Survival International. 'Survival has received several reports that a large group of police officers have set up a permanent camp close to the community of Metsiamenong, which famously resisted Botswana’s brutal evictions.'

Botswana’s has confirmed a cessation clause with respect to Angolan refugees in the country. The ministry said the decision was taken after consultations with the United Nations High Commission for Refugees. 'Taking into consideration the recommendations by UNHCR, the government of Botswana hereby declares, pursuant to article 1C (5) and (6) of the 1951 Convention relating to the status of refugees, Article I (4) (e) of the 1969 Organisation of African Unity Governing the specific aspects of the refugee problems in Africa and Botswana’s refugee Act that the refugee status of Angolan refugees who fled Angola as a result of the armed conflicts between 1961 and 2002 will cease as of 30 June 2012,' read part of a statement.

Human rights group Ditshwanelo has urged the Botswana government to suspend the execution of murderers. This follows the hanging of Zibani Thamo on 31 January for the murder of his girlfriend in 2007. In Southern Africa, Botswana and Zimbabwe are some of the countries that institute the death penalty. South Africa abolished the death penalty in 1995, a year after the demise of apartheid, while Namibia had already done so when it gained independence in 1990.

Botswana should decriminalise homosexuality and prostitution to prevent the spread of HIV, ex-President Festus Mogae has told the BBC. Mogae, who heads the Botswana government-backed Aids Council, said it was difficult to promote safe sex when the two practices were illegal. A government spokesman on HIV/Aids told the BBC homosexuality and prostitution would remain illlegal until the government concluded wide-ranging consultations to see whether there was a need to change the law.

The Botswana government gave the United States the green light to explore the possibility of establishing an Africa Command (Africom) base in the country when the issue was raised four years ago, American diplomatic cables published by WikiLeaks show. The revelations could provide ammunition for the ANC Youth League in the disciplinary hearing by the ANC of league leader Julius Malema and other league officials. Malema has been charged in connection with his call for regime change in Botswana. He also described President Ian Khama as an imperialist puppet, in part in connection with claims that Botswana was talking to the US about an Africom base.

This report on Botswana is the first of two country studies (the second concerns Mali) that examine gender and employment in Africa. The study is informed by two broad development frameworks. The first is the Millennium Development Agenda that views Millennium Development Goal 3, Gender Equality and Women’s Empowerment, as a critical determinant in the attainment of all the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), and more broadly, poverty reduction. The second is the African Development Bank’s Managing for Development Results (MfDR), the organisation’s blueprint for development effectiveness.

Discontent with political leaders is mounting in Botswana, which has long been held up as a model of democratic governance in Africa. The ruling Botswana Democratic Party's (BDP) secretary-general Kentse Rammidi plunged his party into a crisis by his resignation recently, bemoaning a lack of internal democracy. Rammidi's decision followed a move by Labour and Home Affairs Minister Peter Siele to declare teaching, veterinary services and diamond sorting to be essential services.

Botswana labour unions have asked a court to force the government to reinstate about 2 600 public service workers fired during the country's first national strike in April. 'Our comrades were participating in a legal strike and the government has no right to dismiss them, hence the decision to seek court's intervention,' said Andrew Motsamai, president of Botswana Public Employees Union. The workers, including doctors and nurses, were fired after the state won a court order forcing them to return to work, after they embarked on the nationwide mass action over wages.

Child labour is a problem in many countries, Botswana included. With poverty increasing in these harsh economic times many communities are putting their children to work. The Media Officer of Ditshwanelo, the Botswana Centre for Human Rights, Thuso Galeitsewe has revealed that according to research, the agricultural sector is where many young children are subjected to work in the fields and large farms.