Enhancing food access in Africa: the Botswana experience
Asefa, S.
Studies in Comparative International Development 26(3): 59-83
1991
ISSN/ISBN: 0039-3606 DOI: 10.1007/bf02687175Document Number: 343013
Botswana, like many African nations had to cope with problems of severe drought in the 1980s. However, unlike some other countries in the region, it has succeeded in avoiding deaths from starvation. Botswana's relative success in preventing drought from turning into famine is not only due to its ability to finance a large drought relief programme supported by a healthy diamond-based economy. More significantly, it is through the use of appropriate economic policies in implementing a drought relief programme as a part of its national food strategy. The article examines Botswana's experience in enhancing food security, based on an exploratory case study of the public employment programme (cash for work) in the South East District of the Republic. Botswana has adopted a national food strategy with long-term and short-term policy dimensions. The long term goal is to increase food security through improved agricultural production and a diversified rural economy. In the short term, the goal is to provide food security to the most vulnerable segment of its population. The two components of the food access programme are human supplementary feeding and cash for work. A total of 70 households in Ramotswa village in the South East district were questioned in April 1988. In terms of villages in the district Ramotswa had the greatest participation rate and largest diversity of cash for work projects. Results showed that the majority of respondents were female-headed households with larger average family size compared to non-participants. Both participants and non-participants showed the same degree of desire for future participation in the programme. Non-participants were poorer or just as poor as participants (i.e., more of the participants received income from diverse sources). One implication of this finding is that there is a potential 'target inefficiency' or 'leakage' problem in the programme.
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