Institutional Dynamics of Sustained Rapid Economic Growth with Limited Impact on Poverty Reduction (Country case study: Botswana) (Draft)

This paper aims to look at the political and institutional dynamics of sustained rapid economic growth with a limited impact on poverty alleviation and the challenges for a pro-poor, inclusive developmental process in Botswana. It explores why and how the institutional arrangements of the developmental state appears to have been focused on rapid economic growth with what seems to be a basic needs approach to poverty reductions until quite recently. Yet growth is valued not because it further enriches the already well-off, but because it gives an opportunity to significantly and lastingly improve standards of living for the majority, including the poor.