Political Settlements Analysis of Natural Resource Governance in Botswana

ABSTRACT

Natural resources are abundant in Africa and must be used to achieve macroeconomic goals like growth and development. Political settlements are important to achieving these results because they materially affect how natural resource governance is carried out. The pursuit of growth and development is impacted by these settlements. Political settlements may either make it easier or harder to achieve these macroeconomic goals. Natural resource rents in some polities do not result in growth and development because of win-lose political agreements. However, this need not be the case as demonstrated by the Botswana case. This study used Botswana as a case study to illustrate political settlements analysis of natural resource governance. It asked, ‘what effect do political settlements have on the management of natural resources in Botswana?’ It concluded that win-win political settlements produced inclusive resource exploitation, resulting in economic growth and development and a rise in citizen welfare. The final lesson for resource-rich African nations is to establish political settlements that promote both economic growth and development to increase societal welfare.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1 The focus of this paper is at a national level. That is, how the actions of politicians at a national level influence natural resource governance.