Why Botswana is a Deviant Case to the Natural Resource Curse?

Abstract

The resource curse thesis generally considers the profusion of natural resources as an anti-thesis to development. This correlation is based on empirical evidence from countries that are resource endowed (such as Angola,  Nigeria, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Sierra Leone, and South  Sudan) but have faulted in realizing economic development as they were and  continue to be predisposed to unrelenting socio-economic and political ills than  countries that are less endowed with natural resources (i.e Singapore). Yet,  there are a few countries that are glutted with high value extractive resources  but deviated in the way they used those resources. Botswana is one such a  country that has demonstrated that ' the resource curse ' is avoidable. This  paper argues that Botswana is a deviant case of success in the way it has  managed its natural resources. Its deviance has become a conundrum for  researchers and policy analysts who seek to understand how this was achieved.  This paper seeks to explain why this was possible for Botswana when equally  endowed countries faulted.  *Corresponding Author: Professor, University of Botswana, E-Mail: sebudubu@mopipi.ub.bw