Women's NGO Coalition
  Botswana, Africa

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Women’s Poverty and Economic Development

More than 1 billion people in the world are poor and the majority of these people are women.

In Botswana 55% of the population in rural areas earn income below the poverty line.

Female-headed households make up 41% of those living in poverty as opposed to 34% for male headed households.

More importantly female-headed households have a significantly greater burden of dependents, lower income earning capacity and fewer assets and other resources.

Poverty:  the lack of income and lack of basic human needs  

Such as: food, water, clothing, shelter etc…

Some causes of poverty for women are:

• Lack of access to education
• Lack of access to productive resources i.e.: land
• Lack of  economic opportunity
• Effects of structural adjustment policies

Women are often left out of economic decision making.

Again what contributes to poor economic situtations for women:

• Lack of access

• Lack of participation

• Unpaid domestic work

• Sexual harassment in the work place and in the community

Recommendations  

• A change in gender biased laws, to include women in economic power and social security programs. 

• Giving women access to credit in order to establish a source of income and economic independence.

• Increase maintenance for children born out of wedlock. 

• Create better access to jobs for women.

Info from: Post-Beijing National Workshop, July, 1997

Progress for Women in Botswana

Women and Poverty, Including Economic Empowerment

Progress has been made by:

	in increasing the recognition of the gender dimension of poverty
	in the recognition that gender equality is one of the factors of specific importance for eradicating poverty

	pursuing a two-pronged approach of promoting employment and income generating activities for women
	providing access to basic social services including information, skills and other survival skills
	these have been reinforced by social safety nets such as: the destitute policy, supplementary feeding programmes, labour based relief programmes and old age pension scheme.
	Micro-credit and other financial instruments targeting women have emerged.  This includes the Botswana Government and UNDP National Gender Programme Support Document funding women economic empowerment projects, the Financial Assistance Policy, the small, medium and micro Enterprise Programme and the recently introduced Citizen Entrepreneurial Development Agency (CEDA).
	Women’s NGOs have also introduced micro-lending targeting women entrepreneurs and have provided business training.
	In addition, research has been undertaken to audit women economic opportunities in Botswana.

Although there have been improvements for women in Botswana, there still is a large percentage of women that fall below the poverty level.

Emang Basadi Women's Association
Women's Finance House Botswana
CORDE
YWCA
Manual Workers Union
Botswana Federation of Trade Union

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Last modified: July 02, 2002
Copyright 2001 - Women's NGO Coalition