Youth Empowerment Programmes in Botswana: Overestimated or Under-researched?

Abstract

Youth empowerment programmes seek to improve the lives of the youth by meeting their basic physical, developmental and social needs by helping them build competencies needed to become successful adults. Therefore, the purpose of this paper is to document past and current youth empowerment programmes in Botswana from 1996 when the country enacted its first National Youth Policy to date. The paper posits that, currently, it is unclear as to how many youth empowerment programmes are operating in Botswana. Drawing on both the literature and mostly the results from a study on understanding youth development and socio-economic empowerment in Botswana, this article examines youth empowerment programmes in the country. The findings infer that the programmes are significantly affected by many fundamental challenges that undermine efforts to achieve their intended aims. The paper concludes by emphasising the need for the development of robust designs and implementation tools that will ensure the realisation of long-lasting solutions to empowering the youth.