| Overview : Given the current challenge of youth unemployment rate (25.2%) in Botswana, the notion of using entrepreneurial activity to foster creativity, innovation and self-employment amongst Botswana youth has become a prominent goal for the Botswana government policy. The National Development Plan (NDP 11) commits to the acceleration of ‘initiatives that promote entrepreneurship development, with the view to stimulating economic activities, including youth and women’s economic empowerment initiatives that will generate employment opportunities. Having recognized entrepreneurship development as an important driver of economic development, the Botswana Government has introduced several financial assistance schemes such as Youth Development Fund (YDF), Citizen Entrepreneurial Development Agency (CEDA)’s Young Farmers’ Fund and Government’s Women Grants etc. These financial assistance schemes play a key role in cultivating future entrepreneurs and encouraging youth to participate in the socio-economic development of Botswana. Other youth empowerment programmes include Affirmative Action in Favor of Youth (Presidential Directive Cab 14 (B)/2015), National Internship Programme, National Service Programme, Character Building/Behavior Change, Sport and Recreation, Arts and Culture. All these programmes offer opportunities to build sustainable youth livelihoods and a chance for integrating youth into society. Despite the importance attached to youth entrepreneurship in the Botswana national policy agenda, systematic research on the topic has been limited. Gaining an understanding on the factors that drive youth entrepreneurship in different settings in Botswana has become more critical for formulating effective, evidence-based policies to help address the youth employment challenge. A major obstacle in tackling the problem of youth employment and entrepreneurship is often the lack of reliable and up to date data and analysis. To overcome this gap, the UNDP Botswana has agreed to support the Ministry of Youth Empowerment, Culture and Sport Development to procure the services of a consultant to undertake a study that will examine the issues surrounding needs, opportunities and constraints to youth entrepreneurship in Botswana. This will be done under the auspices of a project titled the “Support to the Fulfilment of Human Rights, Access to Justice and Empowerment of Women and Youth Project” (2018 – 2021) (“the Project”). The Overall Objective of the study is to examine the type of constraints facing young entrepreneurs and how these can be overcome including needs and opportunities for youth entrepreneurship in Botswana. |
