Skip to main content Accessibility help
×
Hostname: page-component-788cddb947-xdx58 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-10-15T14:51:48.276Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

13 - The Influence of Government Policies on the Development of Rural Settlements in Botswana

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  24 September 2020

Get access

Summary

This chapter looks at change in Botswana's settlement patterns since independence in 1966 when approximately 95 per cent of the population was in rural areas or large villages. Since independence, one of the major changes in settlement patterns has been the growth of modem towns following the implementation of certain development programmes.

The redistribution of population in space has received considerable attention (Clarke and Kosinski 1982). People have always moved from one area to another in search of opportunities and have brought with them skills and other forms of capital. Opoko (1990) has shown how the Western Region of Ghana has experienced an increase in cocoa production and a rise in literacy as a result of in-migration. Wood (1982) has studied the spontaneous migrations by peasants from congested rural areas of Ethiopia to the unused (or underutilised) lands, transforming agricultural production in their new home areas.

The awareness of population issues by governments has increased significantly since the 1974 World Population Conference. At an intergovernmental meeting organised by the Economic Commission for Africa (EC A) in 1977, African governments made a number of suggestions regarding the policy measures to be adopted with regard to population distribution and internal migration. In the same year, many African governments considered the spatial distribution patterns to be unacceptable and with regards to policies of internal migration, most African governments ‘desired to either decelerate or even reverse the existing trends’ (Clarke and Kosinski 1982: 13).

African countries have in varying degrees consequently experimented with a series of programmes that were designed explicitly or implicity to influence existing population distributions, especially in rural areas (Adepoju 1982). The main motivation behind these programmes has been the desire to stem the high rates of rural-urban migration by stimulating development in the rural areas. One of the major impediments to rural development has often been perceived to be the distribution of population in small and scattered settlements.

Most policies have not been explicit as regards population redistribution or settlement changes, although some have formulated rural development strategies, entailing resettlement schemes and the creation of new growth centres to stimulate development in low density regions and the provision of social amenities in more concentrated areas.

Type
Chapter
Information
Publisher: Edinburgh University Press
Print publication year: 2020

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure coreplatform@cambridge.org is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

Available formats
×