Botswana: A Gender Equality Success Story?

In recent years Botswana has made impressive strides in the advancement of women in business. With a women's labour force participation rate of 60, Botswana leads globally in the percentage of business owners who are women it was also ranked as the top African country in the Mastercard Index of Women Entrepreneurs in 2021.

According to the World Bank's Women, Business and the Law report in 2023 the country has made significant strides toward equal treatment of women under the law over the last twenty years.

How has the country managed to shift the dial on women's empowerment, and what lessons might it hold for the rest of Africa?

Award-winning Botswanan designer One Rapelana, the owner of specialist accessory brand Xita, credits government action and support with helping women to succeed. "The government is definitely trying. I mean, we do have the Ministry of Youth and Gender. There's a grant that I received from the government, about five years ago when I first started. It was a grant/loan, so they've been really helpful."

That financial support was disbursed from the Youth Development Fund YDF, a socio-economic programme that aims to help start-ups expand their businesses in Botswana. First introduced in 2009 as an economic empowerment programme to assist aspiring young people in business, it offers cash support comprising 50 loan and 50 grant. Some of the eligibility requirements include being between the ages of 18 and 35 and having left school.