Much faith has been put in the increased supply of education as a means to promote national economic development and as a way to assist the poor and the disadvantaged. However, the benefits that nations can obtain by increasing the level of education of their workforce depends on the...

The United Nations’ Millennium Declaration, passed by the General Assembly in September 2000, is assessed with particular attention being given to the Millennium Development Goals and associated targets outlined in the Declaration. The focus of the article is not so much on the extent to which...

This article explores the socio-economic situation of female heads and poor heads of household in rural Botswana by means of a case study of the village of Nshakazhogwe, a village considered to be typical for rural east Botswana. It examines the extent to which the occurrence of poverty of...

This paper reports on and analyzes primary survey data obtained from a survey of household heads on the rural village of Nshakazhogwe, a typical rural village in northeast Botswana. It examines the associations between the incidence of poverty of household heads in this village and the values of...

Botswana’s average economic growth rate of about 8 per cent during 1985-2005 is one of highest in the world. A major contributor of this growth was mining which, in 2005/06, had a 41.4 per cent share of GDP. Various government welfare and empowerment programmes indicate that redistribution of...

The gradualism of economic reforms in China and Vietnam (especially in China, which has led the way in this regard) has been commented on favourably by many analysts studying transitional economies. Early market reforms in China and Vietnam were constrained by political considerations and...

Although middle income countries such as Botswana are credited with reliable data that are used in poverty measures, it is sometimes argued that the time lags between data generations or surveys are too wide. The Household Income and Expenditure Survey (HIES) in Botswana takes place every 10...

Provides a sketch of Bangladesh’s socio-economic performance in the light of the UN’s Millennium Development Goals. After providing some background on these goals and on Bangladesh, this article considers trends in the incidence of poverty and hunger in Bangladesh, access to education and...

Botswana was among the highest growing economies in the world during 1985-2005 and achieved a reduction in its overall incidence of poverty from 60 per cent in 1985/86 to 30 per cent in 2002/03. The incidence of rural poverty in Botswana decreased from 55 per cent in 1985/86 to 40 per cent in...

Empirical studies on the impact of women’s paid jobs on their empowerment and welfare in the Bangladesh context are rare. The few studies on the issue to date have all been confined to the garment workers only although studies indicate that women’s workforce participation in Bangladesh has...