Botswana: Boipelego and dependent development

Boipelego translates from Setswana as "self reliance." Botswana's national development plan describes "self-reliance" as a foundational principle of government policy. In the pursuit of its national economic development goals, Botswana has avoided the pitfalls of foreign debt and maintained a strong balance of payments and foreign exchange reserve position that lends substance to the ideal. The goal of self-reliance in no way reflects an interest or policy of autarchy, however. Quite to the contrary, the Botswana political economy is highly integrated with the southern African regional economy, open to the rest of the world, and government policy has consistently favored such openness and will likely continue to do so. Nonetheless, Botswana is a small nation, highly vulnerable to external factors that could destabilize its political economy, therefore, it is useful to continue to understand its position in terms of dependent development.