Overview
Since gaining independence, Botswana has transformed into an upper middle-income country and the government has committed to reach high-income status by 2036. However, Botswana faces structural challenges to continue on its growth path due to its high dependency on diamond revenues, which account for 80% of exports and 25% of the GDP. The country’s economic model is also marked by a strong dependence on the State. The high level of unemployment and inequalities, vegetable import restrictions and growing macroeconomic concerns about the rapid depletion of the public finance accounts add to the existing challenges.
Our partnership
The EU supports Botswana’s sustainable and inclusive development efforts, in line with the country’s National Development Plan and the EU’s Global Gateway strategy. In particular, the EU helps Botswana to step up private sector led economic diversification and green transition, while addressing the high levels of inequality and unemployment, notably among the youth.
Botswana and the EU share long-standing economic and trade relations, with the EU being Botswana’s second trade partner after South Africa. Since its start of implementation in 2016, the EU-SADC Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA) has been the foundation of this solid trade and investment relationship.
Our cooperation is implemented in a Team Europe spirit, together with France and Germany.
The EU allocated €24 million in bilateral funding towards the EU-Botswana partnership for the period 2021-2027 focusing on two priority areas: green transformation as well as economic diversification and job creation. In particular, the EU supports Botswana’s efforts to develop and strengthen the eco-tourism and horticulture value chains, to transition to more sustainable energy sources and to advance the country’s digital agenda.
Furthermore, Botswana benefits from several multi-country EU programmes, including the Global Gateway flagships ‘Strategic Corridors’ in Southern Africa and ‘NaturAfrica’.
The EU-Botswana partnership programming documents can be found in the ‘Related documents’ section below.
Our key initiatives
- Eco-tourism
This initiative supports new approaches to wildlife and ecosystem protection, building resilience in rural communities while contributing to economic development, by:
- Improving biodiversity and conservation management through sustainable wildlife management, support to key trans-frontier conservation areas through NaturAfrica and transboundary water management.
- Developing the ecotourism value chain to boost job creation.
- Supporting local communities’ involvement in eco-tourism through helping community-based tourism landscape and provision of grants for CSOs.
- Horticulture
Complementing and linked to the eco-tourism value chain, this initiative aims at:
- Developing the horticulture value chain to increase job creation through activities such as capacity building, expertise and training.
- Facilitating trade and market access, notably along the Durban – Lubumbashi and the Walvis Bay-Maputo corridors envisaged under the Global Gateway, by enhancing market access and export competitiveness.
- Digital
The EU Digital Agenda is supporting Botswana in its digital transformation process with measures aimed at:
- Developing a harmonised broadband mapping systems in Sub-Saharan Africa as part of the Africa-Europe Digital Regulators partnership.
- Leveraging data use and cross-border data flows to boost data governance in Africa.
- Strengthening Botswana’s digital entrepreneurship ecosystem through an incubator and supporting e-commerce, e-payment and cybersecurity.
- Operationalising earth observation and satellite navigation as part of the Africa-EU space partnership programme.
- Supporting Civil Society organisations to engage in digital transformation.
- Energy
The EU supports Botswana’s ambition of integrating renewable sources in the electricity mix, thus reducing dependency on electricity imports and reliance on coal:
- Strengthening institutional capacity and the regulatory framework for energy efficiency in public and private sectors.
- Enhancing energy efficiency measures and actions.
- Increasing renewable energy generation and inclusive energy access using locally available energy sources.
- Democracy and human rights
The EU and Botswana share views on the promotion of human rights, democracy and peace and security. Current EU support is focused on:
- Helping members of Botswana's Parliament to exchange ideas with their counterparts in EU countries on topics such as legislation, budgets, representation, and wildlife conservation.
- Supporting civil society organisations to participate in the national Constitution Review Process.
- Supporting capacity building of civil society organisations working on indigenous people, youth and gender issues.
- Supporting youth participation and leadership through the Africa-EU Youth Academy.