Botswana fares poorly in HDI report

The report was launched in Botswana on Friday by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP). It says 55.5 percent of the population of Botswana or (1.1 million people assuming that the population of Botswana is 2 million) subsist on $2 a day or less than P14. About a third of the population (28 percent) live on $1 or less than P7 a day.

Compared to South Africa, where only 34.1 percent of the population live on $2 a day and only 10.7 live on $1 or less a day, Botswana has not fared very well on this scores. Although Botswana is categorised as a medium Human Development country at number 124 with regional neighbours such as Swaziland (141) and Zimbabwe (151), it however has a fairer poverty situation in comparison. In Swaziland and Zimbabwe, almost four in five citizens live on $2 a day. In Swaziland 77.8 percent of the population live on $2 a day while 83 percent live on $2 a day in Zimbabwe.