ENTREPRENEURSHIP DEVELOPMENT AS A STRATEGIC TOOL FOR POVERTY ALLEVIATION: LESSONS FOR BOTSWANA

Botswana has over many decades promoted entrepreneurship and small business development via numerous policies and initiatives with view to growing the economy and reducing poverty. Although the results as observed, were not at all encouraging, government continues to introduce and enhance the existing entrepreneurship initiatives to achieve these crucial economic goals. Notwithstanding government impressive efforts, there are other key factors that reduce the effectiveness of government's initiatives and SMEs entrepreneurial activities to alleviate poverty and grow the economy. The purpose of this paper is to critically examine the relationship between entrepreneurship development and poverty alleviation in Botswana. The paper attempts to answer one critical question: Can entrepreneurship alleviate or reduce poverty in Botswana? This study adopts in-depth review of all relevant literature and descriptive data analysis collected from different online database sources, and from national reports and policies on entrepreneurship and poverty alleviation. The paper consider two conceptual frameworks, namely Goel and Rishi (2012) Entrepreneurship Development and Poverty Alleviation (The Tri-sector Initiatives) and Yadav and Goyal (2015) Framework of Rural User Innovation and Entrepreneurship in India. Goel and Rishi (2012) model illustrates the efforts of government, private and citizens to alleviate poverty through promotion and development of entrepreneurial activities and Yadav and Goyal (2015) model on the other hand explores the reasons why Indian rural user entrepreneurs innovate and how they impact the local communities. The authors conclude that Goel and Rishi (2012) model is most appropriate for Botswana because the poor people in Botswana are less innovative and are not self-sufficient, but rather depend on government relief programmes. The findings will hopefully assist in future related research studies, and the policy reforms