Abstract

The combination of a rapidly growing labour force in Botswana and declining employment opportunities in the formal sector in South Africa, have made employment creation in the informal sector a policy priority within Botswana. Furthermore, the limited educational opportunities in the early stages of independence in the country have created a labour force that is disproportionately unskilled. Therefore, the main challenge is to provide employment for this pool of unskilled. This has led to a strong interest in micro-enterprises as the primary source for this sort of employment. This project will test the applicability of existing theory to the micro-enterprises activity in Botswana. Specifically, it will test whether activities occur within competitive, unregulated markets and are characterized by ease of entry; whether the micro-enterprises are family owned and rely on family resources; and whether the operation is labour intensive, utilizing adapated technology that is acquired outside of the formal school system. Researchers will also examine the relative importance of market conditions, policy environment, and entrepreneurial capability as constraints to micro-enterprise development; and test the hypothesis that there are significant differences in the performance and employment creation potential among different categories of informal activity.

Post-Project Summary

A postproject abstract could not be written due to lack of documentation (final report) in the IDRC library.

Recipient Institution(s)