Familial Child Welfare Regimes: The Case of Botswana, 1966-2017

Abstract

Most Anglophone countries in Southern Africa provide a form of social cash transfers (SCTs) to families with children but do so in different ways. Botswana is a case of a “familial child welfare regime”, in that public provision for children reflects a primary commitment to the family: Botswana provides cash transfers for orphans but not for non-orphaned children, however poor they are; instead, poor families with children are supported through workfare or other payments to adults, and through feeding schemes. The overall reach of public provision in Botswana reflects persistent need – shaped by structural factors including AIDS-related health shocks, demographic changes and family breakdown – but the specifically familial character of the child welfare regime reflects the patronage politics and conservative ideology of the ruling Botswana Democratic Party (BDP) and the weak influence of both domestic civil society organisations and international organisations.