Botswana

Responding to challenges and existing knowledge gaps facing the cooperative movement, this mapping research seeks to provide exhaustive information on cooperatives worldwide. This is achieved through a process jointly conducted by the ICA and its four regional offices – Cooperatives of the Americas, Cooperatives Europe, ICA Africa, and ICA Asia-Pacific – using a common methodology. Each office collected the input of ICA members present in the countries within its geographic area, by using the same questionnaire, and completing it with relevant national statistics, in order to obtain an accurate picture of the national situation. Mapping out cooperatives in each country provides a more precise picture of the cooperative context at national and regional levels, enhances the movement's visibility, networking, partnerships opportunities, as well as advocacy, and empowers cooperators by providing them tools for positive change.

This webpage presents a snapshot of the key figures research results for Botswana. For more information and the full research results, you can download the full report and highlights using the links above.

The Cooperatives have operated in Botswana for more than fifty (50) years, under the guidance of the Co-operative Societies Act of 2013 (as amended), their by-laws and other regulatory instruments. Furthermore, the National Policy for Co-operative Development was developed and approved by Parliament in 2007 with the aim to set a road map guiding the strategies for enabling cooperatives to meaningfully contribute to income distribution, employment creation and poverty reduction at the local and community level.

Today, after over 50 years of cooperative history, the registered Cooperative Societies have increased significantly to more than 268 including five (5) Secondary Societies and with a total membership of 115,000, based on public national statistics.

Botswana counts one ICA member organization, the Botswana Cooperative Association (BOCA). BOCA represents 15% of the total number of cooperatives in Botswana and in the following sectors: consumers, marketing, multipurpose, producers and savings and credit co-operatives.

In Botswana, the Mapping questionnaire, was distributed to, and completed by the one ICA member in the country. After some additional follow-up and clarifications from the member, the figures provided were compiled as presented below.

Summary

BOCA represents 43 cooperatives in the country, with a total number of 57,373 membership and a total number of 873 employees. For further information, readers are invited to download the full report and country highlights, available by clicking the links above.