trained human rights lawyer is opening Botswana's doors to the biomedical industry — and the world should be paying attention.
This article profiles Botswana's new President, Duma Boko, a human rights lawyer, and discusses the country's recent challenges with its healthcare supply chain. It highlights the nation's democratic stability and the impact of fluctuating diamond revenues on public health.
Why it matters
It provides insight into the political transition in Botswana and the vulnerability of resource-dependent economies to global market shifts.
Before I flew to Botswana, I knew four things about the country.
The capital is Gaborone. The population is around 2.5 million. There is a national philosophy called Botho — serving others with humility and respect for persons. And there are diamonds.
That was the extent of it. So I did what I always do before a country I do not know: I read. And the more I read, the more I realized how little the world knows about a place that has quietly become one of the most interesting stories in global health.
For 58 years, one party governed Botswana. In the last election, the opposition won.
Then something happened that should be ordinary and is not: power transferred. Calmly. Without crisis. The way it happens in the oldest democracies in the world.
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