Botswana
The country
Botswana sits on the southern African plateau, sharing borders with South Africa to the south and south-east, Namibia to the west and north, Zimbabwe to the north-east, and meeting Zambia at a single point on the Zambezi. Roughly seventy per cent of the land is Kalahari — semi-arid sandveld rather than dune desert, carrying grass, acacia and mopane.
The country has been an independent republic since 1966 and has held uninterrupted multi-party elections since. English is the language of government, business and this congress; Setswana is spoken by the large majority of the population and you will hear it everywhere.
Botswana is best known internationally for its wildlife and for a conservation model that gives large areas of the country over to national parks and wildlife management. Nearly forty per cent of the land is under some form of conservation protection.
Gaborone
Gaborone was built to be a capital. When Botswana approached independence the administrative centre sat outside its borders in Mafikeng, so a new city was laid out from 1964 on the Notwane River, and the government moved in at independence in 1966. That makes Gaborone younger than most of its delegates.
It is a compact, low-rise, fast-growing city of a little over 250,000 people in the city proper, ringed by Kgale Hill and open bush that comes surprisingly close to the centre. Government offices, the University of Botswana, the National Stadium and the main hotel district all sit within a short drive of one another.
For delegates that compactness is useful: travel times between hotels, the congress venue and the airport are short by the standards of most congress cities.
Sport for All in Botswana
Sport in Botswana is organised through the Botswana National Sports Commission, which co-ordinates national federations and community sport, alongside the Ministry responsible for youth and sport and a network of district sports officers.
The country's participation challenge is one many delegates will recognise: a small population spread thinly across a very large area, with specialist facilities concentrated in a handful of urban centres. The practical response has been to build programmes around schools, village grounds and trained volunteers rather than around buildings.
That approach — sport that travels to people rather than requiring people to travel to sport — is a thread that runs through the congress programme.
Related pages
- Discover BotswanaDelta, desert and salt pans
- Good to knowClimate, money, safety, etiquette
- General useful infoPractical A–Z for delegates
- Your host: BNSCSport for All in Botswana