Putting enterprise into action: building capacity for deep-scale entrepreneurship development in modernising 'third world' contexts

The government of Botswana has set itself the challenge of developing an 'innovative and prosperous nation'. However, 'an over-dependence on diamonds, high unemployment levels, and unacceptably high levels of poverty and inequality - both in terms of assets and income - are persistent problems.' (Clover 2003) One approach to overcoming these problems is to create an abundance of 'grass roots' support for enterprising behaviour throughout the nation. Unfortunately, the principal focus of Botswana's current formal education system appears mainly to educate job-takers for the public sector and larger companies. For instance, accounting studies are the most popular programmes in the University of Botswana's Faculty of Business. The concept of 'entrepreneurship' as a career is typically seen as an undesirable career objective. Entrepreneurship in Botswana is associated with 'make do' subsistence trading activities in the informal economy, rather than as a personal quest for creating significant financial or social capital from scarce resources.