“WDC Members Making a Difference” is a WDC Newsletter series that features initiatives and projects undertaken by members of the World Diamond Council to support the communities and countries in which they are active.
The newest article in the series focuses on the efforts being made by the Debswana Diamond Company. As Botswana’s largest private-sector employer, it is both a strategic partner and a primary implementer of Vision 2036, the 20-year development roadmap adopted by the country’s government.
NATION BUILDING
Students at the private school run by Debswana, where a strong focus has been placed on providing educational and eventually career opportunities for young women. (Photo: Debswana)
APRIL 13, 2026
Building a nation isn’t only about driving economic growth, construction of infrastructure such as roads and tall buildings, governance and fair institutions. It is also about improving the lives of citizens. This was the philosophy that lay at the heart of the conception of the Government of Botswana’s Vision 2036 development plan, a program in which the country’s largest mining company, Debswana, has been fully invested.
Serving as a 20‑year roadmap to guide policy, budgeting and national priorities, Vision 2036 was initiated in 2015, and a task team was commissioned to develop a plan that would replace an earlier introduced long-term development program, which was due to terminate in 2016. What was clear was that the previous program had fallen short achieving some of its goals, and in particular those addressing poverty, inequality, diversification, skills and HIV/AIDS. The “second generation” plan aimed to propel the country beyond upper‑middle income to high‑income status.
The creation of the Vision 2026 plan wasn’t just a top-down exercise. A nationwide consultative process was launched, during which academia and the business community were involved, and ordinary citizens polled. They expressed a collective desire for a society that is moral, tolerant, and inclusive. Critical “building blocks” were defined, including shifting from a resource-based to a knowledge-based economy, a focus on a quality healthcare system, and social inclusion, which meant creating specific pathways for the elderly, people living with disabilities, and marginalized communities. Unique to the strategy was what was referred to as the Spirit of “Botho,” which integrates traditional values, such as mutual respect and community responsibility, and the strength of the family unit as the foundation of a stable society.
A strategic partner in the national development plan
As Botswana’s largest private-sector employer and a primary driver of the national economy, Debswana Diamond Company is both a strategic partner and a primary implementer of Vision 2036.
Debswana is a joint venture owned equally by De Beers and the Government of Botswana, which in turn holds a 15 percent stake in De Beers itself. The partnership is expected to continue until at least 2054, following the signing of a new agreement in 2025. Mining diamonds at four locations – Jwaneng, Orapa, Letlhakane and Damtshaa– the company is responsible for roughly one-third of all the government‘s fiscal receipts and accounts for between 70 percent and 80 percent of the country’s total export earnings.
“In recent years, the company has faced mounting pressure on margins,” said Rachel Mothibatsela, Head of Sustainability and Social Impact at Debswana. “But our resilience and adaptability ensure that we will continue to thrive for decades to come, delivering not just diamonds but also value, positive environmental and sustainable impact, as well as empowerment to the people of Botswana.”
Hauling ore at Jwaneng, the largest of Debswana’s diamond mines. (Photo: De Beers)
Education as a transformative equalizer
Debswana’s Environment, Social and Governance (ESG) strategy is closely aligned with Botswana’s Vision 2036 and supports national priorities such as economic diversification, climate action, and social inclusion Through this strategy, Debswana has reaffirmed its commitment to “doing well by doing good” — building a sustainable business that continues to underpin Botswana’s prosperity for generations to come.
The ESG Strategy is intentional about contributing towards shifting the country from a mineral-based economy to one that is more diversified and knowledge-based, focused on supporting non-mining sectors like agriculture, agro-processing, manufacturing and eco-tourism to ensure communities thrive after mine closures; citizen economic empowerment, which involves investing billions of pula into citizen-owned businesses; and upskilling local talent; and placing a significant focus on STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) education for girls and increasing women’s participation in technical mining roles.
Education in general was central to Debswana’s socio-economic development agenda. Through initiatives such as the Debswana Government School Development Program, the company supports local schools near its mining operations, improving access to quality education for learners.
Students at the private school run by Debswana at its Orapa mine. One of four such schools, they are open to the children of Debswana employees and to other children in area which each one operates. (Photo: Debswana)
At the national level, since the 1970s Debswana has trained more than a thousand citizens not only for its operations, but for the nation, in various disciplines including, engineering, mining, geology, ore processing, finance, medicine, and more. The company has co-founded training institutions such as the Botswana Accountancy College that during the past three decades has produced closed to 28,000 professionals.
It also operates training facilities at two mining sites, Orapa and Jwaneng, with the one at Orapa being a fully-fledged Technical Training Center, serving not only Debswana but other mining houses in Botswana, as well as mining equipment service providers such as Komatsu and Barloworld. Since its inception in the early 1970s, the training center has graduated more than 1,200 artisans, including riggers, fitters, electricians, boilermakers and instrument technicians.
Debswana’s technical training curriculum and artisan development models have been adopted nation-wide and currently are being piloted by the Francistown Technical College and Botswana College of Engineering and Technology in Gaborone.
Still at national level, Debswana supports the Botswana Examination Council Excellence Awards, which recognize and reward outstanding academic performance.
The company also runs four private schools in Jwaneng and Orapa which are accessible to employees and the surrounding communities at each of the sites.
Since inception of its GirlEng (Girl Engineering) program in 2020, Debswana has reached 2,265 female students from junior secondary to senior secondary schools. GirlEng is a STEM careers‑awareness and mentoring initiative aimed at getting more young women in Botswana interested in engineering and technical fields, and especially mining-related disciplines.
The STEM program includes workshops at least once a year in the Boteti and Jwaneng-Mabutsane areas, for female students, and these are backed by ongoing bespoke program, including the regular mentoring of students by Debswana female engineers.
Participants inthe GirlEng program, which is a STEM initiative intended to encourage young women to become interested in engineering and other technical fields. The student are mentored by female engineers from Debswana. (Photo: Debswana)
Community health, a key ingredient for prosperity
Debswana also plays a key role in improving Botswana’s public healthcare infrastructure. This has included building and upgrading clinics around its mining towns, including the upgrade of the Moremaoto Clinic, located about 70 kilometers from Orapa, and construction of Maboane Clinic, 120 kilometers from Jwaneng. The latter is a state-of-the-art facility that now provides primary healthcare to Maboane village and the surrounding settlements.
The company spends over 160 million Pula ($11.7 million) each year running its two district referral hospitals, which are accredited by the Council for Health Service Accreditation of Southern Africa (COHSASA). The hospitals provide essential health services to more than 200,000 patients per year.
The company also added of a maternity wing at the Letlhakane Hospital and opened its own hospitals in Orapa and Jwaneng to members of the surrounding communities, improving access to quality care in those remote areas.
Doctors and nurses at the Jwaneng Mine Hospital, which provides medical services both to mine employees and people from thre surrounding communities. (Photo: Debswana)
Botswana is recognized as a global leader in HIV treatment, exceeding UNAIDS targets and becoming the first country to earn certification for eliminating mother-to-child transmission.
Debswana played an important role in helping manage the HIV crisis. It was the first company in the world to provide anti-retroviral therapy to employees and spouses living with HIV and AIDS, starting in 2001 when anti-retroviral therapy was not freely available. The program was extended to the children of HIV-positive parents in 2008.
Through its hospitals, it today supports the government health services in making anti–retroviral drugs available to more than 30,000 people in the Boteti and Jwaneng districts.
Reducing the dependance on diamonds
The diversification of Botswana’s economy is a national development priority, and for the past five years Debswana’s Citizen Economic Empowerment Program (CEEP) and the Tokafala Enteprise Development Program have played playing a central role in advancing the goal.
CEEP does so by deliberately selecting to work with citizen‑owned enterprises, rather than relying on foreign suppliers. In so doing, it helps build skills, and develop the capacity and competitiveness of local businesses, so they can serve both the mining company and wider markets.
Introduced in 2019, CEEP has provided about 28 billion Pula ($2.05 million) in revenues to citizen-owned enterprises, supporting about 14,000 jobs nationally.
Debswana has also collaborated with the Botswana Investment and Trade Centre (BITC) and related industry bodies on value chain development, supporting the development of an ecosystem that can manage in-country industrial repairs and rebuilding.
A related program, Tokafala is a collaborative enterprise development initiative involving the Government of Botswana, Debswana, De Beers and Anglo American. Aimed at supporting small, micro and medium enterprises (SMMEs), it provides hands‑on support to improve their management, finance, marketing and operational skills. It also makes available business advisory service and one-on-one coaching, training and workshops on financial management, record‑keeping, marketing and human resources; as well as diagnostics and trouble-shooting for struggling firms.
Established 11 years ago, Tokafala completed its third three-year phase in April 2025, during which it worked to encouraging entrepreneurship, employment and economic diversification, with a particular focus on the inclusion and empowerment of women and youth. Among the key innovations during the most recent phase were the extensive digitization of previously introduced modules, which allowed for hybrid learning, and an e-commerce toolkit, which facilitated access to international markets for tourism operators. Some 4,537 jobs were supported, beating the original target of 4,500.
Among the entrepreneurs to have benefited from Tokafala III was Ontlametse Archibold Moiteelasilo, the founder of X Bold Technologies, an IT service provider based in Letlhakane. He joined the program after the failure of earlier venture in the northern town Kasane.
Through the program, Moiteelasilo received intensive support in business planning, sales management and strategic development. His company’s sales increased by 70 percent. He also secured funding worth 50,000 Pula ($3,700) through a Debswana CEEP-Stanbic Bank grant, which allowed him to purchase more equipment and grow his workforce, which now numbers three.
Ontlametse says he is focused on expanding his business and creating more employment opportunities for youth in the Boteti district, the region where both Letlhakane and Debswana’s diamond mine are located.
The Debswana’s Textile Accelerator Program, the company purchases PPE (personal protective equipment) from local suppliers. (Photo: Debswana)
Another key initiative is the Textile Accelerator Program, through which Debswana now procure its PPE (personal protective equipment) clothing such as two-toned shirts, overalls and dustcoats. These are produced byt 34 micro, small and medium-sized enterprises that are enrolled in the program, which was established in 2022 and thus far has created employment for some 500 people. It aims to diversify and accelerate the growth of the textile industry in Botswana, which today is reliant on imports.
There is an ironic element to the fact that the diamond mining company is working so hard to expand the Botswana economy away from its core product. Progress is gradual, but steady. The country’s service sector has grown significantly, and today contributes up to 56 percent to GDP, with particularly strong performance by the tourism and financial services industries. Projections for 2026 suggest that Botswana’s non-mining sectors will expand, helping to offset the current weakness in diamond revenues.