Botswana, located at the center of Southern Africa, is positioned between South Africa, Namibia, Zambia, and Zimbabwe.
It has in recent times, become one of the world’s development success stories.
Significant mineral (diamond) wealth, good governance, prudent economic management, and a relatively small population of about 2.4 million (2021), have made it an upper middle-income country with an agenda of becoming a high-income country by 2036. 

GEOGRAPHY
Approximately two-thirds of the country lies within the Tropics. Botswana is well known for having some of the best wilderness and wildlife areas on the African continent. 38% of its total land area are devoted to national parks, reserves and wildlife management areas.
The country is sparsely populated because up to 70% of the country is covered by the Kalahari Desert, the vast arid to semi-arid landscape in Southern Africa covering much of Botswana and parts of Namibia and South Africa. Botswana's population of 2.2 million people (in 2016) is concentrated in the eastern part of the country.
One of the world's unique ecosystems, the Okavango Delta, is located in Botswana.
The country offers excellent game viewing and birding both in the Delta and in the Chobe Game Reserve--home to one of the largest herds of free-ranging elephants in the world.
Botswana's Central Kalahari Game Reserve also offers good game viewing and some of the most remote and unspoiled wilderness in southern Africa.

EDUCATION
Botswana has made great strides in educational development since independence in 1966.
At that time there were very few graduates in the country and only a very small percentage of the population attended secondary school.
Botswana increased its adult literacy rate from 69% in 1991 to 83% in 2008. Among sub-Saharan African countries, Botswana has one of the highest literacy rates.
According to The World Fact book - Central Intelligence Agency as of 2015, 88.5% of the population age 15 and over could read and write and were respectively literate.
With the discovery of diamonds and the increase in government revenue that this brought, there was a huge increase in educational provision in the country.
All students were guaranteed ten years of basic education, leading to a Junior Certificate qualification.
Approximately half of the school population attends a further two years of secondary schooling leading to the award of the Botswana General Certificate of Secondary Education (BGCSE).
Secondary education in Botswana is neither free nor compulsory.

ECONOMY
Botswana’s macroeconomic policy framework is anchored in prudent macroeconomic policies and good governance, but despite having maintained positive political and economic levels over the years, challenges remain.
Botswana's reliance on diamonds and a public sector-driven model makes the economy vulnerable to external shocks, as diamonds contribute over 80% of total exports and are a major source of fiscal revenues.
This vulnerability was evident during the COVID-19 pandemic when the economy contracted by 8.7% in 2020 and fiscal pressures rose.
The economy is dominated by mining, cattle, and tourism. Botswana has a GDP (purchasing power parity) per capita of about $18,113 as of 2021, one of the highest in Africa.
Botswana is the world's biggest diamond producing country. Its relatively high gross national income per capita (by some estimates the fourth-largest in Africa) gives the country a relatively high standard of living and the highest Human Development Index of continental Sub-Saharan Africa. Since independence, Botswana has had one of the fastest growth rates in per capita income in the world.
Botswana has transformed itself from one of the poorest countries in the world to an upper middle-income country.
GDP per capita grew from $1,344 in 1950 to $15,015 in 2016.
Although Botswana was resource-abundant, a good institutional framework allowed the country to reinvest resource-income in order to generate stable future income.
By one estimate, it has the fourth highest gross national income at purchasing power parity in Africa, giving it a standard of living around that of Mexico.
According to the International Monetary Fund, economic growth averaged over 9% per year from 1966 to 1999. Botswana has a high level of economic freedom compared to other African countries.
The government has maintained a sound fiscal policy, despite consecutive budget deficits in 2002 and 2003, and a negligible level of foreign debt.
It earned the highest sovereign credit rating in Africa and has stockpiled foreign exchange reserves (over $7 billion in 2005/2006) amounting to almost two and a half years of current imports.

TRIVIA
The national language, Tswana (Setswana, Sechuana), is widely spoken. The official language is English.
The Khoisan speak languages characterized as Khoe, or Khwe, and San.
Several other languages are also spoken in the country, including Kalanga, Sekgalagadi, Herero, Mbukushu, and Yei.
A country of slightly over 2.3 million people, Botswana is one of the most sparsely populated countries in the world.
About 11.6 percent of the population lives in the capital and largest city, Gaborone.

Sources:
worldbank.org
nationsonline.org
britannica.com
Wikipedia.com