The performance of income-generating projects supported by the Botswana national literacy programme

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the underlying reasons for sustainability or failure of the Botswana National Literacy Programme (BNLP) income generating projects with regard to personal development, literacy levels, availability of financial resources and the management and marketing of the project. Qualitative research methodology using focus group discussion was used to collect data. Ten operating and ten no-longer operating projects formed the sample of this study. The samples were from the southern, south east and northern regions of Botswana. The results of this study generally supported the premise which stated that the BNLP-supported income generating projects failed because of low economic returns, low literacy levels, poor management, lack of marketing processes including inadequate feasibility studies, lack of ongoing finance and general mismanagement. The study however rejected the expectation that income-generating projects failed due to lack of start up finance.  Generally, sustainable projects were ones that had an individual in charge rather than committee driven ones.