Anthropos signs MOU with the Botswana Government in support of indigenous Rights Reform

In October 2025, at the direction of President Duma Boko, Anthropos and the Minister of Justice, Nelson Ramaotwana signed an Memorandum of Understanding on the basis of which Anthropos will provide strategic, technical and financial support to assist Government to develop and operationalise its ambitious indigenous rights refrom program.

This includes undertaking evidence-based research and comparative policy analysis, benchmarking Botswana’s policies against international standards such as ILO Convention 169 and the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, and supporting structured consultations between government and San communities

MOU signed. 3.pdf

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Since October, the Anthropos team has been working across Government Ministries and in support of San Organisations with a focus in the short term on:

• Developing a roadmap to implement Government's commitment to restoring the rights of San communities forcibly relocated from the Centrl Kalahari Game Reserve

• Conducting key research to provide a strong evidence base for proposed reforms on land rights, education delivery, and political representation

• Strengthening the consultative framework between Government and San community organisations and representatives to ensure the reforms are delivered with direct participation of affected communities.

• Piloting a satellite school program as a potential alternative to the failing hostel system under which San children have been removed from their homes and families in order to access schooling

• Working with the Botswana Economic Transfromation Program to develop and alternative government support framework for indigenous peoples to replace the Remote Area Development Program under which San communities have been disenfranchised of their ancestral lands and moved into settlements where they depend on state led welfare programs to meet their basic needs.