Michael Lipton formulated a theory of urban bias to account for the poverty and inequalities
that rack many developing countries today. The theory proposes that development planning in
less developed countries is biased against rural areas in that most of the economic resources
are allocated to the urban areas than the rural ones making the poor to get poorer. This article
seeks to apply the theory to Botswana’s development planning process. Data was obtained
from the analysis of the first nine out of the ten national development plans published since
independence which clearly show a distinction in economic resource allocations between
rural and urban areas. The findings support the urban bias thesis and suggest its retention in
studies of economic development with modifications to incorporate elite bias to account for
intra-rural and intra-urban social inequalities. It also proposes diversification into
non-agricultural activities as a strategy for rural development in drought prone contexts.