Rural areas constitute the critical mass, which drives economic growth
and development in many developing countries. They contribute
mainly to manpower and the production of industrial raw materials
needed in urban centers. Through a combination of critical review of
literature, case studies and field observations, this paper explores the
state of rural transformation and progress in the Okavango Delta of
Botswana. It specifically examines land use and tenure-ship in the
area. It also explores the issues surrounding the state of social,
physical and institutional infrastructures and how these affect rural
development. The analysis shows that the current model of land
tenure-ship constitutes a major challenge in human-wildlife
interactions. Analysis also indicates that basic rural infrastructures
(i.e., social, physical and institutional) are grossly underprovided in
most remote communities. While the paper highlights the roles and
importance of Community-Based Organizations (CBOs), particularly
Community Trusts (CTs) and other administrative structures as well
as local knowledge in Sustainable Rural Development (SRD)
activities, it concludes that an integrative endogenous-exogenous
development process is necessary for enhancing capacitatedsustainable
rural infrastructures and pro-poor policy implementations,
which are in turn meant to drive rural entrepreneurship/employment
and local development.