Botswana remains one of the many youthful populatcd cOuntries and has sincc expericnccd both the merits and shortcomings of having such a youthful population.One major problem is the escalating rates of unemployment among the youth and in an endeavor to rcduce youth unemployment rates.the govemment has since introduccd various youth development and empowerment initiatives thereof.
　　Therefore this empirical study is intended to empirically establish the effectiveness of theseyouth development programmes,introduced by the govemment of Botswana through MYSCtutelage,in so far as reducing youth unemployment is concemed.This research shall use annualdata from2008up t02018,which is the period since the inception of the youth developmentprogrammes under MYSC custodianship.The data for this research study was obtained fromMinistry of Youth Empowerment,Sports and Culture Development(MYSC)and StatisticsBotswana,which was then analysed using STATA.
　　This research study established that youth development programmes are statistically significantdeterminant of youth unemployment in Botswana.The findings of this research further indicatethat there is a perfect positive relationship between the two variables under study,youthdevelopment programmes beneficiaries and youth unemployment rates.The Literature reviewed has shown that youth unemployment is a global challenge.Literaturealso revealed that govemments across the world have allocated and invested huge sums ofmoney in developing and implementing different mechanisms or programmes so as to tackle thisyouth phenomenon,though in a few youth development programmes reviewed,poor policiesformulation and lack of proper management on the side of policy implementers;and financialmismanagement were cited as some of the reasons for failure of some of the youth developmentprogrammes.thus hampering their effectiveness as well as dcfcacing the efforts of tackling youthunemployment.