Dear Botswana,

Few nations have turned a buried asset into a public one as carefully as you have. Diamonds account for around 80 percent of your exports and a quarter of everything you produce, according to the International Monetary Fund. In February 2025, after seven years of negotiation, you signed a new ten-year agreement with De Beers: your share of Debswana’s sales rises from 25 to 30 percent now, and to 40 percent in the second half of the decade. That is a sovereign asset being repriced in the nation’s favour.

Diamonds built the state. They have not yet carried every citizen above the Living Line. Health service coverage stands at 60 on the World Health Organization index. In 2024, 18.2 percent of you were undernourished. Four in five of you have electricity, and the power you make comes almost entirely from coal: renewable sources supplied less than one percent of your electricity output in 2021, under a desert sun.

“Diamonds built the state. Now let them build the Living Line, standard by standard.”

The strengths are real. Nine in ten of you have basic drinking water. Your primary schools had about 24 pupils to every teacher in the last count. The World Bank is financing water security and a programme to accelerate renewable energy and access. These are the foundations a diversified economy needs.

The task now is to aim the diamond dividend at the standards that hold your people back: care, food and clean power. A larger share of every stone is a revenue stream that can be pledged to outcomes a citizen can feel, in clinics, in fields and on rooftops. Diamonds built the state. Now let them build the Living Line, standard by standard.