The ever-increasing rates of socio-economic advancements have resulted in a complex world of high global competition and demands for quality products and services. As such, design innovation has become a key economic development strategy leading to nations introducing design policies in order to transform their economic growth strategies into support programmes for resource management and value addition through design.
The focus of this study is a national design policy for industrial development, aiming at seeking potential applications of a design policy to enhance industrial development, through the support of SMEs in Botswana. The study also aims to promote design innovation as an economic development strategy, to encourage design adoption and support for SMEs, to enhance the quality of design curricula in higher education and to strengthen professional practice of design to achieve business and economic development objectives. The study envisions the implementation of a strategic national design policy of high level, in government through the Ministry of Investment, Trade and Industry.
