This study uses updated global poverty estimates to infer that nearly half a billion people escaped extreme poverty in the five years from 2005 to 2010. However the gains have not been equally distributed, globally. Between 2005 and 2015, Asia’s share of global poverty is expected to fall from two-thirds to one-third, while Africa’s share will more than double from 28% to 60%. Although sub-Saharan Africa’s poverty rate had by 2010 fallen to below 50% for the first time and is projected to fall below 40% by 2015, at global level the authors argue that the share of the world’s poor people living in fragile states is rising sharply and will exceed 50% by 2014.
Poverty and health
Poverty in numbers: The changing state of global poverty from 2005 to 2015
Chandy L and Gertz G: Brookings Institution, January 2011
WFP and UNICEF sign deal to reduce child stunting in ESA
Langa L: Health-e News, 20 January 2011
The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) and the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) have signed an agreement to work together to reduce child stunting in Eastern and Southern Africa in an effort to reach the UN Millennium Development Goals by 2015. UNICEF and WFP acknowledged the progress that had been made to address the nutritional factors hampering children’s health. UNICEF said that the prevalence of stunting in the developing world declined from 40% to 29% between 1990 and 2008. Stunting in Africa only fell from 38% to 34% in the same period. Of the 24 countries that make up 80% of the world’s stunting burden, at least seven are in Eastern and Southern Africa. UNICEF argues that investing in child nutrition pays high dividends for a country’s social and national development. National nutrition strategies need to tackle not only the root causes of stunting, but also to target the most vulnerable children and their families, including those in remote areas, or from the poorest and most marginalised communities. Only 11 African countries are on track to reaching the Millennium Development Goals to halve hunger by 2015, four of which are from the eastern and southern African (ESA) region: Mozambique, Botswana, Swaziland and Angola.
European report on development 2010: Social protection for inclusive development: A new perspective for EU co-operation with Africa
Robert Schumann Centre for Advanced Studies, European University Institute: 7 December 2010
The 2010 edition of the European Report on Development (ERD) deals with the issues of poverty, inequality and social protection, notably in sub-Saharan Africa. It examines the external shocks that African countries experiencing chronic poverty are undergoing, such as climate change, food and fuel price volatility, or the recent financial crisis. These shocks are undermining progress towards the Millennium Development Goals, and the report highlights increasing demand for new and more substantive social protection programmes in many African countries. It focuses on the role of formal and informal mechanisms of social protection as a means to enhance the resilience of sub-Saharan countries when faced with shocks (short-term) and structural vulnerabilities such as poverty traps (long-term). Specific interventions targeting the most vulnerable sectors of the population should go hand in hand with more traditional pro-growth policies, the report argues, especially when dealing with emerging unstable global socio-economic scenarios.
Five ways to reduce trauma in AIDS orphans
IRIN News: 10 November 2010
In this article, International Integrated Regional Information Networks (IRIN) offers five strategies to reduce the psychological trauma experienced by African AIDS orphans. In Africa, most orphans remain with their extended families, being cared for by either the remaining parent, or by grandparents or other relatives, and this approach has been shown to minimise trauma for the children. Institutional care should only be a temporary solution or last resort, the article argues. Also, keeping brothers and sisters together also enhances their emotional wellbeing. Other strategies include meeting the basic needs of orphans, for example by instituting school feeding schemes and providing social grants, as well as providing psycho-social care in the form of grief counseling and peer support groups. Governments should also ensure that orphans remain at school. So far, free primary education has gone some way to improving overall school attendance, but other factors, such as living with a non-relative, appear to continue to hamper orphans' education. Finally, the article agues for more support for the carers of orphans, especially custodial grandparents. It recommends that health workers and home-based caregivers be trained to support orphans' caregivers.
Food Outlook 2010
Food and Agriculture Organization: November 2010
If wheat and maize production do not rise substantially in 2011, global food security could be uncertain for the next two years, the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) has warned in its latest Food Outlook report. Wheat and maize prices have passed their 2009 highs, with FAO adding that international food import bills could surpass one trillion US dollars in 2010. Food imports last topped the trillion dollar mark during the 2007/2008 food price crisis. The FAO anticipates that world cereals stocks will shrink by 7%, with barley declining by 35%, maize by 12% and wheat by 10%. Six percent more maize will have to be produced in 2011 than in 2010, while wheat stocks need to rise by more 3.5% to ensure the world has enough reserves to tide it over 2011. The FAO has cautioned that its calculations have not taken into account the possibility of unfavourable weather conditions in 2011.
It’s our water too! Bringing greater equity in access to water in Kenya
Hoogeveen H and Nduko J: Uwazi Policy Brief 09/2010, September 2010
This brief notes some developments in the provision of water to poor Kenyans since the enactment of the 2002 Water Act. These include increased government spending for further water provision and policy reforms that separated asset ownership from service provision, regulation and policy formulation. Yet it found that at least 16 million Kenyans do not receive clean, piped water and remain at risk for water-borne diseases. It also noted that urban water kiosks provide an inadequate service, with many users forced to use minimal quantities of water as distance, waiting times and cost make water inaccessible. Poor people in urban areas appear to pay much more for water than those with piped water, while urban coverage of the piped system is declining. Large inequities exist in access to water as the struggle for water by the excluded sections of Kenya’s population contrasts sharply with the privileged, who benefit from water delivered to their homes, often at very low prices. At the current pace of expansion, the author argues that it will take unacceptably long to cover populations that urgently need water. It estimates that it will take at least 30 years for rural areas to have acceptable water supplies. The government’s budgets allocated to water provision, the author argues, do not reflect need. To address existing inequalities, the government should urgently develop and implement a needs-based budget allocation formula.
Water sector governance in Africa
African Development Bank: November 2010
This report was launched during the Third African Water Week in Addis Ababa on 23 November 2010. About 350 million Africans still do not have access to water, according to the report. The author investigates whether poor governance has been a major contributory factor in the lack of sustainability in the African water sector. The report identifies numerous but common governance risks, and shows that these are easily identifiable and preventable. The main challenges and issues in the water sector are identified as sustainability, capacity and finance. The report also finds that substantial gains would be made if government assessments became standard procedure and if governance criteria were introduced in donor project approval procedures. While local and national institutions have the most visible role to play in governing the water sector, the report notes that it is the sector’s underlying policies, legislation and regulations that provide the foundation for overall governance. To meet the Millennium Development Goals by 2015, an enormous annual investment is required, probably more than four to five times current investment rate in the water sector.
Combating poverty and inequality: Structural change, social policy and politics
United Nations Research Institute for Social Development: 2010
This report seeks to explain why people are poor and why inequalities exist, as well as what can be done to rectify these injustices. It explores the causes, dynamics and persistence of poverty; examines what works and what has gone wrong in international policy thinking and practice; and lays out a range of policies and institutional measures that countries can adopt to alleviate poverty. It notes that current approaches to reducing poverty and inequality fail to consider key institutional, policy and political dimensions that may be both causes of poverty and inequality, and obstacles to their reduction. Moreover, when a substantial proportion of a country’s population is poor, it makes little sense to detach poverty from the dynamics of development. For countries that have been successful in increasing the well-being of most of their populations over relatively short periods of time, the report shows, progress has occurred principally through State-directed strategies that combine economic development objectives with active social policies and forms of politics that elevate the interests of the poor in public policy. The report is structured around three main issues, which, it argues, are the critical elements of a sustainable and inclusive development strategy: patterns of growth and structural change (whether in the agricultural, industrial or service sectors) that generate and sustain adequately paid jobs; comprehensive social policies that are grounded in universal rights and that support structural change, social cohesion and democratic politics; and protection of civic rights, activism and political arrangements that ensure that States are responsive to the needs of citizens and that the poor have some influence in how policies are made.
Improving health and social cohesion through education
Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development: September 2010
This report notes that, despite the important role education plays in shaping indicators of progress, we understand little about the causal relationships and pathways between educational interventions and social outcomes. The report provides a synthesis of the existing evidence, data analyses and policy discussions. It finds that education has the potential to promote health directly and through supporting civic and social engagement. Education may reduce inequalities by fostering cognitive, social and emotional skills and promoting healthy lifestyles, participatory practices and norms. These efforts are most likely to be successful when family and community environments are aligned with the efforts made within educational institutions. This calls for policy coherence across sectors and across the stages of education.
No sign of a dependency culture in South Africa
Noble M and Ntshongwana P: Human Sciences Research Council, 2008
This brief is based on the Human Sciences Research Council’s (HSRC) 2006 Social Attitudes Survey and aims to explore the existence of a so-called ‘dependency’ culture among the unemployed and social grants recipients. It seeks to inform the policy context around social security in South Africa. By providing evidence to show that poor people demonstrate a greater attachment to the labour market than the non-poor, it challenges the notion that the provision of social grants will rear a ‘dependency culture’ among the unemployed and recipients of social grants. It suggests that both groups of people are interested in and are motivated to find work. It also provides the evidence to show that, among the poor, having a job is perceived to be better than claiming grants and work is valued for its social integration role and helps to overcome feelings of isolation. The brief’s findings indicate that the Child Support Grant does not discourage people from seeking work. It appears the main cause of people remaining unemployed is the structural conditions of the labour market, as opposed to a reluctance to find work and choosing, instead, to rely on State support.