Pretoria – Minister in the Presidency for Performance, Monitoring and Evaluation Jeff Radebe says eradicating poverty remains the biggest key to unlock the aspirations of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
The Minister was speaking at a high-level event on the margins of the 71st UN General Assembly in New York. The event’s main focus was on measuring and tackling poverty in all its dimensions. It was hosted by South Africa on behalf of the Multidimensional Poverty Peer Network.
“South Africa holds the view that the eradication of poverty remains the overarching goal of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and for this to be effected through the provision of an adequate mechanism and means of implementation… South Africa supports the global MPI [Multidimensional Poverty Index] as a monitoring tool for SDG 1, which refers to tackling poverty in all its dimensions,” said Minister Radebe.
Statistics South Africa (Stats SA) adopted the MPI as a lead indicator for Africa on poverty. South Africa has also been working closely with other African countries in the Inter-Agency Expert Group (IAEG) process to gather data for the MPI.
Minister Radebe said South Africa’s MPI showed progress at the level of census districts over 10 years.
“The... MPI maps showed, starkly, the on-going pockets of poverty and assisted our government as to how to fight these. South Africa seeks to ensure that its MPI reflects the voices and values of poor people and their communities.”
What the picture looks like in SA
Stats SA recently undertook an innovative community survey, asking people what dimensions matter most to them. This information is being used in the next generation of poverty assessments.
The results indicate a significant drop in the proportion of households that were multi-dimensionally poor between 2001 and 2011 from 17.9% to 8.0%, thus moving 17 million people out of poverty.
However, in the last five years this drop was only a percentage point. A slight decrease in the intensity of poverty was experienced from 43.9% in 2001 to 42.3% in 2011. However, there was a slight increase between 2011 and 2016, from 42.3% to 42.8%.
A disaggregation by province, district and municipality indicates that a national drop in poverty was recorded by all between 2001 and 2011.
“However, between 2011 and 2016 the tide did not lift all boats, with some improving whilst others regressed.
“Just over a quarter of the municipalities managed to reduce both poverty headcount and intensity of poverty between 2011 and 2016,” said Minister Radebe.
The main drivers of poverty, he said, were unemployment and fewer years of schooling. In 2001, unemployment contributed 33%; in 2011, it contributed 40% and in 2016, it contributed 52% to poverty in South Africa. – SAnews.gov.za
