Safety nets address poverty
Namibia still ranks second highest in terms of inequality.
A World Bank country assessment has revealed that Namibia has made massive inroads into fighting poverty, showing that the country's social safety nets have been very effective.
However, despite the considerable efforts, this has still not helped to lift the majority of the population out of poverty as the country still ranks as the second most unequal society in the world, topped only by South Africa.
The findings were made public this week during the launch of the 'Does Fiscal Policy Benefit the Poor and Reduce Inequality in Namibia?' report by Namibia country director for the World Bank, Paul Noumba Um.
According to him, Namibia has to fight poverty on three fronts and said that the task at hand would not be easy to solve.
“The country continues to grapple with the triple challenges of poverty, high inequality and high unemployment. Inequality remains high and there are too many Namibians, especially the youth, without good jobs. Tackling poverty and unemployment in one of the most unequal countries in the world is no small task,” said Noumba Um.
Fellow World Bank representative Victor Sulla said that despite the highly skewed distribution of income, he had found that transfers by government were spent efficiently to address the poverty scourge. “Namibia is more efficient than other middle-income countries in terms of its interventions. Namibia's poorest households received up to two-thirds of their direct income from transfers. Old-age spending accounts for about 59% of direct transfers.”
According to Sulla, social spending in Namibia was quite high when compared to other Sub-Saharan African countries and other comparable middle-income countries. “Overall the spending is very generous. Social protection spending in Namibia is higher than the average for sub-Saharan Africa meaning that social spending is on the high side.”
The World Bank also found that government's social interventions have helped lift approximately 118 000 people out of poverty and further cut severe poverty by a quarter. The Gini-coefficient the World Bank had found also dropped somewhat because of monetary interventions by government, falling from 0.635 to 0.429.
Statistician-general Alex Shimuafeni said that government efforts had helped address poverty.
“Namibia's progressive fiscal policies and generous social spending have on the whole helped reduce poverty and inequality even though these remain the country's pressing developmental challenges,” said Shimuafeni.
Without sugar-coating anything, he acknowledged that poverty remained rampant. “Poverty is amongst us, that is real and a reality,” said Shimuafeni.
Noumba Um cautioned that despite the positive developments, the level of poverty still remained very high for a middle-income country.
OGONE TLHAGE
However, despite the considerable efforts, this has still not helped to lift the majority of the population out of poverty as the country still ranks as the second most unequal society in the world, topped only by South Africa.
The findings were made public this week during the launch of the 'Does Fiscal Policy Benefit the Poor and Reduce Inequality in Namibia?' report by Namibia country director for the World Bank, Paul Noumba Um.
According to him, Namibia has to fight poverty on three fronts and said that the task at hand would not be easy to solve.
“The country continues to grapple with the triple challenges of poverty, high inequality and high unemployment. Inequality remains high and there are too many Namibians, especially the youth, without good jobs. Tackling poverty and unemployment in one of the most unequal countries in the world is no small task,” said Noumba Um.
Fellow World Bank representative Victor Sulla said that despite the highly skewed distribution of income, he had found that transfers by government were spent efficiently to address the poverty scourge. “Namibia is more efficient than other middle-income countries in terms of its interventions. Namibia's poorest households received up to two-thirds of their direct income from transfers. Old-age spending accounts for about 59% of direct transfers.”
According to Sulla, social spending in Namibia was quite high when compared to other Sub-Saharan African countries and other comparable middle-income countries. “Overall the spending is very generous. Social protection spending in Namibia is higher than the average for sub-Saharan Africa meaning that social spending is on the high side.”
The World Bank also found that government's social interventions have helped lift approximately 118 000 people out of poverty and further cut severe poverty by a quarter. The Gini-coefficient the World Bank had found also dropped somewhat because of monetary interventions by government, falling from 0.635 to 0.429.
Statistician-general Alex Shimuafeni said that government efforts had helped address poverty.
“Namibia's progressive fiscal policies and generous social spending have on the whole helped reduce poverty and inequality even though these remain the country's pressing developmental challenges,” said Shimuafeni.
Without sugar-coating anything, he acknowledged that poverty remained rampant. “Poverty is amongst us, that is real and a reality,” said Shimuafeni.
Noumba Um cautioned that despite the positive developments, the level of poverty still remained very high for a middle-income country.
OGONE TLHAGE
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