This survey by the Development Policy Research Unit (DPRU) at the University of Cape Town of poverty in post-apartheid South Africa defines and examines poverty in the South African context. The aim of the report is to provide a picture of asset and services deprivation, economic activity, and health and safety. The report also examines the changes in these indicators from 1996 to 2001.
Poverty and health
Poverty levels in Swaziland show no improvement
IRIN News: 7 December 2010
Swaziland's declining revenue from customs tax in the face of growing unemployment is exerting pressure on public health services and food production. According to this article, the government recently conceded that unemployment was running at 40%, but economists expect this to rise, pushing up already high poverty levels - about two-thirds of Swazis live in chronic poverty. Agricultural production has been reduced in line with government cuts in essential programmes, but government spending on non-essential programmes has not been cut. Despite having the world's highest HIV prevalence rate, Swaziland has reportedly announced plans to cut spending on HIV and AIDS programmes by 10% in 2011.
Poverty pushes up SA's child mortality
Keyser A: International Labour Organization, 16 May 2008
Poverty is the underlying cause of child deaths in South Africa, according to a recent study released by the Medical Research Council. But other sub-Saharan African countries, with less money and fewer resources, have managed to cut their child mortality rates. A recent study in The Lancet reported that deaths in children under age five have been dropping in Tanzania, whereas between 2000 and 2004 child mortality dropped by 24 percent. During this period, the Tanzanian government increased the annual amount spent on healthcare per citizen from 4.70 to 11.70 (about R36 to R89,60). The money was also evenly distributed across the country, rather than favouring richer districts.
Poverty reduction for older people: The case of access to health services in Tanzania
Mongula B: Health Policy and Development 5(1):71-76
This paper explores the prospects of poverty reduction with particular reference to health services to older people in Tanzania. Tanzania’s National Ageing Policy raises a number of questions on the health of older people some of which are answered by the country’s National Strategy for Growth and Reduction of Poverty. This paper aims to analyse and establish the prospects of improvement of health services to older people in Tanzania, including: do the poverty reduction initiatives sufficiently address the obstacles of access to health services by older people; and does the fact that the poverty reduction initiatives are being pursued hand in hand with measures to overcome past failures of the state in planning such as decentralization and participatory strategic planning in the local areas make a difference? The researchers found that while the long term objective of government to make free health services available to older people is not in doubt, it is not yet clear how the objective will be achieved. It is still some way into the future that such bold policies will be translated into action backed by allocation of financial and human resources. Furthermore, the general national strategy for growth and reduction of poverty needs to be operationalised with sector and area specific programmes and plans, in this regard by Health ministry programmes and health plans of Local Governments.
Poverty Remains World’s Biggest Challenge
Commission for Social Development, Forty-fourth Session: United Nations, February 2016
The Commission for Social Development concluded its fifty-fourth session approving three draft resolutions for adoption by the Economic and Social Council. One on Africa’s development, while traditionally endorsed by consensus, required a rare vote to address the United States’ concerns over language around trade issues, and more generally, “the right to development”. The Commission approved a draft on “Social dimensions of the New Partnership for Africa’s Development” by 29 in favour, to 12 against, with no abstentions (document E/CN.5/2016/L.5). This emphasizes that “increasingly unacceptable” poverty, inequality and social exclusion in most African countries requires social and economic policies to be devised through a comprehensive approach. African countries are encouraged to prioritize structural transformation, modernize smallholder agriculture, add value to primary commodities and improve public and private governance institutions.While the United States’ delegate, whose delegation had requested the vote, said her Government would vote against the text, as it viewed the World Trade Organization (WTO) as the main venue for trade negotiation, and could not support a text calling on WTO members to conclude the Doha Round of trade negotiations and improve market and duty-free access, South Africa’s representative, associating with the Group of 77, said South Africa would continue to advocate for social development as part of the global agenda.
Poverty, child sexual abuse and HIV in the Transkei region, South Africa
Banwari M: African Health Sciences 11(Special Issue 1): 8117-8121, August 2011
In this paper, the author argues that poverty robs children of their rights, forcing parents to sell their daughters in exchange for money. The trio of poverty, sexual assaults and HIV are argued to be are complementary to one another. In this paper, five case cases are described, as presented at Sinawe Centre as victims of rape, where money has played a role in the delay in reporting the crime to the police. First, a 13 year old girl was raped by a known person. The cost of settlement was a mere R500 (equivalent to US$70). The second victim was paid R10 or R20 for each sexual act. Third, fourth and fifth cases were young girls who were forced to marry by their parents. The history, physical examination and laboratory investigations are given. Psychosocial and economic aspects are also discussed, such as the cultural practice of lobola (bride price). The author argues that South Africa’s high incidence of HIV and AIDS may be partly linked to the custom of lobola, which is often seen as a monetary transaction, whereby the wife is a bought object and the husband often feels free to acquire mistresses. This increases the possibility of infection, which is turn can be transmitted to the wife. In addition, the author argues that high rates of sexual assault in South Africa run parallel with high levels of HIV prevalence, and mental health problems resulting from rape are seldom treated. Although the South African government Has pledged to provide HIV post-exposure prophylaxis if the survivors of rape present within 72 hours of the event, none of the girls and women in the case studies qualified, as they reported the incidences too late.
Poverty, mental health and municipal services in South Africa
Swartz L, Breen A, Fisher A, Joska J, Corrigall J, Plaatjies L and McDonald DA: Municipal Services Project, Occasional Paper 12
There have been dramatic changes to municipal services such as water and electricity since the end of apartheid in South Africa, with considerable research having gone into the impacts of commercialisation and cost recovery on low-income households. The research has revealed complex and often negative relationships between the marketisation of services and access and affordability for the poor. It has also been shown to have direct and very negative public health implications, most acutely in low-income township and rural areas.Less obvious, and much less researched, have been the impacts of changes in service delivery on the mental health of low-income residents and household members. What, then, might be the links between poverty, mental health and the shift towards market-oriented reforms in basic services? This paper explores the relationship in the South African context with a detailed, ethnographic case study of ten low-income families in Cape Town coping with a serious mental disorder (schizophrenia).
Predictors of chronic food insecurity among adolescents in Southwest Ethiopia: A longitudinal study
Belachew T, Lindstrom D, Gebremariam A, Jira C, Hattori M, Lachat C et al: BMC Public Health 12:604, 3 August 2012
In the context of increased food prices in Ethiopia, the authors of this study hypothesised that adolescents in low income urban households are more likely to suffer from chronic food insecurity than those in the rural areas who may have direct access to agricultural products. They gathered data from the first two rounds of the Jimma Longitudinal Family Survey of Youth (JLFSY) and interviewed a total of 1,911 adolescents aged 13-17 years on their personal experiences of food insecurity both at baseline and at year two. Overall, 20.5% of adolescents were food insecure in the first round survey, while the proportion of adolescents with food insecurity increased to 48.4% one year later. Female sex of adolescents, high dependency ratio and household food insecurity were independent predictors of chronic adolescent food insecurity. The fact that the prevalence of chronic food insecurity increased among adolescents who are members of chronically food insecure urban households as income tertiles decreased suggests that the resilience of buffering is eroded when purchasing power diminishes and food resources are dwindling. Food security interventions should target urban low income households to reduce the level of chronic food insecurity and its consequences, the authors argue.
Prevalence and patterns of gender-based violence across adolescent girls and young women in Mombasa, Kenya
Bhattacharjee P; Ma H; Musyoki H; Cheuk E; et al: BMC Women's Health 20(229), 1-11, doi: https://doi.org/10.1186/s12905-020-01081-8, 2020
This study sought to estimate the prevalence of gender-based violence (GBV) in adolescent girls and young women (AGYW) through a cross-sectional survey in Mombasa, Kenya in 2015. The main perpetrators of violence were intimate partners for young women engaged in casual sex, and both intimate partners and regular non-client partners for young women engaged in transactional sex. For young women engaged in sex work, first-time and regular paying clients were the main perpetrators of physical and sexual violence. Alcohol use, ever being pregnant and regular source of income were associated with physical and sexual violence though it differed by subgroup and type of violence. AGYW in these settings experience high vulnerability to physical, sexual and police violence. However, they are not a homogeneous group, and the variation in prevalence and predictors of violence needs to be understood to design effective programmes to address violence.
Prevention and treatment of childhood malnutrition in rural Malawi: Lungwena nutrition studies
Thakwalakwa C, Phuka J, Flax V, Maleta K and Ashorn P: Malawi Medical Journal 21(3): 116–119, September 2009
Eight nutrition studies from rural Malawi are discussed in this paper. Their aims were various, for example, to describe typical growth pattern of children, analyse occurrence and determinants of undernutrition and evaluate a community-based nutritional intervention for malnourished children in rural Malawi; to determine the timing of growth faltering among under three-year-old children; to characterise the timing and predictors of malnutrition; and to compare the effect of maize and soy flour with that of ready-to-use food in the home treatment of moderately malnourished children. Some of the findings of the studies included: growth of children under three years old followed an age-dependent seasonal pattern; intrauterine period and the first six months of life are critical for the development of stunting, whereas the subsequent year is more critical for the development of underweight and wasting; supplementation with 25 to 75 g/day of highly fortified spread (FS) is feasible and may promote growth and alleviate anaemia among moderately malnourished infants; and one-year-long complementary feeding with FS does not have a significantly larger effect than micronutrient-fortified maize–soy flour on mean weight gain in all infants, but it is likely to boost linear growth in the most disadvantaged individuals and, hence, decrease the incidence of severe stunting. In a poor food-security setting, underweight infants and children receiving supplementary feeding for twelve weeks with ready-to-use FS or maize–soy flour porridge show similar recovery from moderate wasting and underweight. Neither intervention, if limited to twelve-week duration, appears to have significant impact on the process of linear growth or stunting.