Much of the benchmarking that takes place in the water sector today focuses on financial and technical performance, making it difficult for water operators to pursue broader social, political and environmental objectives. As an alternative this paper introduces the concept of social efficiency; to widen the scope of performance evaluation by adding new indicators that emphasize equity and promote publicness, informed by extensive field research in Africa and Latin America. We argue that advancing social efficiency could be the most important contribution the Global Water Operators Partnerships Alliance (GWOPA) makes to knowledge transfer in the water sector, given the relatively small budgets it can leverage. WOPs may be the proverbial drop in the bucket when it comes to improving water and sanitation services around the world, but they could be a significant drop in that bucket.The paper examines two WOPs. The first is between Morocco Office National de Électricité et de l'Eau Potable (ONEE) and Burkina Faso Office National de Eau et de Assainissement (ONEA). The second is between Uruguay Obras Sanitarias del Estado (OSE) and Porto Alegre Departamento Municipal de Água e Esgotos (DMAE) in Brazil. The research shows that both of these partnerships reflect the general trend of prioritizing technical and financial efficiency. Despite having innovative social programs at home, neither WOP has formal pro-poor objectives or evaluation mechanisms to assess pro-poor outcomes, highlighting the untapped potential for knowledge sharing on this type of expertise. Platforms such as GWOPA could provide the necessary guidance and incentives to match water operators interested in pro-poor initiatives and prioritize social efficiency in partnership activities.
Poverty and health
Swaziland's parliamentarians recently debated the social safety net covering children, the elderly and the disabled. Recipients often depend on these small grants and pensions for survival. The debate on the future of social services was prompted by submissions from the Deputy Prime Minister, Themba Masuku, on the suspension of grants to the elderly. A number of Members of Parliament (MPs) supported the call for a constitutional amendment to abolish these government grants when government had no money to pay for them. The article reports that many pensions were suspended in the first quarter of 2011. In June 2011 only 6,480 pensions were reported to be paid, while at least 40,000 pensioners without bank accounts were reported to have received no benefits, so that OVC grants could be paid instead. The Deputy Prime Minister did not respond to parliamentary questions as to when regular pension payments would resume. The non-payment of social grants is expected to have a knock-on effect on health of the country’s population, particularly those living in extreme poverty.
Should social protection be universal (provided to everyone) or targeted (restricted to certain groups, like the poor)? Universal programmes reduce the likelihood of excluding those who need them. But programmes such as food subsidies are expensive, and a considerable share of their benefits tends to flow to people who do not need them. Evidence suggests that in terms of reaching the poor, targeted cash transfer programs tend to perform better than untargeted subsidies. But choosing to target requires deciding who should be targeted and how. Ways of doing this include 1) means testing, which has worked reasonably well in South Africa's cash transfer programs; 2) selection by community-based committees, which has worked well on a pilot basis in Zambia and Malawi; 3) targeting categorically by characteristics such as region or age - such as old-age pensions in South Africa that have been shown to improve children's education (increasing attendance by 20-25%) and nutrition (increasing child height-for-age by approximately 1-5 centimeters); and 4) self targeting, where anyone can participate but the poorest tend to self-select, which has worked well in public works programs in many countries. The optimal method depends on the programme objectives, administrative capacity, and social characteristics of communities.
This study determined the socioeconomic risk factors for overweight and obesity in non-pregnant adult Zimbabwean women. A cross-sectional study was conducted using the 2015 Zimbabwe Demographic Health Survey data on the adult female population aged 15 to 49. The weighted prevalence of overweight and obesity in adult females was 34% and 12% respectively. The prevalence of overweight and obesity among women in Zimbabwe was high. The key social factors associated were older age, being married, being wealthy and using hormonal contraception. Having a higher education and being Christian also increased the risk of being obese and overweight respectively. The design of multi-faceted overweight and obesity reduction programs for women that focus on increasing physical activity and strengthening of social support systems are argued by the authors to be necessary to combat this epidemic.
The authors explored socioeconomic inequalities trend in child health using Demographic Health Survey data sets of 2010\11 and 2015. Food insecurity in under-five children was determined based on the World Health Organisation dietary diversity score. Theil indices for nutrition status showed socioeconomic inequality gaps to have widened, while food security status socioeconomic inequality gaps contracted for the period under review. The study concluded that unequal distribution of household wealth and residence status play critical roles in driving socioeconomic inequalities in child food insecurity and malnutrition. Child food insecurity and malnutrition are greatly influenced by where a child lives and their parental wealth.
This is a recording of ARI's 'Somalia Briefing' panel discussion, which took place on July 14 2014. The event focused on food security, remittances and the links between the two. Speakers were: Degan Ali, Executive Director of Adeso; Abdirashid Duale, CEO of Dahabshiil and Sara Pantuliano, Director, Humanitarian Policy Group, ODI. The event was organised by Africa Research Institute in partnership with ODI and Adeso.
Many African countries and regions have programmes to boost their agricultural productivity to ensure food security, with the pan-African Comprehensive Africa Agriculture Development Programme (CAADP) being the most comprehensive. On 5 March 2012 members of the CAADP Development Partners Task Team met in Brussels to discuss and explore how to facilitate and support greater involvement of regional stakeholders that are important for CAADP implementation at the regional level. Participants discussed how to achieve faster progress on implementing the programme and stressed the need to identify concrete regional actions for faster progress. They also emphasised the importance of deciding on roles and responsibilities of different regional actors, and of improving coordination among development partners, and between development partners and Regional Economic Communities. Although these ideas do not represent formal positions, they could be used to guide discussion between development partners, Regional Economic Communities and other actors during the Eighth CAADP Partnership Platform meeting, due to be held 3-4 May 2012.
South Africa has piloted a new program, 'Safe and Sound' to reduce the common risk of violence against pregnant women in South Africa. Most women were found to not speak about the violence they endure. In addition to rape and sexual violence, coercive or controlling behaviour, such as a man refusing to use a condom or restricting other forms of birth control, is argued to increase the risk of contracting HIV. Women who are HIV-positive and experience intimate partner violence are reported by the author to be half as likely to take their HIV medications as women in nonviolent relationships, leaving them in much poorer health. The author urges that countries adopt programs like Safe and Sound because violence against women, including HIV positive women, can lead to a deterioration in their mental health, with some women stopping their medication and developing suicidal tendencies.
The South African government has announced it will no longer pursue the willing buyer-willing seller option for land redistribution, citing the process as slowing down the speed of land reform. President Jacob Zuma listed land reform as a priority area for 2013 in his State of the Nation address on 14 February 2013. June 2013 will mark the centenary of the 1913 Land Act, whereby the British dispossessed African people of their land. He argued that the legacy of the Native Land Act still lives, and as a result many native families are still working for white farmers only for their food. Zuma said the land question needs to be resolved amicably within the framework of the Constitution and the law. But he called for the time it takes to finalise a claim to be shortened. In this regard, Government will now pursue the ‘just and equitable’ principle for compensation as set out in the Constitution instead of the willing buyer- willing seller principle, which forces the State to pay more for land than the actual value. Government’s mid-term review in 2012 revealed a number of shortcomings in the land reform implementation programme, which Zuma says will be used to improve implementation. He also pointed out that better incentives need to be provided for commercial farmers that are willing and capable of mentoring smallholder farmers.
Neoliberal sanitation experts visiting Durban, South Africa for the Toilet Summit in early December 2012 may argue that South Africa should embrace low-water toilets, yet community critics regularly report that Durban’s water-less ‘Ventilated Improved Pitlatrine’ (VIP) and ‘Urinary Diversion’ (UD) strategies are failing. The author argues that middle- and upper-class South Africans could easily cross-subsidise their low-income fellow residents by paying more for the privileges of filling swimming pools and bathtubs, watering gardens and running washing machines, and that government can at the same time adjust tariffs downwards for poor people. If such reforms were made to water and sanitation prices, then better health and gender equity would result, and more funds could be raised for installing decent toilets in South African cities, as well as to repair sewage pipes whose cracks infect rivers and harbours. The construction capability and subsidised funding for projects is available in South Africa so that 'toilet apartheid' is argued to relate more to political choices in how these resources are used.