Poverty Policy in the SADC Region

An Overview of Trends

Written by the South African Institute of International Affairs Johannesburg South Africa

Commissioned by the Southern African Regional Poverty Network (SARPN) on behalf of DFID(SA). The views in this document should not be taken as those of either DFID(SA) or of

SARPN.

July 2001 Executive Summary Poverty policy in southern Africa has been framed against the backdrop of colonialism, occupation, civil wars and apartheid. The region is characte rised by acute inequalities, and some of the world’s lowest Human Development Index (HDI) rankings. More recently, the region has also been afflicted by marked climatic shifts as well as the highest incidences of HIV/AIDS infection, the impact of which is starting to be felt on human development and poverty indices. All of this has made the task of developing effective and sustainable poverty alleviation and eradication policies acutely difficult. During the 1970s and early 1980s, post-colonial and post-liberation governments embarked on state interventionist and in some cases avowedly socialist policies aimed at addressing the condition of acute poverty experienced by the majority population. During the 1980s, these policies were diluted or replaced with neo-liberal prescriptions regarding macro-economic policy and a reduced role of the state. The result of this was that with regard to poverty reduction policy the 1980s are widely regarded as the ‘lost decade’. The 1990s have witnessed two key shifts: First, an emphasis on sustainability and integration of poverty eradication policy. Second, the introduction of a new regime of debt relief measures that are linked to very specific conditionalities, such as adherence to good governance practices. It is still too soon to assess or identify any measurable impact of this new framework on poverty eradication. This paper sets out a number of the key international and local poverty policy developments and trends. Poverty policy has suffered from a number of key weaknesses: • Lack of integration and thus sustainability into the broader national development and

economic frameworks of southern African countries. • Lack of clear, consistent and measurable poverty reduction targets, rather than long-term

goals and visions. • A lack of penetration from the point of policy conceptualisation to implementation. • Problems of sequencing, for example the design of programmes that fail to fully account for

the lack of local capacity to implement them. • A failure to adequately evaluate the poverty-creating dimensions and challenges of

HIV/AIDS and to develop integrated programmes to tackle this threat.

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Agencies and governments have, however, clearly recognised these problems and more recent poverty policy, particularly the paradigmatic shift from ‘poverty reduction’ to ‘poverty eradication’ has gone some way to addressing some of these issues. As a pointer to the future direction, the focus of the UNDP Botswana AIDS programme is a notable and important step in recognising the importance of integrating HIV/AIDS and poverty eradication policy. INTRODUCTION This document is divided into three sections: • First, it provides a background on poverty policy trends internationally and

specifically in the SADC region. • Second, it examines poverty reduction programmes in select SADC states, notably:

Botswana, Lesotho, Malawi, Mozambique, Namibia, South Africa, Swaziland and Zimbabwe.

• Third, it provides an appendix which includes a comprehensive and detailed bibliography.

BACKGROUND TO CURRENT POVERTY POLICY TRENDS A constant in the study and evaluation of poverty policy is the need for definition. For purposes of this paper income poverty refers to the lack of income to purchase basic food and non-food needs (often called extreme poverty and overall poverty respectively) and human poverty denotes the absence of basic human capabilities such as health, energy, sanitation, clean water and education. It is not the task of this paper to define poverty save to state that the implicit assumption made throughout is that poverty is a complex and organic concept. Complex in that it has numerous dimensions; organic, as poverty is contingent on and feeds into a host of economic, social and political forces. By way of example, it is axiomatic that conditions of personal and structural poverty predispose the southern African population to higher rates of HIV infection and the more rapid on-set of full-blown AIDS. In turn, the on-set of AIDS and the presentation of opportunistic diseases with which it is associated, such as tuberculosis, holds acute implications for individual economic productivity, capacity for work and indeed the structure of familial relations, particularly given the high percentage of subsistence farmers in the SADC region. Furthermore, the greater vulnerability of women to HIV infection holds severe implications for the productive capacity of the working family unit and thus the impoverishment of the whole family. Mother-to-child transmission and the spectre of burgeoning numbers of AIDS orphans across the sub-continent present policy makers and politicians with their greatest and arguably most urgent challenge. The cardinal point for poverty policy is that the condition of poverty, financial or personal, structural, chronic or contingent is ever-changing, acts upon and is impacted upon by a host of factors and thus requires systemic, integrated and responsive programmes.

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Poverty policy in the SADC region is also confronted not only by the legacy of colonialism, dictatorship or apartheid, that have had the effect of skewing income patterns, resulting in the region exhibiting the highest Gini co-efficients globally, but also by contemporary challenges such as globalisation, climatic change, environmental degradation, as well as the insidious and catastrophic threat presented by the HIV/AIDS pandemic.1 The Current Policy Framework The institutional and programmatic point of departure for most contemporary poverty reduction policy in southern Africa is the 1995 United Nations World Summit for Social Development (WSSD) in Copenhagen, to which all SADC countries were party. 2 The Declaration and Programme of Action agreed to at the Summit was both bold and ambitious. At the Summit countries committed to increase overseas development assistance (ODA) to 0.7% of GNP, but qualified this commitment with the caveat, “consistent with countries’ economic circumstances and capacity to assist”. Of the ten commitments made by the 174 supporting countries and territories, “Commitment 2”, to eradicate poverty, was arguably the most profound. Indeed delegates went further and motivated for the UN General Assembly to declare a decade for the eradication of poverty. In acknowledgement of the complex and multi-faceted nature of the phenomenon, Summit delegates noted that its eradication would require, “universal access to economic opportunities and basic social services and empowerment”. 3 The eradication of poverty would require:

1. The formulation of integrated strategies. 2. Improved access to productive resources and infrastructure. 3. Meeting the basic human needs of all. 4. Enhanced social protection and reduced vulnerability.

To ensure a shift from rhetoric to action, the summit identified four key components for implementation and follow-up: • The development of national strategies – including the setting of goals and targets

for poverty eradication, measures to increase social integration and employment,

1 Research on the impact of HIV/AIDS on worsening poverty was presented to the 13th International Congress on HIV/AIDS held in Durban, in July 2000. A vast bibliography has been compiled by the Centre for AIDS Development, Research and Evaluation Centre (CADRE) on behalf of USAID: Bibliography: Economic Impacts of HIV/AIDS and its Implications for Governance South Africa. http://www.jointcenter.org/international/Bibliography_excel.htm 2 A comprehensive summary of co-operation between UN members states and organs of the UN and SADC is provided in: Operational Activities for Development: Economic and Technical Co-operation Among Developing Countries, UN General Assembly, Report of the Secretary-General, 23 October 1995. 3 United Nations Development Programme.

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the formulation of national development plans and the co-ordination of international and national efforts.

• The mobilisation of financial resources – including the augmentation of existing

local and international resources, prioritising social spending, reducing military spending, more effective, innovative and transparent utilisation of funding.

• The involvement of civil society – including support for partnerships with

government, the encouragement of participation by trade unions, co-operatives and farmers as well as that of private investment in social development, as well as support for capacity-building programmes.

• The role of the United Nations – including an enhanced role for the UN

Development Programme and ECOSOC, and significantly the holding of joint meetings with the Development Committee of the World Bank and IMF.

To give additional practical support to countries in the achievement of the WSSD goals, in 1996 the UNDP created a multi-donor programme the Poverty Strategies Initiative, which, amongst other targets, has contributed to country Poverty Reduction Strategies (PRS). In 1999 the World Bank and IMF accepted the Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper Policy as a new instrument. The PRSP would be ‘country-owned’ and act as a co-ordinating framework for Bank and Fund activities in particular countries. The core objectives of the PRSP were to ensure that after broad consultation with national stakeholders, the twin objectives of economic growth and poverty reduction were tightly integrated. The overarching objective was to help ensure that the particular country meet the 2015 International Development Goals.4

The SADC countries that have adopted Interim Poverty Reduction Strategy Papers are: Lesotho, Malawi, Tanzania and Zambia. Zimbabwe is due to report in 2001. As an adjunct to the PRSPs the IMF replaced the Enhanced Structural Adjustment Facility with the Poverty Reduction Growth Facility (PRGF). The differences between the two facilities are significant in three respects: First, the targets and policies of the PRGF-supported policies would emanate directly from the country’s own (and owned) strategy paper. Second, PRGF-supported policies would be integrated into a country’s national fiscal and monetary planning. This would be achieved in an open, bottom up, consultative manner. Third, emphasis would be placed on good governance, accountability and transparency. In this regard the Code of Good Practices on Fiscal Transparency plays an important role. SADC countries that have qualified for PRFG are: Angola, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Lesotho, Malawi, Mozambique, Tanzania, Zambia and Zimbabwe.

4 UNDP Support to National Poverty Reduction Strategies Special Report for WSSD+5 , June 2000.

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Despite the laudable aims espoused in the 1995 WSSD, the UNDP Poverty Report 2000 notes:5

A new global strategy against poverty needs to be mounted – with more resources, a sharper focus and a stronger commitment. Based on commitments made at the 1995 WSSD, developing countries are being encouraged to launch full-scale campaigns against poverty. Yet despite having set ambitious global targets for poverty reduction, donor countries are cutting back on aid and failing to focus what remains on poverty.

More introspectively, the UNDP acknowledged its own shortcomings and committed itself to a more focused programme that would seek to empower national policy-making and shift away from small-scale, disparate initiatives. A significant shift in UNDP policy has been the acknowledgement that poverty reduction targets that were set within the 1995 commitments were largely inadequate as they were based on monetary measures. Subsequent experience has reinforced the view that targets by necessity must incorporate human pover ty indices such as illiteracy, malnutrition and life expectancy. According to the UNDP Poverty Report 2000, policies have suffered from too narrow a focus that has been exacerbated by the demands of providing social safety nets in times of crisis and exogenous shocks. Such policies as have been developed have been blunted by a lack of management structure within respective governments. This problem exhibits a further dimension insofar as poverty policies and programmes have failed to be ‘owned’ and developed across government departments. The report also identifies another crucial dimension to current policy shift and that is the question of governance. The UNDP terms this “The Missing Link”. Governance with respect to poverty policy refers to a number of themes. In addition to the conventional requirements of good governance, such as governments being held accountable via free and fair elections, the importance of holding officials accountable between elections is stressed. In practical terms the UNDP stresses the need for decision-making power to move closer to poor communities, in conjunction with such communities being empowered organisationally and via access to resources. Two topical areas for SADC countries highlighted by the UNDP report is the need for accountability of the use of public funds and for steps to be taken to ensure that corruption is effectively tackled. In terms of both conceptualisation and delivery the report stresses the role of local government. The efficacy of pro-poor policies at the local level is itself dependent on the strengthening of the capacity of third-tier government. Finally, the UNDP emphasises the importance of Community Based Organisations (CBOs) and Non Governmental Organisations (NGOs) in poverty policy. The importance of these organisations is essentially two-fold: The first is both tactical and strategic in that governments cannot always be relied upon as the sole or most appropriate and effective vehicle for policy formulation and delivery. Thus it is in the 5 Overcoming Human Poverty: UNDP Poverty Report 2000 – Executive Summary, p.1. www.undp.org/povertyreport/exec/english.html

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interests of CBOs and NGOs to mobilise and take ownership of programmes that are closest to their core interests. The second reason is that CBOs and NGOs are in some instances simply better and more effective at organisation and mobilisation around poverty specific issues than governments or agencies. Perhaps the most far reaching conclusion reached by the UNDP Poverty Report 2000 , however, is the need for governments to integrate their poverty polices into both national and international economic policy rathe r than treating them as excrescences. A further important outcome of the re-evaluation of poverty programmes has been the World Bank Public Expenditure Reviews, together with the UNICEF-UNDP 20/20 Initiative studies. These programmes are designed to assist governments with assessing the degree to which spending is “pro-poor” (i.e. policies that disproportionately benefit the poor), via benefit incidence analyses. This has been particularly relevant to the case of South Africa and Namibia given the historically skewed nature of government spending in favour of white minorities to the detriment of the majority population groups. The challenge of developing pro-poor policies was graphically captured by the former Managing Director of the IMF in addressing the UNCTAD Conference in 2000, “It is not enough to increase the size of the cake; the way it is shared is deeply relevant to the dynamism of development and to reducing poverty”. Whilst far from a policy prescription, the sentiment expressed went to the heart of the challenge facing the World Bank’s focus on growth arguably to the exclusion of a more defined “pro-poor” policy programme.6 This post-structural adjustment phenomenon, known as the so-called two-track approach has been widely blamed for the failure of many poverty reduction initiatives within the SADC region. At the time of the 1990 World Development Report, the World Bank confirmed that poverty reduction remained its first priority. This was to be achieved via what later became known as the ‘three-pronged strategy’. That is, Bank programmes would be based on broad-based growth, human capital development and safety nets (such as social action programmes and social funds).7 The acute and disruptive impact of the Structural Adjustment Programmes applied in southern Africa has, however, forced the Bank to focus more on the human dimensions of the policies. The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) has through its DAC formulated remarkably similar guidelines to Poverty Reduction Policy. Beyond affirming the need for greater conceptual clarity as to the nature and contextual causes of poverty and the importance of an internationally co-ordinated focus, the DAC May 2001 guidelines stress the following:8

6 For a Summary of the Bank’s growth to poverty reduction see: Taking Action to Reduce Poverty in Sub-Saharan Africa. Washington DC: World Bank, 1996. 7 Nazneen Kanji, Poverty Reduction and Policy Dialogue: The World Bank and the State in Zimbabwe, Zambia and Malawi, London: LSE (Undated), p.3. 8 http://www.oecd.org/dac/htm/g-pov.htm, pp.1-10.

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• Partnering developing countries to achieve their International Development Goals (IDGs)9 in accordance with the broad goals espoused at the UN Millennium Conference.

• Integrating poverty reduction policies with the national economic and development objectives of developing countries.

• Empowering the poor through, inter alia , strengthening popular participation in policy formulation, implementation and impact assessment.

• Strengthening the organs and institutions of democracy both at the governmental and civil society level.

• Emphasising pro-women poverty reduction policies. • Adopting multi-year time frames integrated with multi-year partner government

fiscal planning and budgeting. • Encouraging the development of local poverty reduction indicators and targets,

strengthened by enhanced local statistical and analytical capacity building programmes.

Significantly the UN Millennium Summit of September 2000 re-affirmed countries’ commitments to the achievement of the core poverty reduction goal:

To halve, by 2015 the proportion of the world’s people (currently 22%) whose income is less than one dollar per day.

Another significant poverty policy for SADC countries is that contained in: Eliminating World Poverty: A Challenge for the 21st Century -- White Paper on International Development, produced in November 1997 by the United Kingdom Department of International Development (DFID). This policy document was updated in 2000 by the Eliminating World Poverty: Making Globalisation Work for the Poor -- White Paper on International Development. Arguably the most significant feature of both these documents is the Department’s clear and explicit commitment to the halving of global poverty by 2015. The document further commits the United Kingdom to increasing its ODA spend to the targeted 0.7% of GDP (from the current 0.33%). Policy Problems A recent UN review of existing approaches to poverty assessment programmes found that these have been largely donor driven and have often failed to adequately involve policy makers, NGOs or the poor themselves. In addition, they have not focused on capacity building and have failed to account for resource constraints that disallow governments from conducting such assessments themselves. Assessments have also been criticised for their failure to be utilised in ways that channel their results into concrete practical pro-poor policy making.

9 These targets established at a series of UN Conferences in the 1990s, set 2015 as the date for achievement and cover areas such as poverty, the environment and education.

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A further consistent problem confronting poverty policy is the lack of standardisation of poverty definition and means of measurement.10 Furthermore, national governments, multilateral agencies, donor countries, aid agencies and NGOs are accused of utilising disparate methodologies for information selection gathering, analysis and interpretation. This has the effect of splintering poverty reduction policies and blunting the achievement of their goals. This to some extent has been addressed by the operation of the UNDP’s Participatory Poverty Assessments (PPA)11. Ensuring the active inclusion in and participation of policy makers, independent researchers, NGOs and civil society leaders and not least of all programme managers and ministry staff have enhanced the quality of the PPAs.12 The UNDP 2001 Choices for the Poor document highlighted a number of additional policy problems of a broad nature, but which have specific relevance to many SADC countries. These include: First, the failure to adequately understand, agree on and address growing urban-rural poverty disparities including a lacuna in policy advice on labour migration. Second, whilst decentralisation, governance and enhanced participation have received policy attention, these have largely remained distant goals. The report identifies two major reasons for this:

• The reluctance of politicians, bureaucrats and elites to relinquish control over scarce resources and thus power.

• The absence of organisational structures available to the poor through which to articulate their needs and focus their efforts.

Third, most countries surveyed failed to meet the agreed expenditure targets of 20% public expenditure to be allocated to basic social services. Monitoring of a country’s progress towards meeting the 20/20 targets is also hampered by inadequate budgetary and accounting systems. At the political level the report suggests that poverty reduction policies are often frustrated by the dynamics of country and local politics (specifically insider/outsider dynamics) as well as the potential for agencies to become involved in the “murky currents” of the politics in which they operate. This is exacerbated by a failure of some agencies and individuals to acquire a deep and textured understanding of local politics and dynamics. Furthermore, too often policies are disrupted or fail to mature due to political regime change. The challenge for policy-makers is thus to ground, entrench and sustain policies through adopting longer term and more systemic approaches.

10 UNDP, Choices for the Poor, March 2001, Executive Summary, p.1. 11 A useful summary of PPAs is provide in: A Rough Guide to PPAs, prepared by Andy Norton of the Overseas Development Institute for DFID, 2001. 12 The argument for a multi-disciplinary approach to the preparation of PPAs is provide in Experiencing Poverty in Africa: Perspectives from Anthropology , Background Paper No. 1 (b) for the World Bank Poverty Status Report 1999.

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The report draws three important conclusions poverty reduction policy-making:

(i) It is important to choose the appropriate institutional ‘home’ and champion/actor for policy reform. The local counterpart requires credibility and capacity.

(ii) Greater emphasis is needed in ensuring appropriate processes in the

establishment of policies such that they have deep-rooted support and sustainability.

(iii) Third, and related to this, policy reform requires some form of

institutionalisation that will enhance the likelihood of policy reform success regardless of regime change.

Debt Cancellation and Poverty Policy For a number of SADC countries, the formulation of the World Bank Heavily Indebted Poor Countries (HIPC) initiative and more recently the Enhanced HIPC is arguably the most significant macro development of the international community of recent years. This initiative offers debt relief and cancellation to countries upon the meeting of specific reforms and parameters. The principal objective for these countries is to “bring the country’s debt burden to sustainable levels, subject to satisfactory policy performance, so as to ensure that adjustment and reform efforts are not put at risk by continued high debt and debt service burdens”.13 Optimism concerning the benefits of HIPC for qualifying SADC countries is, however, tempered by concerns that aid flows will be curtailed and new poverty-related conditionalities will be imposed. Institutional Reform – Lending Institutions A key area of international agency focus has been on the provision of accessible micro-finance. This thrust is distinct from the plethora of African development banks that mushroomed during the 1960s and 1970s. The defining feature of the contemporary focus on micro-finance has been on the establishment of sustainable micro-finance institutions that are conducted on financially viable lines. Whilst an appropriate macro-economic policy and enabling framework is vital, the provision of accessible micro-finance has been identified as a crucial factor in empowering the poor, particularly in the rural sectors. Micro-finance is therefore fundamental to the sustainability of poverty reduction programmes. This approach has been championed and implemented in the Indian sub-continent in particular, and its relevance for southern Africa is increasingly recognised. A further significance of micro-finance institutions in poverty reduction policies is that they frequently target women as customers. This foc us dovetails well with the attention

13 http://worldbank.org/hipc/about/about/html

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that has been given to the linkages between poverty and gender. 14 The popularity of women as customers is predicated on a belief that they are more disciplined and thrifty financially. Of further importance is the fact that micro-finance schemes tend to better empower women in particular. The new focus on sustainable micro-finance initiatives is far from clear in its form and content, however, regarding the appropriate forms and target of loans. A host of issues remain to be tackled including: how to interact with and benefit the acutely poor; identifying lending policies and criteria that are likely to lead to maximum impact and minimise failure and default; matching loan use and repayment capacity, organisational capacity and payment culture; conditionality and situational or geographic exclusion; lack of a sound regulatory environment; and finally, the absence of impact assessment. SADC Poverty Reduction Policy15 Despite the adoption of IPRSPs by individual countries, progress in developing a coherent and integrated regional poverty reduction strategy has been slow. As SADC Executive Secretary Dr Prega Ramsamy has noted, “Lack of institutional capacity at both national and regional levels have exacerbated … structural problems. This constraint has largely manifested itself in the failure by the organisation to adopt appropriate time-bound performance indicators in the implementation of its Programme of Action in general and the Protocol ratification process in particular. This, in turn, is a result of an absence of a comprehensive development strategy, which could give due attention to issues of poverty reduction”. 16 Against this backdrop SADC called for the following policy options and strategies: Pro-poor macro-economic policies that seek to harmonise sound fiscal, monetary and investment policy fundamentals with measures that promote sustained economic growth with a “distributional impact”. These policies are to be underpinned by the drafting of a common conceptual framework for defining, estimating and programming poverty. Recognising the inadequacy of purely growth-driven policies, SADC made the need for an explicit regional poverty reduction strategy its top priority. SADC further argued that the acceleration of the regional integration process will have the desired affect of restructuring the regional economic framework of production, diversifying economies into value adding foci, and minimising the risks of globalisation, whilst maximising its opportunities. These measures, it is argued, will boost foreign

14 In this regard see The Beijing Platform of Action, South Africa’s First Progress Report, January 2000. 15 A Summary of Progress and Regression is to be found in the annual SADC Regional Human Development Reports. 16 Poverty Reduction: A Top Priority in SADC’s Integration Agenda. www.sadcreview.com/sadc

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direct investment and enhance capital flows, thereby boosting economic growth and generating greater funding capacity for poverty reduction policies. Finally, the SADC report argues that improved governance and successful conflict resolution measures will have a positive impact on international investor climate, thereby allowing the redeployment of resources towards poverty reduction actions. COUNTRY-SPECIFIC POLICIES South Africa Between 1994 and 1996 the government’s overarching poverty policy framework was the Reconstruction and Development Programme (RDP). 17 The focus of the programme was to meet the basic needs of the majority of South Africans, including job creation, land reform, provision of housing, clean water, electricity reticulation, accessible telecommunications, improved transport networks, improved environmental programmes, nutritional programmes as well as the boosting and delivery of health care and social welfare. Whilst providing a desirable set of principles and the outline of the key developmental programmes, the document remained short on specifics and ultimately far too ambitious in its targets, such as the construction of one million new houses in five years, the electrification of 2.5 million homes by 2000 and the provision of accessible health care and telecommunications to all. Whilst the principles enshrined in the RDP remain, the programme was effectively killed by the closure of the RDP office, ostensibly in order to mainstream its programmes into the respective governmental departments. In effect, however, the RDP was de facto replaced in 1996 by the macro-economic prescriptions of the government’s Growth Employment and Redistribution (GEAR) policy. Of significance for poverty policy in South Africa, the neo-liberal prescriptions of GEAR have effectively curtailed some of the poverty alleviation objectives enshrined in the RDP. Opposition to GEAR from amongst others COSATU, is well founded when considering its impact on poverty alleviation programmes. For example, in 1998 the South African Financial and Fiscal Commission in collaboration with the UNDP and UNICEF published an expenditure review of basic social services. The report sought to:

• Determine the allocation in the national budget to basic services. • Determine the level of this expenditure allocated to the poor. • Identify the scope for budgetary restructuring to favour the poor. • Identify potential cost -efficiencies.

17 The Reconstruction and Development Programme African National Congress, Johannesburg 1994. The RDP White Paper is to be found at: www.polity.org.za/govdocs/white_papers/ rdpwhite.html

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The review found that the government’s macro-economic strategy GEAR, insofar as it advocated reduced and more efficient state expenditure, was in conflict with the identified need to enhance poverty expenditure. A similar exercise sponsored by UNICEF into the 20/20 Initiative found that, whilst progress had been made on addressing gender inequality, less had been made on the improvement of health despite high levels of government expenditure. GEAR has also been criticised in the following terms:18

The focus of GEAR on small and medium entrepreneurs as drivers of the economy symbolises the shift in policy: instead of an anti-poverty thrust, the focus of reform policy is on those who have the resources to accumulate … In the light of these shortcomings, it is surprising that government has not increased the profile of programmes to combat poverty and social marginalisation on a national and regional level. Discussion and programmes around the WSSD commitments for example are tucked away in a technical committee within the Department of Welfare.. . There has also been little attempt to set national anti-poverty targets, such as those proposed for the post-2000 WSSD commitments, which creates a critical weakness in co-ordinating national development programmes.

This generalised critique of government policy was given specific impetus by the identification of the increase in the proportion of under-expenditure by the Department of Social Development (then Department of Welfare and Population Development) since 1996/97. A large percentage of this under-expenditure was attributed to the Poverty Relief Fund. 19 Despite the trenchant critiques of GEAR by amongst others COSATU and the South African Non Governmental Coalition (SANGOCO), the government has made significant progress in policy formulation in a number of areas. The Department of Welfare’s anti-poverty programme has been termed the “war against poverty” and is the distillation of a number of significant governmental, NGO, church, union and policy think-tank initiatives. The most significant of these was the Poverty and Inequality Report (PIR) commissioned by the Office of the then Deputy President Thabo Mbeki in 1997. This study was the most wide-ranging in South Africa since the Second Carnegie Inquiry into Poverty completed in 1984. The study was supported by the UK Depa rtment for International Development, UNDP, World Bank and the Dutch Government. The Inter -Ministerial Committee on Poverty and Inequality co-ordinated the government’s input. One of the most significant aspects of the study process was the input from an extensive range of stakeholders and national hearings co-ordinated by SANGOCO.20 The final report was careful to formulate recommendations that fully took into account the

18 South Africa: Growth, Poverty and Inequality at http://www.socwatch.org.uy/2000/eng/ nationalreports/southafrica_eng.htm 19 Status Report on the Poverty Relief Programme, Department of Welfare Annual Report 1999/2000, p.7. 20 See: http://sangoco.org.za/progs/fin_sust/natptogaction.htm and http://sangoco.org.za/progs/ pro_poor/ index.html

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country’s budgetary and infrastructural constraints and realities. In summary, the following policy measures were recommended:

1. Maintaining and preferably increasing current government welfare spending and the incorporation of these into the Medium Term Expenditure Frameworks (MTEFs).

2. Focusing on the redistribution of assets, such as land and the privatisation of state assets.

3. Improving the efficiencies of social pensions and the promotion of private sector pension planning amongst workers.

4. Promoting labour intensive governmental infrastructure and services. 5. Expanding micro-finance facilities and access thereto. 6. Targeting resources to under-resourced schools. 7. Targeting resources to the Consolidated Municipal Infrastructure Programme. 8. Prioritising urban and rural housing and tenure programmes. 9. Directing resources to water provision programmes. 10. Deploying Community Based Public Works Programmes. 11. Strengthening the capacity of local government to manage development -

related activities. 12. Establishing a high-level committee to take responsibility for the co-

ordination of poverty and inequality-related activities. 13. Establishing a system for the monitoring of the impact of government policy

on poverty and inequality reduction. This would include the collection of data and analysis through Statistics South Africa, national household surveys and state expenditure reviews.

The extent to which the government will act upon all the recommendations of the report is as yet unclear, but the Director-General in the Minister’s Annual Report of 1999/2000 acknowledged the value of the report in assisting with policy formulation. The Department’s Poverty Relief Programme, which manages the provincial social relief programmes, is funded through the Poverty Relief, Infrastructure and Job Creation Fund and has enjoyed some successes. Given the magnitude of the challenge confronting the country, however, the 2000/01 allocation of R120 million and the total for the three-year period of R363 million is wholly inadequate. A further significant policy development that holds some potential for rural poverty relief is the Integrated Sustainable Rural Development Strategy (ISRDS), drafted in November 2000. The ISRDS is a vision that is designed to, “Attain socially cohesive and sustainable rural communities with viable institutions, sustainable economies and universal access to social amenities, able to attract and retain skilled and knowledgeable people, who are equipped to contribute to growth and development”.21 The programme enshrines a number of important elements: 21 http://www.gov.za/reports/2000/isrds.pdf, p.iv

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• A vision of the growth process in rural areas. • A mechanism for integrating existing programmes. • A design for new programmes. • A defined locus of decision-making. • A meaningful role, for local government. • Clarification of financial flows and channels. • Key performance indicators or a process for generating them internally. • Procedures to monitor the indicators. • Sequencing of actions that should take place in the short, medium and long term.

The programme has three phases:

Phase 1. December 2000 to March 2001 all immediately actionable items. Phase 2. April 2001 to March 2004 build and expand the strategy and

extend operations into other nodes. Phase 3. April 2004 to March 2010 manage the strategy to maturity.

At the end of Phase 3 the strategic objective will be for rural areas to “attain the internal capacity for integrated and sustainable development”. Whilst the programme appears well conceptualised and drafted, again it is light on the detail of specific goals and targets at the outset and is thus difficult to evaluate.22 Until recently, Local Economic Development (LED) initiatives have been unsuccessful in integrating their plans with explicit poverty reduction programmes. This is despite the fact that the RDP office had established a set of guidelines for LED policy. This failure has been attributed to two factors. First, the generic (and erroneous) assumption that economic growth of itself will benefit the poor and increase job opportunities. Second, the lack of appropriate experience and capacity at the local government level has hampered the rollout of such programmes. Recent research has sought to address these problems and to design sound frameworks for the productive integration of poverty reduction programmes into broader LED initiatives.23 This shift holds considerable policy potential. The most coherent crystallisation of this development is to be found in A Poverty Reduction Framework for Local Government in the Cape Metropolitan Area drafted in January 1999. The document in its introduction boldly asserts: “It is therefore important to define the core business of local government as the imperative of reducing poverty to enhance global competitiveness and improve the living standards of the poor.”24 22 See also Rural Development Strategies for Poverty Reduction and Environmental Protection in Sub-Saharan Africa, Kevin Cleaver for the World Bank, 2000. 23 See in particular the research conducted by Edgar Pieterse of the Isandla Institute Case Studies on LED and Poverty which included research on ten municipal areas throughout South Africa and see http://www.local.gov.za/DCD/ledsummary/led04.html 24 The Economic and Social Development Directorate Cape Metropolitan Council, A Poverty Reduction Framework for Local Government in the Cape Metropolitan Area, Cape Town, January 1999. p.1.

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The Cape Metropolitan Council poverty reduction framework outlines five broad steps:

1. Understand the rationale for the local authorities’ working to reduce poverty. 2. Agree to a definition of poverty for use across the CMA. 3. Conduct a poverty audit. 4. Set poverty targets by way of:

• Creating broad political commitments to set realistic targets of poverty

reduction. • Identifying geographic zones or particular categories of poverty that may

require special attention. • Defining targets that will be used to assess outcomes of poverty reduction

projects as well as local authority performance. • Defining clear indicators to determine when a target has been achieved. • Translating poverty reduction targets into broad programmes of action that

will cohere as a strategic response to poverty in the CMA.

5. Mainstream poverty reduction activities within the local authorities by means of:

• Ensuring poverty reduction activities are reflected in local government

Integrated Development Plans (IDP), business plans and budgets. • Co-ordinating and rationalise existing poverty reduction efforts. • Implementing new poverty reduction programmes and projects. • Securing adequate funding for the full range of poverty reduction projects. • Implementing a monitoring and evaluation system to assess the impact of

local authority action to reduce poverty. • Reviewing, revising and reformulating poverty reduction activities so that

they become increasingly more effective.

The framework goes on to suggest the following five fields of action to reduce poverty at the local government level:

• The provision of a minimum social safety net. • The provision of effective basic infrastructure and services. • The development of sustainable living environments. • The promotion of job creation and economic empowerment. • Support for community and social development.

These activities are further delineated within the report, which in its totality serves as a practical and encouraging policy framework. Finally, as outlined above, international development agencies have emphasised the need for the provision of accessible micro-finance as a means of empowering the poor to elevate themselves from conditions of poverty. South Africa has made some, although far

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from satisfactory, policy progress in this regard. Entities such as Khula25 and the Small Enterprise Foundation26 have begun to serve the capital needs of small and micro enterprises, but again this fails to address the needs of the acutely poor. The track record of Khula in particular is patchy at best, as its 2000 Annual Report attests, with losses of R25 million reported. 27 The problem of access to (rather than shortage of) development capita l has become a central focus of concern in South Africa. The campaign to force banks to broaden their lending criteria and to cease their redlining practices has been driven by the South African Communist Party in particular. To date the government has followed the United States model via the passage of the Mortgage Loan Disclosure Act, which requires banks to disclose their lending patterns. This legislation is due to be followed by the passage of the Community Reinvestment Act, which inter alia will provide a legal framework for lending institutions to extend credit to the previously unbanked. What is not yet clear is what incentives and penalties will be provided for in the Act. This is particularly moot, as southern African countries cannot offer, the same point system incentives as adopted in the United States in assessing the banks’ lending criteria. Lesotho During the Sixth National Development Plan (1996/97–1998/99) the Lesotho government set poverty reduction as its highest development priority. However, the authors of the, Poverty and Livelihoods in Lesotho, 2000 remark, “Despite the Government’s commitment to poverty reduction, it is still difficult to clearly see how this is reflected in the resource allocations in the actual budget, as may important social indicators, such as health, have less to spend than they had five years ago. Indeed in the 2000/2001 budget presented in March 2000, the amount allocated to defence is virtually the same as that allocated to health. As Robert Chambers notes, in many countries, “ … a gap yawns between the rhetoric of poverty orientation and the realities of resource allocation and effective use of resources”.28 A number of major poverty policy interventions were drafted in Lesotho in the 1990s. The first were the 1990/1994/1999 Poverty Mapping Research conducted by Sechaba Consultants. The second was the Pathway Out Of Poverty, An Action Plan for Lesotho drafted jointly by the Lesotho Council of NGOs and the government in 1996. This report was in part a distillation of research and policies also previously conducted by the World Bank Poverty Assessment reports. This led to the Poverty Task Force Group’s drafting the Poverty Reduction Within the Context of Good Governance document which formed the basis of the discussion at the 8th Round Table Conference in Geneva in 1997. One of

25 http://www.khula.org.za 26 http://www.sef.co.za 27 http://www.khula.org.za/annual2000/chairreport.htm 28 John Gay and David Hall, Poverty and Livelihoods in Lesotho, 2000 – More Than a Mapping Exercise, Sechaba Consultants Maseru, June 2000, p.33. Sechaba have conducted three such studies in 1990, 1994 and 1999.

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the outcomes of this was the establishment of a Poverty Task Team and small Poverty Team within the Ministry of Planning. In December 1999 the government agreed with the World Bank and IMF to the formulation of a Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper to replace the Policy Framework Paper. More importantly, this permits Lesotho to access the Poverty Reduction Growth Facility. The PRSP also provides the context for a Country Assistance Strategy under the World Bank’s International Development Association.29 Significant sectoral projects that have been and continue to be conducted include:

• The Education Sector Development Project. The government has developed a policy of free primary education and has committed to providing basic education for all by 2006.

• The National Health Sector Plan was developed in 1994, and was designed to

provide a framework in two phases up to 2000. The government provides free immunisation against tuberculosis, leprosy immunisable childhood diseases, malnutrition related diseases for children under five, pre- and post-natal services as well as subventions for referrals to South Africa in special cases. The government has also recently completed its national HIV/AIDS Strategic Plan.

The government’s water and sanitation plans have proved less successful, however, in meeting the needs of the poor particularly in the rural areas.30 Namibia Decades of white minority occupation and rule left Namibia at the time of its independence in 1990 with an acutely skewed social and economic structure. In 1993 Namibia’s Gini co-efficient was 0.7. The top 5% (mostly white) enjoy approximately 70% of the country’s GDP. Five years after independence Namibia produced its first National Development Plan (NDP1) for the period 1995-2000. The Plan identifies four core objectives:

• Reviving and sustaining economic growth. • Creating employment opportunities. • Reducing inequalities in income distribution. • Eradicating poverty.

The NDP1 set itself twin targets of reducing the proportion of poor households from 47% in 1994 to 40% by 2000 and reducing the proportion of severely poor households from 13% in 1994 to 7% by 2000. Additionally, the programme sought to reduce the inequalities in income distribution. Its target was to lower the proportion of households

29 Interim Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper, Kingdom of Lesotho, Ministry of Planning, Maseru, December 2000. 30 Ibid., p.13

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with an income below the average, from 60% in 1994 to 50%. The programme for poverty reduction was based on three supporting strategies:31

• The creation of employment opportunities. • Improvement in access to social services. • Reduction in the population growth rate.

With regard to employment the government set itself a target of increasing formal employment by 70,000 by 2000. It also aimed to increase subsistence agricultural employment by at least 30,000 by 2000 and to boost formal self-employment by 10,000 during the same period. Increased employment targets (particularly for the poor, least skilled and local unemployed youth) was to be facilitated by labour intensive Public Works Programmes in the area of infrastructure. Increased agricultural employment was to be achieved by amongst other measures strengthening co-operatives and providing greater access to formal markets for local farmers. Local processing, the improved use of appropriate technologies and developmental agro-industry were also identified as key areas. The government also sought to improve access to social services such as health, education and welfare services. Importantly the government set itself a target of increasing the coverage of the state pension scheme from 66% to 100% as well as broadening the disability allowance from 27% to 50% by 2000. The government identified five conditions for the NDP1 to succeed:

1. Decentralisation of decision-making powers to the regional level. 2. Popular participation. 3. Community mobilisation. 4. Support for local initiatives. 5. Partnership building.

In order to drive through the success of the NDP1, the Namibian government identified a series of fundamental programmes and processes:

• Capacity building of regional and local government as well as NGOs and CBOs. • A review of the legal constraints and barriers confronting the poor. • A review of the effectiveness of public policies (in keeping with the World Bank

Public expenditure Review for Namibia). • The mapping of vulnerable groups through a poverty assessment study. • A series of sub-programmes to facilitate community mobilisation.

31 Government of Namibia, Round Table Conference, Poverty Reduction, Geneva, November 1995.

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• Improvement of access to credit and financial advisory services for small and medium scale enterprises.

• In health care, access to clean water, preventive health programmes, access to curative health facilities, sanitation facilities and improved food quality standards.

In addition to and in conjunction with the NDP1, the UNDP has activated a number of poverty relief programmes since 1990, but the thrust of the contemporary programmes is enshrined in the Country Co-operation Framework (CCF). This covers the period 1997-2000 and was drafted in conjunction with other donors, UN agencies and NGOs. For purposes of this study the most significant intervention is that of the Integrated Community Based Rural and Urban Poverty Reduction Programme. Other significant support is being delivered in the SME and Entrepreneurship Programme, the Regional and Local Governance Capacity Building Programme as well as the Water Management Initiative.32 In a further boost to poverty alleviation programmes Namibia signed a poverty alleviation agreement with the EU valued at some US$4 million in September 2000. This allocation was to be directed to funding sma ll and medium enterprises as well as well as for rural communities to assist them to combat poverty. Botswana Botswana presents a poverty paradox. The country is the world’s largest diamond producer and the EU’s largest supplier of beef. Its economic growth rate has been remarkable, averaging 13% during the 1980s, but has settled at about 7% at the end of the 1990s. The World Bank earmarked the country as one of three in the region (the others being Mauritius and Mozambique) that stood the greatest chance of reducing poverty by 2015. In its Vision 2016 document the Botswana government asserts that it will halve poverty by the fiftieth anniversary of independence. Despite this optimism, poverty is still widespread in Botswana with almost half of its population poor.33 The major reason for this disparity between national economic growth and persistent poverty is the narrow productive and distributive base of the mining sector. Botswana is thus characterised by pockets and regions of relative economic and soc ial well-being contrasted with others such as those occupied by the Basarwa, marked by poverty. In addition, the country suffers from one of the world’s highest HIV infection rates with some 300,000 out of a total population of 1.5 million believed to be infected. As in Namibia, alcoholism is an ever-increasing social and behavioural plague, particularly in the rural areas of Botswana. Botswana has developed a number of poverty alleviation and eradication programmes and it is claimed that a key advantage the country enjoys is the extent and depth of 32 See http://www.un.na/undp/ 33 Kerapeletswe, C & Moremi, T, ‘Poverty and Democratisation: The Case of Botswana’, in Wilson, Kanji and Braathen (eds), Poverty Reduction – What Role for the State in Today’s Globalised Economy , CROP, 2001.

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political participation and governance, which, in turn, has to some extent enhanced the efficacy of poverty reduction programmes.34 Significantly responsibility for social welfare was transferred to local government in 1974, but government subsequently took back control in order to develop a social assistance programme for the “truly destitute”. The National Policy on Destitutes was the principal outcome of this intervention. This short (six-page) policy document remains in place to the present. The benefits of the social assistance scheme are household goods and food, but the quantities provided are wholly inadequate. One of the reasons for this inadequacy is that the quantitative point of departure for most government sponsored poverty reduction programmes is the Poverty Data Line (PDL) first compiled in 1974. The composition of methodology of the PDL has been changed only twice (in 1976 and 1991) since that time. Critics argue that the PDL is an inadequate measure of poverty and that a “humane living level” ought to be set at 150% of the PDL.35 The social assistance has been further criticised on the following grounds:

• First, the guidelines are too vague and allow for peculiar interpretation and thus arbitrary decision-making by social assistance officers determining those qualifying for benefits.

• Second, the PDL is simply too low. • Third, only individuals are recognised as destitute rather than a broader

interpretation of household poverty. • Finally no distinction is made between individual needs, be these dietary or those

relating to disabilities. A “one-benefit-fits-all” policy is applied, which lacks any form of rehabilitation programme.36

The Botswana government promotes a ‘self-help’ philosophy, which manifests itself in intervention such as the Financial Assistance Policy (FAP) introduced in 1982, which provides grants to small businesses on the basis of the employment creating capacity of the firm. The FAP also provides loans for the Arable Lands Development Programme (ALDEP). In 1996 ALDEP took the significant step of inserting a pro-women factor in order to encourage the participation of female farmers. Encouragingly the government has also passed a number of pieces of legislation outlawing gender discrimination. Additionally, the Botswana government has instituted supplementary feeding schemes as well as labour -based public works programmes. Social security payments have also been extended to those 65 years and older who receive a monthly pension. 37 In 1996 the Botswana Institute for Development Policy Analysis (BIDPA) carried out a major study of poverty and poverty alleviation sponsored by the government, UNDP and UNICEF in preparation for the Eighth National Development Plan 1997-2003 (NDP8).

34 Ibid ., p. 219. 35 Bar-On, A, ‘Providing So Little For So Few’, in Wilson et al, op.cit., p.256. 36 Ibid , pp. 258-259. 37 Ibid , p.233.

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Along with economic diversification, poverty reduction is a central theme of NDP8 and consequently a core area of policy focus through to 2003. Botswana stands on the threshold of a human disaster, however, due to an HIV/AIDS infection rate of some 20% of the population. Thus there exists an urgent need for the integration (or development) of mutually supportive poverty eradication and HIV/AIDS programmes and policies. The level of infection within Botswana society is set to have a severe impact on poverty figures in the country over the next 20 years. In response to this threat the government has developed a number of policy responses, the latest of which is the Botswana HIV and AIDS: second medium term plan: 1997-2002. Despite this, criticisms have been levelled against the government’s HIV/AIDS policy prompting the UNDP to make HIV/AIDS the key theme of its 2000 Botswana Human Development Report. Swaziland Swaziland exhibits similar patterns of poverty and underdevelopment to that of its regional neighbours: a rapidly expanding population, skewed income patterns, low economic performance and slowing investment flows and an HIV/AIDS infection rate in excess of 20%. Swaziland’s poverty challenge is further accentuated by the fact that females head over 39% of households and that poverty amongst female-headed households is 1.7 times that of those headed by men. A further problematic for Swaziland is the increasing threat of social unrest surrounding constitutional matters and governance in that country. Despite this, the country has made progress since independence especially in improving literacy, which is now over 74%.38 Leading from the drafting of the 25-year National Long-Term Perspective Study, the Swaziland government drafted its National Development Strategy in 1997 together with the Economic and Social Reform Agenda programme. The Swaziland government has committed itself to fighting poverty through sustainable development including a focus on the creation of a positive environment particularly for the unemployed, underemployed, the rural poor (and particularly women) and those with disabilities. Furthermore, the government has committed itself to enhance food security and the promotion of the most effective and sustainable natural resource usage. The first country co-operation framework (CCF) between Swaziland and the UNDP was drafted in 1997. The document stressed good governance, empowerment of all sectors of civil society, decentralisation, capacity building and support for the National Development Strategy. Linkages between the UNDP and local programmes have been emphasised together with a system of programme monitoring review and evaluation.39 38 Economist Intelligence Unit, Swaziland Country Profile 2000. 39 UNDP, Country Co-operation Frameworks and Related Matters. First Country Co-operation Framework for Swaziland (1997-1999).

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It is a cause of concern, however, that very little documentation is available that would shed light on the progress and the specific design, formulation and rollout of Swaziland’s recent poverty eradication policies. This remains a weakness of the current paper. Mozambique At the end of the civil war Mozambique had lost one million of its citizens in the conflict: the under-five mortality rate was 273/1,000 live births; maternal mortality was 1100/100,000 live births. In addition, 30% of the health network has been destroyed as well as 68% of the primary school network. In addition the country had to deal with the legacy of some 3.5 million internally displaced people. Ironically, the peace settlement of 1992 and the elections of 1994 resulted in the return of some 1 million refugees from Mozambique with all the attendant challenges to land usage and infrastructure strain. Economically the country was practically paralysed and was weighed down by conditions of extreme aid dependency. 40 During the time of the war government poverty programmes were reduced to Emergency Programmes (principally food and clothing relief) targeting the displaced and those stripped of the means of survival by the conflict. By 1994 Mozambique was suffering from an aid dependency crisis as foreign debt amounted to some US$5.2 billion. These conditions had been exacerbated by periods of drought and a fall in export earnings. After the earlier socialist prescriptions of the post 1974 Frelimo government, a policy shift was undertaken in the 1980s with the adoption of an IMF/World Bank sponsored Structural Adjustment Programme. The practical and programmatic challenge for poverty relief programmes in Mozambique in the post settlement period has been to move from emergency relief to developmental and sustainable interventions. In 1994 in order to tackle the mammoth task of poverty reduction the government established the Poverty Alleviation Unit within the Ministry of Planning and Finance in 1994. In the same year the Secretariat of State for Social Action was transformed into the Ministry for Social Action Co-ordination. The focus of its poverty programmes is aimed principally at children such as: Family Re-unification, Child Development, Street Children, and Disabled Assistance. A more general form of policy is that of the Programme for Food Provision and Additional Support on Wage. This is a cash transfer system for the acutely disadvantaged urban dwellers such as those housing the elderly, the disabled, malnourished children or pregnant women. According to a 1996 report, the programme covered 89,811 households representing 70% of urban indigent households.41 The role of the international donor agencies, foreign and national NGOs and the local community has been vital to the success of the operations of these

40 ‘Creating a Framework for Reducing Poverty: Institutional and Process Issues’ in National Poverty Policy: Mozambique Country Report, Institute for Development Studies, September 1999. 41 Eugenio Macamo, The Role of the State in Poverty Alleviation in a War Torn Society – The Case Study of Mozambique, CROP Workshop, Cape Town, September 1998.

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schemes. Of significance is that the GAPVU cash transfer programme is believed to be the only programme on the continent, apart from South Africa to offer a social pension. 42 In 1995 the government instituted the Poverty Reduction Strategy (PRS). The three pillars of the policy were as follows:

• The creation of employment and income-generating opportunities for the poor. • The delivery of social services targeted to the poor. • The provision of safety nets for the poorest people.

In 1999 the Poverty Action Reduction Plan (PRAP) was completed by the Ministry of Planning and Finance. The PRAP places cons iderable emphasis on the reconstruction and strengthening of Mozambican infrastructure and takes poverty policy into a new dimension in that it mainstreams poverty reduction efforts. Importantly the PRAP is linked to the MTEF and each sector is required to demonstrate that its proposals are directly linked to the poverty reduction 43objectives of the PRAP. The PRAP is also a sharply targeted intervention. The first focus is those provinces holding the greatest agricultural potential, lowest health indicators and education. The second area of focus is the households with high dependency ratios, and those with female household heads with no education.44 Three more related policy documents bear mention: The Policy Framework Paper (1998-2000) sketches the government’s key policies and objectives for the period. The Mozambican government has succeeded in achieving 12.4% real GDP growth rates in 1997, reducing inflation to below 6% and maintaining rate stability, whilst increasing social welfare spending from 26% to 33% of total government spending and health and education to 32% and 59% respectively. The government is confident in its objectives within the PFP. The PFP sets out 85 deliverables to be achieved by 30 March 2000. The View into the Future (1998) document sets out the government’s social goals. These include:

• Increasing individual income through rapid economic growth. • Improving overall social conditions and, in particular, the development of human

capital. • Increasing the equity of income distribution in the country and reducing the

poverty that affects the majority of the Mozambican population. 42 Understanding Poverty and Well-Being in Mozambique: The First National Assessment (1996 -97). Ministry of Planning and Finance, Government of Mozambique. IFPRI, December 1998, p.363. 43 IDS, ‘Creating a Framework for Reducing Poverty’, op.cit., 1999, p.16. 44 Ibid .

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Finally, the government has set out its Second Five-Year Plan (2000-2004). The key features of the plan are a continued focus on poverty reduction, but with an important role being played by private investors rather than government or donors. As the IDS notes, this shift reinforces the view that Mozambique is increasingly the country of the “billion dollar projects”. This approach has raised acute questions about the pro-poor value or impact of such projects. In an important component to what appears an overwhelmingly positive picture and outlook for the country, in 1999 Mozambique became the sixth country to benefit under HIPC receiving US$3.7 billion in debt relief. In April 2000 the country qualified for a further US$600 million relief in terms of the Enhanced HIPC. 45 Zimbabwe Since 1980, Zimbabwe’s poverty reduction policies faced the challenge of redressing the structural imbalances created through decades of colonial rule that distorted economic and social structures. Poverty reduction policy can be periodised into the following, 1980–1990, 1991-1995, and 1995 to the present.46 The first economic policy document of the new government published in 1981 was termed ‘Growth with Equity’. The objectives of the policy were:47

• The establishment of a socialist society. • Rapid economic growth. • Balanced development and equitable distribution of income and productive

resources. • Economic restructuring. • Development of human resources. • Rural development. • Worker participation. • Development of economic infrastructure and social services. • Fiscal and monetary reform.

Whilst the specific targeting of poverty was not an explicit plank of this programme, it is implied in most of the above formulations. Indeed through these institutional efforts remarkable progress was made in both the health and education sectors. For example, during this ten-year period real per capita health and child welfare spending rose over 40%, as did the number of primary schools.48 Notably during this period whilst government acquired over three million hectares of land, some 44% was dry and infertile. By 1990 over 235,000 hectares of land acquired for re-settlement had not been used. 45 See http://www.worldbank.org/hipc/country-cases/mozambique/mozambique.html 46 A comprehensive overview of poverty in Zimbabwe can be found in: 1995 Poverty Assessment Study Survey Main Report. Zimbabwe Ministry of Public Service, Labour and Social Welfare Social Development Fund, Harare, 1995. 47 Brian Raftopoulos, The State and Poverty Reduction Policies in Zimbabwe 1980 -1997. University of Zimbabwe, August 1997. 48 Ibid., p.3

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In a profound departure from the previous decade, in 1991 the government embarked on an Economic Structural Adjustment Programme. In so doing the government was confronted with formulating poverty reduction policy within the framework of a liberalised broad economic framework. The adoption of the ESAP was undertaken, however, with a commitment not to subordinate the poverty alleviation measures by means of the Social Dimensions of Adjustment Programme (SDA). This included a Social Welfare Programme (SWP) and an Employment and Training Programme (ETP). Whilst the ESAP targeted areas such as economic growth, increased investment, savings, export growth, reduced deficits, lower inflation, it also targeted the removal of direct subsidies from Z$629 million in 1990/91 to Z$60 million over the adjustment period. Furthermore, a reduction of 25% in the civil service was targeted.49 In 1994 the government launched the Poverty Alleviation Action Plan (PAAP) in conjunction with the UNDP. The PAAP embodied a number of dimensions such as the reform of the Social Development Fund and a more systematised effort to assess and monitor poverty. The PAAP sought to build capacity amongst poor communities and to draw impoverished communities into the mainstream of the Zimbabwean economy. The relative failure of the PAAP due principally to the country’s poor economic performance led to the formulation of the Zimbabwe Programme for Social Transformation ZIMPREST in 1997. 50 Zimbabwe has now completed its Common Country Assessment and UN Development Assistance Framework and is scheduled to deliver its Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper in 2001. In addition to state-owned poverty reduction programmes, a range of collaborative projects operates within Zimbabwe. The UNDP supports the following programmes:51

• The Poverty Reduction Forum. • Community Support Projects. • SDF Capacity Building and Institutional Strengthening Programme. • UNV support to the PAAP. • The Micro-start Project.

Malawi Malawi broke with thirty years of dictatorship in 1994. Although the country escaped the ravages of colonial and civil wars, it emerged from under Dr Banda’s rule as one of the world’s poorest and acutely aid dependent. The country also exhibits alarmingly high HIV infection rates as well as the constant scourge of malaria, overlaid with a heavily patriarchal social formation. Faced with this daunting challenge, one year after coming to power the UDF government announced its Poverty Alleviation Programme (PAP). In a

49 Ibid , p.8. 50 Zimbabwe Central Statistical Office, Poverty in Zimbabwe, Harare, July 1998. 51 UNDP Focus Areas – Zimbabwe: http://www.undp.org.zw/focus_areas.htm

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radical step that has had the consequence of doubling primary school attendance, the government also announced that primary school would be provided free to all. 52 But in spite of the PAP initiative, the Qualitative Impact Monitoring (QUIM) undertaken in 1998 established that poverty in the country was in fact worsening due to:

• Lack of access to farm inputs. • Declining yields. • Declining employment opportunities. • Lack of access to markets. • Low produce and high commodity prices. • Erratic rainfall patterns.

The country has been further hit by sharply declining demand and prices for its major export, tobacco. Against this backdrop the Malawi Poverty Monitoring System commissioned a number of studies the results of which were presented as proposals in 1999. These covered areas such as land reform, institutional reform and enhanced poverty education programmes. A further set of studies focusing on poverty alleviation was commissioned in 1999. 53 In 2000 QUIM 2 was conducted. Malawi is highly aid dependent and until recently qualifying under the HIPC provisions, was also chronically debt ridden. Thus many poverty reduction programmes are dependent on the support and intervention of international governments and agencies. Malawian poverty reduction programmes include the Malawi Social Action Fund, which has been responsible for Public Works Programmes (PWP) and Community Sub-Projects (CSP). Under the PWP some 380 projects have been approved and an estimated 163,000 jobs created. Given the chronic food insecurity experienced by many in the country, the Government-Donor Committee on Food Security formulated a Safety Net Intervention Programme with short and long-term interventions. These programmes are dependent for their operations on support from the World Bank, European Union, Rockefeller Foundation and World Vision International. One of the more successful poverty alleviation programmes has been the agricultural starter pack initiative, which provides smallholders with the seeds and fertiliser to plant and cultivate 0.1 hectare. This programme has recently been criticised by the EU as creating subsidised dependency, but the government appears set to retain the programme due to its success and popularity. Credit facilities are also provided through a number of agencies and institutions such as the Malawi Rural Finance Company, National Association of Businesswomen and Womens’ World Banking Malawi Affiliate, but again 52 This step was reportedly opposed by the World Bank, but then publicly supported. One of the unforeseen effects of this policy has been to raise class sizes to an average of 75 and increase pupil teacher ratios to 1:150. 53 Malawi Government, National Economic Council, Economic Report 1999, Budget Document no. 4, Government Printer, Zomba, Malawi.

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tend to focus on the needs of the small to medium enterprise rather than the acutely poor. The Poverty Alleviation Trust Fund established in terms of the PAP in 1996 also provides a further significant locus of support. In 1998 the United Nations Development Assistance Framework (UNDAF) Towards Vision 2020 was drafted in consultation with UN agencies the Malawian Government, multilateral and bilateral partners, aid agencies and NGOs. The programme focuses on:54

• Improved delivery of basic social services. • Full employment and sustainable livelihoods. • Improved environmental and natural resources management. • Gender equity, empowerment and advancement of women. • An enabling environment for people-centred development. • HIV/AIDS prevention care.

The UNDP also plays a prominent role in poverty alleviation programmes in Malawi, engaging in food security, enterprise development, gender and HIV/AIDS programmes, all of which play an important part in the mantra of poverty alleviation in that country. In addition, the UN Capital Development Fund has assisted the Malawian government with some 23 poverty alleviation projects since 1974.55 The World Bank plays an active part in Malawian development programmes and despite its successes, Bank programmes are sometimes circumscribed by the lack of local capacity. Finally, in an important policy development, Malawi commenced preparatory work on its PRSP in 2000. The PRSP will draw on the experience gathered through all previous studies such as the Integrated Household Survey and will form the core of all poverty alleviation programmes in the country. 56

54 UNDAF: Towards Vision 2020. UN Development Assistance for Poverty Eradication in Malawi, Malawi October 1998. 55 UNDP in Malawi: Information Kit, p.25. Lilongwe, Malawi (undated) 56 Malawi Government, National Economic Council, Economic Report, 2000.

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Appendix Bibliography, Reports and Texts

International Poverty Reduction Policy Papers United Nations Development Programme: Partnerships to Fight Poverty. Promoting national initiatives to empower the poor www.undp.org/maindp/propoor/index.html Earth Negotiations Bulletin: A Brief History of the WSSD www.iisd.ca/linkages/vol10/1044002e.html Overcoming Human Poverty: UNDP Poverty Report 2000 www.undp.org/povertyreport/exec/english.html Experiencing poverty in Africa: perspectives from anthropology. Background Paper No. 1(b) for the World Bank Poverty Status Report 1999. David Booth, Melissa Leach and Alison Tierney DAC Guidelines on Poverty Reduction: May 2001: Executive Summary www.oecd.org/dac/htm/g-pov.htm Partnerships for Poverty Reduction: From Commitment to Implementation. Statement by the DAC High Level Meeting, Paris, 11-12 May 2000 www.oecd.org/dac/htm/partpov.htm International Monetary Fund: The World Bank, Washington, D.C. Memorandum, April 20, 2001 www.imf.org/external/np/omd/2001/042001.htm The IMF’s Poverty Reduction and Growth Facility (PRGF): A Fact sheet, March 2001 www.imf/org/external/np/exr/facts/prgf.htm International Monetary Fund: Pove rty Reduction Strategy Papers (PRSP), Last updated June 28, 2001 www.imf.org/external/np/prsp/prsp.asp International Monetary Fund: Poverty Reduction Strategy Papers (PRSP), Last updated June 28, 2001 www.imf.org/external/np/prsp/prsp.asp ODI Poverty Briefing: Will Growth Halve Global Poverty by 2015? Lucia Hanmer, John Healey and Felix Naschold, 8 July 2000 www.odi.org.uk/briefing/pov8.html

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About International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) www.ifad.org/governance/ifad/ifad.htm United Nations General Assembly A/50/664, Fiftieth Session Agenda item 97 (b): Operational Activities for Development: Economic and Technical Cooperation among Developing Countries, Report of the Secretary-General, 23 October 1995. A rough guide to PPAs: Participatory Poverty Assessment – An introduction to theory and practice Prepared by Andy Norton with Bella Bird, Karen Brock, Margaret Kakande, Carrie Turk. Overseas Development Institute 2001. Putting Poverty Alleviation Up Front: Full text of an article from Lomé 2000, No. 4, January 1997: page 1 International Monetary Fund: Poverty Reduction Strategy Papers – Progress in Implementation, Prepared by the Staffs of the IMF and the World Bank, April 20, 2001 www.imf.org/external/np/prsp/2001/042001.htm Eliminating World Poverty: A Challenge for the 21st Century: White Paper on International Development, Presented to Parliament by the Secretary of State for International Development by Command of Her Majesty, November 1997 Eliminating World Poverty: Making Globalisation Work for the Poor White Paper on International Development , Presented to Parliament by the Secretary of State for International Development by Command of Her Majesty, December 2000 www.globalisation.gov.uk As Poverty Soars, How Reliable is the World Bank, IMF Development Policy?, Grace Buhera, 1 June 2000. sardc@sards.net. misa-news@wn.apc.org Directions in Development: Rural Development Strategies for Poverty Reduction and Environmental Protection in Sub-Saharan Africa, Kevin Cleaver, The World Bank, Washington, D.C. Halving world poverty by 2015: economic growth, equity and security, UK Department for International Development (DFID), 2001. www.ids.ac.uk/eldis/dfidpov.htm UNDP Internet Initiative for Africa www.ghanaclassifieds,com/undpiia/internet_in…/internet_initiative_by_africa.htm The World Bank Group: Poverty Reduction Strategies Learning Events: PRSP Session at the World Bank/Africa NGO Committee February 7-8, 2000, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia

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www.worldbank.org/poverty/strategies/afrngos.htm Africa Recovery, United Nations: More debt-distressed African countries could qualify for HIPC relief. Creditors making ‘major changes’ in debt relief for poor countries, Christina Katsouris. Plan to Cut Global Poverty by 50% is Falling – Needs of Rural Majority Neglected. www.ifad.org/poverty/pr.htm World Development Report 2000/2001, Overview: Attacking Poverty: Opportunity, Empowerment, and Security. UN World Development Report 1999 Choices for the Poor : UNDP, March 2001 http://www.undp.org/dpa/publications/choicesforpoor/ENGLISH/index.html AIDS Blunts Economic Growth: Wall Street; Public Companies; Latin America; International; Hightech, Africa News Service, 07/11/2000, CX193U2718, Business Source Premier. Summary of Discussions: Economic Policy and Poverty Reduction: A high-level policy dialogue in preparation of the United Nations General Assembly Special Session (June 2000). Bob Huber, Technical Adviser, UN Division for Social Policy and Development. www.un.org/ecosocdev/geninfo/afrec/vol13no2/01debt.htm Southern African Poverty Reduction Policy Papers The African Development Bank Group: African Development Report: Regional Integration in Africa. London: OUP/ADB, 2000. The World Bank: Global Economic Prospects and the Developing Countries. Washington, DC: World Bank/IBRD, 2000. The World Bank: Can Africa Claim the 21st Century? Washington, DC: World Bank/IBRD, 2000. The African Development Bank Group: Press Releases 2001 www.afdb.org/knowledge/pressreleases.htm?nl=5&n2=2&n3=0

The African Development Bank Group: Documents: Agreement establishing the African Development Bank 5th Edition – 30 September 1999 www.afdb.org/knowledge/documents/Agreement_Establishing.htm

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