Question: Mr L S Ngonyama (Congress of the People) to ask the Deputy President:
Whether the Government had any plans other than those predicated on economic growth of 3% or more to eradicate poverty in at least 100 communities by 2011; if not, why not; if so, (a) what are these parallel plans that the Government has been using achieve to eradicate poverty in targeted areas and (b) what are the further relevant details?
Reply:
Three percent growth is not enough to reduce poverty rapidly. We need considerably higher growth. This is why we have introduced the New Growth Path for public discussion, and for implementation. Nevertheless, even if we did achieve much higher levels of growth, this would not eradicate poverty and inequality.
The key strategies to reduce inequality and poverty are to provide better education and health care and better infrastructure services in poor regions. These activities are at the top of our agenda. In addition, we need to improve the environment for investment by the private sector in labour absorbing businesses.
Furthermore, government’s plans to reduce poverty are spearheaded by the Comprehensive Anti-Poverty Strategy. This Strategy has used the War on Poverty Campaign to identify 1128of the most deprived urban and rural wards where poor households would be identified, their needs assessed, a database of their profiles developed, and their needs referred to government and its social partners for appropriate services to be delivered.
Beyond this we have several well known poverty reduction initiatives that include:
The social grant programmes, especially the Child Support Grant, are amongst the most comprehensive poverty alleviation programmes in any developing country. They are well designed, and, largely, well administered.
There are similar programmes in other middle income developing countries like Mexico and Brazil, but, in relation to the size of our Gross Domestic Product and our population, ours is one of the very largest.
We also have the Expanded Public Works Programme (EPWP) and the Community Work Programme. The EPWP has many elements including infrastructure programme and environmental programmes. These programmes are well known.
The newest targeted programme is the Community Work Programme (CWP). Though it is a relatively new programme, it now reaches more than a hundred settlements and more than a 100Â 000 people. We expect that the CWP will be one of our major tools to alleviate and as far as possible reduce poverty in our poorest settlements.
In order to realise the three per cent or more growth, Government has taken the following proactive steps:
- Investment promotion;
- Increasing productivity
- Promoting savings
- Increasing spending both in the social and economic sectors
These are not only directed at achieving economic growth, but the direct spin offs on poverty eradication are evident in the provision of basic services, human capital development, and most importantly the creation of jobs.
I thank you.
