Poverty trends between 1993 and 2004 in Namibia

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Date
2007
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Abstract
Poverty is one of the most researched topics, simply because it touches the lives and souls of the people. However, even though much has been written on the topic, there are information gaps regarding the movements of poverty incidence in Namibia. Malaysia, a role model for most of the developing world does have an idea on its poverty trends overtime. Knowledge on poverty trends and prevalence assists public policy in achieving poverty reduction through a pro-poor growth strategy to provide the social and physical infrastructure required for growing the economy and target specific groups amongst whom poverty incidence is highest or has moved negatively. The inquiry used secondary data extracted from the two Namibia Household Income and Expenditure Surveys of 1993/94 and 2003/04. The trends are established through the head-count indexing as proposed by Ravallion, Shimeles & Thoenen and others. The computation followed the following formula: H = q/n, where H is the proportion of total population per coverage deemed to be poor; q represents the number of people who are poor by the definition of the poverty lines(s); while n is the population size. The study based its findings on the consumption poverty line. Histograms, Pie charts and Graphs are used in the paper. Amongst the major findings are that; extreme and relative poverty are present in Namibia with rural areas poverty more than doubling the urban areas poverty. Regionally, there are those regions that have successfully reduced poverty from 1993 to 2003, while others 111 have increased. The regions that identified to be poorer are the Kavango and Omaheke regions, while the least poor are: Khomas and Erongo regions. NPC is expected to use this information to: (a) Know what the situation is nationally, regionally and rural/urban with respect to the movements of poverty (EP & RP). (b) Monitor/ assess the progress of the policies aimed at poverty reductions, as it is the custodian of overseeing the implementation of the PRSN, Vision 2030, NDPs and MDGs. ( c) Be able to advice the president as per constitutional obligation on the best interventions needed to be employed, once the knowledge of national, regional and rural/urban is determined. The following recommendations are recommended for policy actions: • There is a strong necessity to review the PSRN of 1998 as the study revealed that it's focus looks outdated. • The Government shall expedite the enactment of rural development policy, as the inquiry revealed that poverty is a rural phenomenon. • Regions should re-evaluate their major policy intervention that is in NDP2 to include what is identified in the study lacking. • Labour intensive investments should become the first appraisal tool to investment promotion. The paper is organized into five chapters. Chapter 1 includes the background, research problem, objectives of the study, methodology and significance of the study, Chapter 2 is the literature review, Chapter 3 contains results and findings, Chapter 4 has key findings and policy implications and Chapter 5 contains summary and policy conclusion.
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Submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Public Policy and Administration
Keywords
Poverty, Economic conditions
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