There are fewer poor people in Swaziland today than a decade ago, according to data from a new household economic survey. The government has hailed the report as proof that its poverty-reduction efforts are working, but social welfare organizations say the real reason is the high death rate among the poor.
The Swaziland Household Income and Expenditure Survey, called “Poverty in a Decade of Slow Economic Growth: Swaziland in the 2000s”, published by the Central Statistics Office of the Ministry of Economic Planning and Development on February 24th, revealed that “the proportion of the population of Swaziland defined as poor fell from 69 percent in 2000/2001 to 63 percent in 2009/2010.”
The report says that not only is the proportion of Swazis living in poverty lower, but also the absolute numbers of the poor. This “modest but still significant” decline meant that 641,000 individuals were living on less than $2 per day – the international benchmark for poverty – in 2009/10, compared to around 678,500 in 2000/02.
“The numbers don’t add up. The birth rate has remained high throughout the decade compared to economic growth,” an actuary at an insurance brokerage in the capital, Mbabane, told IRIN.
“The Central Bank reports every year that this gap [between economic and population growth] represents a deterioration of the standard of living for the average Swazi. All economic indicators have been declining for the past 10 years, so how could the poor have advanced?”
Between 2003 and 2010 Swaziland’s annual birth rate was 28.25 percent, while GDP growth averaged around 2 percent, according to the Ministry of Economic Planning and Development. Officially, unemployment jumped from 26 percent to 40 percent during the past decade.
The 37,500 fewer people defined as poor at decade’s end could be attributed to households bucking national trends and raising their standard of living, but the country’s high birth rate should also have led to an increased number of poor.
Read more of the story here at the IRIN news service:
SWAZILAND: Where have the poor people gone?
Foot-and-Mouth Disease Outbreak Confirmed in South Africa
Doomsday Scenario for Orphans in Swaziland Fails to Materialize
