7. Strategies for Poverty Alleviation
To achieve poverty reduction and steer towards prosperity, there are several action items that SADC countries need to consider. According to the World Bank, these include:
- Fostering efficient macro-economic and sectoral policies for sustained growth and poverty reduction.
- Establish a forum for poverty reduction at which stakeholders discuss, evaluate, and coordinate efforts to reduce poverty. In particular, establish opportunities for listening to the poor.
- Carryout regular reviews of public expenditures as the basis for a pro-poor public investment programme that can be supported by Donors.
- Shift actual expenditures on social services from urban to rural areas.
- Decentralise government decision-making, especially on public expenditures and promote community participation in design, implementation and monitoring of programmes that are essential to successfully reduce poverty.
- Monitor poverty through, for example, collection of household data to assess the difficulties faced by both men and women and to evaluate the progress made.
- Governments and donors should build a consensus on a strong vision for and commitment to poverty reduction.
- Assistance, except for clearly humanitarian aid, should be related to the government’s commitment to poverty reduction.
- Donors must demonstrate greater flexibility and openness with each other in coordinating assistance programmes better for a concerted attack on poverty.
- Donors should reduce the bias in assistance programmes towards urban and high-potential agricultural areas and seek a balance of programmes that are more pro-poor.
It is important to note that the above principles and actions are not a panacea for poverty alleviation; countries and governments in the SADC region must blend these with the requirements of their resources and the needs of and aspirations of their people. The web of poverty is linked to all sectors of the economy and all groups of society. There are inter-linkages between the major factors that create the poverty-environment circle. The prime objective of poverty alleviation and eradication programmes centres on the desire to create economic growth that permits social and economics conditions acceptable to and desirable by all, and leads to a lifestyle that harmonises different cultures and fulfils the aspirations of the people.
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