Social Protection Vital in Eradicating Poverty

from All Africa

By Nozipho Dlamini
Cape Town

Social protection is an important part of government's developmental plan to eradicating poverty, says Deputy President Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka.

These plans include the development of a robust Anti-Poverty Framework for South Africa, said Ms Mlambo-Ngcuka addressing an international conference on Social Protection and Poverty Reduction Saturday.

The conference which started, Thursday brought together African and Latin American stakeholders under the theme: "South-South Cooperation on Social Protection and Poverty Reduction."

Its main objectives included:

* establishing a platform that was conducive for policy dialogue;

* sharing of policy relevant expertise among participants from the two regions;

* engaging policy makers on the nature, feasibility and sustainability of various existing social protection programmes and probing their effectiveness in reducing poverty; and

* putting in place some mechanisms for inter-regional south-south cooperation.

"Social protection is evidently a critical policy intervention that we are not only politically duty-bound to pursue for our people, but is even more critically as a moral obligation," the deputy president told delegates, which included seven ministers of social development.

The anti-poverty framework is among government's priority areas, which would be discussed in July's Cabinet Lekgotla.

It is expected to entail a clear plan on how government would close the gaps in our poverty eradication agenda.

"An audit of our existing poverty eradication projects informs this approach," Ms Mlambo-Ngcuka said.

"Although South Africa has a number of poverty alleviation programmes, including a relatively well developed income transfers programme, currently benefiting more that 13 million people, there are still many people that remain deprived."

It was indisputable, she explained, that all people should be protected from risks and uncertainties especially the most vulnerable in societies.

"We should assist them to recover and reclaim their dignity," said Ms Mlambo-Ngcuka.

Africa and Latin America have long-standing bilateral ties.

Through the Joint Bilateral Commission on Economic, Scientific, Technical and Business Cooperation, South Africa and Cuba collaborate in sectors including trade, investment, finance, mining, electricity, sport and recreation and science.

Opening the conference Thursday, Social Development Minister Zola Skweyiya said the Southern African sub-region incorporated some of the poorest countries in the world with about 40 percent of people living in poverty.

"It is argued that inequality in the African sub-region is manifested through increasing levels of impoverishment, rising unemployment and the inability of the majority of people to access sources of livelihood or basic services," said Dr Skweyiya.

Equally, he noted that the people of Latin America also continued to face the challenges of poverty and inequality, notwithstanding some significant progress in the last 15 years.

He said HIV and Aids remained among the key challenges and had its most severe impact on the African continent.

"The disease is robbing our children of their parents and a sustained livelihood and burdening them with the costs of care, medicine and funerals," he said.

In addition, he said it had become clear that neither the developmental approaches adopted in the 1960's and 1970's, nor the "structural adjustment" had been effective strategies in reducing extreme disadvantages faced by the poorest and most vulnerable groups in societies.

"Social security measures for example, though very significant, have proved to have limited successes in our countries.

"There is a great degree of consensus that poverty means the complex state of material lack of such a nature that it undermines the basis of effective social and economic being and participation - preventing our people from being able to live a meaningful life," he concluded.