Securing a poverty-free SADC

from The Mail and Guardian Online

The Southern African region is at risk of not meeting the millennium development goal on poverty eradication, as power outages become a daily occurrence. Countries including Zimbabwe, Zambia and South Africa experience regular electricity cuts, leading to outages at clinics and schools -- key public facilities essential to meeting the goals.

Eradicating poverty is chief among the aims of the Southern Africa Trust, an independent, regional, non-profit agency, and supporting regional integration is key to its policy formulations. The organisation is committed to identifying knowledge and policy gaps that could help governments build infrastructure that is geared to improving the working and living conditions of the poor in the region.

In its January policy briefing, “Building Bridges Out of Poverty”, the trust examines transport, energy and water infrastructure in the subcontinent. It identifies these three sectors as necessary props to “facilitate intra-regional trade and investment, and address the special needs of landlocked countries to access the rest of the world”.

Roads
A major challenge faced by Southern Africa is to build rural access roads, the trust says. New and improved roads will make it possible for the rural and urban poor to “participate in development opportunities”. In particular, proper roads will provide access to jobs, markets, social services and health facilities.

But integrated development planning is lacking. While the Southern African Development Community “corridor” approach is potentially useful, weak organisation within the secretariat hampers the roll-out of effective transport programmes.

Energy
In the majority of the region’s countries, biomass such as fuel wood and cow dung remain the main sources of energy for families and informal traders. This is especially so in the rural areas. Up to 80% of the region’s total energy consumption is dependent on these energy sources, the policy think-tank says.

But while initiatives, such as the SADC biomass energy programme, promote the use of energy-efficient devices, investment in additional generation and transmission capacity is an imperative because demand is outstripping supply. “South Africa is already experiencing power outages, which are likely to increase unless investment in expansion … is prioritised,” the trust says.

A spin-off to the more efficient use of fuel wood is that it will save forest areas. Energy-efficient technologies will also reduce carbon emissions.

Water resources
Rain-fed crops and livestock are at the heart of Southern Africa’s rural economy. Food production is “often adversely affected by floods and droughts indicating lack of investment in water harvesting, storage and distribution infrastructure,” the trust says.

While recent floods and bursting river banks are an urgent concern in Mozambique and Zimbabwe, the trust predict that there will be water shortages by 2025, especially in South Africa, Malawi and Zimbabwe. It urges that remedial measures be put in place to prevent the distinct possibility that the region will have to implement water rationing. Developing the infrastructure in water harvesting, storage and distribution will be critical in overcoming the “looming water shortage”.

Regional integration adviser at the trust, Dr Themba Mhlongo, says: “Southern Africa needs to invest in the management and development of water resources, including irrigation infrastructure technologies and efficient use of limited water resources.

“Inadequate water control infrastructure is one of the key factors limiting the productivity and competitiveness of agriculture in Southern Africa.”

The trust suggest that inter-basin water transfers from the Democratic Republic of Congo, Zambia and Angola to the southwestern parts (Botswana, Namibia and South Africa) could be the long-term solution to an impending water crisis. Alternatively, desalination could be an attractive option for water-scarce countries such as South Africa.

To finance all of this, it recommends that a SADC bond market be created for regional savings that are earmarked for investment. Public-private partnerships may be another avenue to explore to fill the gap in infrastructure finance.

But the absence of appropriate legislation binding the different states in the subcontinent to the SADC project is a major stumbling block to effective regional integration across the transport, water and energy sectors.

“SADC countries are struggling to address the lack of investment in energy infrastructure. The objective of providing affordable energy services to rural communities as a basic right through increased access to modern energy technologies therefore remains only a distant hope,” Mhlongo says.

“It is imperative for SADC countries to prioritise investments in generation and transmission capacity in order to ensure regional energy security.”

Where to Now?
The SADC’s regional infrastructure development “master plan” must be implemented.

“However, the financing of regional infrastructure development remains a key constraint to realising that potential.” The regional grouping needs to identify more creative ways to finance cross-border infrastructure. Development finance institutions could be a possibility to secure the loans that are required to build the regional infrastructure. Another is to leverage private sector resources through public-private partnerships.

While the policy briefing focuses on infrastructure development, the trust suggests that they are insufficient on their own to provide relief to poor people in Southern Africa. Many other “complementary poverty-focused initiatives are necessary to overcome poverty”.