PRETORIA, 17 September 2010 (IRIN) - Southern African countries have some of the world's worst income distribution, but can often afford social transfers, which have proved an efficient means of reducing the number of poor, regional experts said at a two-day meeting in Pretoria, South Africa.
 
"Money can always be found – where there is political will there is always a way," said Nicholas Freeland, director of the Johannesburg-based Regional Hunger and Vulnerability Programme (RHVP) funded by the UK and Australian governments, and one of the co-hosts of the meeting.
 
Social transfers cover the various formS of social assistance for low-income or no-income individuals and households, and can include child support grants, non-contributory pensions, school feeding schemes, and agricultural or other inputs.

Six countries in Southern Africa – Botswana, Lesotho, Mauritius, Namibia, South Africa and Swaziland – provide non-contributory social pensions modelled on European social welfare policies. Mozambique, Malawi and Zambia, among others, are experimenting with some cash transfer programmes.

Poor countries show the way
 
Poor revenue reserves and lack of capacity often stand in the way of cash social transfers. Experts at the meeting lauded the political will of poor countries like Lesotho and Swaziland, whose successful pension programmes make the most of their limited resources.
 
Lesotho provides a large pension of US$25, but has a high eligibility age of 70 years to make it affordable, noted one of a series of papers produced by the RHVP, in collaboration with the South Africa-based Economic Policy Research Institute (EPRI) and the IDS. "Swaziland, on the other hand, decided on a low eligibility age (60 years) to widen access, but set the pension level much lower ($10)."
 
Evidence has shown that more money in people's hands means they spend more on basic needs such as food, health and education, which has helped both countries to advance towards meeting the Millennium Development Goal (MDG) of halving poverty by 2015.
 
Policy-makers at the meeting, which ended on 17 September, reviewed the role of social transfers in reducing poverty, ahead of the UN summit on MDGs in New York. The Universal Declaration on Human Rights includes the right to social security.

Lagging behind
 
PRETORIA, 17 September 2010 (IRIN) - Southern African countries have some of the world's worst income distribution, but can often afford social transfers, which have proved an efficient means of reducing the number of poor, regional experts said at a two-day meeting in Pretoria, South Africa.
 
"Money can always be found – where there is political will there is always a way," said Nicholas Freeland, director of the Johannesburg-based Regional Hunger and Vulnerability Programme (RHVP) funded by the UK and Australian governments, and one of the co-hosts of the meeting.
 
Social transfers cover the various formS of social assistance for low-income or no-income individuals and households, and can include child support grants, non-contributory pensions, school feeding schemes, and agricultural or other inputs.

Six countries in Southern Africa – Botswana, Lesotho, Mauritius, Namibia, South Africa and Swaziland – provide non-contributory social pensions modelled on European social welfare policies. Mozambique, Malawi and Zambia, among others, are experimenting with some cash transfer programmes.

Poor countries show the way
 
Poor revenue reserves and lack of capacity often stand in the way of cash social transfers. Experts at the meeting lauded the political will of poor countries like Lesotho and Swaziland, whose successful pension programmes make the most of their limited resources.
 
Lesotho provides a large pension of US$25, but has a high eligibility age of 70 years to make it affordable, noted one of a series of papers produced by the RHVP, in collaboration with the South Africa-based Economic Policy Research Institute (EPRI) and the IDS. "Swaziland, on the other hand, decided on a low eligibility age (60 years) to widen access, but set the pension level much lower ($10)."
 
Evidence has shown that more money in people's hands means they spend more on basic needs such as food, health and education, which has helped both countries to advance towards meeting the Millennium Development Goal (MDG) of halving poverty by 2015.
 
Policy-makers at the meeting, which ended on 17 September, reviewed the role of social transfers in reducing poverty, ahead of the UN summit on MDGs in New York. The Universal Declaration on Human Rights includes the right to social security.

Lagging behind