Vulnerability is a major obstacle to social and economic development in South Africa. Poor people are especially vulnerable as they have few resources to cope with hazards or shocks. Yet they are significantly more likely to be affected by HIV and Aids, unemployment, trade shocks, climate change, famine and conflict. Sustainable poverty reduction can only be achieved and managed effectively if vulnerability is better understood.
Hunger and poverty in South Africa is almost certain to grow both deeper and more widespread until a robust and sustained recovery takes hold, which may not happen in the next five years or more, unless something drastic is done. In the meantime, the poverty rate will tend to move in step with the unemployment rate, as it always has.
The government – and civil society to a lesser extent – is under pressure to come up with an effective response to these cascading problems. Firstly, where is the best place to allocate government, business, civil and public resources in order to stimulate short- and long-term economic growth? And secondly, what supports can the government provide to protect its citizens? Both questions point to the same answers: Hunger alleviation and job creation.
Hunger kills. It is the number one contributor to high mortality rates around the world. The human toll is staggering: each year, more people die from hunger and related diseases than from AIDS, malaria and tuberculosis combined, according to the World Food Programme. Every five seconds a child dies because of hunger and related causes. (The State of Food Insecurity in the World, FAO)
“Food insecure” describes a sociological state when “someone cannot obtain an adequate amount of food, even if the shortage is not prolonged enough to cause health problems. It is the experience of being unsatisfied, of not getting enough to eat.” (Report of the President’s Task Force on Food Assistance, 1984)
Essentially, food security describes the general availability of food and people’s access to it. Households can be described as food insecure and so can nations. Food insecurity is a worldwide problem, even in developed countries.
• In 2007, 36.2 million people in the United States lived in food-insecure households, including 12.4 million children. Of these individuals, 8.2 million adults and 3.7 million children lived in households with very low food security. (USDA/ERS)
• More than 700,000 hungry Canadians receive food from food banks every month. (Food Banks Canada)
Ending food insecurity requires everyone to get involved. Governments, businesses, individuals and nonprofits—including food banks—all have important roles to play in creating solutions. Food banks serve as a bridge between the immediate needs of those who are hungry and food insecure today and longer-term solutions. For example, many food banks not only distribute food, but they also provide training, connect recipients with social programs and act as a focal point for community development initiatives.
Here’s where the world’s undernourished people live:
Some 907 million undernourished people live in developing countries, and 65 percent of the world's undernourished are located in just seven countries: India, China, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Bangladesh, Indonesia, Pakistan and Ethiopia.
An estimated 146 million children in developing countries are underweight as the result of acute or chronic hunger. That means 25 percent of all hungry people are children. Too often, child hunger is inherited: up to 17 million children are born underweight each year because their mothers were undernourished before and during pregnancy. (The State of the World's Children, UNICEF) More than 60 percent of the world’s chronically hungry people are women. (The State of Food Insecurity in the World, FAO)
In South Africa, as in many other developing countries, food security is a concern. Among poor households, particularly in the rural areas, a significant number may be considered resource poor and therefore food insecure, although South Africa is considered to be food self-sufficient. Many people especially women and children bear the long-term consequences of food insecurity because of the negative impact on their learning capacity and productivity in adult life.
The United Nation’s Universal Declaration on Human Rights Article 25.1 of the states that:
“Everyone has the right to a standard of living adequate for the health and wellbeing of himself and of his family, including food, clothing, housing, medical care, the necessary social services and the right to security in the event of unemployment, sickness, disability, widowhood, old age or other lack of livelihood in circumstances beyond his control”.
This article stresses economic rights and implies that everyone has the right to live comfortably and should not be deprived of the basic daily requirements for survival.
The South African Bill of Rights reaffirms article 25.1 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, by stating in Section 26 and 27 that, everyone has the right to adequate housing, health care services, sufficient food and water and social security. These also include appropriate social assistance, if they are unable to support themselves and their dependants. However, there is a clear contradiction between the Bill of Rights and the economic rights of many South Africans.
To realize this, since 1994 the South African government has taken efforts to redress material inequalities in the country by putting on the national development agenda the eradication of poverty. This is achieved through pro poor policies and other programmes.
In spite of all of these efforts by government, South Africa still faces the challenge of poverty. The majority of the people are poor, and statistics show increasing disparities between poverty and wealth or rich and poor. This is often referred to as two economies, the second being the poor.
According to Statistics SA, currently 35 % of the total population or 14.3 South African are vulnerable to food security. Between 47 and 52% of South Africans live beyond absolute poverty. Among these women, children and elderly are particularly more vulnerable. More women than men are poor, even though women make 52% of the population. (Stats SA, Measuring Poverty in South Africa, 2000)
Black households have the lowest standard of living and are much more vulnerable to poverty, and food insecurity. Compounding this vulnerability to food insecurity is the fact that unemployment rates are high in South Africa. The HIV and Aids epidemic and other communicable diseases have further increased the number of food insecure households. The population of South Africa is estimated at 49 million, with the poverty rate of over 35%, this is due to a number of factors such as unemployment, low levels of education, unskilled labours and the mining industries which attract many people from all over South Africa and elsewhere.
Hunger and poverty in South Africa is almost certain to grow both deeper and more wide-spread until a robust and sustained recovery takes hold, which may not happen in the next five years or more years unless something drastically is done. In the meantime, the poverty rate will tend to move in lock step with the unemployment rate, as it always has.
The government and the general public are under a great deal of pressure to come up with an ef¬fective response to these cascading problems within the constraint of limited resources. First, where is the best place to allocate govern¬ment resources in order to stimulate short and long-term economic growth? Second, what supports can the government provide to protect its citizens? The one area where both of these ques¬tions lead to the same answer is in measures that alleviate hunger and poverty for most vulnerable citizens, and by creating jobs
HIV and AIDS challenge
In 2008 approximately 5.54 million people in South Africa between the ages of 15 and 49 were estimated to be living with HIV/AIDS. Women make up 55 percent of those infected while HIV prevalence is highest among poor, marginalised South Africans as conditions of poverty, inequality and underdevelopment have been fundamental in increasing the risk of HIV infection. These factors also affect the capability of people to cope with the subsequent health and socio-economic effects of infection.
Only recently, however, has the link been made between poverty, vulnerability, under development, inequality and HIV/AIDS and the role that local government plays in addressing these issues. As the sight of service delivery, local government, in particular, has an important role to play in terms of addressing development backlogs which have been instrumental in increasing vulnerability to the disease among the poor and those living on the margins of society. For example, lack of access to basic services like housing and adequate shelter, water and sanitation, and electricity not only means that poor people are at increased risk of contracting HIV but also that they do not possess the necessary resources to deal with the impact of full blown AIDS. In a country where a large proportion of citizens continue to lack basic services and where high levels of poverty, inequality and unemployment persist, an effective HIV/AIDS strategy requires a a multi faceted approach.
Poverty and vulnerability
Vulnerability is a major obstacle to social and economic development in South African communities. According to the Department of Health’s National Strategic Plan for HIV/Aids/STIs 2007-2011 there are a number of cross-cutting, structural factors that drive vulnerability. These include poverty, gender and gender-based violence, cultural attitudes and practice, stigma, denial, discrimination and exclusion, mobility and labour migration and informal settlements.
The links between poverty and vulnerability are complex. The link is caused by social, economic and environmental conditions and HIV infection, health and related consequences. Vulnerability is often discussed in terms of the interaction between physical and social variables, with poverty being one of the dominant social dimensions affecting overall vulnerability. Poverty is not, however, the only dimension.
Poverty in South Africa has many manifestations:
• The visibly poor who are homeless, live in informal dwellings;
• The unemployed;
• Those living below the poverty line, however it is defined;
• Those dependent on social security;
• The employed poor – e.g. farm workers, menial labourers, seasonal workers and undocumented immigrants;
• People who go in and out of poverty, e.g. seasonal workers and others in insecure employment (e.g. those affected by reduced import tariffs);
• The particular vulnerability of women and girls (“feminisation of poverty”);
• Rural poverty vs urban poverty; and
• Intergenerational poverty (people in a poverty trap/chronic poverty, where poverty is reproduced over generations).
Poverty greatly contributes to the vulnerability of an individual or a community. Poverty has been described as “the deprivation of basic capabilities” (Dhanani and Islam 2002: 1211). People who are poor often lack access to resources, both natural and social, and political power, to reduce their vulnerability to natural disasters or economic or social shocks.
Poverty is a multidimensional phenomenon, encompassing not just lack of income or ability to consume resources, but the ability to access such resources as health care, education, or political representation. Lack of livelihood diversity, that is reliance on one source of income, and type of livelihood can trap people in a cycle of poverty that leaves them vulnerable to shocks such as climate variability and change or fluctuations in the global market. Furthermore, income disparity is likely to make some individuals, communities, and developing nations more vulnerable to the effects of climate change and variability.
Another challenge that contributes to poverty and vulnerability is HIV and Aids. Many factors contribute to the spread of HIV. These include: poverty; inequality; social instability; high levels of sexually transmitted infections; the low status of women; sexual violence; high mobility (particularly migrant labour); limited and uneven access to quality medical care; and a history of poor leadership in response to the epidemic.
Mpho Putu :
Regional Development Agency Manager
Foodbank SA
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