RDF’S ABILITY TO STOP POVERTY QUESTIONED

MBABANE – The Regional Development Fund’s (rdf) ability to address the poverty situation in the country is being questioned as the target of reducing poverty by half next year comes to the spotlight.

The RDF, which is one of the country’s major tools in eradicating poverty, has received close to E1 billion since its inception in 1999, but has not been without controversy. Reams of paper have been printed in periodic audits and several cases are pending before the country’s courts as allegations of fraud and corruption have been reported about the fund.

The most recent report from the Auditor General’s office said 27 per cent of income generating projects from the RDF had failed while the rest were successfully benefiting associations at Tinkhundla level. It also said Tinkhundla centres were failing to utilise all the money allocated to them because of the problems associated with the projects.
However, while the country is optimistic about achieving First World status by 2022, it is highly unlikely to achieve the national goal of eradicating poverty by 50 per cent by next year.

The poverty reduction strategy was mapped out clearly in the Poverty Reduction Strategy and Action Programme launched in 2007.
Minister of Tinkhundla Administration and Development Mduduzi ‘Small Joe’ Dlamini said he was optimistic that several initiatives aimed at eradicating poverty at Tinkhundla level were bearing fruit.

Meanwhile, reports compiled internally and externally continue to show that the gap between the rich and the poor is widening and economic growth is stagnating.
A document that analyses rural poverty in Swaziland compiled through the assistance of International Fund for Agriculture Development (IFAD) last year states that about 66 per cent of the population is unable to meet basic food needs, while 43 per cent live in chronic poverty.

“Swaziland is ranked as a lower middle-income country, yet income distribution within the country is extremely unequal.
“The wealthiest 10 per cent of the population account for nearly half of total consumption and there is an ever-widening gap between urban and rural development.

“There are clear signs that poverty and unemployment are on the rise. About 84 per cent of the country’s poor people live in rural areas, where per capita income is about four times lower than in urban areas, and food consumption is two times lower. A large proportion of rural households practise subsistence agriculture,” the document states.
The report further identified the rapidly expanding population and an increasingly uneven distribution of resources as main factors that contribute to the growing number of Swaziland’s rural poor people.

Like all other assessments on Swaziland, it did not leave out the rampant HIV/AIDS pandemic as eroding the country’s resources.
Though all reports indicate that achieving the Millennium Development Goal of halving poverty is a far cry, several initiatives have been implemented towards this end.
Meanwhile, the Human Development Report of 2013 places Swaziland among the medium human development class, in the same category with South Africa, Equatorial Guinea, Egypt, Indonesia and others.

The Poverty Reduction Strategy report launched by the Ministry of Economic Planning and Development continues to state that Swaziland aspires to be among the top 10 per cent of the medium human development group of countries founded on sustainable economic development, social justice and political stability by 2022.

It states that poverty reduction will be central to all sectoral development plans and the medium term expenditure framework.
The PRSAP is Swaziland’s overarching framework for addressing poverty and the challenges related to it. Its overall goal is to reduce poverty by more than 50 per cent by 2015 and ultimately eradicate it by 2022.

Post your comment

Your name:

Your e-mail address:

Add your comments:

Please enter the code you see in the image:

Image:

Code: