30 Aug 2013

There has been a significant drop in the proportion of persons living below the poverty datum from the 30.6 per cent in 2003 to 19.3 per cent in 2009/10.

Statistics Botswana acting deputy statistician general, Ms Malebogo Kerekang, told a seminar that additionally, a significant drop was noted in those living in extreme poverty or those living below a Dollar a day from 23.4 per cent in 2003 to 6.4 per cent in 2009/10.

However, Ms Kerekang said there still remained wide variations of poverty levels across different districts in the country.

Of special interest, she said, was that the country had achieved the Millennium Development Goals’ target of halving the proportion living below poverty datum line from the 1993/94 level of 47 per cent.

She explained that an estimated 17.6 per cent of persons aged 18 years and above were not working at the time of the survey.

While unemployment was traditionally related to lack of education and training, Ms Kerekang said the survey revealed a developing trend of unemployment among certificate holders.

“Certificate holders are those who completed their high school and then went for a course of some six months or about one year after Cambridge,” she said.

She further explained that research had shown that those are the ones that are affected amongst the skilled people.

Considering the number of modules that were administered during the survey, Ms Kerekang  said the results were by no means exhaustive.

Thus, she encouraged stakeholders to take advantage of the data sets and conduct further analysis to inform their programmes or for their research processes, adding that data would be availed on request.

In view of the complexity of the survey and the inherent challenges of linking the various modules to provide in-depth analysis of the survey data, Ms Kerekang said Statistics Botswana would embark on further module analysis of the data to produce other comprehensive reports such as poverty maps, accordingly.

“Our poverty maps system is waiting for the release of the census data, because the poverty mapping uses the latest population and housing census. So, immediately after the dissemination of the housing and census data we will be merging those with the poverty data to come up with poverty maps,” she added.

She also explained that poverty maps were such that while “we have the poverty rates at district level; we would be mapping those poverty information to see what is happening inside the district at major villages. That is why we are waiting for the population and housing information.”

Nevertheless, Ms Kerekang  acknowledged that there had been concerns in the past of delay up to ten years, before the next poverty estimates could be availed.

The process to reduce the frequency between surveys by undertaking poverty monitoring studies every three or five years was underway, she added.

Ms Kerekang encouraged stakeholders to partner with Statistics Botswana in conducting poverty research.

The next monitoring survey, she said was tentatively scheduled for 2015, and would avail an update on key poverty indicators, while comprehensive surveys would only be undertaken every ten years.

Furthermore, Ms Kerekang said efforts were made to avail some preliminary estimates covering population characteristics, income and expenditures, poverty, unemployment, participation in decision making and safety from crime and violence. These, she said, were released and disseminated in December 2011.

Meanwhile, Statistics Botswana organised the seminar to disseminate the results of the 2009/10 Botswana Core Welfare Indicators Survey.

The survey was commissioned by the Multi-Sectoral Committee on Poverty Reduction in 2008 as part of an ongoing drive for poverty monitoring and evaluation.

Monitoring progress made in the attainment of Vision 2016 and MDGs, she said, was meant to present more results covering confirmation of the already released results as well as more details and new estimates from the survey.

In addition, the survey was also an expansion of the Income and Expenditure Survey (IES) that was conducted by the then Central Statistics Office which had since become semi-autonomous as Statistics Botswana.

The expansion of IES, Ms Kerekang said, was motivated by the need for comprehensive poverty data taking into consideration the multi-dimensional nature of poverty and objectives of the national strategy for poverty reduction and rural development, among others.

The survey was also meant to provide a complete and integrated data set that would form the basis for establishing a poverty profile for Botswana.

The survey carried modules on; household consumption and expenditure, education, health, access to amenities, employment, community activities and other information on schools and health facilities. Ends