EU project aims to slash rural poverty

WITH Namibia ranked as the country with the most unequal distribution of wealth in the world, the National Planning Commission (NPC) and the European Union (EU) last week launched a programme which they hope will substantially reduce poverty in the country’s rural communities.

The Rural Poverty Reduction Programme (PRPR) is a 53 million Euro (about N$413 million) EU-sponsored programme which will provide funding and guidance to rural projects seen to stimulate economic growth. The programme aims to address three issues in particular – land reform, decentralisation and poverty reduction.Launching the programme in the capital, NPC Director General Helmut Angula said the best strategy to reduce poverty was to address its causes and to empower the poor to earn their own livelihoods.”But, addressing some of these issues are long-term national development challenges,” he said, “involving a broad range of role players and sustained financial investment.”The RPRP will finance the construction and upgrading of rural access roads, Angula said, something that has not seen much public investment.The programme will also finance the construction of new water pipelines, while providing grants to development projects which focus on improving the income of “the poor and vulnerable”.Angula said although Namibia had been blessed for the past 16 years with political stability and good development, the gap between rich and poor was something that remained of national concern.”Literacy and primary-school enrolment rates have risen fast.Water access and rural electrification have increased, the under-five mortality rate has fallen and child immunisation has increased.Yet we are still haunted by the inheritance of the past,” he said.”Who can forget the result of the 1993 Household Income and Expenditure Survey which told us that the richest 7 000 individual Namibians spent as much as the poorest 800 000 combined?”The programme aims to address three issues in particular – land reform, decentralisation and poverty reduction.Launching the programme in the capital, NPC Director General Helmut Angula said the best strategy to reduce poverty was to address its causes and to empower the poor to earn their own livelihoods.”But, addressing some of these issues are long-term national development challenges,” he said, “involving a broad range of role players and sustained financial investment.”The RPRP will finance the construction and upgrading of rural access roads, Angula said, something that has not seen much public investment.The programme will also finance the construction of new water pipelines, while providing grants to development projects which focus on improving the income of “the poor and vulnerable”.Angula said although Namibia had been blessed for the past 16 years with political stability and good development, the gap between rich and poor was something that remained of national concern.”Literacy and primary-school enrolment rates have risen fast.Water access and rural electrification have increased, the under-five mortality rate has fallen and child immunisation has increased.Yet we are still haunted by the inheritance of the past,” he said.”Who can forget the result of the 1993 Household Income and Expenditure Survey which told us that the richest 7 000 individual Namibians spent as much as the poorest 800 000 combined?”