Forget How Bad, Just Solve the Problems

ONE MILLION Namibians live in shacks. Yet government officials are pushing an academic debate to dispute a World Bank report that 1,6 million Namibians live in poverty?

Or would the Presidency also dismiss the information of the Shack Dwellers’ Federation that 40% of the population does, in fact, reside in the ever rapidly expanding informal settlements?

The Namibia Statistics Agency (NSA) seemingly jumped to the defence of the Presidency by explaining that the World Bank used a different measurement of poverty compared to Namibia’s.

NSA’s poverty level is that anyone living on less than N$520 a month is thus considered poor; while the World Bank says it should be about N$2 500 a month (US$5,50 a day).

By the NSA measure, about 400 000 Namibians should be categorised as living in poverty, a huge gap to the World Bank’s 1,6 million.

How then should anyone reconcile NSA’s own snap survey undertaken early last year, which found that a minimum six out of 10 “households did not eat sufficient food in the 30 days prior to the survey”? Or that “a further two out of five households indicated that they have gone without eating for the whole day”.

NSA reported by 2018 that youth unemployment stood at 46%, which is a segment that makes up nearly 60% of the entire population. Any person of reasonable mind would know and feel that more people have fallen into the poverty trap since 2018 considering the deteriorating economy and the onslaught of Covid-19 and its effects.

Official figures also show that by 2016, income inequality was growing again in the poverty direction.

Does the Presidency comprehend the impact of not being able to have enough food and to go an entire day without a meal? Do the bureaucrats take at least the official figures in confidence before initiating academic debates?

What is the government really trying to achieve by splitting hairs about the extent of poverty in the country.

The official poverty line of N$520 a month is laughable. No one can acquire basic needs for a month in Namibia with that amount – definitely not without getting subsidised to make ends meet.

The presidential spokesperson is reported saying: “Looking at our rural households, they are living a normal, healthy life, but they don’t live on US$5,50 per person per day.”

How many and which rural household in Namibia is self-sustaining without relying on any remittances from relatives living elsewhere or on government handouts?

It is not surprising that the government announced this week that it is going ahead with plans to provide a conditional basic income grant to more than 40 000 people currently getting food parcels.

Universal basic income grant (BIG) activists correctly dismiss the government’s approach to tackle rampant poverty, calling the conditional grant a misguided charity programme.

BIG activists might be wrong that the already depleted state coffers can pay for a universal grant.

What is clear is that the government has little clue how to tackle poverty systematically. That incompetence has just been further exposed by the academic debate the Presidency is leading against the World Bank figures and the insistence on providing conditional welfare payments.

With outdated statistics (including employment data and general national population mobility), how can the politicians and bureaucrats pinpoint who to help and in which areas to intervene?

With the poverty pervasive, inequality gap widening and the state’s social amenities deteriorating, unfortunately the most needy and vulnerable in society will be left further behind.

A balloon full of crises is about to explode while government officials waste time debating how badly inflated it is.

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