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Our world is unrecognisable from that of just a few decades ago and great strides have been made to reduce disparities hampering global growth and prosperity. However, new challenges have arisen and we have yet to find answers to so many vexing questions. These include climate change, poverty and inequality, access to education, and environmental degradation with an alarming loss of biodiversity. These obstacles can sometimes seem insurmountable, but the North-West University (NWU) is geared towards bridging societal divides and tackling these challenges head-on.



One of the ways the NWU is accomplishing this is through its commitment to actively supporting the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) through its research and innovation, its support of global citizenship and its multitude of collaborations and partnerships. This is aided by the university’s pledge to educate and create awareness of the needs of society, and by cementing its institutional culture of responsibility and care.&nbsp;



The United Nations’ SDGs were adopted by 193 countries in 2015 and are a shared plan to end extreme poverty, reduce inequality and protect the planet. There are 17 of these goals, which range from ensuring inclusive and equitable quality education and the promotion of lifelong learning opportunities for all, to ensuring sustainable consumption and production patterns, guaranteeing the availability and sustainable management of water and sanitation for all, and protecting, restoring and promoting sustainable use of our various ecosystems.&nbsp;&nbsp;



Since his inauguration as principal and vice-chancellor of the NWU, Prof Bismark Tyobeka has been unequivocal in his support of these objectives, and the university continues to position itself as an integral cog that delivers sustainable solutions to problems both locally and abroad.



It is no simple task, but one the NWU does not shy away from.



“There are no easy answers to these difficult but pertinent questions. However, it is important that we create environments in which discourse thrives to find solutions, in which research is aimed at having a discernible impact and in which teaching and learning goals include delivering graduates with the intent to make a difference. Yes, we face a multitude of challenges, some of great magnitude, but it is our responsibility as an institution of higher education to do everything in our power to promote prosperity in all spheres of society,” explains Prof Tyobeka.



The first SDG is titled “No poverty” and is explained as the endeavour to end poverty in all its forms everywhere. At the NWU, the eradication of poverty is a target that never leaves the university’s sights. It is a mammoth, complex task, but one that permeates every fibre of the university’s make-up.



The NWU has three pillars that support its resolve, namely research, teaching and learning, and its many community engagement initiatives. “By equipping students with the knowledge to conduct research that makes an impact, by collaborating with our communities and by fostering lasting partnerships, sustainable solutions to the problems of poverty are within our reach,” says Prof Tyobeka.



Here the SDG of “Zero hunger”, which calls for an end to hunger, the achievement of food security, improved nutrition and the promotion of sustainable agriculture, comes to the fore. Prof Tyobeka says: “A healthy, thriving agricultural sector is integrally linked to the current and future fortunes of the country. Countless areas of our society depend on this sector, and without it pressing matters like food security cannot be addressed. The NWU is injecting its expertise into this sector through applied research that develops innovative methods to ensure food security and safety. In the face of climate change, the university is also examining the contribution of agricultural systems to household food security, as well as to the technical and socio-economic dynamics of food security.”



Each of the United Nations’ 17 SDGs is of cardinal importance and these are but two examples of how the NWU is using its expertise to help achieve every one of them. &nbsp;

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Towards a sustainable future with the North-West University

Sub-Saharan Africa has the potential to generate inclusive growth and eradicate poverty, according to the latest World Bank overview of the continent’s economic prospects.1



“Sub-Saharan Africa, home to more than&nbsp;1 billion people, half of whom will be under 25 years old by 2050, is a diverse continent offering human and natural resources that have the potential to yield inclusive growth and eradicate poverty in the region. With the world’s largest free trade area and a market of 1.2 billion consumers, the continent is creating an entirely new development path, harnessing the potential of its resources and people,” the World Bank says.



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However, between the recognition of this potential and its realisation – the day when all Africans are freed from poverty – an enormous amount of work remains to be done. As the continent marks Africa Day today, it is useful to consider what is required.



A 2021 Economic Development in Africa Report by the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) states that one condition for achieving inclusive growth in Africa is that workers must acquire better skills to respond to evolving labour market demands.2



It says inclusive development relies on the capacity of social, economic and political systems to provide the circumstances for well-being on a sustainable, long-term basis.



“Therefore, inclusive development should be measured along the interconnected dimensions of human, social and economic development and environmental considerations,” the report says.



In addition, inclusive growth requires higher rates of female participation, yet women remain marginalised in the labour market in Africa.



The private sector has a major role to play in enabling inclusive growth. It is both the engine of economic development and dependent on a flourishing continent for its own success.



At Coca-Cola Beverages Africa (CCBA), our aim is to create greater shared opportunity for the business and the communities we serve across the value-chain, and our social and community ambitions address some of the most immediate needs in Africa.



We believe in creating inclusive growth opportunities for communities, with our focus on women and youth. More relevant in Africa than any other continent, women are integral to our continent’s shared success and are often the decision drivers behind consumer spending trends.



We seek to empower women both in the workplace and through community programmes throughout our markets on the continent.



We support female entrepreneurs to thrive through the provision of financial support, mentoring and training.



An example is the Entoto women empowerment programme in Ethiopia, which was launched in 2020. It has enabled more than 260 women to earn higher incomes by collecting and selling used plastic bottles and distributing The Coca-Cola Company’s products – and in turn also aided our environmental initiatives in relation to recycling.



As we see significant growth potential in Ethiopia, we established nine new intensive training centres to increase the amount of polyethylene terephthalate (PET) collected, resulting in more than 400 women having received intensive training on PET reuse and recycling.



In addition, we also embarked on a market development programme which empowered over 800 women business owners through the provision of coolers to sell more products and expand their businesses.



On the youth front, empowering young people and enabling their inclusion in the economy is critical if we are to achieve our vision of making Africa a better place for all.



We empowered over 15&nbsp;000 youth in 2021 across various of our markets to help make them active participants in the economy.



In South Africa, as an example, we established an enterprise development initiative in 2015, known as Bizniz-in-a-Box, to make a sustainable impact on youth unemployment by creating an ecosystem of viable micro-businesses offering complementary products and services in township communities.



Using the spaza shop as the anchor, each business operates out of a custom-designed container, covering various core needs of the local community. The programme offers young entrepreneurs an opportunity to learn business skills to enable them to grow and run their own business.



We have trained over 720 young entrepreneurs and rolled out over 220 Bizniz-in-a-Box outlets since the inception of the programme, of which 47% are female owned businesses.



Communities where we operate benefit by gaining access to more and/or better resources, which over time enable them to become more self-sufficient and sustainable.



Many members of these communities get employment opportunities they would otherwise not have, and some go on to start their own sustainable businesses through our enterprise development initiatives.



We understand the importance of nurturing from the grass roots level up and in Ethiopia, near one of our factories, we built a fully operational public school that accommodates up to 1,000 students. We built a similar school facility in Bahrdar community in 2019, and we are on track to complete our third school, which is located near our Ambo plant, for the local community.



Creating shared value is mutually beneficial to CCBA, as these individuals ultimately become CCBA consumers, with a real sense of Coca-Cola brand loyalty given the impact CCBA has had on their personal lives.



We continue to work with our supply chain to improve sustainable and ethical local sourcing practices, including a continued commitment to protect human rights.



As at the end of 2020, our local sourcing was at 83%, exceeding the global Coca-Cola target to source locally, 80% of the raw materials usually imported by 2022. This translates into increased opportunity for African suppliers, entrepreneurs and industrialists, helping to develop local economies, diversify goods made in Africa and support inclusive growth.



We continue to support our suppliers to upskill and improve the quality of materials to meet our high standards.



An example is in Ghana, where we sourced 100% of raw materials locally by 2020. Initially local suppliers didn’t have the necessary technical equipment and expertise to produce preforms, closures and labels according to our specifications and high standards.



We proactively supported local suppliers with technical skills and contractual off-take agreements which enabled them to purchase the required machinery to improve their standards.



With increased local sourcing, we saved costs on shipping, customs, clearing and inventory management, driving bottom line profitability – illustrating how economic inclusion can be beneficial to both businesses and local economies.



Another example is in South Africa, where we sourced 98% locally, including sugar.



Increasingly as the African Continental Free Trade Area takes effect, opportunities will open up for local manufacturers to produce higher-value goods and the development of intra-continental value chains that spur inclusive growth.



Companies like CCBA will play a significant part in empowering entrepreneurs, workers and communities to take full advantage of these opportunities.



<ol type="1"><li><a href="https://www.worldbank.org/en/region/afr/overview#1">https://www.worldbank.org/en/region/afr/overview#1</a></li><li><a href="https://unctad.org/system/files/official-document/aldcafrica2021_en.pdf">https://unctad.org/system/files/official-document/aldcafrica2021_en.pdf</a></li></ol>

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Africa Day should spur action to end poverty and empower the continent to reach its full potential

LONDON, May 19 (Reuters)&nbsp;&#8211;&nbsp;A new study by the&nbsp;central&nbsp;bank&nbsp;to the world&#8217;s&nbsp;central&nbsp;banks, the&nbsp;Bank&nbsp;of International Settlements (BIS), has called for&nbsp;urgent&nbsp;action to tackle&nbsp;rising&nbsp;wealth&nbsp;inequality, warning the problem was feeding a dangerous loop of recessions and poverty.



While government policies have largely been blamed for the rise in&nbsp;inequality&nbsp;since the 1980s,&nbsp;central&nbsp;bankers have also come under fire in recent years for fuelling huge stock market gains with ultra-low interest rates and asset buying schemes.



The&nbsp;BIS, looking at 182 recessions across 70 countries, found that even six years after a downturn, the income share of the bottom 50% of earners in an impacted economy remained 0.3% below the pre-recession level on average, whereas for those in the top 10% bracket it was still 0.7% higher.



Economies that are more unequal go through deeper recessions which in turn further increases&nbsp;inequality, its analysis showed. Less progressive taxes and social support programme in many countries have made the problems worse as well.



&#8220;It is increasingly apparent that&nbsp;inequality&nbsp;has evolved from being an academic issue to an&nbsp;urgent&nbsp;policy&nbsp;matter,&#8221; the&nbsp;<a href="https://www.bis.org/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">BIS&nbsp;paper</a>&nbsp;said, adding that one of key risks for&nbsp;central&nbsp;banks was that their policy tools become less effective.



The&nbsp;BIS&nbsp;study showed that low-paid workers in some countries were over three time more likely to have lost their jobs during the COVID-19 pandemic, while surging inflation was&nbsp;now&nbsp;hitting poorer households disproportionately hard.



&#8220;Once&nbsp;inequality&nbsp;is left to grow unchecked, deeper and deeper recessions demand additional policy support,&#8221; it said.



&#8220;But at the same time monetary stimulus loses traction, so that the&nbsp;central&nbsp;bank&nbsp;needs to deploy bolder and bolder instruments, which can in turn produce undesirable side effects in terms of wealth&nbsp;inequality&#8221;.



Instead it recommended keeping inflation in check and that governments use &#8220;stabilisation policies&#8221; such as subsidies or support payments that help poorer people.



(Reporting by Marc Jones; Editing by Jan Harvey)

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Rising inequality now an urgent matter, BIS central bank group warns

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Last year the Prime Minister said that Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) is one of the most powerful tools in fighting poverty and bridging the skills gap in Rwanda, The Gov&#8217;t has subsequently been putting a focus on TVET, with the goal of increasing the number of students in such schools from 31 to 60 per cent by 2024 – but with all schools closed and most industries directed to suspend operations for an initial period of two weeks, how will these plans get back on track after the COVID-19 crisis passes? Will new goals have to be set? Deputy Vice Chancellor from Rwanda Polytechnic, Rita Mutabazi joins CNBC Africa for more.

How will Rwanda’s TVET aspirations bounce back from the COVID-19 crisis?

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President of the Nigerian Medical Association, Francis Faduyile, says there’s need for more orientation and enforcement of COVID-19 prevention measures as poverty and weak health systems may get in the way. CNBC Africa&#8217;s Christy Cole reports.

COVID-19: Nigeria Medical Association asks doctors on strike to resume duty

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In an exclusive interview on CNBC Africa today, South Africa&#8217;s President Cyril Ramaphosa says the country is working to get to the root cause of poverty in order to address the challenges of inequality in South Africa. He said this while responding to questions from guests in Lagos during this interaction. Bismarck Rewane, CEO of Financial Derivatives and Member of Nigeria&#8217;s Economic Advisory Council and George Etomi, Principal Partner of Etomi and Partners joins CNBC Africa to engage with South Africa&#8217;s President.

Ramaphosa on tackling unemployment

Ramaphosa on tackling unemployment, inequality & poverty

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 One in five children in sub-Saharan Africa live in poverty.
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By <a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/keetie-roelen-240413">Keetie Roelen</a>, <a href="http://theconversation.com/institutions/university-of-sussex-1218">University of Sussex</a>

<a href="https://ophi.org.uk/childrens-multidimensional-poverty-disaggregating-the-global-mpi/">Two-thirds of children</a> in sub-Saharan Africa face all manners of hardship. These include poor living conditions, low educational outcomes, high levels of malnutrition and often high risks of exposure to different forms of violence. <a href="https://www.unicef.org/publications/index_92826.html">One in five children</a> in sub-Saharan Africa are estimated to grow up in extreme “monetary” poverty, meaning they live in families without adequate incomes to make basic ends meet.

Growing up in poverty has long-lasting adverse consequences for children and the societies that they live in. <a href="https://marlin-prod.literatumonline.com/pb-assets/Lancet/stories/series/ecd/Lancet_ECD_Executive_Summary.pdf">Poverty undermines children’s immediate wellbeing as well as biological and cognitive development</a>. In the long-run, this untapped potential hampers economic and social progress.

As the world marks the <a href="https://www.un.org/en/events/povertyday/">international day for the eradication of poverty</a> it’s worth trying to identify answers and evidence in the fight against child poverty.

A recently published <a href="https://cup.columbia.edu/book/putting-children-first/9783838213170">book</a>, “Putting Children First: New Frontiers in the Fight Against Child Poverty in Africa”, offers insights based on evidence in support of more effective policy initiatives that can address child poverty in Africa in all its different dimensions. 

The book follows an <a href="https://www.theimpactinitiative.net/event/event-putting-children-first-identifying-solutions-and-taking-action-tackle-poverty-and">international conference in Addis Ababa in October 2017</a> that brought together researchers, policy makers and civil society to share lessons learned and identify new efforts in tackling child poverty in the region. Main themes included the measurement and analysis of child poverty, the use of social protection in addressing child poverty, and opportunities and obstacles for children as they transition into adulthood. The book includes contributions on these themes based on research from across sub-Saharan Africa.

Across the range of diverse and rich research, we can distil two key messages in moving forward. 

The first is that child poverty has strong psychosocial and relational dimensions that are frequently overlooked. They deserve more attention. This holds in relation to both measurement of child poverty and efforts to reduce it. 

The second is that policies need to address the complex nature of child poverty – not simply one or two dimensions. 

<h2>The psychological and the social effects</h2>

<a href="https://sustainabledevelopment.un.org/sdg1">Sustainable Development Goal 1</a> (SDG1) stipulates that poverty should be ended in all its forms. It also calls for the reduction of poverty in all its dimensions for all children. Against this backdrop, it is now widely accepted that different measures lead to <a href="https://link.springer.com/article/10.1057/s41287-017-0082-7">differential estimates of poverty</a>. Each identifies different groups of children as being poor. 

Nevertheless, current quantitative understandings of poverty overlook important psychosocial and relational issues that are core components of children’s experiences of living in poverty.

The <a href="https://www.project-syndicate.org/commentary/poverty-reduction-strategies-humiliation-by-keetie-roelen-2017-11">importance of the psychosocial </a> side of poverty – also for children – is gaining acknowledgement. It is increasingly reflected in efforts to measure and understand child poverty. For instance, this includes a greater focus on the experience of shame and stigma in relation to poverty.

For example, children in Uganda experience the shame of poverty at home, in school and within the community. <a href="https://www.slideshare.net/YoungLivesOxford/shame-stigma-and-childrens-development-dornan-for-slideshare">Such experiences</a> may in turn hold children back in their development. Incorporating these issues in the study of child poverty is crucial for understanding the complex realities of children’s lives. 

Acknowledgement of the psychosocial side of poverty is also important for formulating policies that more adequately respond to children’s multifaceted needs and vulnerabilities. This is shown in research that highlights the importance for relations and social connectedness. 

In South Africa, research found that young people who were engaged in a programme that aimed to reduce social isolation and to improve social relations <a href="https://www.socialconnectedness.org/synergos-social-connectedness-programme-overview/">gave</a> them a sense of energy, discipline and a more positive attitude. In turn, this increased their chances of getting a job.

<h2>No quick fixes</h2>

Policies need to address in all the complexities of child poverty. 

A case in point is social protection policy. SDG1 specifically refers to social protection as the policy measure to address poverty. In the last decade, social protection has become a central part of global and national development agendas. It is now <a href="http://www.endchildhoodpoverty.org/publications-feed/2017/11/1/9v61mcxy3mw336oilgamomko1p12it">widely recognised</a> as one of the foremost policy interventions for fighting child poverty.

A wide evidence base <a href="https://www.odi.org/publications/10505-cash-transfers-what-does-evidence-say-rigorous-review-impacts-and-role-design-and-implementation">provides testimony</a> that social protection – and cash transfers in particular -— can increase school enrolment, reduce child labour and improve access to health services. 

Notwithstanding these positive effects, research also increasingly points to the limitations of a cash-only approach. Malnutrition is a poignant example. Cash transfers, which have led to improved food security and dietary diversity among families and children, <a href="https://www.unicef-irc.org/publications/782-cash-transfers-and-child-nutrition-what-we-know-and-what-we-need-to-know.html">have done litte </a>to reduce malnutrition.

This lack of impact has given rise to the call for interventions that combine cash with complementary support and services. Such <a href="https://www.unicef-irc.org/publications/915-how-to-make-cash-plus-work-linking-cash-transfers-to-services-and-sectors.html">‘cash plus’</a> approaches combine regular cash transfers with benefits such as food supplements; information provision and coaching; or referral to other services. New initiatives also integrate insights from behavioural science, which seek to make it easier for people to make positive change. 

In Madagascar, for example, women engage in <a href="https://www.ideas42.org/blog/cash-plus-goals-help-families-invest-in-their-childrens-futures/">goal-setting activities</a> that allow for more careful planning on how they spend their cash transfers. Early feedback suggests that women felt better being able to prioritise their spending, particularly in relation to children.

<h2>Looking forward</h2>

The reality is that many children and their families continue to struggle to make basic ends meet. It is therefore imperative that we find new ways of addressing child poverty that build on and extend successes from the past. 

Lessons learned and a wealth of research allow us to cast a way forward. New frontiers in the fight against child poverty must move beyond singular responses. They must consider children’s multiple needs and vulnerabilities, including relational and psychosocial ones.<img loading="lazy" decoding="async" src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/125385/count.gif?distributor=republish-lightbox-basic" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" style="border: none !important; box-shadow: none !important; margin: 0 !important; max-height: 1px !important; max-width: 1px !important; min-height: 1px !important; min-width: 1px !important; opacity: 0 !important; outline: none !important; padding: 0 !important; text-shadow: none !important" />

<a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/keetie-roelen-240413">Keetie Roelen</a>, Research Fellow, Co-Director, Centre for Social Protection, Institute of Development Studies, <a href="http://theconversation.com/institutions/university-of-sussex-1218">University of Sussex</a>

This article is republished from <a href="http://theconversation.com">The Conversation</a> under a Creative Commons license. Read the <a href="https://theconversation.com/we-must-go-beyond-singular-responses-in-the-fight-against-child-poverty-125385">original article</a>.

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Here’s what needs to be established in order to fight against child poverty

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On the sidelines of the 2019 Global Citizen Festival in New York, Governor of Nigeria’s Lagos State, Babajide Sanwo-Olu says his government is making a commitment of $100 million to be spent within the next five years on projects that will directly lift Lagos people from abject poverty. He joins CNBC Africa for more.

Governor Sanwo-Olu on Nigeria committing $100mn towards achieving SDGs

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World leaders made new commitments totalling $932.1 million and announced new campaigns to end extreme poverty. To discuss this – on the sidelines of the Global Citizen Festival in New York, CNBC Africa&#8217;s Wole Famurewa caught up with Deputy Secretary General of United Nations, Amina Mohammed for more.

World leaders pledge $932mn in poverty fight

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The United Nations Secretary-General, Antonio Guterres, has called for a decade of action to deliver the Global Goals by 2030 as next year marks the 10-year countdown to achieving these Global Goals. On the side-lines of the on-going Global Citizen Festival Week CNBC Africa’s Wole Famurewa caught up with the Chairman of Global Citizens Nigeria Tunde Folawiyo, and the Vice Chairman of the group, Aigboje Aig-Imoukhuede, to explore ways to achieve these global goals in Nigeria.

Nigeria quest to eradicate poverty by 2030 with Global Citizen festival

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UK Independent Think Tank; the Overseas Development Institute says at least 430 million people are predicted to be living in extreme poverty by 2030, an increase of 7.5 per cent on previous projections. To share some insights from their new report, Head of Development Strategy at Overseas Development Institute, Jesse Griffiths joins CNBC Africa for more.

ODI predicts 430mn people will live in extreme poverty by 2030

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Rwanda is putting a focus on Technical and Vocational Education and Training, with the goal of increasing the number of students in TVET schools from 31 to 60 per cent by 2024. According to the Prime Minister, TVET is one of the most powerful tools in fighting poverty and bridging the skills gap. To tell us how having a practical skill impacted his life and the lives of his community, Gilbert Nkurunziza, shoe maker by trade, now an entrepreneur joins CNBC Africa for more.

How Rwanda’s TVET schools are bridging the skills gap

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Africa has set an ambitious target of halving poverty and ending hunger by 2025. To share insights into how the continent can capitalise on science to achieve this, food Scientist and co-winner of the 2016 World Food Prize, Maria Isabel Andrade, joins CNBC Africa for more.

How innovation & technology can help end hunger in Africa

By <a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/sam-jones-195757">Sam Jones</a>, <a href="http://theconversation.com/institutions/united-nations-university-694">United Nations University</a> and <a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/inge-tvedten-805051">Inge Tvedten</a>, <a href="http://theconversation.com/institutions/chr-michelsen-institute-3056">Chr. Michelsen Institute</a>

What does it mean to be poor? On the face of it, this may not sound like a very difficult question. In developed countries, almost all official and everyday definitions refer to poverty in income terms. In this sense, low consumption power (income) and poverty are essentially synonymous.

Outside of developed countries, a similar view of poverty frequently gets headlines. In its global comparisons, the World Bank has adopted the (in)famous poverty line of <a href="https://datahelpdesk.worldbank.org/knowledgebase/articles/746163-what-is-the-1-90-poverty-line-and-based-on-this">US$1.90 a day</a>. So, people with daily real incomes below this amount form part of the global poor – thankfully, now a diminishing group. 

One might dispute exactly how and where such a poverty line should be set. But the idea that being poor means not having an adequate income often seems uncontroversial.

Of course, among academics things are rarely so settled. Between economists, there is <a href="https://elibrary.worldbank.org/doi/abs/10.1596/1813-9450-5432">disagreement</a> about whether poverty should be measured only in monetary terms. In other areas of social science, there is a tradition of scepticism that suggests standard quantitative definitions of poverty can be <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/00220380600884068">misleading</a>. 

Representing poverty as a kind of well-defined objective condition, like an infectious disease, focuses attention on the symptoms and immediate consequences of poverty. It risks diverting attention away from the underlying structural causes and diverse experiences of the poor.

<h2>Challenging official narratives</h2>

In a <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0305750X19300117">recent paper</a> we explore contrasting views of well-being in Mozambique. Our interest reflects the country’s controversial track record. From the early 1990s until recently, Mozambique achieved one of the strongest sustained periods of aggregate economic growth of any country. Yet <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/10220461.2012.707791">some</a> argue this growth has largely not trickled down, leaving many behind. 

Official poverty estimates undertaken by the government are of the classic quantitative or economic kind. Here a set of basic needs is identified and costed. Households consuming goods worth less than the cost of a minimal basket are deemed to be “poor”. Applying this definition, data from national surveys shows consumption poverty has declined over the past two decades at a steady, but not especially rapid, pace. 

Today, almost half of all Mozambicans continue to live in absolute poverty. There are also large spatial gaps in well-being. For example, there is much lower poverty in the south of the country, around the capital city, reflecting widening levels of consumption inequality.

To provide perspective on this official narrative, a range of <a href="https://www.cmi.no/publications/6161-reality-checks-mozambique-final-report-2011-2015">bottom-up studies of poverty</a>, including our own, have been conducted by anthropologists in different parts of the country. These diverge in both form and content from the economic approach. 

Indeed, the very starting point of this research has been distinctive. The intention was not to apply a pre-given or conceptually static definition of poverty, from which a count of the poor could proceed. Instead it was to probe local perspectives on well-being, the diverse forms of disadvantage, and the kinds of social relations in which disadvantage arises.

A main finding that emerges from the anthropological work is that we cannot see the poor without seeing the better-off. Local grammars of poverty – namely, the terms used to describe who are better- or worse-off – consistently distinguish between socially marginalised individuals and those with strong local social connections. 

Perceptions of deprivation do highlight material deficiencies, such as a lack of food or clothes. But social relationships are vital to cope with vulnerability (shocks) and to facilitate social mobility. Being poor is intimately connected to one’s perceived “position” in a wider society and, through this, one’s scope for upward movement.

<h2>Self-reinforcing disadvantage</h2>

The anthropological view highlights the complex and often fairly localised ways in which the powerful, sometimes politically-connected, hoard opportunities for development. This reinforces existing divides and limits the social and economic mobility of the most disadvantaged. 

For instance, the National District Development Fund in Niassa, Mozambique’s northern province, was seen as a main source of money for investment in (rural) economic activities. Formally, in allocating the funds, priority was to be given to agriculture rather than businesses, women rather than men, and associations rather than individuals. 

But we found that the funds had been systematically co-opted by local influentes. These included traditional authorities, male entrepreneurs and the governing party elite through an intricate system of social relations of exclusion and bribes.

Other vignettes from the lives of the poor point to the diverse mechanisms through which disadvantage is reproduced. This is often linked to specific cultural practices that empower certain groups above others. They also point to the self-reinforcing nature of social and economic disadvantage. 

For example, we met a single mother who had lost large parts of her harvest to drought two years in a row. She had struggled hard to put all her three children to school, but with no crops to sell and no well-placed family to support her, she could no longer pay the bribes necessary for her children to move up classes. We also encountered instances where people cut themselves off from vital relationships to avoid exposing themselves to the embarrassment of having failed and so as to preserve their dignity.

<h2>Making sense of disciplinary divides</h2>

How can we make sense of different disciplinary perspectives on poverty? On the one hand, it is tempting to seek some reconciliation. Surely, metrics of social capital or even subjective well-being can be added to existing measures of consumption power to provide a more complete characterisation of the poor? Or perhaps qualitative follow-ups among the consumption poor could be used to add local context? 

Certainly, combined qualitative-quantitative approaches to poverty research have become popular and often yield richer insights than any one method on its own. Yet, as we elaborate in our paper, this somewhat misses the point. 

There are fundamental philosophical differences between standard quantitative (economic) and qualitative (anthropological) traditions, which do not admit any easy fusion. These include differences in understandings about the form of social reality, what can be known about poverty, and how poverty is produced and reproduced.

For this reason, it is vital to allow separate and diverse perspectives on poverty to flourish. Each methodological approach has distinct strengths, limitations and policy uses. 

The economic approach is essential to track economic progress over time on a consistent basis and identify households at greatest risk of consumption poverty (for example, to target social policy). But to uncover – and even resist – the inherently relational and often political ways in which poverty emerges and is reproduced requires a deeper, local, ethnographic touch. 

Bringing these different perspectives into a meaningful dialogue with each other remains the next challenge.<img loading="lazy" decoding="async" src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/121639/count.gif?distributor=republish-lightbox-basic" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" style="border: none !important; box-shadow: none !important; margin: 0 !important; max-height: 1px !important; max-width: 1px !important; min-height: 1px !important; min-width: 1px !important; opacity: 0 !important; outline: none !important; padding: 0 !important; text-shadow: none !important" />

<a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/sam-jones-195757">Sam Jones</a>, Research Fellow, <a href="http://theconversation.com/institutions/united-nations-university-694">United Nations University</a> and <a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/inge-tvedten-805051">Inge Tvedten</a>, Anthropologist and senior researcher, <a href="http://theconversation.com/institutions/chr-michelsen-institute-3056">Chr. Michelsen Institute</a>

This article is republished from <a href="http://theconversation.com">The Conversation</a> under a Creative Commons license. Read the <a href="https://theconversation.com/mozambique-case-study-shows-that-poverty-is-about-much-more-than-income-121639">original article</a>.

This Mozambique case study shows that poverty is about much more than income, here’s why

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According to the Integrated Household Living Conditions Survey, poverty in Rwanda reduced to 38.2 per cent in 2016/2017 from 39.1 per cent in 2011/2014. To help us understand how this is measured, Economic Analyst, Ted Kaberuka joins CNBC Africa for more.

Unemployment remains a great contributor to household poverty in Rwanda

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Africa aims to halve poverty and end hunger by 2025 amid climate change and other setbacks that may hinder those targets. To explain the role financiers are playing in addressing this, Martin Fregene, Director of Agriculture &#038; Agro-Industry at the African Development Bank (AfDB) joins CBNC Africa for more.

AfDB’s Martin Fregene on the role of financiers in fighting hunger in Africa

<figure class="wp-block-image"><img decoding="async" src="https://www.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/07/Happy-African-Children_GettyImages-5349429821-1110x739.jpg" alt="" class="wp-image-341050"/><figcaption> Photograph: Getty Images </figcaption></figure>



Why we need to team with anthropology to get Africa’s story right.



By <a href="http://cnbc.africa/?s=nnamdi+oranye">Nnamdi
Oranye</a> and <a href="http://cnbc.africa/?s=ryan+peter">Ryan Peter</a>



How many times have you seen Africa depicted
in some sort of publication with the picture of a child with a fly on their
face? Too often, I bet. And there’s even a running meme on the Internet about
it. But those of us who live on this beautiful continent know that the child
with a fly on their face is not the face of Africa. While the story the picture
conveys is true, the question is: what is the story? &#8220;A picture is worth a
thousand words&#8221; is a popular English language adage. But there is a story
behind the picture &#8211; and too often we never hear the story.



Anthropology, the study of human societies and cultures and their development, tells that story. But too often we don’t rely on anthropologists to tell us what’s really going on. Instead, we rely on non-profit organisations and journalists &#8211; both of whom have a bias (good or bad).



Most people who actually travel into rural Africa usually do not encounter sad looking kids with flies on their faces. Instead, they often encounter happy, exuberant kids who just want to hang out with them. People will often comment about how ‘happy’ the kids are despite how ‘little’ they have. We hear statistics such as the World Bank tell us that more than half of the extremely poor in the world live in Sub-Saharan Africa, with an estimated 413 million people living on less than US$1.90 a day (2015). So many people think that if they send $40 a month to a charity who will administer the money, they are taking care of someone’s needs. But there’s a story behind these numbers as well.



One of the things we have to ask is: who is taking the photo? There’s a story there too. This person usually arrives in the country via its international airport, such as O.R. Tambo in Johannesburg. From there they might be picked up by an organisation or call an Uber to their hotel. They’ll overnight at a luxurious or middle-class hotel found in the airport and surrounds, or, if it’s South Africa, for example, they’ll be taking the Gautrain to a hotel in Sandton (usually the case). They’ll enjoy a good dinner, a good breakfast &#8211; perhaps with imported strawberries &#8211;&nbsp; and then drive out to their destination. When they get there they’ll probably stay at a game farm or a lodge in the bush, before heading out for a day of photographs at some rural village. Here they will encounter tons of kids, and at some stage, they will spot a kid with a fly on their face (even in the first world, flies to land on faces, by the way) and take a quick shot. This will become the story of their trip to Africa that will get posted on their magazine’s front cover. But you and I both know that this was not the whole story, right? What about the hotel? What about the lodge? What about the airport and the Uber ride and the Gautrain? Were all these places not in Africa?



What is the real story in the rural village
the photo was taken? While it may be that a person is living on US$1.90 a day,
the fact is that they also might own their land, their cattle, and their hut.
They’re not paying a mortgage and they’re not in debt. Why don’t we hear about
those stories? 



A picture may be worth a thousand words, but a picture is also not objective. Photojournalists do an amazing job and have their place, but unless we couple the photos with something tangible, something objective, we’re letting the wrong story about Africa be told. This is why we need to partner with anthropologists and the amazing work they do to tell our African story and to tell it in a fresh new way &#8211; in a way that describes what is really going on, objectively. We’ll find that there is more than just sending a person $40 a day. We’ll find there is more going on than kids with flies on their faces. We’ll discover that Africans are thinking differently about themselves, are making a change for their continent, and innovating like never before. And we need to be telling their stories.



Nnamdi
Oranye is an author and the CEO of Disrupting Africa, a research think-tank
dedicated to moving African innovation forward. He is the author of “<a href="https://www.amazon.com/Disrupting-Africa-Rise-African-Innovation-ebook/dp/B01EIG274S/ref=sr_1_2?keywords=nnamdi+oranye&amp;qid=1555507001&amp;s=gateway&amp;sr=8-2-spell">Disrupting
Africa: The Rise and Rise of African Innovation</a>” and “<a href="https://www.amazon.com/Taking-Silicon-Valley-Africas-Innovators-ebook/dp/B0759G581H/ref=sr_1_1?keywords=nnamdi+oranye&amp;qid=1555506964&amp;s=gateway&amp;sr=8-1-spell">Taking on
Silicon Valley: How Africa’s Innovators Will Shape its Future</a>”.



Ryan
Peter is an author, <a href="https://ryanpeterwrites.com/">writer</a>,
and the chief editor of the <a href="https://disruptingafrica.com/index.php?title=List_of_African_Innovators">Disrupting
Africa Encyclopedia</a>, which
has made it its mission to write the stories of Africa’s innovators and entrepreneurs.

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