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By <a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/brittany-kesselman-754783">Brittany Kesselman</a>, <a href="http://theconversation.com/institutions/university-of-the-witwatersrand-894">University of the Witwatersrand</a>

South Africa faces a <a href="https://www.health-e.org.za/wp-content/uploads/2015/12/National-Strategy-for-prevention-and-Control-of-Obesity-4-August-latest.pdf">double burden</a> of hunger and malnutrition, on the one hand, and obesity with associated non-communicable diseases (NCDs), on the other. In many countries, in both the global North and South, malnutrition and obesity frequently co-exist in the same people. This is a condition known as “<a href="https://www.oxfam.org/en/research/hidden-hunger-south-africa">hidden hunger</a>”. 

Hidden hunger is a result of various factors. These include poverty, inequality, urbanisation and industrialisation of the food system. The interplay of these factors leaves low income households with very limited access to fresh, healthy foods. Instead, many South Africans – and other people living in similar conditions – subsist on diets high in <a href="http://www.hsrc.ac.za/en/research-outputs/view/1218">sugar and processed starch</a>. These diets contribute to increasing levels of obesity. But they don’t meet nutritional needs.

My <a href="https://researchspace.ukzn.ac.za/handle/10413/16310">research</a> among urban farmers and low-income residents in Johannesburg identified the complexity of factors that influence dietary choices. It also identified the obstacles to accessing healthy food. Cost is a major impediment while physical access, nutritional knowledge, concentration in the food industry and dietary norms also played a role in shaping diets. Without addressing all of these, South Africa will be unable to address the double burden of malnutrition and non-communicable diseases (NCDs).

Despite the fact that diet has been a major contributing factor to the growth of NCDs in recent years there are virtually no connections between South Africa’s agricultural and health policies. Policies to address hunger and malnutrition have tended to be housed in the Department of Agriculture. They have focused on increasing production, whether through <a href="http://www.afsun.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/Web-Battersby-et-al-Looking-Beyond-Urban-Agriculture.pdf">urban agriculture</a> or support to small-scale farmers in rural areas. 

For its part, the Department of Health remains confined to treatment with medication and limited advice – like diet and exercise. This is despite the fact that the department recognises there needs to be a <a href="https://extranet.who.int/ncdccs/Data/ZAF_B3_NCDs_STRAT_PLAN_1_29_1_3%5B2%5D.pdf">multi-pronged approach</a> to NCDs. 

This needs to change. South African practitioners and policy makers could learn from international examples, where the public and private health sectors have begun to make the link between food and wellness. In particular, policies that were introduced a quarter of a century ago in a city in Brazil provide a useful template of what an integrated approach could look like.

<h2>Connecting the dots</h2>

Innovative policies and programmes in various countries are beginning to link food and health.

To draw a few examples from the United States, which faces high rates of <a href="https://www.who.int/nmh/countries/usa_en.pdf?ua=1">obesity and NCDs</a>, the new field of <a href="https://nutrition.org/the-art-of-cooking-for-health-culinary-medicine/">culinary medicine</a> looks at how dietary changes can restore and maintain health. A number of hospitals are creating <a href="https://www.bu.edu/today/2017/rooftop-farm-at-boston-medical-center/">food gardens</a> to serve healthy meals to patients. Doctors are writing <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5496208/">scripts for fruits and vegetables</a> so that patients can afford them. 

At the same time, in the US and Canada, food banks and other organisations that combat hunger are attempting to distribute healthier foods. These organisations are also <a href="https://www.penguinrandomhouse.ca/books/214764/the-stop-by-nick-saul-and-andrea-curtis/9780307360793">engaging in advocacy</a> for a more just and equitable food system.

The link is also being made between the livelihoods of food producers and the environmental sustainability of the food system. In the US a non-governmental organisation incentivises recipients of the government’s food assistance programme, SNAP, to buy fresh produce at local farmers’ markets through a <a href="https://www.wholesomewave.org/sites/default/files/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/Double-Value-Coupon-Program-Diet-Shopping-Behavior-Study.pdf">double value coupon programme</a>. The UN’s <a href="http://www.fao.org/3/a-i4291e.pdf">Purchase from Africa for Africans</a> Programme leverages public procurement for school meals to improve children’s health and education while supporting small-scale family farmers. It draws lessons from Brazil and has been implemented in five African countries. 

The city of Belo Horizonte, Brazil provides a noteworthy example of how innovative, integrated food and nutrition security policies can assist communities. It has been implementing <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.2752/152897901786732735">policies</a> designed to ensure that residents are able to enjoy the right to food for the past 25 years. The city’s programmes include:

<ul>
<li>popular restaurants serving subsidised healthy meals;</li>
<li>shops selling subsidised fresh fruit and vegetables in under-served areas;</li>
<li>a food bank. This reduces food waste by rescuing food otherwise discarded by retailers. The food is then checked and provided to social programmes (such as crèches and old age homes);</li>
<li>farm stalls and farmers’ markets. These enable small-scale farmers to sell directly to consumers, cutting out the middleman and thereby raising incomes;</li>
<li>public procurement from small-scale farmers, especially those using agroecological production methods;</li>
<li>school lunches and school gardens. These ensure that children have access to nutritious meals and that they learn about food production and nutrition.</li>
</ul>

On a <a href="https://www.wits.ac.za/news/latest-news/research-news/2018/2018-12/a-healthy-meal-in-every-neighbourhood.html">research visit</a> to Belo Horizonte, I saw how these programmes improve access to fresh fruits and vegetables – a key measure in the fight against malnutrition and obesity. 

They also support decent incomes for small-scale producers through direct market access and public procurement. In addition, environmentally sustainable production is encouraged through reservation of additional public funds to purchase agroecologically-farmed foods. 

Beyond the health and economic benefits, the programmes support social cohesion through communal eating spaces, cultural events that feature local gastronomy, and local farmers’ markets where people can meet the farmers who grow their food and enjoy a sense of community.

One of the most remarkable aspects of Belo Horizonte’s food and nutrition security programme is its low cost: less than 2% of the city’s budget. Another is the degree of cooperation among government departments, as well as partnership with <a href="http://www.fao.org/3/a-i3023e.pdf">civil society organisations</a>. 

When the policies and programmes developed in Belo Horizonte were rolled out nationally, Brazil experienced a notable <a href="https://www.wfp.org/stories/brazil-shows-world-how-beat-hunger-says-wfp-head">decline in hunger</a>. 

The model provides many useful lessons that could greatly benefit South Africa. The Department of Health, along with other government departments and civil society partners, needs to take a bold move to tackle the problems of malnutrition, obesity and associated NCDs through a multi-faceted approach.<img loading="lazy" decoding="async" src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/118613/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/brittany-kesselman-754783">Brittany Kesselman</a>, Postdoctoral Research Fellow, <a href="http://theconversation.com/institutions/university-of-the-witwatersrand-894">University of the Witwatersrand</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/south-africa-should-learn-from-brazil-about-how-to-tackle-hidden-hunger-118613">original article</a>.

What South Africa can learn from Brazil on how to tackle ‘hidden hunger’

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Africa aims to halve poverty and end hunger by 2025 under the Malabo declaration. However, the latest 2019 global food policy report indicates that in 2018, malnutrition rose for the third year in a row, with 821 million people in the world now facing chronic food deprivation. For more on the findings CNBC Africa is joined by Ousmane Badiane, Director for Africa at the International Food Policy Research Institute.

Report reveals global malnutrition on the rise

Natasha Turak
Source: <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2019/02/26/egypts-foreign-minister-lauds-economic-progress-as-president-sisi-looks-to-extend-tenure.html">Egypt&#8217;s foreign minister lauds &#8216;economic progress&#8217; as President Sisi readies for extended tenure</a>
<ul>
<li>Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi is likely to win constitutional changes allowing him to dramatically extend his tenure in power.</li>
<li>Egyptian lawmakers are pushing ahead for a change to the country&#8217;s constitution that would enable Sisi to stay in power until 2034.</li>
<li>Government-implemented structural reforms recommended by the International Monetary Fund have brought Egypt to its highest economic growth in a decade.</li>
</ul>
Egypt&#8217;s foreign minister praised economic reforms underway in the country, stressing that the country&#8217;s president, Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, remained the right man for the job amid continued threats to security and stability.
&#8220;Of course the president has been effective in creating security and stability and economic progress, implementation of economic reform,&#8221; Sameh Shoukry told CNBC&#8217;s Hadley Gamble on Monday during the EU-Arab League Summit in Sharm al-Sheikh, Egypt. &#8220;And we are seeing the first returns of that reform.&#8221;
Shoukry listed a number of major investment projects underway, including the construction of new cities and transport infrastructure for the country&#8217;s booming population. The president is overseeing &#8220;doubling of road networks, 12 cities that are being erected, incredible amounts of almost two million units,&#8221; he said.
Sisi, who took power in 2014 following a military coup that overthrew and arrested the democratically-elected President Mohamed Morsi of the Muslim Brotherhood, is likely to win constitutional changes allowing him to dramatically extend his tenure in power.

Egyptian lawmakers are pushing ahead for a change to the country&#8217;s constitution that would enable Sisi to stay in power until 2034. Currently, the former armed forces chief is due to stand down after completing two four-year terms in 2022.
Asked if Sisi was the right man for the job, Shoukry replied, &#8220;He is and continues to be.&#8221;
<img loading="lazy" decoding="async" src="https://cdn.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/12/07130244/105097713-Egypt_al-Sisi.1910x1000.jpg" alt="" height="1000" width="1910" data-licensor-name="MOHAMED EL-SHAHED | AFP | Getty Images"/>
Supporters of the constitutional changes say Sisi needs to remain in power in order to maintain stability in the country of 98 million and continue implementing the economic reforms currently underway.
Constitutional changes require approval of two-thirds of parliamentarians and a subsequent referendum. Egypt&#8217;s 596-member parliament overwhelmingly backs the president.
&#8220;There are discussions related to amend the constitution that might allow, there are issues that are still under construction and there is public debate, decision is finally that of two-thirds of parliament,&#8221; Shoukry said.
Combatting terrorism
Major threats remain for the country, which continues to see sporadic terror attacks, though stability has significantly increased in recent years.
Egypt needs to continue working to &#8220;eliminate terrorism attacking both our military and our civilians, most recently our pilgrims in the Western desert &#8212; security forces have achieved a lot,&#8221; Shoukry said. &#8220;Overall, Egypt still is a phenomena that needs to be addressed by more cooperation by the international community.&#8221;
Egypt is the world&#8217;s second-highest recipient of U.S. foreign aid, at $1.4 billion annually, second only to Israel.
Controversy over presidential term extensions
Sisi was re-elected in April of last year with 97 percent of the vote, in a contest widely labeled a sham. The former general faced little competition as his opponents either dropped out or were arrested.
The 64-year leader is described by many as a dictator for his heavy crackdown on civil liberties and opposition groups. Critics in and outside of Egypt have signaled alarm at what they say is blatant authoritarianism and yet another affront to democracy. In the five years of Sisi&#8217;s rule, more than 60,000 people have been arrested or charged by Egyptian security forces, according to Human Rights Watch.
More than a year ago, in an exclusive 
interview with CNBC 
 in November 2017, Sisi said he was committed to the limits set out by the current constitution.
&#8220;I am with preserving two four-year terms and not to change it &#8230; I am not for any amendments to be made to the constitution in this period,&#8221; he said at the time, adding that any changes would have to be determined &#8220;by the Egyptian people.&#8221;
Macroeconomic progress
Egypt has seen significant macroeconomic improvement since the Arab Spring revolution and the successive coups and terrorist attacks that rocked the country from 2011 onward.
Government-implemented structural reforms and subsidy cuts recommended by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) have brought the Middle East&#8217;s most populous country its highest economic growth in a decade, and it&#8217;s now targeting 5.8 percent growth for 2019, up from 5.3 percent last year. Egypt remains the top destination for foreign direct investment in Africa.
Sisi&#8217;s supporters have praised his commitment to the reforms, and say that more time under his leadership is needed to see them through in their entirety.
But austerity has come at a high price for much of the Egyptian public, heralding spikes in the prices of basic goods and still-high unemployment, with nationwide poverty at 28 percent, according to Egypt&#8217;s minister of local development.

Egypt’s foreign minister lauds ‘economic progress’ as President Sisi readies for extended tenure

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Africa’s poverty and hunger are on worrying levels and the continent aims to halve poverty, end hunger by 2025. However, experts believe it’s equally important to promote healthy diets to combat malnutrition and climate change. Shenggen Fan, Director General of the International Food Policy Research Institute joins CNBC Africa for more.

How healthy diets can help to combat malnutrition

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Representing President Muhammadu Buhari at the Nigerian Economic Summit, Nigeria&#8217;s Vice President Yemi Osinbanjo says his greatest surprise in office was grand corruption, he also noted that by diverting government revenues to private use, resources are not available to be invested in the manner that they are planned to benefit the majority of people. This year’s summit focuses on moving Nigeria from poverty to prosperity as it strives to make governance and institutions work.

Osinbajo surprised by the level of corruption in government

By <a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/alf-gunvald-nilsen-573050">Alf Gunvald Nilsen</a>, <a href="http://theconversation.com/institutions/university-of-agder-3690">University of Agder</a>
The World Bank’s latest annual report on <a href="http://www.worldbank.org/en/publication/poverty-and-shared-prosperity?cid=EXT_WBSocialShare_EXT&amp;ogImage=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.worldbank.org%2Fcontent%2Fdam%2Fphotos%2F780x439%2F2018%2Foct-1%2FEPD2.png">poverty and shared prosperity</a> has an unsurprisingly positive message that only 10% of the world’s population lived in extreme poverty in 2015, which is the most recent year that available data allows for global poverty estimates to be made.
As World Bank President Jim Yong Kim points out in the foreword to the report, this is “the lowest poverty rate in recorded history”.
This is a story that we have become accustomed to hearing from the Bank, and other significant participants in the debate about poverty and development in the global South (Asia, Africa, and Latin America). But does the story actually hold true? For example, the World Bank measures extreme poverty in terms of the number of people who live on less than USD$1.90 a day. But is this in fact a meaningful measurement of poverty?
World Bank poverty estimates have come in for a lot of criticism. For example, Jason Hickel, an anthropologist at the London School of Economics, <a href="https://www.penguin.co.uk/books/111/1113531/the-divide/9781786090034.html">has pointed out</a> that there’s often a large gap between national poverty lines and the international poverty line stipulated by the bank.
For example, more than 55% of South Africa’s population lives below the country’s upper poverty line, of R1,138 (USD$80) a month. But, according to the World Bank, only 18.85% of the South African population lives in poverty. This suggests that the international poverty lined touted by the World Bank systematically underestimates the extent of global poverty.
This point is partially acknowledged in this year’s report. Accordingly, the World Bank proposes new and higher poverty lines &#8211; USD$3.20 and USD$5.50 a day, respectively. According to the report, almost half the world’s population lives below the USD $5.50 a day poverty line. However, we need to go further than this – indeed, the World Bank’s widely touted story of historically low poverty levels must be rejected.
If we are to have a serious debate about world poverty on <a href="http://www.un.org/en/events/povertyday/">End Poverty Day</a>, we have to start by acknowledging that the global problem of poverty is far more extensive than World Bank rhetoric would have us believe. Two big factors need to be confronted. The first is that the majority of the world’s poor live in countries that have experienced strong economic growth. The second is that the growth strategies these countries have practised create and reproduce poverty.
<h2>Unequal distribution</h2>
The World Bank attributes the supposed historical decline in poverty in large part to the rising wealth of several Asian countries. But, this is a problematic argument. In his recent book <a href="https://global.oup.com/academic/product/global-poverty-9780198703525?cc=za&amp;lang=en&amp;">Global Poverty</a>, development economist Andy Sumner shows how a new geography of poverty has emerged in the global South.
Whether we use monetary estimates – Sumner uses a poverty line of $2.50 a day – or estimates of multidimensional poverty; that is, poverty measured according to health indicators, education levels, and economic standards of living – as many as 70% of the world’s poor currently live in what the World Bank refers to as middle-income countries.
As Sumner points out, poverty in middle-income countries cannot be attributed to an absolute lack of resources. These are countries that have experienced strong economic growth since the 1990s. What it boils down to in middle-income countries like <a href="https://edition.cnn.com/2018/06/26/africa/nigeria-overtakes-india-extreme-poverty-intl/index.html">India</a>,<a href="https://theconversation.com/beating-poverty-needs-partnerships-and-collaboration-not-just-money-101145">Nigeria</a>, and <a href="https://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/world/the-illusion-of-brazils-incomeequality/article37536515/">Brazil</a> is the issue of distribution.
The economic growth that has lifted countries from low-income status to middle-income status is profoundly unequally distributed. As a result, large parts of the populations in these countries are excluded from the benefits that accrue from this growth.
This in turn has implications for how we think about growth strategies and poverty reduction in the global South.
<h2>Global growth and development</h2>
Much of the economic growth that has lifted countries from low-income status to middle-income status has resulted from the emergence of global production networks and global value chains since the late 1970s. Poorer countries have been integrated into these networks in large part due to their large reservoirs of cheap labour. It is this process of industrialisation that has turned low-income countries into middle-income countries.
But if global production networks come with so many developmental benefits, why is it that world poverty is concentrated in countries that have experienced economic growth precisely because they are integrated in these networks? To understand this paradox, it is important to remember that global production networks are comprised of different value tiers, and that different countries and different groups capture different amounts of the value that is created in these networks.
This obviously leads to a <a href="https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/review-of-international-studies/article/poverty-reduction-through-liberalisation-neoliberalism-and-the-myth-of-global-convergence/FAC3F9EDA9C6B87938804D260B795412">reproduction of inequality</a> – countries in the global South tend to be integrated in lower value tiers.
This is evident in the fact that the distribution of national incomes and wealth at a world scale is still characterised by a pronounced North-South hierarchy. But it is more important still to be aware that countries in the global South that have witnessed strong economic growth have also experienced marked escalations in national levels of inequality. In India in 2016, for example, the richest 10% of the population received 55% of all income. This is an increase of <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/india-wealth-inequality-growing-rapidly-180125084201143.html">more than 20% since 1980</a>.
This pattern of development clearly shows how poverty is a matter of distribution that is related to the kind of employment opportunities that are created when southern countries are embedded in global value chains. The factory jobs that are established when transnational corporations set up shop in countries like Mexico or Vietnam are fundamentally precarious. And it is precarious workers who capture the least of the value that is created in global production networks. This is why <a href="https://www.plutobooks.com/9780745335995/southern-insurgency/">precarious workers live in poverty</a> in middle-income countries in the global South.
What’s clear from this is that we have to ask ourselves what a development policy based on redistribution in favour of the working classes in the global South might look like – because that, ultimately, is the key to ending poverty in an unequal world.<img loading="lazy" decoding="async" 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;" src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/104963/count.gif?distributor=republish-lightbox-basic" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/alf-gunvald-nilsen-573050">Alf Gunvald Nilsen</a>, Associate Professor of Development Studies, <a href="http://theconversation.com/institutions/university-of-agder-3690">University of Agder</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/why-the-world-banks-optimism-about-global-poverty-misses-the-point-104963">original article</a>.

Is the World Bank missing the point about global poverty?

Press Release
African Development Bank seeks partnerships to lift 1 billion people out of hunger globally 
“We must not get carried away: we are not winning the war against global hunger” 
INDIANAPOLIS, United States of America, September 26, 2018/ &#8212; The African Development Bank (www.AfDB.org) called on global partners to join hands to lift one billion people worldwide out of hunger and said it was leading the way by investing US$24 billion in African agriculture over the next 10 years in the largest such effort ever.
“We are not winning the war against global hunger,” Bank President Akinwumi Adesina told an agriculture conference at Purdue University in Indianapolis on Tuesday, 25 September.
“We must not get carried away,” he added, referring to statistics showing a decline in the global population living on less than two dollars per day. In reality, the number of hungry people in the world had increased from 777 million in 2015 to 815 million in 2016, he said citing the latest World Food Security and Nutrition data.
Adesina told the audience that included researchers, implementing organizations, business leaders, policymakers and donors that simple technical and scientific methods were already making a whole difference to farm yields and income in Africa. While such technologies to deliver Africa’s green revolution exist, they are mostly just sitting on the shelves, he said.
“The release of water efficient maize varieties now allows farmers to harvest good yields in the face of moderate drought,” he noted. “Today, rice varieties exist that can give yields of 8 tonnes per ha. Cassava varieties exist with yields of up to 80 tonnes per ha. Heat tolerant and disease resistant livestock and technologies for ramping up aquaculture exist.”
Bank experts put current comparative yields at 1.5-2 tonnes per ha for rice and 10-15 tonnes per ha for cassava.
What was needed urgently was deployment of supportive policies to ensure technologies are cascaded down to millions of farmers. “All Africa needs to do is to harness the available technologies with the right policies and rapidly raise agricultural productivity and incomes for farmers and assure lower food prices for consumers.”
The Bank has launched its Technologies for African Agricultural Transformation (TAAT), a $1 billion initiative to extend the use of farm technologies. TAAT is currently engaging seed companies, public and private entities, and financial institutions in 27 countries to make technology available to a total of 40 million African farmers.
Combining targeted subsidies for farmers with a market-based system for rapidly expanding access to financing for farmers and agricultural value chains is the fastest way to get many people out of poverty to a sustained pathway for economic growth, Adesina added.
The conference on “ Scaling Up Agricultural Technologies for Transformation” (http://bit.ly/2NK3XL5) marked Adesina’s fond return to his alma mater.
“It was here, as a graduate student, that I began the journey of searching for ways to get technologies into the hands of millions of farmers,” he said. Adesina was to go on to make a huge impact on the transformation of agriculture in Africa, including implementing game-changing policies in his years as Nigeria’s Minister for Agriculture and Rural Development before taking up his post at the Bank in September 2015.
Adesina said the situation in Sub-Saharan Africa needed particularly urgent intervention due to the ravages of climate change. The International Food Policy Research Institute estimates that Africa will add 38 million to its number of hungry people by 2050 as a result of climate change. The Institute forecasts that Africa will experience major food shortages by 2020 and beyond, while malnutrition will be on the rise over the next 20 years.
The Bank’s ongoing initiatives had the objectives of growing income for farmers, stabilizing prices for staple crops, reducing losses and stimulating multiplier effects in local economies. With its Staple Crop Processing Zones and other initiatives, the Bank is demonstrating how this can be done.
“The African Development Bank put feeding Africa as one of its topmost priorities when it launched its Feed Africa strategy (http://bit.ly/2Q7A04c) in 2015 and is investing $ 24 billion in agriculture for Africa over 10 years – the largest ever such effort,” the Bank President said. Across Africa, the Feed Africa Strategy (http://bit.ly/2Q9GnUv) is supporting the development of policies, markets, infrastructure and institutions that will ensure that agricultural value chains are well developed and that technologies reach several millions of farmers.
Adesina called for global partnerships to establish Staple Crop Processing Zones across Africa.
“The SCPZs will provide several advantages for rural economies. They will create markets for farm produce. Raw materials will no longer be moved out of rural areas, but as finished value-added products. Post-harvest losses will be substantially reduced. Well integrated agricultural value chains will develop, with supportive logistics, especially warehousing and cold chains,” Adesina added.
The African Development Bank has already started investments to develop these SCPZs in a number of pioneering African countries, including Ethiopia, Togo, Democratic Republic of Congo and Mozambique. It expects the processing zones to be active in about 15 countries in the near-term.
Distributed by APO Group on behalf of African Development Bank Group (AfDB).

AfDB seeks partnerships to lift 1 billion people out of hunger globally

Want to get rid of poverty, lessen inequality and provide financial stability in a world of precarious work? Well, why not simply give everyone enough money to ensure basic sustenance?
This is the deceptively simple solution proposed by advocates of <a href="https://theconversation.com/basic-income-is-a-radical-idea-bound-for-the-political-mainstream-heres-why-69695">universal basic income</a> (<a href="https://basicincome.org/basic-income/">UBI</a>). Just transfer enough money to everyone, every month, to guarantee a basic livelihood. The policy is universal and unconditional (you get it no matter who you are or what you do).
This means no bulky bureaucracy to administer the programme, or onerous reporting requirements on the poor. Nor do you have to wait to file paperwork to benefit: whether you lose your job, decide to strike out on a new career path or take time away from work to care for a family member, the money is already there.
But the UBI movement has a major problem: both critics and even many supporters don’t understand how much the programme would really cost. To calculate the cost, most people just multiply the size of the monthly income (say, $1,000) by the population (it’s universal, after all) and – voilà – a number that seems impossibly expensive.
But this is not how much UBI costs. The real cost – the amount of money that actually needs to be taken from someone and redistributed to someone else – is just a small fraction of these estimates.
The key to understanding the real cost of UBI is understanding the difference between the gross (or upfront) and net (or real) cost. Here’s a simple example: imagine a room with 15 people who want to set up a UBI for the room of $2 per person. The upfront cost of the policy would be $30. The ten richest people in the room are asked to contribute $3 each towards funding it. After they each put in $3, raising the total $30 needed, every person in the room gets their $2 universal basic income. But because the ten richest people in the room contributed $3, and then got $2 back as the UBI, their real, net contribution is in fact $1 each. So the real cost of the UBI is $10.
Estimates that just multiply the size of the UBI by the population of a country do the equivalent of claiming that the cost of UBI in the room above is a whopping $30. But the real cost in this scenario – the money redistributed from the wealthy – is only $10.
<h2>The billionaire’s dilemma</h2>
It’s important to understand who will be gaining money through a UBI and who will be contributing to it. The common mistake is to double count the net contributors. Yes, they get a UBI, but in contributing to the UBI pot they first return their UBI, and then throw in some money on top of that. So it’s incorrect to count them when calculating the true UBI cost.
This is a fundamental point that often gets missed: those that are taxed to pay for the UBI will get some of that cost back – by getting their UBI. You can also think about it in reverse: while the UBI goes to everyone, the rich in effect give it back in the first chunk of taxes they pay, so you don’t need to count their UBI in cost estimates.
True costs
This also resolves UBI’s “billionaire’s dilemma” – why give someone like Bill Gates a basic income? The answer is that Gates would simply return that UBI through his taxes – and help pay for others. But if Gates becomes suddenly destitute, the UBI will still be showing up for him to use every month. And since his tax bill will drop, he’ll become a net beneficiary rather than contributor.
Any UBI estimate that just multiplies the size of the UBI by the population is a red flag that the cost has been over-inflated. A true cost estimate will always discuss who the net beneficiaries will be, who the net contributors will be, and the rate at which we gradually switch people over from being beneficiaries to being contributors as they get richer (this is sometimes called the claw-back rate, the withdrawal rate or the marginal tax rate – which is not an overall tax, but simply the rate at which people start to return their UBI to the communal pot as they earn more).
Cost estimates that consider the difference between upfront and real cost are a fraction of inflated gross cost estimates. For instance, economist and philosopher Karl Widerquist <a href="https://works.bepress.com/widerquist/75/">has shown</a> that to fund a UBI of US$12,000 per adult and US$6,000 per child every year (while keeping all other spending the same) the US would have to raise an additional US$539 billion a year – less than 3% of its GDP. This is a small fraction of the figures that get thrown around of over <a href="https://www.cbpp.org/poverty-and-opportunity/commentary-universal-basic-income-may-sound-attractive-but-if-it-occurred">US$3 trillion</a> (the gross cost of this policy). Karl’s simplified scheme has people slowly start contributing back their UBI in taxes to the common pot as they earn, with net beneficiaries being anyone individually earning less than US$24,000 a year.
This point still holds if you’re raising money for UBI from other sources than income or wealth taxes. If you use a corporate or <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2017/sep/15/the-guardian-view-on-universal-basic-income-tax-data-giants-to-pay-for-it">data tax</a>, or a <a href="https://qz.com/1205591/a-universal-basic-income-experiment-in-alaska-shows-employment-didnt-drop/">natural resource</a> or <a href="https://basicincome.org/news/2017/02/conservative-carbon-dividend-proposal-welcome-development-introduction-partial-basic-income/">carbon tax</a> to finance a UBI, you are still redistributing money that would otherwise ultimately be profits that go to Google shareholders or BP executives. And you’re taking less away from them than you would think – because they too get a UBI. So the money they end up losing through the new tax is offset by the UBI they receive. The same holds if you’re paying for a UBI by <a href="https://medium.com/basic-income/if-we-can-afford-our-current-welfare-system-we-can-afford-basic-income-9ae9b5f186af">reshuffling your budget</a>.
Some people get confused and question whether UBI is really universal if only a portion of the population actually ends up with extra income, while another portion pays for it. But any policy that is universal yet redistributory <a href="http://www.scottsantens.com/negative-income-tax-nit-and-unconditional-basic-income-ubi-what-makes-them-the-same-and-what-makes-them-different">works this way</a>. Public transit, roads and schools are all universal benefits, but some people pay a lot for their funding through their taxes, while others enjoy them for free or at a lower cost.
In light of the <a href="https://www.vox.com/2014/9/8/6003359/basic-income-negative-income-tax-questions-explain">huge</a> <a href="https://www.dissentmagazine.org/online_articles/less-work-more-time-universal-basic-income-feminist-utopia">benefits</a> <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-new-labour-struggle-less-work-same-pay-and-basic-income-for-all-76903">available</a> <a href="https://theconversation.com/time-for-degrowth-to-save-the-planet-we-must-shrink-the-economy-64195">from</a> a UBI, it’s a <a href="https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2017/7/20/15821560/basic-income-critiques-cost-work-negative-income-tax">waste</a> of time to argue <a href="https://basicincome.org/news/2017/05/real-cost-universal-basic-income/">over</a> <a href="https://www.ft.com/content/100137b4-0cdf-11e8-bacb-2958fde95e5e">wildly</a> <a href="http://socialprotection-humanrights.org/resource/universal-basic-income-proposals-in-light-of-ilo-standards-key-issues-and-global-costing-ess-%e2%94%80-working-paper-no-62/">inflated</a> <a href="https://www.huffingtonpost.com/chris-hughes/the-case-for-cash-for-all_b_10004590.html">cost</a> <a href="https://www.economist.com/finance-and-economics/2015/05/23/basically-unaffordable">estimates</a>. The numbers are out there – we can pay for a basic income.<img loading="lazy" decoding="async" 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;" src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/101134/count.gif?distributor=republish-lightbox-basic" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/elizaveta-fouksman-364893">Elizaveta Fouksman</a>, Leverhulme Early Career Fellow, <a href="http://theconversation.com/institutions/university-of-oxford-1260">University of Oxford</a>
This article was originally published on <a href="http://theconversation.com">The Conversation</a>. Read the <a href="https://theconversation.com/why-universal-basic-income-costs-far-less-than-you-think-101134">original article</a>.

Here’s the true cost of the proposed ‘universal basic income’ that could lessen inequality

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By <a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/mia-perry-526580" rel="author">Mia Perry, </a>Senior Lecturer, Education, Arts, Literacies, University of Glasgow
Nigeria recently surpassed India to become the country with <a href="https://edition.cnn.com/2018/06/26/africa/nigeria-overtakes-india-extreme-poverty-intl/index.html">the highest number</a> of people living in extreme poverty: 87 million. Nigeria is oil rich and boasts Africa’s fastest growing economy. Yet six of its people fall into extreme poverty <a href="https://edition.cnn.com/2018/06/26/africa/nigeria-overtakes-india-extreme-poverty-intl/index.html">every minute</a>.
This story isn’t unique to Nigeria. It’s echoed in other resource-rich countries like the <a href="https://edition.cnn.com/2016/04/18/africa/looting-machine-tom-burgis-africa/index.html">Democratic Republic of Congo and Angola</a> where an exploitative elite and multinational companies keep wealth from reaching the majority of citizens. By 2030, it’s estimated that <a href="https://www.brookings.edu/blog/up-front/2013/05/29/africas-challenge-to-end-extreme-poverty-by-2030-too-slow-or-too-far-behind">82% of the world’s poorest people</a> will live in Africa.
This is the continent’s paradox: vast natural resources and mineral reserves alongside extreme poverty.
Historically, poverty has been predominantly dealt with as a lack of material resources or an income deprivation issue. Development work has focused on pushing resources to poor communities. Many have criticised the availability of “free money” though international aid, which they say has created a “<a href="https://www.lejournalinternational.fr/Foreign-aid-is-hurting-not-helping-Sub-Saharan-Africa_a2085.html">dependency syndrome</a>”, dishonest procurement and white elephant projects. Aid work has also been accused of fostering <a href="https://www.brookings.edu/blog/africa-in-focus/2017/04/20/making-africa-great-again-reducing-aid-dependency/">paternalism rather than partnership</a>.
The reality is that poverty is about <a href="http://amartya.nl/why-poverty/">more than just money</a>. If money alone were the solution, poverty would have ended: more than $50 billion was given <a href="https://www.oecd.org/dac/stats/documentupload/Africa-Development-Aid-at-a-Glance.pdf">as overseas development assistance to Africa in 2017 alone</a>.
Without contextual knowledge, education and adaptation, foreign or imposed practices or resources cause new sets of problems. This is seen again and again across countries that depend on aid. For example, where food poverty was causing under-nutrition in parts <a href="https://www.thelancet.com/journals/landia/article/PIIS2213-8587(17)30432-1/fulltext">of Malawi</a>, financial aid has alleviated it. But that problem is quickly being replaced by <a href="https://www.thelancet.com/journals/landia/article/PIIS2213-8587(17)30432-1/fulltext">diabetes and hypertension</a> – because of a narrow financial solution to a complex problem.
We argue that tackling poverty requires a different focus, rather than just money. It requires partnerships and practices that promote learning, particularly in relation to cultural and self knowledge. Having communities identify their own problems, then collaborate to find solutions, is also crucial. Money has a role to play in partnerships, but projects shouldn’t default to depending solely on it.
<h2>Driven communities</h2>
Many of the factors that are blamed for contributing to poverty are not measurable in dollar terms or connected to income. These include people’s lack of choices, restriction of freedom, lack of skills, gender castes and barriers.
Understanding these issues and their complexities requires looking at poverty through a <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/311943048_The_Theoretical_Impact_of_the_Sustainability_Lens">sustainability lens</a>. This is a perspective that focuses on ethical and innovative ways to look at and use resources, share knowledge, and build community to affect positive change.
Our work with the <a href="https://sustainablefuturesinafrica.com/">Sustainable Futures in Africa Network</a> has shown the importance of this lens. We’re an interdisciplinary collective of researchers, educators, and communities of practice that aims to build understanding, research, and practice in <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0921800915003158">socio-ecological sustainability</a> (which recognises the interconnection between social and ecological systems) 
in Africa.
We work from the understanding that because poverty is multifaceted, solutions to alleviate it must <a href="https://theconversation.com/an-integrated-sustainable-fix-is-key-to-solving-africas-energy-woes-48256">be multifaceted</a>, too.
A number of the community projects we work with are engaged in poverty reduction practices but don’t focus solely on generating income. These projects are driven by communities on their own with existing resources; they rely on their own abilities and efforts that are not externally funded.
One example is <a href="https://sustainablefuturesinafrica.com/2018/07/11/a-short-and-sweet-visit-to-the-sfa-hub-kampala/">ECOaction</a>, which works in a slum community on the outskirts of Kampala in Uganda. Residents largely rely on collecting and selling discarded plastic bottles collected from across the city for small amounts of money.
With no resource other than time and vision, residents have built a community hall from <a href="https://sustainablefuturesinafrica.com/2018/07/11/a-short-and-sweet-visit-to-the-sfa-hub-kampala/">recycled water bottles</a> and an urban garden that grows food for residents and a chicken farm. Colourful murals and sculpture can be found around every corner.
In Botswana, the Sustainable Futures in Africa team is working with a community in Mmadinare to develop a project that will protect their farm land from wild elephants. This will not rely on, or generate, external funding. But it will protect the farmers’ and the wild animals’ interests.
There are other ways to build strong sustainable communities without external financial resources. In Taba Padang, a village in Indonesia, <a href="http://www.eco-business.com/news/in-rural-indonesia-a-village-learns-to-embrace-its-forest-through-sustainability/">sustainable community forestry</a> is helping improve human wellbeing. There’s also <a href="https://www.ugandaletsgotravel.com/uganda/top-experiences/responsible-tourism/boomu-african-village/">Boomu African Village</a> in Uganda, where a women’s group participates in eco-tourism and invests back into the community. They have built a nursery school and trained other residents in their village to get involved in eco-tourism.
Other self-reliance projects centre on health. For example <a href="https://journals.co.za/content/journal/10520/EJC-ee9eff20">in Lesotho</a>, volunteers participate in community home-based health care and fill the gap in the community health care chain.
<h2>A new lens</h2>
There is, of course, no one-size-fits-all solution that will end poverty. But aid in the form of donated money, from one place to another, is culturally, practically, and ethically problematic.
Money is not the currency of well-being, sustainability and community cohesion. More often, it’s a tool for influence and power dynamics that will favour the creditor. That’s why partnerships that rely on different types of resources and bring people together to design and act on context-relevant solutions can be such powerful drivers of change. That’s why for resource rich Africa, promoting self reliance would be key to eliminating poverty.
 
<img loading="lazy" decoding="async" 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;" src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/101145/count.gif?distributor=republish-lightbox-basic" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />This article was co-authored by Dr Deepa Pullanikkatil, who recently completed a residency at the University of Glasgow funded by the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council, UK. She is the co-founder of Abundance (www.abundanceworldwide.org).
<a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/mia-perry-526580">Mia Perry</a>, Senior Lecturer, Education, Arts, Literacies, <a href="http://theconversation.com/institutions/university-of-glasgow-1269">University of Glasgow</a>
This article was originally published on <a href="http://theconversation.com">The Conversation</a>. Read the <a href="https://theconversation.com/beating-poverty-needs-partnerships-and-collaboration-not-just-money-101145">original article</a>.

Why money alone can’t help beat poverty in Africa, here’s what is needed

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According to the One Campaign, a third of young Africans between the ages of 15 and 35 are unemployed, another third are vulnerably employed and only one in six has a steady paying job. Furthermore the World Bank says the percentage of Africa&#8217;s poor is falling, however, because of the continent&#8217;s population growth figures, the number of poor people on the continent is on the rise. Edwin Ikhouria, Policy Manager, Transparency, and Accountability at the One Campaign joins CNBC Africa to discuss how we can tackle poverty in Africa.

How we can tackle poverty in Africa

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Ivan Turok and Justin Visagie | Human Sciences Research Council
Migration to cities has helped many South Africans to escape extreme poverty, even in tumultuous times. This is the striking outcome of our analysis based on the National Income Dynamics Study which tracks the progress of a representative sample of 30,000 people every two years.
<img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="aligncenter wp-image-282989 size-full" src="http://cnbc.africa/wp-content/uploads/2017/09/Johannesburg-Flickr.jpg" alt="" width="1024" height="680" />
Scaling up from the sample, we estimate that around 385 000 citizens were lifted above the poverty line between 2008 and 2014 by moving from rural to urban areas. They became better-off by getting onto the jobs ladder.
This finding is all the more surprising considering the anaemic performance of the economy over the last decade. Our study suggests that a proactive urban policy could improve the situation further.
This is a practical and uncontroversial way of reducing poverty and inequality. It means recognising and responding to the reality of people’s spontaneous efforts to get ahead by uprooting themselves and moving to cities.
Our research supports evidence from elsewhere in the world that urbanisation has a positive impact on people’s lives. China is the supreme example, with 500 million people lifted out of poverty through urbanisation over a 30 year period.
<h2>Multiple benefits</h2>
Upward social mobility is known to be generally very low in South Africa compared with other countries. Black Africans in many rural localities and urban townships have struggled to improve their incomes and well-being over the last two decades. This reflects entrenched social and spatial divides, combined with a sluggish labour market and persistent failures in the education system.
Poor households face major hurdles in relocating from the countryside to access urban opportunities. The cost of long distance travel is one. Identifying somewhere to live that is safe, secure and affordable is another. The long queue for jobs facing people with low skills is daunting, coupled with the intense competition from city residents with established contacts.
Nevertheless, our results show that most of those who took the gamble by moving to cities succeeded in getting their foot in the door. Some of their jobs were casual and low paid, but better than being unemployed and destitute in a rural area.
This evidence is supported by another recent study which found that migration is the biggest trigger to upliftment of all the events they examined, such as a smaller household size and gaining access to social grants.
There are additional economic advantages of urbanisation. Migration benefits hard-pressed rural communities through the flow of income from family remittances, although this is offset by the loss of an income generator. The broader economy benefits because urbanisation boosts productivity, spurs creativity and strengthens economic development. It also creates efficiencies in the delivery of public services.
<h2>Costly double life</h2>
That urbanisation is a force for good isn’t fully appreciated. For example, current attitudes to migration within government circles are ambivalent. And established city residents tend to resist the emergence of new settlements, fearing more congestion, crime and pressure on services. Nor is the government doing what it could to smooth the process and reduce the risks.
As a result, it appears that many migrants refrain from committing fully to urban lifestyles. They seem to retain a dual existence – a kind of double life in the city and countryside. They remain attached to their rural origins and identities by investing whatever spare resources they have in rural homes and livestock. Many also leave their children and elderly relatives in the rural areas, resulting in split households and disruption to family life.
The dual toehold in urban and rural areas appears to be an unsatisfactory situation in many ways, although more research is required to analyse the costs and benefits. It seems to add to people’s cost of living and perpetuates the psychological divide between town and country.
It can be traced back to the forced migrant labour system of the colonial and apartheid eras. And it comes with antisocial traditions anchored on temporary movement of men into urban areas. As such it can leave a trail of misery and broken families.
Cities are relatively complicated social environments where people face burdensome regulations and pay more for housing and transport than elsewhere. They have also become inhospitable places where many migrants are forced to live in precarious, overcrowded conditions without essential services. This means a fraught existence. It is hardly surprising that people’s hope of a better future lies elsewhere.
A significant proportion of people in South African cities work to repatriate some of their income back to their rural homes. Repatriating resources that would otherwise have been invested in urban settlements hampers the creation of local jobs, small-scale enterprises and thriving communities.
<h2>The way forward</h2>
The South African state should endeavour to create more conducive conditions for migrant households to settle, work and invest in cities. A more concerted effort across local, provincial and national government is required to accommodate and integrate new arrivals so that there are steady improvements in well-being and life chances over time.
Stronger alignment between the spending decisions of households, businesses and government is also vital. It makes no sense for their investments to be dissipated in different places, when coordination would help to stimulate prosperity and social progress.
Connected investments would reinforce each other, generate greater value and synergies for families and firms, and attract other resources to build more productive and sustainable communities.<img loading="lazy" decoding="async" src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/87216/count.gif?distributor=republish-lightbox-basic" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />Different sectors need to work together more effectively to plan ahead and prepare for urban growth. They should make public land available for human settlement, and invest in the appropriate infrastructure and amenities to create more liveable, inclusive and enterprising places. This will also require streamlining a range of bureaucratic procedures and red tape to accelerate the upgrading of informal settlements and backyard shacks.
This article was originally published on The Conversation.

Moving to cities has lifted over 300,000 South Africans out of poverty, even in difficult times

<div id="attachment_287495" style="width: 2058px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-287495" class="wp-image-287495 size-full" src="http://cnbc.africa/wp-content/uploads/2017/10/gold-bars_pexels-photo-335268.jpeg" alt="" width="2048" height="1365" />Image: Pexels</div>
By Eustace Davie
The data could not be more clear. Countries that pursue greater levels of economic freedom reap resounding benefits.
Citizens die, on average, 20 years earlier, suffer more from poverty, battle greater unemployment, receive lower average incomes and suffer higher inflation in countries with governments that follow policies opposed to economic freedom and thus have lower economic growth.
The Economic Freedom of the World: 2017 Annual Report (EFW), published by Canada’s Fraser Institute last month with a South African edition published by the FMF, is the 21st edition of this remarkable report, and reflects economic data for 159 countries covering up to 35 years for countries for which data were available.
<h4>People living in freest countries are seven times better off</h4>
The data in the report shows that if you create four groups (quartiles) placing countries into the least free, to the third, second and most free quartiles, their 2015 incomes per capita in PPP constant 2011 US$ were: $6,036, $9,416, $21,720, and $42,463. The people living in the freest countries were seven times better off, on average than those living in the least free countries.
The per capita incomes of the poorest 10% of people in the freest quartile, $11,998, were higher than the average incomes ($9,416) of the people, such as South Africans, falling under the third quartile. As economist Walter Williams said, “If you are destined to be poor, make sure you do it in the country with the freest economy.”
The source of the data for rating the countries is organisations such as the IMF, World Bank and World Economic Forum, and, as far as possible, the index uses objective components. Five areas of activity are measured in the EFW reports. They are, Size of Government, Legal System and Property Rights, Sound Money, Freedom to Trade Internationally, and Regulation.
<h4>Government crowding out the private sector</h4>
It is no surprise to find that SA’s size of government ranks 134th out of 159 countries, and is SA’s worst area ranking. Government enterprises and investment grew from 17.8% of economic activity in 2000 to 37.02% in 2015, crowding out the private sector and absorbing a large amount of taxpayer funding and indebtedness in the process. By comparison, Romania divested itself of government enterprises and investments, down from 60.7% in 2000 to 17.63% in 2015.
SA’s economic freedom rating and ranking declined badly between 2000 and 2015, the overall rating had declined by 0.41 (out of 10) – from 7.04 to 6.63 and the ranking from 46th to 95th. Romania’s rating during the same period improved by 2.35 and its ranking from 109th to 19th. The implications of these opposing directions of change in economic freedom are having substantial outcomes for the populations of the two countries.
During the 15 years, SA’s GDP per capita (PPP International US$) grew from $7,700 to $13,229 (72%), Romania’s grew from $5,873 to $22,070 (276%), almost four times the rate at which SA grew. Had SA’s GDP per capita grown at the same rate as Romania’s, the SA per capita GDP would have been R28,952 making the average South African more than twice as wealthy than they are now – a life-changing difference. Romania is merely one country that has opted for economic freedom.
There are also Estonia, Georgia, Lithuania and Latvia, all former Soviet bloc and communist countries that have experienced communism/socialism, have rejected it, and are now in the top quartile of economically free countries. In Africa, we have Mauritius (7th) and Rwanda (31st), that are in the top quartile.
<h4>If there is a recipe to avoid creating misery it is EFW</h4>
If ever there was a policy recipe book for governments to follow on how to avoid creating misery for their people, EFW is it. Equally; if ever there was a policy recipe book for governments to follow in guiding their people out of poverty, unemployment, and misery to a better life for all, EFW is it.
This wealth of information is available without charge from <a href="http://dmanalytics2.com/click?u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.fraserinstitute.org%2Feconomic-freedom%2Fdataset&amp;i=1&amp;d=MGJdmaFASISnJKIYGh977A&amp;e=Jill.DeVilliers%40abn360.com&amp;a=LNFduc0cT-Oh0UUzAO7M8w" data-dm-link-id="1">www.fraserinstitute.org/economic-freedom/dataset</a>. Also, <a href="http://dmanalytics2.com/click?u=http%3A%2F%2Fefwdata.com%2F&amp;i=2&amp;d=MGJdmaFASISnJKIYGh977A&amp;e=Jill.DeVilliers%40abn360.com&amp;a=LNFduc0cT-Oh0UUzAO7M8w" data-dm-link-id="2">EFWdata.com</a> is a digital tool that allows researchers to analyse the data across three dimensions: countries, time and statistics. A hard copy of the 2017 report is available from the FMF.
If South African decision-makers truly wish to improve the lives of all the people in the country, the EFW Annual Report is compulsory reading for them. It contains hard facts. It is a compendium of policy successes and failures in 159 countries, not only in the broadest sense, but compares and rates 42 different variables based on objective data from reliable sources.
<h4>S.A. in bottom 40% of economically free countries</h4>
Regrettable, is it not, that, in 2000, South Africa made it into the top 35% of economically free countries, only to decline in the next 15 years to be among the bottom 40% because policies that were on balance less favourable from an economic freedom point of view started being adopted. With democracy, SA started on the right track, but then switched to policies that have left its people at least 50% poorer than they should have been. An unnecessary and costly diversion. The sooner economic freedom policies are adopted, the better it will be for all South Africans, especially the poor.
With democracy, SA started on the right track but then switched to policies that have left its people at least 50% poorer than they should have been. An unnecessary and costly diversion. The sooner economic freedom policies are adopted, the better it will be for all South Africans, especially the poor.
Sound economics has nothing to do with ideology. It has everything to do with practical policies based on the experience of what works and what does not work. It is surely better to study the countries that are improving the quality of life of their citizens than to seek to emulate policies that have caused poverty and misery in the past and will continue to cause poverty and misery into the future.
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Eustace Davie is a director of the Free Market Foundation

Op-Ed: Greater economic freedom reaps resounding benefits

Ivan Turok | Human Sciences Research Council
South Africa urgently needs new policy ideas to reverse the alarming increase in poverty among its population. New figures reveal an increase of three million South Africans living in poverty over the last five years. More than half (55%) of the population lives on less than R1,138 (USD$107) a month, up from 53% in 2011.
In a country with 55 million people, 34 million are going without some of the basic necessities, like housing, transport, food, heating and proper clothing. The escalation in hardship and vulnerability reverses the steady progress made since the 1990s.
The poorest have been hit the hardest. One in four citizens survives on less than R531 a month and can’t afford to buy enough food to keep healthy. This proportion has risen from one in five in 2011.
The consequences are plain to see. They include more street begging, homelessness, loan sharks, social discontent, substance misuse and violent crime in many communities. Income is not the only measure of poverty. Progress on education, health and basic living conditions also seems to have stalled.
<h2>Progress setback</h2>
The decline in living standards has occurred despite the extension of social grants to two million more recipients in the past five years, bringing the total number of social grant beneficiaries to 17 million. That is nearly one in three people.
Over the previous decade and a half, extending social grants proved to be an effective way of alleviating hardship. Something has changed.
The global economic slowdown and depressed commodity prices have obviously contributed to the problem. These factors have raised unemployment to record high levels. Domestic political uncertainties, regulatory conflicts and weaknesses in public administration have also dented business confidence and undermined private sector investment.
New ideas are needed to combat poverty and inequality in South Africa. A good place to start is the concept of inclusive growth. This is partly about ensuring more people play an active part in economic, social and political processes. It gives people agency and dignity, and helps to hold institutions to account.
<h2>The limits of redistribution</h2>
Since the 1990s, the government’s approach to poverty has focused on fiscal redistribution. Tax rates increase the more people earn, and the revenue raised has been used to support poorer groups. Social assistance has taken the form of free housing, free education, health care, sanitation, electricity and social grants.
Spending on this “social wage” has more than doubled in real terms (taking inflation into account) over the past decade. It now amounts to 60% of total public spending. South Africa is reputed to have one of the most redistributive fiscal policies (tax and spending) in the world.
Yet, with a sluggish economy, high government debt and new demands for bailouts from state owned enterprises and universities, the ability to pay for this welfare system is severely strained. It will be extremely difficult to raise the value of social support or extend it to more people in the period ahead.
Since South Africa progressed from apartheid to democracy in 1994, there has been an understandable focus on distributional matters. These efforts have taken priority over action to promote broad-based growth, integrated development and overall prosperity.
Too little attention has gone into expanding production, employment creation (outside the public sector) and enlarging the resource base. Among households, too, there has been excessive emphasis on spending, rather than saving and investing in education, skills and household assets. As a result, the economy and society are poorly equipped to cope with shocks.
<h2>Inclusive growth</h2>
“Inclusive growth” is often touted as a way forward. It’s an umbrella concept to get people with different interests to work together and build a new consensus around a shared agenda for the country’s development. But what does it mean in practice?
A central element is creating new and different kinds of economic opportunities and linking them explicitly to social needs. Major investments in technology, infrastructure and other facilities should lower barriers to inclusion and give more people on low incomes a chance to work or develop skills to progress.
Growth can’t be left to market forces and private enterprise. And social development can’t be left to government alone. A more integrated “whole of society” approach is needed to bridge historical divides.
This means business, labour, civil society and different spheres of government all playing a role in combating poverty by going beyond their conventional responsibilities. Organisations should take positive steps to continually open up opportunities and reduce social inequalities. Firms should actively seek out new markets, new suppliers and new sources of labour.
<h2>Local development</h2>
Recent discussions have been limited to national stakeholders. Equivalent local initiatives have been few and far between. Yet a strong and prosperous society cannot be engineered from above.
South Africa needs to build competent institutions at local level too. Common platforms for collaboration are required to harness the energies and share the know-how of people in the cities, towns and villages where they live, work and invest.
A place-based approach means tailoring inclusionary economic policies to local realities and opportunities. Local investments in housing, transport, business property and skills will have a greater impact when they are carefully linked and coordinated.
<h2>Support informality</h2>
Current ambivalent attitudes towards informality are not helping anyone. The informal economy could be a nursery for people to learn valuable skills, a stepping stone to formal jobs, and a seedbed for larger, more competitive businesses.
Many unemployed and destitute adults can’t get the grants available to pensioners, children and the disabled. Yet various forms of bureaucratic red tape obstruct their initiatives to start informal enterprises and “create their own jobs”.
Informal settlements are a route for people to escape rural poverty and gain access to urban job markets. Yet they are neglected, hazardous places threatened by government evictions. Affordable urban housing could instead be a driver of inclusive growth and spatial transformation.
In an economic slump, with tight public finances, the government needs new and different ways of responding to local realities. It should orchestrate efforts throughout society which actively support people’s struggles to get ahead, not just enable them get by.
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This article was first published in The Conversation

Op-Ed: A shift in thinking is needed to counter South Africa’s startling rise in poverty

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Nigeria&#8217;s Minister for Science and Technology, Ogbonnaya Onu joins CNBC Africa from the floor of the NSE to give us an update on the Ministry&#8217;s plans to bridge Nigeria&#8217;s technology gaps.

Science & Tech minister’s plans to bridge Nigeria’s technology gap

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The crisis in mining is pregnant with opportunities, such as using the site at Marikana for heritage purposes. The tragedy can be used as a means to create a new reality for Marikana, by immortalising the tragedy in a museum and interpretation centre that will act as a new growth path for the area.
By Unathi Sonwabile Henama 
The tragic events of the 16 August 2012 led to the loss of life in Marikana outside of Rustenburg. South Africa witnessed one of the most tragic post-apartheid events when the South African Police Service (SAPS) shot at armed striking miners, killing 34, and wounding 78. An additional 270 striking miners were arrested at the site of the tragedy. The Marikana Commission of Inquiry was set up to investigate the tragic events and submitted its report.
The South African economy has strong linkages to mining, and the truth is that when mining sneezes, the economy catches a cold. The mining sector has been a perennial jobs shedder in South Africa, destroying the economies of many single-industry rural towns, leading to the emergence of zama-zama’s that have participated in the illegal trade in mining, creating a shadow mining industry, linked to the underworld. Mining disinvestment, jobs shedding and restructuring are the staple news from mining companies in South Africa. Along with policy uncertainty, this has negatively impacted investment on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange.
Mining disinvestment, jobs shedding and restructuring are the staple news from mining companies in South Africa. Along with policy uncertainty, this has negatively impacted investment on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange.
<h4>Poverty, unemployment &amp; inequality</h4>
The decrease in commodity prices has ravaged the finances of mining companies, further compounding the challenges faced by the industry. The biggest challenge facing South Africa is the growth trap, which has meant that poverty, unemployment, and inequality have remained stubborn. The loss of jobs has been the dominant dividend of democracy, and this must be reversed, to ensure that our economy creates sustainable jobs that will restore dignity to millions of South Africans.
The loss of jobs has been the dominant dividend of democracy, and this must be reversed, to ensure that our economy creates sustainable jobs that will restore dignity to millions of South Africans.
South Africa is a mineral rich country and probably a leading mining country in the world as far as the variety and quantity of minerals produced are concerned. The country is known to be the largest producer of platinum, estimated to hold 87% of the world’s reserves of Platinum Group Metals. In 2009 it accounted for 76% of the world platinum.
Marikana is part of the Bushveld Igneous Complex, found in the northern part of South Africa, which is the world’s largest layered intrusion. The complex plays host to over half of the world’s platinum, chromium, vanadium and refractory minerals. South Africa has been associated with the resource curse, as the rich mineral deposits have not translated into prosperity for the majority of South Africans.
<h4>Crisis in mining is pregnant with opportunities for tourism</h4>
The anniversary of Marikana always captures national attention and usually dominates national discourse. The paucity of government involvement in Marikana anniversary commemorations has been one of the state’s own goals. The reality is that what happened at Marikana was tragic, but the time for moving on has long passed, there is no time to waste time. The crisis in mining is pregnant with opportunities, for using the site at Marikana for heritage purposes. The tragedy can be used as a means to create a new reality for Marikana, by
The crisis in mining is pregnant with opportunities, such as using the site at Marikana for heritage purposes. The tragedy can be used as a means to create a new reality for Marikana, by immortalising the tragedy in a museum and interpretation centre that will act as a new growth path for the area.
The major tourism nodes around the Marikana area include the tourism enclave which is Sun City, which provides employment for thousands of residents around the greater Rustenburg area. In as much as mining remains an ailing industry, it remains important, it must be supported. Tourism growth in South Africa has been robust, achieving a 13% year on year growth in 2016.
<h4>Tourism can alleviate some of the Marikana&#8217;s challenges</h4>
Tourism can be a solution for creating a new economic sector that will alleviate some of the challenges faced by the Marikana area. The heritage of Marikana must be properly packaged to be balanced so that it does not lead to polarisation like the Sharpeville massacre. The yearly commemoration of Sharpeville Massacre, instead of being a major event that attracts tourists from near and far, remains a yearly embarrassment for the government, as the Pan African Congress would conduct its own march in competition to the government programme.
The Pan African Congress feels marginalised by the presentation of the story and heritage of the Sharpeville Massacre. This mistake must not be repeated when the Marikana heritage site finally gets erected.
The Marikana heritage site must be developed for multiple uses, and integrate technology in packaging the museum experience so that the museum experience is digital. The construction of the heritage site is not an end in itself, the site must be developed with the input of the travel intermediaries such as tour operators, to ensure that the planning phase will appeal to the needs of the tour operator clients.
The majority of heritage sites remain white elephants because they are not consumed by locals and international tourists. South Africa with its tragic history, must develop its heritage sites as a way of making money out of heritage, to create labour intensive jobs that will decrease poverty and unemployment.
 
Unathi Sonwabile Henama is a lecturer in the Department of Tourism Management at the Tshwane University of Technology and writes in his personal capacity.
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Op-Ed: The heritage tourism potential of Marikana

Giselda Vagnoni and Steve Scherer | TAORMINA, Italy
Leaders of the Group of Seven wealthy nations met African heads of state on Saturday, the final day of their annual summit which has been marked by discord over climate change, but unity on tackling terrorism.
Italy had hoped to make Africa the major focus of the annual G7 gathering, holding the discussions on the island of Sicily that has taken in hundreds of thousands of migrants over the past four years as they flee war and poverty back home.
However, the two-day meeting got overshadowed by a suicide bombing in northern England on Monday that killed 22 people, and also got bogged down by lengthy discussions on the merit of free trade and the 2015 Paris Agreement to tackle climate change.
U.S. President Donald Trump has yet to decide whether to honour a U.S. commitment to greenhouse gas emissions and has pushed back against a lattice of international trade accords that he says have hurt American economic interests.
&#8220;We are having to talk about things settled years ago,&#8221; said a top level member of one G7 delegation, frustrated by the U.S. position.
Diplomats from Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan and the United States worked late into the night to agree on the final communique, which was expected to be little more than six pages long, against 32 pages last year.
A French presidential source said substantial progress had been made on the question of trade, particularly in the area of multilateralism, suggesting Trump may have bowed to pressure for a more collaborative approach to international commerce.
Italy had hoped to emphasise the positive impact migration can have and to call on industrialised nations to open up more legal channels for immigration to try to slow the flow of people risking their lives to reach Europe on flimsy boats from Libya.
That idea was shot down ahead of the meeting.
&#8220;There was very strong opposition by the Americans and British who wanted to refocus on security and water down the expansive language on freedom of movement,&#8221; said a European diplomat, who declined to be named.
AFRICAN DEVELOPMENT
Security questions dominated initial G7 discussion on Friday and the leaders issued a statement telling internet service providers and social media firms to &#8220;substantially increase&#8221; their efforts to rein in extremist content.
The leaders of Tunisia, Kenya, Ethiopia, Niger and Nigeria&#8217;s acting president joined the talks on Saturday morning, along with the heads of the African Union, the United Nations, the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank.
&#8220;Perhaps the choice (to be in) Taormina and Sicily says much about how important our relations are with Africa,&#8221; Italian Prime Minister Paolo Gentiloni said in opening remarks.
&#8220;Today our discussion on Africa will focus on the need for a partnership across all sectors &#8230; with innovation and development our core objective,&#8221; he said, speaking in Italian.
Unlike other leaders, Trump, who was sitting between the heads of state of Tunisia and Niger, did not put on headphones to listen to a simultaneous translation.
The U.S. president will return to Washington later on Saturday at the end of a nine-day tour of the Middle East and Europe &#8212; his first foreign trip since taking office.
Unlike other G7 leaders, he is not due to give a closing press conference before flying out.
U.S. officials said he had enjoyed &#8220;robust&#8221; conversations with his allies in Sicily and had also learnt a lot &#8212; especially in the debate on climate change, which he has previously dismissed as a hoax.
&#8220;He came here to learn. He came here to get smart. His views are evolving which exactly as they should be,&#8221; Trump&#8217;s economic adviser Gary Cohn said on Friday.
(Additional reporting by Steve Holland, Giselda Vagnoni, John Irish, and Andrea Rinke; Writing by Crispian Balmer; Editing by Noah Barkin and Toby Chopra)

G7 leaders turn gaze to Africa, climate harmony elusive

Once again, the cycle of instability and political uncertainty has the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) on <a href="https://www.gov.uk/foreign-travel-advice/democratic-republic-of-the-congo">high alert</a> and <a href="https://www.cartercenter.org/news/pr/drc-011717.html">agreements</a> between prominent political actors have done little to stem the tide of violence.
The situation has become so dire that Congolese nationals at home and abroad have raised concerns about the safety of civilians. These were <a href="https://www.un.org/press/en/2017/sc12772.doc.htm">echoed</a> by the United Nations during a recent Security Council meeting.
Until the end of 2016, the insecurity was limited to the country’s eastern Ituri region but violence is now being reported in <a href="http://www.un.org/apps/news/story.asp?NewsID=56152#.WO-KAPnyuUk">Kasai</a> in the central region of the country.
Lives are lost daily and there have been reports of increasing <a href="https://www.state.gov/documents/organization/252881.pdf">human rights abuses</a>. As a result, the International Criminal Court is <a href="http://www.upi.com/Top_News/World-News/2017/04/01/ICC-prosecutor-says-violence-in-Congo-could-be-war-crimes/6571491079500/">following the situation</a> closely.
The renewed instability is partially a consequence of the failure by the Congolese government to organise the general elections in 2016, as per the country’s constitution.
This is considered by some as a deliberate political move orchestrated by the <a href="http://allafrica.com/stories/201509211333.html">“Majorite Presidentielle”</a> ruling coalition. In response, frustrated local communities have used violent protests to send a strong, clear <a href="http://www.dw.com/en/drc-opposition-protests-banned/a-38368338">message of dissent</a> to the government. Of course, these protests are also politically motivated and maintained.
In the face of this persistent insecurity, violence and political instability, scholars and policymakers have not been able to map out a viable peace plan. Peace talks alone are proving to be ineffective because the problems are structural. <a href="https://www.afdb.org/fileadmin/uploads/afdb/Documents/Project-and-Operations/Democratic%20Republic%20of%20Congo%20-%202013-2017%20-%20Country%20Strategy%20Paper.pdf">Institutional crisis</a>, <a href="http://hdr.undp.org/sites/all/themes/hdr_theme/country-notes/COD.pdf">poverty</a>, <a href="https://www.pri.org/stories/2013-03-27/income-inequality-congo-tale-two-cities">inequality</a>, individualistic leadership – and lack of political will to resolve these – are all key factors in the ongoing conflict. These need to be addressed if the DRC is ever to break the cycle of insecurity it’s caught up in.
<h2>Struggle for legitimacy</h2>
Ever since the 2016 elections were postponed, parliament, the senate and other executive institutions have been operating “off mandate”. Officials within the executive and legislative branches of government will continue to perform their functions until fresh elections are held.
This is in line with the constitutional court’s <a href="http://www.africanews.com/2016/10/17/drc-s-constitutional-court-rules-that-elections-be-postponed//">interpretation of the constitution</a>. But this doesn’t address the issue of legitimacy.
Legitimacy must be socially as well as legally recognised. Recent protests suggest that the current government isn’t perceived as legitimate by the people of the DRC. And they are likely to continue until a legitimate government is installed.
Institutional legitimacy is key to the stability and security of the DRC. This legitimacy can only be rebuilt through fair and inclusive elections. Failure to follow this route will result in a cycle of violence and instability.
<h2>Addressing social and economic inequality</h2>
While institutional illegitimacy is a major hurdle to peace and stability in the DRC, the violence is also <a href="http://africanarguments.org/2016/12/12/hungry-for-change-the-economics-underlying-dr-congos-political-crisis/">anchored</a> in poverty and economic inequality.
The UN’s latest <a href="http://hdr.undp.org/sites/all/themes/hdr_theme/country-notes/COD.pdf">Multidimensional Poverty Index</a> reports that 77.1% of the Congolese population live below the poverty line. Therefore, any peace plan that doesn’t take a proper look at the social and economic factors that feed conflict will be meaningless.
The more people are deprived of basic human needs, the greater the chance of violent protest. Conversely, poverty alleviation and access to economic opportunities would reduce violence in the DRC.
To raise the majority of the country out of poverty the government must invest in initiatives that promote economic and financial <a href="https://www.imf.org/external/pubs/ft/scr/2015/cr15280.pdf">inclusion</a> from the ground up. Change in the DRC will only occur if it’s <a href="https://www.cordaid.org/media/medialibrary/2014/09/Cordaid-Social_Entrepreneurship-HR.pdf">nurtured from the grassroots</a>.
<h2>Good governance and leadership</h2>
The stability of any country also depends on its ability to transition peacefully from one leader to another. If the DRC had invested in a mechanism for the peaceful transition of power the country wouldn’t be in turmoil today.
With more than half of its population being under the age of 24, the country has extraordinary potential for <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/bill-reese/5-ways-to-drive-youth-inc_b_12138190.html">socioeconomic advancement</a>. But this can only be achieved if the political class includes the youth in decision-making processes with a view to entrenching a culture of transferable leadership.
This would require fundamental changes in the leadership approach and a shift towards ethical, humanistic and inclusive practices. Political actors must put aside their own individualistic interests and ambitions for the benefit of the national interest.
For institutional reform, economic restructuring and the peaceful transfer of power to happen, politicians and policymakers must act in good faith. The history of the DRC suggests that there’s no political will for change. But the new wave of young leaders who are hungry for change may be able to put enough pressure on government to effect it.

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Poverty

What South Africa can learn from Brazil on how to tackle ‘hidden hunger’

Report reveals global malnutrition on the rise

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Osinbajo surprised by the level of corruption in government

Is the World Bank missing the point about global poverty?

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Op-Ed: The heritage tourism potential of Marikana

G7 leaders turn gaze to Africa, climate harmony elusive

Stability in the DRC: a look beyond political agreements

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