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South Africa's MDG Country Report 2010: Challenges and Contributions

This presentation provides an overview of South Africa's progress and challenges in achieving the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). It highlights the Department of Social Development's specific contributions to the MDGs and discusses the impact of social assistance programs in eradicating poverty and hunger. The report also addresses the challenges faced by South Africa, including income disparity, unemployment, HIV/AIDS, and the global economic recession.

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South Africa's MDG Country Report 2010: Challenges and Contributions

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  1. Millennium Development Goals: Country Report 2010 (MDGR 2010) Presentation To Portfolio Committee19 April 2011

  2. Outline • Background • Introduction and Challenges • DSD specific contribution to MDG’s • Conclusion

  3. Background Millennium Declaration • In September 2000, the world’s leaders signed the Millennium Declaration at the Millennium Summit • The Millennium Declaration promotes basic human rights such as the right to education, health, water, security, and shelter

  4. Background • The MDG process has its roots in the United nations Millennium Summit held in 2000, where world leaders agreed on working to achieve eight critical economic and social development priorities by 2015. • The compilation of the MDG country Report 2009/2010 was led by Statistics South Africa • Consultations with government Departments and civil society started in November 2009. • Statistics South Africa created 8 working groups, each focusing on one goal or more goals depending on the mandate of specific government Departments. • All participating institutions provided data to Sector Working Groups (SWG), which met regularly to assess data collected from and submitted by various sources. • The DSD participated in and led Sector Working Group 1, which focused on Goal 1, Eradicate extreme Poverty and Hunger, although the Department’s mandate enables it to contribute to other goals, particularly 2, 3 and 6. • Further consultations, led jointly by the Department and civil society continued throughout the country in September 2010 and the outcome of the process was South Africa’s MDG country report which was presented to the UN General Assembly in September 2010 • The report is a combination of both UN (50) and domesticated (45) targets and indicators

  5. Background • Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), act as guidelines and indicators for measuring levels of development • Reference period for MDGs 1990 - 2015 • For South Africa, start of reference period is 1994 1994 1997 2000 2003 2005 2007 2009 2012 2015 • Characteristics of MDGs: • Time-bound goals • Quantifiable targets • Internationally agreed upon indicators

  6. Background: MDGs Goal 3: Promote gender equity and empower women Goal 4: Reduce child mortality Goal 1: Eradicate extreme poverty and hunger Goal 2: Achieve universal primary education Goal 5: Improve maternal health Goal 6: Combat HIV/AIDS, malaria and other diseases Goal 7: Ensure environmental sustainability Goal 8: Develop a global partnership for development

  7. Introduction and Challenges • Although the Department’s mandate covers a wide spectrum of issues, some of its work cannot be measured by the indicators -both domestic and international- developed for the MDGs • This includes critical work done by the Department on Early Childhood Development . • As such, the report does not present a comprehensive coverage of the Department’s contribution • All information submitted to StatsSA for the compilation of the report had to be subjected to stringent quality assurance processes, and as a result, some of the information submitted by various sources was not included in the report. • As noted in the country report, the lack of data led to non-reporting on: • 10 MDG indicators • 1 Domesticated indicator • With respect to the country report, a number of challenges conspire to prevent South Africa meeting the goals, and these include among others, the following: • High levels of income disparity • Structural unemployment • The impact of HIV and AIDS • The recent global economic recession

  8. Goal 1: Eradicate Extreme Poverty and Hunger • The Department’s Social assistance programme has made a significant contribution to the attainment of Goal 1 • Studies on South Africa’s social assistance programme suggest that social grants reinforce developmental impacts within households in terms of nutrition, education, health, vital services and employment: • Absolute Poverty: The proportion of people living in absolute poverty-as measured by the threshold of $1 to $2.50- a day has declined • South Africa has effectively more than halved the population living below the poverty line of $1 a day from 11.3% in 2000 to 5% in 2006. • This suggests that South Africa has met MDG Goal 1. • The poverty gap ration declined from 3.3 in 2000 to 1.1 in 2006 at the $1 Per person per day threshold • Studies carried out by among others Statistics South, the Presidency’s Fifteen Year Review suggest that the Social Assistance Programme is the single most important driver of the decline in poverty has had a significant impact on reducing poverty, redistributing income and reducing inequality. • From a modest 2, 5 million recipients in 1994 to over 14 million in 2010, the rapid expansion or the social assistance programme accounts for the growth in expenditure levels of the poor. • The most notable expansion has been that of the child support grant, which rose from 34 000 beneficiaries in 1999 to over 9 million by 2010 • Social grants, along with wages earned through employment, contributed to growth in per capita income between 1995 and 2005.

  9. Goal 1: Eradicate Extreme Poverty and Hunger • Income distribution: although levels of inequality remain high in South Africa, social grants have made a significant contribution to the reducing the levels of the Gini estimate for the country. • Food Poverty line: the percentage of the population living below the food poverty line of R148 in 2000 and R209 equivalent in 2006 declined from 28.5 to 24.8 respectively • The proportion of males living below the food poverty line declined from 26.7% to 22.9% while the number of females living below the line declined from 30.2 % to 26.4% between 2000 and 2006. • Similarly, the distribution of food parcels to needy households through the social relief of distress plays an important role in relieving incidents of poverty. • The Expanded Public Works Programme (EPWP) has played a significant role as a short to medium term measure to creating employment, building skills and eradicating extreme poverty and hunger. • The social sector made a significant contribution to reaching the EPWP target of 1 million job opportunities by 2009. • These initiatives are also providing strong platform for further sustainable long-term solutions to poverty related issues.

  10. Goal 1: Eradicate Extreme Poverty Percent living below poverty lines and poverty gap: 2000 and 2006

  11. Goal 2: Achieve Universal Primary Education • Early Childhood Development: Although indicators for Goal 2 do not include children in the 0-4 age cohort, ECD is widely believed to provide a firm foundation for life-long learning, which is a key element of a dynamic, literate, and knowledge based society. • Impact of the CSG: according to Statistics South Africa’s General Household Survey report 2003-2007 released in July 2009, the most notable impact of the expansion of the CSG is that children benefitting from the grant are likely to go to school. • In 2007, the percentage of low income households which receive any kind of grant and were sending their children aged 5-19 years to school increased from 73% in 2003 to 81% in 2007. • Similarly, the attendance ratio for individuals aged 5-19 is higher in households who receive grants than those who did not receive them. • The Old Age Grant also serves as surety with which to leverage further financial and social resources.

  12. Goal2: Achieve Universal PrimaryEducation Enrolment ratios (adjusted) for 7-13 age group by sex: 2002 – 2009

  13. Goal 3: Promote Gender Equality and Empower Women • South Africa has made significant progress in meeting promoting gender equality and • will most likely meet all the key targets for this goal. • Parity in the School System:There are more girls than boys in both secondary and • tertiary education . • Women share of non-agricultural wage employment stands at remains below half. • Parity in Political Life: Proportion of seats held by women in the national parliament • increased from 25% in 1994 to 44% in 2009.

  14. Goal 3: Promote Gender Equality and Empower Women Gross enrolment ratios & gender parity index at tertiary level, selected years

  15. Goal 6: Combat HIV/AIDS, Malaria and other diseases • Evidence suggests that the spread of HIV prevalence in South Africa may have stabilised and has declined among the 15-24 age cohort since 2005. • If this trend continues, the target with respect to the reduction of HIV infections in 5-24 year age cohort is likely to be met by 2015. • This can be attributed to a number of HIV prevention programmes which include among others a number of awareness and advocacy programmes run by the Department of social development. • Through a partnership with Love Life, the Department contributes to government strategy to reduce new HIV infections by 50 percent as contained in the National Strategic Plan for HIV and AIDS, STI , Malaria and Tuberculosis for 2007-2011. • In 2006 17% of men had been tested and in 2009 the figure had risen to 31.8%. Amongst women the figure rose from 38% in 2006 to 71.2% in 2009 • Marked increase in all provinces from 2005 (13.9%) to 2009 (41.6%) in the proportion of people with HIV who had access to ART

  16. Goal 6: Combat HIV/AIDS, Malaria and other diseases HIV Prevalence Among Population Aged 15-24 Years, South Africa, 2002, 2005 and 2008

  17. Conclusion • The MDG Country Report suggests that although there are serious challenges with respect to meeting goals related to child mortality and maternal health, significant progress has been made with respect to attaining Goal One.

  18. Thank You

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