Impediments facing poverty alleviation strategy [Archives:2002/32/Focus]

BY MOHAMMED AL-HAWERI
World countries, including Yemen, have adopted strategies aimed at encountering poverty and mitigating of its acuteness, which is a positive orientation in programs of economic and social development and programs of the World Bank. Paying attention to social dimensions and issues of poverty and the marginalized segments of the society has in the recent years become the pivot of concern of nations. The reason behind this stance is failure of development experiments in taking care of the human in aspects related to living, education, health and expansion of mans essential options.
The volume of poverty and the poor in Yemen have reached a serious level. Results of a family budget survey for the year 1998 have demonstrated that 17,6 percent of the population are living under food poverty line. Meanwhile the proportion of the people who are incapable of obtaining and meeting all their needs for food and other necessary wants such as clothing, lodging, health, education and transport amounts to around 41,8 percent. It is a matter reflecting weightiness of the situations and living of about 6,9 million people suffering from various forms of poverty. Added to them other numbers of people living in proximity to poverty line and fear from slipping to a level below that line.
Vis-a-vis this serious situation Yemen has adopted a strategy for confronting and easing the vigor of poverty during the period of 2003-2005.
The strategy had set a general target aimed at mitigating poverty by 13,1 percent during the same period so that by the end of 2005 poverty should be alleviated by 35,9 percent . The strategy has contained other aims, the most outstanding of which are:
– Raising health coverage of preliminary care services to 65 percent of the population,
-Raising average of those enrolled at primary schools to 69,3 percent,
-Increasing the area of water supplies to 69 percent in the urban areas and to 65 in the countryside, in addition to increasing sewage services to 44 percent,
-Adding 3,300 km paved roads, 2950 km of unpaved roads,
-Maintaining 3194 km of existing paved roads, and
-Increasing the number of beneficiaries from Social Welfare Fund to 600,000 by the end of the year 2005.
The question that could be raised in this respect is whether it is possible to realize all these targets in three years, and whether they are considered as achievable aims and characterized by reality. Here it could be said that realizing those goals is not an impossible matter or difficult one especially under availability of conditions and basical data. The strategy has defined those in three matters:
1- Achieving an annual economic growth rate by 4,8 percent by the private sector,
2- Providing sources of funding the strategic projects amounting to YR 888,942 million, and
3-The existence of good administration and governance.
Undoubtedly, entrusting the task of achieving the economic growth with the private sector is an arrangement exceeding its present capacities particularly that it is suffering from various contradictions and both internal and external challenges. Moreover the structure of the private sector is limited and that the measures and policies taken during the past seven years have created deformities in performance of the private sector.
On the other hand the implementation of the strategy is facing restraints pertaining to funding. This situation needs making available annual resources amounting to no less than YR 294,314 million, approximately $ 1682 million distributed between governmental funding at $886 million and foreign funding at around $685 million. This is a question difficult to achieve under the real situation represented by the limited financial resources of the state and inability of having capacity for coping with loans and foreign funding. In conclusion, the establishment of effective and good administration in the state establishments requires going ahead with strong determination for effecting financial and administrative reform and confronting all forms of corruption.

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