Poverty reduction strategy discussed [Archives:2003/01/Health]

The Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper for the years 2003-2005 was released recently tackling measures and strategies that will be adopted to alleviate poverty in Yemen. Before talking about this strategy paper lets discuss the reality of poverty in Yemen in general.
The1999 household budget survey showed that 17.6 % of the Yemeni population live under the food poverty line whereas the percentage of the population who are incapable of obtaining their food and non food requirements is 41.8%. These percentages reflect the gravity of living conditions of approximately 6.9 million people who are suffering from the different dimensions of poverty not to mention the other large numbers that are living close to the poverty line and are vulnerable to being dragged to below the poverty line along with the high poverty gap which is estimated at about 13.2% and the severity of poverty which amounts to 5.8%.
Poverty in Yemen takes on a rural attribute, especially as the Yemeni people are to a large extent mostly rural dwellers, despite the rapid urbanization. Rural areas of Yemen encompass about 83% of the poor and 87% of those who suffer from food poverty at the same time that nearly three-fourths of the total population in 1998 were rural dwellers.
The percentage of the rural population who are poor amounts to 45% as compared to 30.8% for the urban population in addition to the wide gap and severity of poverty among the rural population compared o that of the urban population. This attribute also shows that according to the 1998 human budget survey , spending on food absorbs 54% of income in the urban areas whereas it climbs to 67% in the rural areas, which reflect low incomes in the rural areas on one hand and even lower degree of spending on non-food requirements there on the other.
Causes of Poverty
Poverty is considered the result of a set of natural and human factors, domestic policies and external factors that come together to create an environment conductive to the occurrence and spread of poverty and its increase in severity. However the 1998 human budget survey data has shown that large family size and geographical causes were the most causes that raise the probability of falling into poverty.
In the same way that poverty is inequitably distributed between rural and urban areas, there is also an obvious disparity among the different governorates of the republic of Yemen whereby half of the poor are concentrated in four governorates which are Taiz, Ibb Sana’a and Hodiedah.
The Yemeni leadership realized this critical issue and has been paying utmost concern to solving it. The leadership concern to poverty and poverty alleviation has been illustrated in most of President Saleh speeches and guidance. ? Our country cannot move to the future except through a better focus on finding appropriate solutions to improving the livelihood of the people including combating poverty, expanding the social safety net, and paying attention to the health of the people? said president Saleh in one of his speeches.
On his part Prime Minister Abdul Qader Ba Jammal talked about the government measures to alleviating poverty ? The government commitment of reducing poverty is clearly manifested through its program by which it has obtained the parliament confidence. The program focuses on the basic issues which should be given absolute priority as one of the most important underpinnings of the modern state of Yemen along with the policies aiming at spinning the wheel of economic development and creating job opportunities and reducing poverty.? Clarified the Prime Minister.
To face the dilemma of poverty the government adopted a number of measures in collaboration with the donors the government of Yemen explored the various conditions of the citizens particularly the hardships of living since 1992 by carrying out a number of studies, household budget survives and poverty assessments to ascertain the causes and features of poverty and came out with what is called the Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper.
The government of yemen started the preparation of the Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper through the interim-poverty Reduction Strategy paper that was approved as an initial draft by the cabinet in April 2000. This paper was later finalized in line with the government program and the principles of the comprehensive reform program and the overall framework of the second five years plan. This paper was debated, discussed and analyzed through out 2000 to 2002 to come out with the recent Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper.
To ensure the preparation of a national PRSP in compliance with the applicable rules and regulations set for it and to ensure its consistency with the second five year plan, a 21-member committee was formed for its preparation chaired by the Vice Minister of Planning and Development and comprising representatives of all agencies and institutions concerned with poverty issues and under the supervision of the Minister of Planning and Development.
The PRSP preparation committee adopted a mechanism to ensure continuous consultations with the participation of all concerned agencies to convey to these agencies the activities of the committee and the discussion themes, and to in turn, reflect the views of these agencies on the themes of the strategy in order to have a comprehensive interaction.
With regard to the involvement of the poor and hearing their concerns and priorities the committee undertook a second survey in 20 districts where poverty incidence exceeded 50% of the total population being characterized as pockets of poverty.
Based on the causes and factors that determine the probability of falling into poverty and the results of the survey and studies undertaken during the last 2 years the major sets of factors lead to poverty in Yemen which are as follows
Decline in income and its association with the nature and extent of economic growth.
High population growth and the poor development of human resources and infera structure.
And weal levels of social protection.
The poverty reduction strategy aims to achieve through the adoption of interlink and well-designed policies, measures , activities and mechanisms to create an environment which is conductive for poverty reduction and the realization of specific and prioritized objectives including the achievement of economic growth, creation of jobs opportunities, provision of better basic services and securing an effective social safety net for the poor.
The poverty reduction strategy targets reduction of poverty by 13.1% during the period 2003-2005, to decline to 35.9% in 2005. It is expected that this might be achievable through appropriate economic growth that will lead to increasing real GDP by about 4.7% depending on the growth of the non-oil sectors by an annual average rate of 6.3% to keep pace with effects of the population policies that seeks to reduce the annual population growth rate to 3% by 2005. The strategy also seeks to achieve a number of sectoral objectives leading to overall poverty reduction.
Finally the PRSP comprised of four main axes which are achieving economic growth.
Human resources development, improving infrastructure and ensuring social protection.

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