Swaziland

News Item:  Facilitating investment and economic growth

The Kingdom’s Goal 1 target is to reduce poverty from 69% as determined by the Swaziland Household Income and Expenditure Survey in 2001 to 35% in 2015. UNDP has aligned its programme of support with the PRSAP with specific interventions targeting each of the six PRSAP Pillars. The first strategic objective of the Swaziland Poverty Reduction Strategy and Action Programme adopted by the Government in May 2007 is to foster macro economic stability and accelerated growth based on broad participation. The challenge here is to reverse economic stagnation which is one of the main sources of poverty by inspiring investment and economic revival to produce annual economic growth sustained at 5% per annum. Current economic growth averages 2% per year, far lower than regional level and less than required for poverty reduction.

UNDP is working with the Government to strengthen its aid coordination and strategic policy management.

News Item:  Promoting fair distribution of benefits of growth

The  Economic growth, especially up to the mid 90s averaged 8% of GDP per year. However this growth failed to reduce poverty, and instead inspired a skewed distribution of income. Swaziland’s income gini coefficience at 62% is one of the highest in the world. Accordingly an important objective of the PRSAP is to inspire a fair distribution of the benefits of growth through fiscal policy.

UNDP interventions in support of this pillar is directed at supporting:

• Fiscal reform initiatives

• Support to the development of pro-poor budgeting and mapping

• Strengthening the capacity of the government to effectively implement its medium term budgeting framework.

News Item:  Empowering the poor to generate income

Swaziland’s economy is predominantly agriculture based. At least 70% of the population lives in the rural areas on communal Swazi Nation Land (SNL) where the main source of livelihood is subsistence agriculture. Farming is predominantly by outdated methods that produce very low yields. The PRSAP indicates that poverty is most intense on SNL. Though 56% of the land is SNL, it contributes only 6% to GDP, which means that only a small proportion of the population living on rural areas contribute to national income.  Inequality in income generation and distribution has never been a deliberate policy but is a result of limited productivity linkages between rural and urban development, industry and agriculture; large agriculture plantations and smallholder farming.  

Government plans to empower the poor to generate substantial income through judicious use of policy and programmes. The measures envisaged under the PRSAP envisage enabling the poor to increase production and meet their basic needs while progressively graduating to self sufficiency and commercialization.

Empowering the poor to generate income and reduce inequality is one of the most important pillars of the PRSAP as it focuses on empowering the poor to generate their own income and be self sufficient. The UNDP intervention in support of empowering the poor to generate their own income is to promote the development of skills among the poor.

UNDP plans to work with stakeholders in the training of SME’s with specific emphasis on the poor and vulnerable in business development and management skills.

Specifically UNDP is supporting the newly established Swazi Business Women’s Forum with skills capacity building.

Internally UNDP has developed and is implementing a gender based procurement system which will be expanded to other UN agencies to promote access of women entrepreneurs to UN business.

News Item:  Improving the quality of life of the poor 

Under the PRSAP, Swaziland is introducing social protection Safety nets that focus on the protection of vulnerable groups and promote improvement of the living standards and quality of life of the poor by ensuring access to basic social services that address the constraints imposed by HIV.

Critical to quality of life for the poor is food security as nutrition is a crucial element of poverty reduction especially because a large section of the population does not produce enough to eat. Lack of income also means that they cannot buy food.

Food insecurity has been declared a national disaster following a series of drought spells that have substantially reduced the national capacity for food production. Of concern however is the lack of systems for ensuring that farmers receive early warning of inclement weather patterns, especially drought as well as interventions to prepare farmers to switch to crops that are able to withstand drought. This challenge has called for initiatives for disaster preparedness, rehabilitation and management.

UNDP is also supporting climate change adaptation initiatives.  

News Item: Improving governance and Strengthening Institutions

Weak and poor governance compromises the delivery of services and benefits to those who need them the most. Weak governance renders service delivery open to influence and abuse by powerful interest groups who affect and prejudice policies and programmes. As a result, transparency and accountability disappear and the poor become invisible, voiceless and unprotected. Good governance is a priority under the PRSAP especially for promoting macro-economic stability, growth and participation of the poor. The PRSAP recognizes that all players in particular the private sector requires an enabling environment that will facilitate the identification and exploitation of investment opportunities in all sectors without obstacles.

Even though institutions of good governance are in place, there is insufficient institutional capacity to ensure that all processes are conducted efficiently and effectively. The PRSAP prioritizes the strengthening of institutions and processes that promote accountability, administration of laws and justice, public sector management, public participation of the poor in decision-making through decentralized governance. It also emphasizes the importance of stamping out corruption and human rights.

As a poverty reduction intervention, UNDP is supporting the promotion of legal protection for the poor by promoting access to services, commodities and supplies by poor people at high risk of HIV and AIDS especially children, youth, women and bereaved and vulnerable elderly. In this respect, UNDP is supporting the provision of legal aid services to address issues of human rights and HIV and AIDS.

To support the legal protection and security and human and constitutional rights, UNDP is supporting the domestication of ratified international conventions, especially the Convention of the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women. Under this intervention, UNDP will strengthen the capacity of the judiciary for improved service delivery. In the same context, UNDP is also supporting the strengthening of national capacity for state reporting obligations for international conventions and the finalization of the recording of Swazi Law and Custom.

UNDP us also supporting capacity building for decentralization of the National Emergency Response Council on HIV&AIDS and well as capacity for improved service delivery through enhanced transparency, accountability and transparency of associations serving people living with HIV.

An increasingly important priority for long term planning and prioritization for the country is access to quality research information and analysis. Though various organizations have internal capacity for research for their internal needs, the need for a central coordinating mechanism to provide evidence based information for political, economic and social decision-making is self evident. UNDP is supporting the Ministry of Education establish an apex commission to oversee coordination of research activities in the country.

An important priority is information to guide decisions in the key priority challenges of poverty eradication and MDG monitoring and tracking progress in attaining the goals as well as the effectiveness of HIV and AIDS responses.