Blog 5

Bhorat's paper examined the changing nature of non-income welfare in post- apartheid South Africa, adding to other studies on poverty, which have focused predominantly on changes in income welfare as the most important marker of economic progress.Non-income poverty declines Poverty declines were almost exclusively found for African-headed households, which constituted almost the entire population of households living in poverty in 1993."We also found that poverty declines were relatively more rapid for female- headed households and in rural areas." Over the 18 years, non-income poverty fell much more rapidly than income poverty, while the decreases in poverty "Were relatively well targeted toward poor households, and it was shown that in terms of both income and non-income poverty, poorer households experienced the largest decreases in non-income poverty"."The substantial progress that we observe has built on an exceptionally low base of initial non-income welfare, and the levels of poverty in South Africa, however one chooses to measure them, remain high." A number of wide-ranging economic reforms were introduced in democratic South Africa aimed at macroeconomic stability, economic growth, job creation and poverty reduction."Most studies exclude information on private assets, such as whether a household has a stove, a refrigerator, a television set, a vehicle and so on. We believe that these are relevant indicators of economic welfare. In addition, most of the studies do not address the contribution that increased access to education makes to overall well-being." Using information on public and private assets, as well as on education, they created a welfare measure to investigate shifts in non-income poverty between 1993 and 2010.I felt this was a great article because this depicts some of the same conditions we are faced with here in America. 

URL:http://www.southafrica.info/news/