Mauritius
growth performance has brought significant welfare gains to the population. Yet a small but significant proportion seem to be benefiting
the least from the economic and social progress and many pockets of poverty of
worrisome magnitude in some suburban and coastal regions have surfaced.
Based
on the 2001/2002 Household Budget Survey, the percentage of the Mauritian
population living in households below the half-median monthly income is
estimated at 8.9% while those living in households below the half-median
monthly expenditure represent 8.1% of total population.
The top-down approach adopted for the design
and implementation of social aid programmes has not been successful enough to make
a meaningful dent on poverty. It was
therefore necessary to shift to a new approach that could provide the steps to
give households and people a start in the economy, ladders to help them climb
out of poverty, security ropes to prevent them from falling back too deep and a
safety net as a measure of last resort. An action Plan for Poverty Alleviation
was formulated in 2001 with the collective participation of various
stakeholders comprising the private sector, Government and NGOs. This Action
Plan provides for a combination of different approaches for the different
levels of poverty, jettisoning the old top-down system for a multi-dimensional
approach to poverty - more targeted, community-based and participatory. In line
with these new approaches, necessary structures were put in place to provide
the appropriate framework conducive to facilitate the integration of the
vulnerable segment of the population into the mainstream of productive
activities. Economic empowerment of the
poor for their integration in productive activities through better access to
the education, health and credit facilities and strengthening of
capacity-building were the key elements of the poverty programmes. Some of the activities of the Plan are as
follows: Training facilities;
(i)
Provision of additional low-cost
housing schemes for the very poor citizens and homeless;
(ii)
Improving access to preventive and
curative health care;
(iii)
Streamlining of social aid programmes
to ensure efficient use of government resources;
(iv)
Provision of free meals in some very
poor deprived areas;
(v)
Facilitating reach to leisure and
recreational amenities to the poor;
(vi)
Setting up of a coordinating committee;
and
(vii)
Expansion of micro credit schemes.
These programmes focused mainly on new
housing projects for the very poor, expanded expenditures for Rodrigues, the
extension of micro-credit schemes, the empowerment of the poor, especially
women, and the upgrading of social infrastructure projects in a number of
deprived areas. Poverty reduction
efforts, particularly through the Trust Fund for the Social Integration of
Vulnerable Groups and "A Nou Diboute Ensam" have been supported by
several organisations. These programmes have successfully reached some 120,000
poor citizens including Rodrigues
Government
also provided the necessary financial resources to improve the quality of life
of all vulnerable groups. Social expenditure and subsidies that account for 40
per cent of the recurrent budget and about 42 per cent of total revenue have
also been increasing . The subsidies are being provided to cushion the effect
of price increases of a number of commodities, such as rice, flour and cooking
gas. A Food Aid Scheme benefiting some 42,800 persons is also being
implemented. These have also been
supported by measures to promote equity in the education system while
addressing the inherent social inequalities.
Access to secondary schools has improved significantly. In addition to the Zones D’éducation Prioritaires
(ZEP) project that aimed at reducing the inequity in the education system by
providing the necessary environment conducive to favourable learning conditions
for children living mostly in the less developed regions based on specific
pedagogical program, a new stream of pre-vocational training has been created
in secondary schools, which has allowed more students to continue their
education and ensure their employability.
To address the problem of unemployment, Government is also providing for
large scale training and skill development programmes for different segments of
the unemployed.
Government
intends to intensify its fight against poverty and social exclusion. A new form of assistance to the needy would
be shortly put in place under the demand-driven Decentralised Cooperation
Programme. This new framework for assistance
has been discussed at length and agreed upon through in-depth consultations
with the relevant non-state actors from the private sector, Non-Governmental
Organisations, trade unions, local authorities and training institutions. This Programme aims at enhancing the capacity
of these non-state actors in view of better combating poverty, promoting good
governance and fighting unemployment.
The actors will be fully responsible for project implementation and will
assume full ownership of the project. Through
this Programme, the poorest segments of the population would be called upon to
have a closer contact with the non-state actors.
The
problem of poverty is not a residual phenomenon likely to disappear with
increased spending on transfer programmes.
Simply shovelling money is not gong to reduce poverty. It is imperative to continuously revisit the
design of programmes so as to render them conducive to the needs of the
people. We have to continuously ask
ourselves whether the projects are relevant for the ultra-poor and their
ability to overcome the poor’s vulnerability and social exclusion. How do we better track and report on poverty
reducing spending ? How do we strengthen
the ability to track poverty reducing outlays, reduce duplication and ensure
greater harmonization of poverty reducing initiatives ?.
Government
will re-visit existing poverty alleviation programmes to ensure that they meet
the real needs of the target groups and provide a permanent solution to those
who are most in need.The participatory approach will be consolidated involving
NGO’s, community-based organizations and service clubs to reinforce the poverty
alleviation programmes. Measures will also be considered to ensure that
employment and other facilities accrue to the vulnerable groups during the
implementation of large public and private projects. An autonomous Apex
institution will be set up to review, coordinate and harmonise different
poverty alleviation programmes for a more focussed approach. There will be
greater emphasis on creating dedicated microcredit facilities to encourage
sustainable income-generating activities and promote a savings culture.
The
development of a poverty index that will provide a better perspective to assess
the effectiveness of the existing poverty alleviation programmes. If we do not want our different poverty
alleviation programmes to fall short in attaining and protecting the most
vulnerable sections of the population, we will have to continue reforming our
process for a more structured and coordinated approach that encourages genuine
participation and promotes an open dialogue with the poor.
Who
has first hand field experience ? Not some of the speakers at the recent
Senimar on Poverty- An Agenda for reflection and Action; There were indeed lot
of reflections but we cannot promise much on the actions ; least of all already
claiming that the Empowerment programme is making a dent on poverty
Extensive
local knowledge of the people and the area is crucial for effective
productivity reduction. At regular intervals independent evaluations can be
done to assess the effectiveness of the programs and this could also be
utilised to make modifications in the programs.
IVTB programs
–they clearly help in keeping people out of poverty rather than lifting than
lifting them out of it; this is because the very poor cannot pay the participation
fee and more importantly cannot pass the initial screening tests; Very poor
households cannot pay the participation fee and more importantly cannot pass
the initial screening tests;
We
are a bunch of hypocrites , we refuse to take a genuine stand; we have
distorted all the social welfare schemes
in favour of the middle-class;
Health:
there is an outreach programme which enables access even if the poor are unable
to reach the service centres. There is
however no evaluation of the system which would enable an assessment of the
system’s equity and its true effectiveness in reaching the poor as the time
spent in obtaining health services could exclude the poor;
So
many institutions working on poverty with overlapping objectives; accessibility
of the poor to many of these organisations is difficult and time-consuming;
Approval procedures are lengthy and cumbersome; There is very little
possibility of support even for emergencies.
