Poverty, Inequality and Growth in Namibia

The Institute for Public Policy Research, located in the capital city Windhoek in Namibia recently released a policy paper which provides an overview of poverty, inequality and growth in post-Independence Namibia.

The main findings of the paper entitled “Poverty, Inequality and Growth Linkages: National and Sectoral Evidence from Post-Independence Namibia” are:

• • Inequality remained at more or less the same level between 1993/94 and 2003/04,
• with a very high Gini coefficient of around 0.60 for both periods.
• • The finding that the level of inequality hardly changed contradicts previous reports
• that Namibia’s Gini coefficient decreased from 0.70 to 0.60 between 1993/94 and
• 2003/04.
• • Income growth (as measured indirectly by consumption growth) over this ten-year
• period was higher among the poorest and richest households than among the
• middle classes.
• • In terms of economic sectors, the most significant reduction in poverty was among
• subsistence farmers.

From 1993/94 to 2003/04, Namibia experienced solid growth in income levels and poverty reduction, but overall inequality remained largely unchanged at one of the highest levels inthe world. This was because the income levels of both the poorest and richest sections of Namibian society rose rapidly during the ten-year period, while the middle classes did not gain to the same extent.

Intra-sectoral developments were far more important for overall poverty reduction than
population shifts between sectors. Most important was the reduction in poverty among
subsistence farmers, which constituted around half of the total decrease.
The author of this paper, Matthias Schmidt, is a Research Associate with the IPPR.
Download the rest of the paper here.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, September 23rd, 2009 at 3:30 PM. It is filed under Africa, Institutes and tagged with Africa, coefficient, Development, economics, free market, Gini, Growth, Inequality, Institute for Public Policy Research, IPPR, libertarian, liberty, Matthias Schmidt, Middle Class, Namibia, poverty, Sub-Saharan Africa, Subsistence farming. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.