Some poverty-alleviation programmes have not yet helped the poor, despite the funding the programmes had received, the Public Service Commission said on Wednesday.
An ad-hoc report noted that apart from social security programmes that were ”major instruments” for redressing poverty, both national and provincial departments had been taking a broad range of continuing measures to alleviate poverty.
The impact of some of these has still been limited.
Concerns raised by participants in the research include: poor coordination; poor integration of service delivery; lack of proper processes; exclusionary practices; and a lack of monitoring and evaluation.
The report also said that assessments of progress tend to be defused by different definitions of poverty.
Government policy recognises the multi-dimensional nature of poverty, as evidenced by its attempts to address poverty in various ways.
The report found that there was no central national database of poverty-reduction projects and programmes. Eventually a database of more than 40 programmes containing over 29 900 projects was produced.
The report noted that only when these programmes are conducted in a comprehensive, coherent and coordinated framework would the government succeed in reducing poverty. — Sapa