A new United Nations report says that the per­cent­age of peo­ple in Botswana liv­ing in poverty decreased dur­ing the year 2007. Of course, these sta­tis­tics were gath­ered before the global eco­nomic reces­sion, but it shows what may have been undone dur­ing 2008 and 9.

From Mmegi Online we read this break­down of poverty lev­els in South­ern Africa.

The 2009 Human Devel­op­ment Index (HDI) report released by the United Nations Devel­op­ment Pro­gramme (UNDP) shows that with a U$13,000 Gross Domes­tic Prod­uct (GDP) per capita — the high­est in Africa — Botswana has man­aged to reduce the num­ber of peo­ple liv­ing under US$2 a day from 55 per­cent to 49 per­cent of the pop­u­la­tion as the coun­try con­tin­ues to fair poorly in human development.

The fig­ure com­pares poorly with South Africa, which has 42 per­cent of its pop­u­la­tion liv­ing on less than US$2 a day, and favourably with Namibia, which is at 62 per­cent.
The report, which uses 2007 data before the finan­cial cri­sis, says Botswana is placed at posi­tion 125 out of 185 coun­tries in the study; from posi­tion 124 out of 177 coun­tries last year.

South Africa is at posi­tion 129 from last year’s 121, while Namibia is at posi­tion 128.
Other African coun­tries ranked ahead of Botswana in terms of human devel­op­ment such as Gabon, Egypt, Tunisia and Alge­ria have nearly half as much GDP per capita, a devel­op­ment which sug­gests Botswana’s inad­e­quate efforts in turn­ing resources into poverty alleviation.

Accord­ing to the UNDP, the HDI pro­vides a com­pos­ite mea­sure of three dimen­sions of human devel­op­ment: liv­ing a long and healthy life (mea­sured by life expectancy), being edu­cated (mea­sured by adult lit­er­acy and gross enrol­ment in edu­ca­tion) and hav­ing a decent stan­dard of liv­ing (mea­sured by pur­chas­ing power par­ity, PPP, income).

Accord­ing to the report, the life expectancy of a Motswana at birth is 53 years com­pared to South Africa’s 51 years and Namibia’s 60 years. On edu­ca­tion, 82 per­cent of Batswana are able to read and write, com­pared with South Africa and Namibia at 88 per­cent each.

The report says that as mea­sured by the Human Poverty Index (HPI), 22.9 per­cent of Botswana’s 2 mil­lion peo­ple live below min­i­mum thresh­old lev­els in each of the dimen­sions of the human devel­op­ment index. South Africa’s HPI is at 25 per­cent while Namibia’s is at 17 percent.

A new United Nations report says that the per­cent­age of peo­ple in Botswana liv­ing in poverty decreased dur­ing the year 2007. Of course, these sta­tis­tics were gath­ered before the global eco­nomic reces­sion, but it shows what may have been undone dur­ing 2008 and 9.

From Mmegi Online we read this break­down of poverty lev­els in South­ern Africa.

The 2009 Human Devel­op­ment Index (HDI) report released by the United Nations Devel­op­ment Pro­gramme (UNDP) shows that with a U$13,000 Gross Domes­tic Prod­uct (GDP) per capita — the high­est in Africa — Botswana has man­aged to reduce the num­ber of peo­ple liv­ing under US$2 a day from 55 per­cent to 49 per­cent of the pop­u­la­tion as the coun­try con­tin­ues to fair poorly in human development.

The fig­ure com­pares poorly with South Africa, which has 42 per­cent of its pop­u­la­tion liv­ing on less than US$2 a day, and favourably with Namibia, which is at 62 per­cent.
The report, which uses 2007 data before the finan­cial cri­sis, says Botswana is placed at posi­tion 125 out of 185 coun­tries in the study; from posi­tion 124 out of 177 coun­tries last year.

South Africa is at posi­tion 129 from last year’s 121, while Namibia is at posi­tion 128.
Other African coun­tries ranked ahead of Botswana in terms of human devel­op­ment such as Gabon, Egypt, Tunisia and Alge­ria have nearly half as much GDP per capita, a devel­op­ment which sug­gests Botswana’s inad­e­quate efforts in turn­ing resources into poverty alleviation.

Accord­ing to the UNDP, the HDI pro­vides a com­pos­ite mea­sure of three dimen­sions of human devel­op­ment: liv­ing a long and healthy life (mea­sured by life expectancy), being edu­cated (mea­sured by adult lit­er­acy and gross enrol­ment in edu­ca­tion) and hav­ing a decent stan­dard of liv­ing (mea­sured by pur­chas­ing power par­ity, PPP, income).

Accord­ing to the report, the life expectancy of a Motswana at birth is 53 years com­pared to South Africa’s 51 years and Namibia’s 60 years. On edu­ca­tion, 82 per­cent of Batswana are able to read and write, com­pared with South Africa and Namibia at 88 per­cent each.

The report says that as mea­sured by the Human Poverty Index (HPI), 22.9 per­cent of Botswana’s 2 mil­lion peo­ple live below min­i­mum thresh­old lev­els in each of the dimen­sions of the human devel­op­ment index. South Africa’s HPI is at 25 per­cent while Namibia’s is at 17 percent.