A Charitable Organization Oxfam, has described Southern Africa as most unequal subregion in the whole world.
Addressing a SADC Parliamentary Forum in Lilongwe, Oxfam Country representative Lingalireni Mihowa said extreme inequality in Southern Africa has been supercharged by various mutual and reinforcing factors such as decades of colonialism and racial inequality.
“We are in a region with huge natural resources endowment. The extractive sector contributes about 10% of SADC GDP and about 20% of national government revenues. But instead of working for the well-being of everyone, the sector has instead become a poverty trap and an inequality enabler, working for a tiny mostly in afar fields due to transparency and accountability challenges.” Said Mihowa.
“Problems of illicit financial flows, weak fiscal regimes, corruption and human rights abuses are a cause of concern particularly in mining communities.”
She added that, lack of public resources to invest in the pro-poor sectors like health and social protection and Lack of value addition locally means that the sector is not creating jobs locally as it should.
On Agriculture; Mihowa said the sector is of significant socio-economic importance in the region, given that most rural communities depend on it for food and income.
She said “the sector employs 53% of the labour force in Africa but despite the enormous social economic potential, the sector has instead become a poverty trap and inequality amplifier, especially for small holder farmers.
According to Mihowa Small-scale farmers in SADC and Africa in general are net food buyers and among the poorest while at the same time usage of inputs is dismal, infrastructure is lacking, financing options are inadequate and market linkages are too weak to support improved productivity.
“Now the region is experiencing worsening food insecurity. In February 2022, SADC indicated that 36 million people are facing severe or moderate food insecurity. Whist climate change is playing a big role, inadequate investments in agriculture by the governments have played a bigger one,” Said Mihowa.
On COVID-19, Mihowa said the pandemic worsened the region’s economic crisis as dozens of millions have been forced into poverty while vulnerability and inequality have increased.
She gave instances of COVID-19 Global vaccine inequality and increasing debt that have hit the region because of the pandemic.
As solutions, Oxfam has recommended that governments introduce policies and political choices that have power to reduce inequality.
Further, Oxfam has recommended that SADC Parliaments should promote accelerated move towards People-Centred National Budgets for high-quality public services in health, social protection and education.