Namibia On Track To Meet Global Poverty Goal

Namibia On Track To Meet Global Poverty Goal: "The share of households designated as 'severely poor' - defined as those spending more than 80 per cent of their total income on food - appears to have more than halved from 9 per cent in 1993/94 to 4 per cent in 2003/04.

Poverty remains a predominantly rural phenomenon: 42 per cent of all households in the rural areas are classified as poor, compared to just 7 per cent in the urban areas.

The corresponding shares were 49 and 17 per cent respectively in the earlier survey.

The Kavango Region still has the highest poverty rate in the country but poverty levels here have come down from 71 to 50 per cent.

In the most populous of the northern regions, Ohangwena, poverty has been cut by almost half.

The region with the lowest level of poverty is Khomas with less than 4 per cent."

"As an indication: the 1 per cent of Namibians that live in the country's richest households have the same income as the combined income of the poorest households that make up 60 per cent of the population."