The Bank said notable improvement has been recorded in school enrolment, showing the country was on the right track to meeting the MDGs. File
The World Bank estimates that Kenya’s poverty level stands at 44 to 46 per cent, which is almost the same level it has remained for six years. However, it represents an improvement from 12 years ago when poverty level stood at 56 per cent before falling to 46 per cent in 2005/6.
While some progress has been made in meeting Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), the World Bank estimates that the battle is far from won.
“Currently poverty stands at 44-46 per cent, which is an improvement from 56 per cent in 2000, but we are not yet in a position to declare victory,” said Mr John Randa, an economist at the World Bank Group in Nairobi. Mr Randa said that there had been considerable improvement in MDGs over the years with improvement in primary and secondary school enrolment as well as reduction in mortality and HIV-AIDS cases.
Among the reasons for the persistence in poverty was lack of food security, Mr Randa said.
A 2005/6 household budget survey by the Kenya National Bureau of Statistics showed that 20 per cent of Kenyans suffered from food poverty, such that their entire income was not even enough for purchasing food. There are plans to update the survey.
“Prices of food in Kenya are higher than in Germany and the US. International sugar prices are lower than those in Kenya,” said Mr Randa.
He was speaking during the launch of the World Bank’s Global Monitoring Report 2012 at the Fairmont The Norfolk Hotel in Nairobi Tuesday.
To improve food production, Mr Randa said, more resources are required to be invested in arable lands through irrigation, structure of distribution and marketing through the National Cereals and Produce Board, as well as in research and development.
“When food prices are high, it is the poor who suffer most. Rain-fed agriculture is unlikely to meet Kenya’s food needs. The Treasury should consider allocating more resources or using public-private partnerships to increase food production,” said Mr Randa.
Prof Hiroyuki Hino, economic advisor to the Prime Minister, said during the meeting that there is scope to lower domestic food prices but this must be done through lowering the cost of production for farmers.
“To lower domestic prices of food, you cannot reduce prices for farmers because they will stop producing and the situation will only get worse. What you need to do is to lower the cost of production and increase the supply, then prices will follow,” said Mr Hino.
Mr Jos Verbeek, the lead economist for the Global Monitoring Report, said that donors have begun to pay more attention to basic nutrition in their programmes and projects.
Mr Verbeek said that research showed basic nutrition has a critical role in the first 1,000 days of the development of a child. “A malnourished child has on average a seven-month delay in starting school, a 0.7 grade loss in schooling, and potentially a 10-17 per cent reduction in life-time earnings – damaging future human capital and causing national GDP losses estimated at 2-3 per cent,” said the report.
Mr Henry Rotich, the deputy director of economic affairs at the Treasury, said that the resource envelope – used as basis for the Budget – is quite tight and asked that more donor funds be unlocked to ensure greater focus on food security.
“We welcome the change in donor focus to support food security and basic nutrition,” said Mr Rotich.
The Global Monitoring Report shows that Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) and South Asia are the only regions in the world not to have halved poverty by 2010. According to the report, East Asia and Pacific, Middle East and North Africa, Europe and Central Asia had attained the goal by 2010, well before the 2015 deadline.
SSA poverty level – the proportion of people living on less than $1.25 a day – stands at 48 per cent but is expected to reduce to 41 per cent by 2015.
At the projected figure of 41 per cent, poverty in Africa will still be significantly above global average of 16 per cent projected by 2015.
Among the major causes of persistent poverty in SSA are the high prices of food and the tendency to rely on imports, the report says.
