Poverty-eradication and sustainable development

This paper examines South Africa's record since 1992 in eradicating poverty within a sustainable development framework as spelt out in Agenda 21, the document adopted in that year by the Earth summit in Rio de Janeiro. It begins by presenting a brief snapshot of poverty in South Africa, the better to appreciate the magnitude of the challenge of poverty eradication. The next section presents an analytical overview of the relationship between poverty and the environment. Then, it examines specific anti-poverty initiatives of the government, and asks how successful they are in terms of reducing poverty, and to what degree they do so in a manner that is consistent with the principles of sustainable development. The paper concludes by summarising the success of the government's anti-poverty measures in terms of the principles of the National Environmental Management Act (Nema), and by making recommendations for how some of the lapses could be addressed.