Child Poverty – South Africa

Poverty hits SA children, February 26, 2010, Times Live: “A new OECD working paper on trends in poverty and income inequality in South Africa has found that more than half of all South Africans (54%) are poor but, among children below 10, as many as two out of three are poor. ‘This implies that among all poor South Africans, one in three is a child,’ said the OECD in the report that was released on Thursday. These high values are based on the national poverty line of 515 rand a month, or about US$ 4 a day, which is used for national policy making. International comparisons of lower-income countries often use the World Bank poverty line which is US$2 a day. Under this lower line, the aggregate poverty rate in South Africa is 30% but if the standard OECD poverty line, which is below half the average income, the poverty rate is 26%…”