THE IMPACT OF POVERTY REDUCTION STRATEGIES DURING COVID 19 IN SOUTH AFRICA

Abstract

This article focuses on investigating the impact of poverty reduction strategies during Covid 19 in improving the quality of lives of the people in our local municipalities, in relation to interventions that have been implemented by the South African government to address poverty. The main aim of the article is to understand the situation in our municipalities and come up with recommendations that will assist government to enhance delivery of poverty reduction strategy in order to improve the quality of life of the rural poor communities. The research methodology for the study is descriptive, sourced from available literature. Due to the restricted extent of the research, no empirical survey was conducted. A number of normative criteria that dealt with the research problem were identified from the available literature, from which findings were drawn and recommendations made. The findings on this article show that; whilst significant progress has been made to address poverty through policy and legal frameworks and through implementation of poverty reduction strategies and programmes, there is a general consensus in literature that poverty is still widespread in South Africa and that activities put in place to reduce and eradicate it are not sufficiently translating into required outputs necessary for desired outcomes which ultimately impact on poverty. The study has identified the gaps that exist in service delivery as well as the challenges faced by government in effectively impacting on poverty through its poverty reduction programmes. The article will be structured as follows: Introduction, Literature review, Methodology, Results, Discussion and findings, Recommendations, Conclusion and References.