Understanding and Engaging with Poverty and Inequality in South Africa

The Graduate School of Development Policy and Practice in partnership with the Programme to Support Pro-poor Policy Development in the Presidency recently ran the course in Cape Town with guest lecturer Ravi Kanbur, the T. H. Lee Professor of World Affairs - International Professor of Applied Economics and Management, and Professor of Economics at Cornell University. 

Grappling with poverty and inequality, two of the key challenges facing South Africa, lies at the heart of most of government’s work. The course, designed to assist senior government officials and policy-makers better understand how their work fits into a broader context, was attended by more than 40 senior government officials from a range of departments tasked with poverty alleviation.

The course specifically targeted officials in key line departments whose work is important to tackling the challenge of Poverty and Inequality. This includes the Presidency, National Treasury and the Departments of Social Development, Basic Education, Health and Human Settlements as well as a team from one or more of the economic Departments namely the Departments of Trade and Industry, Economic Policy and the Ministry of SMEs.

Understanding poverty and inequality to develop effective policy responses is an ongoing process. Over the four and a half days the course provided participants with an overview of the issues and key considerations and focused on possible levers of change and effective strategies for combating poverty and inequality. Lessons were drawn from local and international best practices and experiences.