Poverty alleviation: beyond the national small business strategy
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Date
2001
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Publisher
University of the Western Cape
Abstract
'Small business' is commonly conceived of as a solution to structural unemployment and poverty al alleviation, whether from a capitalist perspective or as part of the preventative, developmental aspects of 'developmental social welfare services'. The White Paper on a National Strategy for the Development and Promotion of Small Business in South Africa (March 1995) outlines the government's national Small Business (NSB) strategy. The NSB strategy explicitly states that its objectives include economic growth and economic empowem1ent, while poverty al alleviation is included by implication. In this dissertation I critique the NSB strategy from the perspective of poverty alleviation. I argue that the Department of Trade and Industry has failed to develop a coherent strategy for each of its objectives and has attempted to fulfil a number of very different objectives by means of the same policy instruments. I argue that the SB Strategy is ineffective as an economic growth strategy, primarily as a result of poor implementation, whereas its ineffectiveness as a poverty alleviation strategy is due to poor policy design. I explore developmental consequences of cash transfers and argue that no other intervention could, at this stage, have the geographical and numerical impact that a cash transfer could have. In addition, the poor's need for a reliable, secure income is an aspect of poverty that I constantly stress, and which is met by even the smallest cash transfer. I argue for the adoption of a macro poverty strategy of which enterprise development is but one component, and which is premised on an understanding of intra-household dynamics and the effects of gender stereotypical roles on poor women as entrepreneurs.
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Keywords
Poverty, Small medium and micro enterprise, NGOs as implementers, Economic growth and poverty alleviation, Sustainable income