BiAS 7 – The Bible and Politics in Africa
55% of orphaned children in Namibia do not live with all their siblings
under the age of 18.
“Families are the best hope for the care of orphaned and vulnerable
children, but they require support from outside sources” (DHS 2006-
07:263). The UNICEF 2005 report specifically mention faith-based or-
ganisations as part of a wider support system. The problem is that exter-
nal support is not readily available and only 17% of OVC’s live in house-
holds that do receive external support.
HIV/AIDS may be the main contributor to the orphan crisis in Namibia
and therefore also the main cause for the fact that there are so many
dysfunctional families in the country but there are, of course, driving
factors causing and upholding the epidemic in Namibia. The most per-
tinent of these is the situation of extreme poverty in the country even
though the country is classified as lower-middle income country. This
affects the OVC’s in the country severely, since many of them are taken
up in families which are falling in the categories of poor to severely poor.
A brief explanation of the situation in Namibia follows below.
Poverty in Namibia
Namibia is one of the countries with the largest gaps between rich and
poor in the world and even though the country has managed to narrow
this gap somewhat, the Gini coefficient is still 0,6%, down by only 0,1%
in twenty years (see an article by Schlettwein 2010:18). Schlettwein,
however, is a government official, and in an independent study of Octo-
ber 2009 it is determined that this figure cannot be correct. This study
reports a mere 0,01 reduction in the Gini coefficient, which is negligible
by any standards (see Schmidt 2009c).
Poverty can be measured with different scales. Two of these have been
used in Namibia to determine the poverty line in the past. The Namibia
Household Income and Expenditure Surveys (NHIES) of 1993/94 and
2003/4 used the food share in consumption approach, whereas a recent
article by Schmidt (2009a) used the cost of basic needs approach (CBN),
the approach or method that is used in Namibia today, and also in many
countries of the world. “The poverty determines the minimum standard
of living one has to achieve to be considered non-poor. In other words,
any household below the poverty line is considered poor” (Schmidt
2009c:2). Schmidt (ibid.) explains the CBN method as follows: