2010 South African Development Indicators show both progress and ongoing challenges

14 Dec 2010

The Minister in the Presidency: National Planning Commission, Trevor A Manuel MP, has announced the annual release of the Development Indicators for South Africa. The Development indicators are a product of a variety of official statistics, government data and research by various institutions.

The indicators are clustered into about ten themes including economic growth and transformation, employment, poverty, inequality, household and community assets, health, education, social cohesion, safety and security, international relations and good governance.

This year the publication was put together by staff from the National Planning Commission Secretariat (NPC) and the Department of Performance Monitoring and Evaluation in the Presidency.

This is significant in that the Presidency has recently launched the outcomes methodology under the leadership of the Department of Performance Monitoring and Evaluation and these indicators will assist in complementing the data which enables government to improve its performance and also allows the broader public to hold government accountable for performance.

Commenting on the Development Indicators, Minister Manuel said:

"In many spheres there are improvements generally, for example access to basic services remains on the increase. In some cases though the improvements are not as much as we would have liked, for example the Infant Mortality rate at 44.7 deaths per 1000 live births is not likely to reduce to the MDG target of 18 deaths per 1000 live births by 2014.

The economic crisis has also had a negative effect on growth and employment, poverty reduction, and the public finances. It will take some time before employment, growth and investment rises to pre crisis levels especially as the global economy remains weak and fraught with risk.

These indicators are important as they are measures that assist in understanding the impact of various government policies and programmes on the country and its citizens.

We would like to thank members of the NPC Secretariat as well as the staff of the Department of Performance Monitoring and Evaluation for their effort, attention to detail and perseverance in putting the Development Indicators report together ".

The 2010 Development Indicators Report (PDF) is available on the Presidency Website. 

For further information and comment, please contact:  Head of the NPC Secretariat, Kuben Naidoo

Statement issued by The Presidency, December 14 2010

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