Absolute poverty is defined by the World Bank as living on less than a dollar a day. This is a useful tool in compiling international comparisons of poverty levels. However, poverty cannot only be viewed in terms of absolute or financial barometers.

Aspects concerning the standard of living of individuals and households should be considered when determining the level of poverty in a country. The expanded social grant rollouts in 2001 contributed to the reduction of the level of financial poverty. The rollout did not provide individuals with tools to escape from the poverty trap.

According to the 2007/2008 South Africa Survey published by the South African Institute of Race Relations, in 2007, almost 1.8 million households in South Africa were living in informal dwellings. From 1996 to 2007, the number of households living in informal dwellings increased by 24.2%, from 1 453 015 in 1996 to 1 804 432 in 2007. These households are vulnerable to a number of social ills, as they are unlikely to have access to adequate basic services such as water and sanitation facilities.

The impact has most recently been seen in the surge in cholera cases in South Africa has exposed the vulnerability of people who have no access to clean water. In January 2008, 20.8% of households did not have access to free basic water. Free basic water comprises 6 000 litres per household per month. Also in 2008, over a million South African households were using the bucket system and were without sanitation facilities.

Poverty denies many South Africans the ability to share in the economic opportunities of the country. The municipal outreach project aims to assist municipalities to define the poverty challenges specific to their communities. This will allow them to correctly assess the policy intervention recommendations available to them, and to implement these interventions effectively.

The project will make available information on a wide-range of national, provincial, and local socio-economic data. This information will be made available on the project website, www.eumunicipaloutreach.org.za, and using several publications that will be distributed to municipal councillors, officials, and development organisations. Publications include a weekly newsletter posted on the website and e-mailed to beneficiaries, a monthly Fast Facts for Local Government (F3LG) that is also mailed with extracts posted on the project website, and an annual South Africa Survey that will be mailed with extracts posted on the website.

Workshops will be conducted in each of the eight municipalities in the project. The first series of workshops will take place during 2009. These will be the Major Urban Poverty Challenges Identification (MUPCI) workshops, and will be designed to identify the major poverty challenges facing the municipalities.

The second series of workshops will be the Urban Poverty Intervention (UPI) workshops which will take place during the second year of the project. These UPI workshops will explore policy interventions appropriate to the challenges identified in the MUPCI workshops.

The third series of workshops will be the Anti Poverty Intervention Implementation Proposals (APIIP) workshops. These APIIP workshops will be to formally propose the policy interventions identified in the first two years. These will be aimed at identifying the most effective means to implement the policy recommendations.

The municipal outreach project relies on the participation of municipalities and development organisations to propose relevant policy interventions and how these will be implemented to combat poverty in South Africa.