Energy use, poverty and development in the SADC

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the rela-tionship between economic growth, energy use, poverty alleviation and development in the Sou-thern African Development Community (SADC) countries. Association is drawn between human development indices and energy consumption, eco-nomic growth and poverty. It turns out that poverty has a bearing on the types of energy consumed, which in turn, affects health, education and income earning opportunities. Access to reliable and afford-able energy remains an essential prerequisite for combating poverty, and available evidence shows that a significant proportion of the population in SADC countries lack access even to the most basic energy supplies and services. Furthermore, inequal-ities penalize the poor by leaving them with a small-er share of income thus limiting their energy sources and weakening the poverty-reducing power of growth.