Poverty amongst elderly persons is a phenomenon experienced worldwide, Namibia
included. The government of Namibia has come up with various social safety nets
programmes which include old age pension, disability grant and child maintenance
grant to alleviate poverty. Although these interventions were introduced to reduce
poverty among the targeted groups, statistics reveal that poverty still exists amongst
those receiving old age pension. The aim of the study was to examine factors
influencing poverty (food poverty, obtained using the food poverty line) among elderly
headed households in the country using statistical modelling, namely quantile
regression. Descriptive and regression was explored (used) to obtain the required
results using the 2003/4 and 2009/10 Namibia Household Income and Expenditure
Survey (NHIES).
The results show that in 2003/4 most elderly persons heading households (50.8
percent) relied on subsistence farming as a source of income. However in 2009/10
most of the elderly people heading households (41.3percent) in Namibia relied on state
old pension as their main source of income. At the 25th quantile which represents those
with lower expenditure levels (ranges between N$0 and 5755.75 in 2003/4 and
between N$0 and N$8759.35 in 2009/10) on food and beverages, elderly persons
heading households in all the regions except Karas and Otjozondjupa were spending
more on food and beverages than Kavango region as recorded in the 2003/4 NHIES. In
ii
some regions such as Omusati and Oshana region, the analysis also shows that
households headed by elderly persons in these regions spend more than 20 percent on
food and beverages than households headed by their counterparts in Kavango region,
which indicates that households headed by elderly persons in Omusati region are much
better off than those in Kavango region.
Furthermore, the analysis shows that for each additional educational attainment such as
a primary, secondary, and tertiary education of an elderly person heading a household
would spend more on food and beverages than those with no formal education at all
quantiles, hence they will be better off than an elderly person with no formal education.
This study concluded that factors such as education and farming as a main source of
income have a greater effect on poverty of a household headed by an elderly person,
hence the more educated an elderly person is the higher their chance of spending more
on food and beverages and moving out of poverty and an elderly person heading a
household whose main source is derived from farming was found to be more well off
than an elderly heading a household whose main source of income is derived from state
old pension .