Page 19 - Research Report 2025.1

Socio-economic disparities
Participant 2 notes the significant socio-economic disparities that affect access to private services in rural areas. While there are a few private schools and clinics,these services are only available to a small portion of the population,primarily those who can afford them.This reflects the class divisions in rural communities, where wealthier individuals may have better access to education and health care, while the majority of the population relies on under-resourced public services.
Long Distance to Social Amenities
The results show that while services such as schools, police stations and health care facilities may be present, the vast distances between these amenities and rural communities create substantial barriers to timely access. This issue is compounded by poor road conditions, further limiting the ability of residents to reach these services, particularly in emergency situations.
The results highlight several critical implications for the provision of essential services in rural municipalities. A key issue is the reliance on external funding and government grants to sustain services such as water, sanitation, health care, education, disaster management and fire and rescue. These services are provided free of charge to residents, reflecting the municipalities’ efforts to meet the basic needs of financially constrained populations. However, this dependency on external funding may create vulnerability in financial sustainability. Without local revenue generation, municipalities are at risk of service interruptions if government grants are reduced or delayed, limiting their ability to maintain and expand service delivery.
Moreover, while the provision of free services promotes social equity by ensuring that even economically disadvantaged populations can access basic needs, the municipalities’ limited financial resources may ultimately constrain the quality and reach of these services. Rural residents face additional challenges due to poor infrastructure, which restricts access to crucial services like health care and ecurity. Long distances to police stations and hospitals, coupled with inadequate road networks, delay emergency response times and exacerbate vulnerabilities in these communities.
The limited presence of private healthcare and education services further underscores the socio-economic barriers in rural areas. The overwhelming dependence on government services strains municipal resources and leaves little room for competition that could drive improvements in service quality. Initiatives such as sanitation projects in districts like Alfred Ndzo demonstrate efforts to improve infrastructure, but challenges remain in scaling such programs across broader regions.
4. What livelihood strategies are prevalent in this area and what is the role of local government? Theme 1:
Prevalent Livelihood Strategies
The theme explores the primary ways in which rural communities sustain themselves economically, with heavy reliance on social grants and subsistence farming emerging as key strategies.
Participant 4 comments
“So it goes without saying that in everything that we do in terms of the the the the amenities, social amenities, there are roads. There are schools. There almost every social amenities
is available, but our challenge is the distance.”
Participant 3 comments
“Police stations police stations. People in rural areas are far from police stations. They need to catch a taxi to get to the police station. So it takes a while to get that service. The roads are bad and things like ambulances take a long time to get to the rural areas.”
Prevalent livelihood strategies
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