Swaziland

SWAZILAND IS a lower-middle-income nation in which 47 percent of the people live in poverty and 34 percent are unemployed. Early in the 21st century, Swaziland gained international renown as the country with the highest prevalence of HIV/AIDS cases in the world (38.8 percent). The epidemic has created an environment in which children head 10 percent of all households because their parents or guardians have succumbed to the disease. Swaziland has a high level of inequality and is ranked 60.9 percent on the Gini Index of Human Inequality. The poorest 20 percent of the population subsist on 2.7 percent of the country's resources, while the richest 20 percent share 64.4 percent.

The Swazi economy is heavily dependent on subsistence agriculture, in which 80 percent of the population are employed. Swazi crops are frequently threatened by droughts that sweep the area. Such a drought led to a major food shortage in 2002. The shortage was particularly damaging to children, women, the elderly, and the chronically ill. Rice is the major element of the Swazi diet, and the shortage contributed to a 61 percent increase in the price of this essential food. As a result, the poorest people often went without food. UNICEF, the United Nations’ organization for children, estimated that more than 231,000 people were in need of food aid. Many families were forced to decide between feeding and educating their children.

Swaziland is landlocked, and there is a limited supply of potable water. Since the mid-1980s, Swaziland has experienced some economic diversification, with sugar and wood pulp bringing in export income. Swazi-land's natural resources include asbestos, coal, clay, gold, diamonds, quarry stone, and talc, but only coal [Page 1048]and quarry-stone mines are in operation today. Geographically, Swaziland is almost surrounded by South Africa, and the Swazi economy is heavily intertwined with that of the larger country. Only one-tenth of Swazi exports go to other countries, and some three-fourths of all Swazi imports come from South Africa. The Swazi economy is also dependent on regular remittances from the Swazi who work in South Africa.

Total life expectancy declined from 43 years in 2003 to 35.65 years in 2005 in great part because of the HIV/AIDS epidemic. The Swazi have a median age of only 18.72 years. Some 40 percent of the population are under the age of 14, and only 3.8 percent have reached the age of 65. The Swazi have an astonishing 70.5 percent chance of not surviving to the age of 40.

With the HIV/AIDS prevalence rate, the disease has taken a devastating toll in Swaziland. By 2003 estimates, 220,000 people out of a population of 1,173,900 are living with the disease and another 17,000 have died. As a whole, the Swazi have access to medical care, and only five percent lack access to affordable essential drugs. However, the lack of safe drinking water has placed some 150,000 people at risk for developing the waterborne infections that are common in sub-Saharan Africa. Some 48 percent of the population are at risk for developing other diseases spread through inadequate sanitation.

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