Global Study On Child Poverty And Disparities (PDF) - Social Policy ...

Table 1.4: Economic activity, Vanuatu, 2006 (Population 15 years and over)
Activity Number %
Wages and salaries, full time 20,315 16.0
Wages and salaries, part time 3,201 2.5
Own business 2,813 2.2
Selling products 6,361 5.0
Own household consumption 47,765 37.6
Unemployed 12, 819 10.1
Other 33,651 26.5
Total 126,926 100.0
Sources: National Statistics Office; ADB, UNDP and GoV 2006.
The 2006 survey also found that around 61 per
cent of wage and salary earners lived in urban
areas (49 per cent in Port Vila). Wage and salary
employment increases by age, and peaks at
around 22 per cent of those age 40 to 44 years.
Wage and salary income is highest in Port Vila at
around 196,000 vatu per capita per year in 2006,
compared to 96,000 vatu in Luganville and 22,000
vatu in rural areas. In the rural areas of Shefa
Province – where Port Vila is located – it is 47,460
vatu per person, more than twice as much as in
any other rural province.
As shown in Figure 1.6, wages and salaries
account for 80 per cent of total household income
in Port Vila and 57 per cent in Luganville, but
for much lower proportions in rural areas. Ownaccount
production is broadly similar in most rural
areas, but much less significant in urban areas,
while agriculture, fishing and handicrafts are most
significant in Malampa, Sanma and Penama.
Figure 1.6: Per capita annual household income
by source and location, 2006 (Thousands of vatu)
Wages and Salaries
Other cash income
Income in-kind
Agriculture, Fish, Handicrafts
Own production
Gifts
300,000
250,000
200,000
150,000
100,000
50,000
0 Torba Tafea Shefa Malampa Sanma Luganville Penama Port Vanuatu
Vila
Source: Based on data from ADB, UNDP and GOV 2006 and
VNSO.
Not all employed persons escape living in poverty.
The working poor exist in Vanuatu; 5 7.7 per cent
5 The number of working poor is calculated by estimating the number of employed persons
living in a household with incomes below the poverty line as a proportion of total employment.
of employed people living in rural areas and
14.3 per cent of employed people living in urban
areas were found to lack decent employment,
with the income earned from employment or
from subsistence being insufficient to lift their
families out of poverty (GoV/UNDP, 2010) This
suggests that employment, including subsistence
gardening, provides a reasonable income for
many rural households. On the other hand, a
higher proportion of urban households, many of
which are not able to supplement their formalsector
employment with subsistence production,
find it harder to meet their basic needs.
Family and youth unemployment
Unemployment is a major predictor of who is poor
and who is not, particularly in urban areas. Of all
unemployed people in Port Vila, 38 per cent are
living below the Basic Needs Poverty Line. In this
group, 27 per cent have domestic duties, 41 per
cent are full-time students, and the remaining 32
per cent reported ‘other’ main duties (ADB 2009,
p.109). Adult unemployment in urban households
can seriously affect children living in these
households.
Approximately three-quarters of the population
lives in rural areas outside the two main urban
centres; however, the degree of urbanisation is
changing, with considerable movement from rural
to urban areas, especially to Port Vila, whose
population increased by 50 per cent between
1999 and 2009, a rate of increase nearly twice
the national average (Figure 1.7). It is projected
that by 2020 Port Vila’s population will be as
high at 60,000, many of whom will be young
and unemployed (ADB 2009, p. 12). These
changes place significant pressures on housing,
infrastructure and services in Port Vila.
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