Old-age pensions Contributory social security system

128 ESS-33 Figure 68. South Africa: Fiscal revenue and expenditure, 2000-2008 Source: World Bank, 2010. One of the most important features in terms of the creation of fiscal space has been the significant reduction in debt service and overall public debt. Total public debt fell from 49.5 per cent of GDP in 1996 to 29.5 per cent in 2009, with a marked decline in domestic debt. As a result, total debt service is now only a quarter of the 1997 level in terms of exports figure 69 and roughly two percentage points lower in GDP terms. This has allowed the government to increase spending without incurring additional deficits. Figure 69. South Africa: Total debt service as a percentage of total exports, 1994-2008 Source: World Bank, 2010. ESS-33 129 Although the flow of official development assistance started increasing just after Independence, it has in practice not served as a major source of financing. Between 1993 and 2008 per capita ODA grew from US2 to US23, an increase from 0.21 per cent to 0.42 per cent of gross national income figure 70. Despite the steady rise in ODA funds, they clearly lagged behind the volume from which some neighbouring countries benefited during the same period. Figure 70. South Africa: ODA flows as a percentage of GNI and in per capita terms, 1993-2008 Source: World Bank, 2010. As to the social sector, South Africa still faces important challenges in terms of poverty and inequality. The country has one of the highest rates of inequality in the world, and more than four of every ten citizens still live under conditions of poverty. As to human development, South Africa ranked 129th in the Human Development Report 2009, far below its position in terms of GDP per capita, which is almost double that of Namibia. Yet Namibia ranks one position above South Africa in the Human Development Index. This is due largely to a low life expectancy index 0.442 for South Africa which is affected by the high prevalence of HIV UNDP, 2009. Roughly 5 million South Africans are living with HIV. In addition, special challenges face the country with regard to infant and maternal mortality table 14.