It was interesting to hear recent debates on poverty and how political parties would address it.  What is surprising is that information on the distribution of poverty in South Africa has been around since at least 1991 at the local municipality level.  The Human Sciences Research Council (HSRC) has been monitoring poverty at the local municipality levels since then.  More recently, AfricaScope has developed similar datasets on poverty that can be used to continue the monitoring of poverty in the country.  The question is why has this information not been used as effectively as it should have been in the past.  This is possibly a reflection that decision makers in government do not have the skill to use and analyse this information so that they can target the most impoverished areas in South Africa with appropriate developmental interventions.