If poverty is the question...
the answer is not in treating the symptoms but honestly facing the causes.Despite decades of development assistance received through a complex system of lending institutions, multilateral agencies, bi-lateral aid programmes and foreign NGOs, Pakistan remains in the grip of grinding and persistent poverty. During the past fifty years, approaches to development have varied, influenced by the prevailing geopolitical climate, shifting ideologies and ever-changing fashions in thinking about development and poverty alleviation. From modernisation theories to "basic needs"; from import-substitution to export-led growth; from technology transfer to sustainable development and participatory approaches -- there has been no shortage of models that shaped development planning.
What have not changed are the basic facts of poverty in Pakistan, where large numbers of people continue to live in conditions of absolute poverty. If poverty alleviation initiatives have indeed been a failure on the large scale, it is not because reaching the poor and securing for them wider opportunities has not been the focus of development, but because the development programmes have not rightly identified the main causes of poverty. Instead, they have been treating the symptoms all along. UNDP and many other programmes' "From trickle down to targeting" the poor approach can be more strengthened if it is directed after the real understanding of causes of the problem.
The simple idea, not always acknowledged when planning to alleviate poverty is that we need to know the underlying sources and social explanation of our poverty because policies even if targeted directly to the poor can hardly succeed unless they are directed at the root causes of the poverty. And such causes vary from country to country and society to society. A strategy followed by one country need not be appropriate with the same packages and ways of implementation for another as well.
Causes of the problem.
There can be four major causes of poverty.
- Kind of circumstances that are beyond control of the government and local people, which can be natural and national disasters, some mishappening due to bad luck etc.;
- Lack of education, opportunities, resources and adequate technology that may cause low standard of living;
- Any kind of exploitation, domination and oppression from the top and alienation of the masses from the elites at the bottom; and
- Inadequate structures and values leading to social, political and economic inequalities.
If we look deeply into the factors that have caused the wrenching poverty in Pakistan, we would come to the conclusion that causes in category three and four have led to what has been mentioned in category two.
Goals and inspiration.
The goals to eradicate poverty in each of the four cases mentioned above are different as follows:
- If cause of the poverty is some national or natural disaster, the goal simply becomes to relive immediate suffering of the people.
The service programmes in such cases are limited to famine relief efforts, establishment of refugee centres, care of the sick, children and disabled through establishment of clinics and provision of curative medicine.
In this case the inspiration comes from the calls: "help the poor charity." - If causes of poverty are those mentioned in category two, the goals become raising production, developing self-reliance and providing equal opportunities.
For achieving these goals, the service programmes include technical training in: management, agriculture, home industries, income producing activities, health care, savings and credit and affirmative action.
Here the inspiration comes from "Help people to help themselves."
And we must keep in mind that in our case in Pakistan the root causes mentioned under category two have become the mere symptoms of the root causes mentioned under category three and four, and unfortunately, all our poverty alleviation efforts are concentrating on the goals to eradicate these symptoms. - The goal to end the root causes of category three is to challenge and overcome the exploitative structure.
The service programmes for category three are various grassroots movements, conscientisation programmes, revamping political parties and establishing various unions along with effective social mobilisation and organisation for social and political transformation.
Here the inspiration comes from denouncing evil and announcing good.
Again, the problem is that the root causes of our poverty are of category three and four, but the service programmes to combat those cause and achieve the goals are those that apply to category two. - The goals to address the causes of poverty in category four are to build alternative economic, political and education structure that should convert growth into human development and poverty alleviation. In this case the inspiration comes from "making the things a new."
Achieving these goals needs establishing systems to combine economic growth with a high degree of equity in the distribution of income and, more importantly, access to opportunities of production, health and education.
But there is no concerted effort in offing from the government and the donors to thoroughly invest in establishment of macro-level systems for greater redistribution of rewards from the market, based on the redistribution o assets and endowments in favour of poor.
It is extremely important to differentiate between the type of change that is needed to come as a result of poverty alleviation efforts. The type of change for the root causes mentioned in category one and two is FUNCTIONAL based on non-conflictual approaches that need only consultative leadership. Whereas the change needed for addressing the cases in category three are four is STRUCTURAL CHANGE and the approaches taken in this regard become conflictual in nature, demanding strong discipline and leadership shared by delegation of authority from base up.
The irony is that everyone related to the development field in Pakistan fully understands that the root causes of poverty in Pakistan are those of category three and four but only to take a non-conflictual course, the programmes have been designed on the pattern of addressing category two causes, which are only symptoms of the real causes in our case.
Types of services for each category of causes are different. For the first it is simply at welfare service; for the second it is development; for the third liberation; and for the fourth transformation. It is therefore naive to assume that by providing development service we would one day be able not only to eradicate the root causes of poverty -- exploitation, domination, oppression, alienation and unequal distribution -- but also bring about transformation of the society.
Since the poor in Pakistan are naive, dependent, alienated and suppressed, they believe that the way things are is the only way they can ever be. There are signs of limited change and a bit awareness of inequality in sharing the fruits of independence. There are also some local actions to meet immediate needs, but some of the approaches -- like offering opportunities for advance of individuals and not properly developing communal responsibility, or regrouping people around local leaders who "take over" actions initiated by the community, or seeing politics only in terms of elections -- reinforces the present situation.
For transformation, we need to make the groups more articulate and aware of the root causes; find aspects of local religion and culture with liberating messages; enable the people to break the culture of silence to speak only and honestly; gain skills by forming and running organisations; develop models which help groups analyse situation critically and plan action; pinpoint clashes between classes in society and within the organisation; support efforts to build movements to reflect on personal and organisational life; and replace authoritarian structures with self-management and active participation at all levels.
Unless the grass roots organisations develop into a strong pressure group along with the respective NGOs, the piecemeal efforts would never lead the government to change its exploitative ways and the political corruption would never come to an end. The present activities for poverty alleviation, for instance, can never force the government to fully disclose all public-spending provisions and make a commitment to protect social spending for the poor, or integrate poverty reduction measures into the macro-economic framework. And so far they have not provided the government with an opportunity to integrate social and economic policies or make necessary reform for ending social, political and economic inequalities.
The bottom line is that the way we analyse the problem of poverty affects our goals, and the kind of programme we develop to eradicate it. In the light of developments made in the past three decades, the government of Pakistan, NGOs and the donors must see and decide whether the functional change or structural change model is appropriate for eradication or alleviation of poverty in Pakistan, and adjust thier policies accordingly.
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