Proposed Measures for
Alleviating Poverty in Developing Counters
Like Ethiopia
Extracted and adapted from the author's book entitled
"The Puzzling Paradox of the African Food Crisis."
The concept of poverty is surrounded by puzzling intricacies
and encompasses issues of a multi-facted nature. For the most
part, poverty is an economic and social phenomenon, but it
also has cultural, spiritual and political dimensions. Added to this, it
fluctuates in time and space as well as in the status of the
people affected. A person classified as poor in one period, for
instance, may improve his or her status in another period.
The same person classified as poor at a given point in time may be
better off in relative terms. Consequently, it is virtually
impossible to coin a universally acceptable definition of the poverty
concept.
Notwithstanding
this, some efforts have been made in the past to define the concepts in a
broader context. According to the
United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural
Organisation (UNESCO), poverty is perceived as the relative absence of
income, assets, basic services, self-respect, opportunities
for education and social mobility and participation in deicsion-making. In another definition, it is reckoned to be
the insufficiency of income or, more generally, disposable income to prop up a minimum
standard of living.
To some scholars, poverty means the state of deprivation of
fundamental human needs. These include access to adequate food
and water, ample shelter, good health, long life, knowledge
and the capacity to provide materially for oneself and for one's
family through productive activities. To Sen (1987), poverty
is the lack of abilities to function. It is for the analyst to determine
the relevant abilities in a given society and to target
those segments of the society lacking the abilities. To Ravallion (1994),
poverty exists when one or more persons in a society do not
attain the minimum level of economic well-being.
From this broad conceptual framework, two major issues stand
out clearly. The first of these is the fact that the needs of the
poor are exceedingly complex and multi-dimensional. The
other is, given their complicity and multidimensional character, it is
beyond the realm of possibility to address all the needs of
the poor within a short period of time. Granted that this is the case,
what are the most feasible and pragmatic options for
addressing these needs? The first option is to synthesize the needs into
specific and practically implementable objectives. The
second option is to dichotomise these objectives in terms of attainable
goals with short and long time perspectives. With this in
view, the following proposals are made:-
(a) The first step to alleviate poverty is to identify or
target the poor. In other words, those vulnerable people below a given
poverty line
(absolute or relative) who should be a focus of a poverty alleviation programme
must be determined. This may not
be a difficult
exercise in a country like Ethiopia where practically half of the population is
believed to be poor.
(b) Once the poor are thus identified, the next step is to
unveil and analyze their immediate needs with the objective of
fashioning specific
programmes or projects, employing a multi-sectoral approach and placing a
particular accent on their basic
requirements such
as, but not limted to, food, shelter, water supply health, sanitation and
education.
(c) The measures proposed under (a) and (b) can yield
tangible results if parallel efforts are made to reduce the adverse effects
of
poverty-aggravating factors like population growth, armed conflicts,
land-holding systems, structural adjustment
programmes and the
prevalence of endemic diseases. Attempts should be made to diagnose and assess
the impact of these
factors on the
poverty situation.
(d) Poverty problems are largely offshoots of little or no
employment opportunities for generating income-earning capacities. A
broad-based economic
growth focussing on agriculture and related sectors (formal and informal
including agro-industries
should be actively
encouraged. In this context, both the public sector and the private sector
should play a catalytic role in the
sustained generation
and expansion of employment opportunities in order not to exacerbate the
current poverty situation.
(e)Development plans and policies should not only be
growth-oriented, but they should also be equity-oriented. Even at the
stage of
formulation, development plans and policies must have built-in mechanisms for
alleviating poverty through growth,
reduced gender
disparities and a fair practice of resource allocation.
(f)The availability and effectiveness of support services
and facilities constitute a sine qua non for the alleviation of poverty.
Priority attention
should be accorded to the radical improvement of such critical services and
facilities as roads, railway lines,
storage structures,
transport vehicles, farm implements, inputs, weighing machines, sacks, credits,
training institutes, clinics,
farmers
co-operatives, research and extension. The foci of all these efforts should be
the problems of the poor.
(g) Poverty is caused by environmental degradation.
Ironically, environmental degradation is also caused by poverty.
Agricultural development
(including food production) is stunted by deforestation and soil depletion
particularly erosion
salimisation,
deccication, sedimentation and water-logging. Foresighted measures to remedy
this problem include efficient
land-use practices;
proper utilization of inputs; conservation, expansion and rational exploitation
of natural resources (forests,
soil, water etc.);
and the utilization of alternative sources of energy such as biomass, bagasse,
methane as well as wind and
solar power.
(h) An essential condition for the successful implementation
of a poverty alleviation strategy is the existence of efficient
institutions.
Decisive measures must be taken to enhance the operational effectiveness of
relevant institutions by adopting
improved managerial
practices through among other, the provision of well-trained,
properly-motivated and genuinely
committed manpower.
(i) Strategies aimed at poverty alleviation hinge, for
effectiveness as much on locally mobilized resources as on external
assistance. Since
external assistance is a major component in poverty alleviation programmes, its
co-ordination and
restructuring in
favor of the rural poor are absolutely essential. Only 25 per cent of today's
aid goes to countries where
three-quarters of
the world's poor people live.
Each of these proposals may have short-term objectives.
These need to be identified cautiously before embarking on the
implementation of the poverty alleviation strategy. For
instance, the whole of proposal (a) and most of the proposal (b)
constitute short-term objectives. So are the proposals under
(c). Part of the proposal under (d) is a short-term objective.
Providing poor people with resources for the purpose of
enabling them to earn income may be a short-term objective.
Measures designed to streamline and reinforce the
functioning of the informal sector are also short-term objectives.
Under proposal (g), conserving and rationally exploiting
existing natural resources like forests, soil and water are largely
objectives of immidiate concern. Conversely, formulating and
executing country wide programmes or projects for the expansion of forests and
for developing large-scale irrigation schemes may be long-term objectives under
proposal (h), the amelioration of existing institutional machineries in terms
of on-the-job training and motivation may be a short-term objective. Building
the requisite technical capabilities through education and training may be a
long-term objective.
Assuming that the short- and long-term objectives are
intelligibly spelt out, these should be embodied in national programmes
and projects. Because resources are scarce and the poor are
faced with pressing problems like food, shelter and water supply,
the programmes and projects already formulated should be
implemented with a particular focus on the short-term objectives.
The time frame for this may be decided on at the outset.
Along with this, an efficient system of monitoring and evaluation must
be worked out to gauge the extent of achievement at all
levels.
Linked to this is the apparent need for determining success
indicators as part of the monitoring exercise. Some examples of
these are the declining number of the poor; the decrease in
rural-urban migration; the narrowing down of gender inequalities; the expansion
of employment opportunities, the slow disappearance of endemic diseases, the
issuance of relevant legislations, the wanning interest of people in poverty
issues; and the down ward trend in the prices of consumable commodities
particularly
food. Based on these and other indicators attempts can be
made to measure the success or failure of the poverty-alleviation
strategy and to introduce periodic adjustments too the short
and long-term objectives.
To sum up, launching and executing a poverty-alleviation
strategy postulates a mulit-sectoral
approach. This is because it is
vastly complex and embraces diversified issues of immediate
and long-term interest to the poor. These issues must be properly
analyzed digested and understood as a basis for formulating
well-thought-out, all-encompassing poverty-alleviation
programmes and projects designed to address realistically
the most urgent and pressing problems of the poor.
To carve out a multi-faceted poverty-alleviation strategy on
paper is one thing. To implement it successfully in the field is quite
another. Hence the importance of strengthening country-wide
monitoring and evaluation tools for measuring level of
achievement. Such tools include success indicators like
improved income, reduced malnutrition, lower illiteracy rates, increased
medical care, and a drop in infant mortality, which are also
employed as yardsticks for gauging the depth and severity of
poverty pari passu with other indicators similar to those
referred to above. It is hoped that these few proposals, however
limited they may be, will make some contributions to the
on-going poverty alleviation strategy in the country.