Jordan Times
Monday, November 8, 1999
Poverty alleviation requires participation of rich
and poor alike, social experts say
By Dana Charkasi
AMMAN — Countries combating poverty can only succeed if they transfer resources from the rich to the poor, prod the privileged to shape their societies and to make sure that civil society complements state-run efforts, social experts said on Sunday.
The experts, speaking at a regional five-day workshop on “The Role of the State in Poverty Alleviation and the Best Practices in Poverty Reduction,” also warned against the impact of economic globalisation on poverty.
Hisham Khatib, deputising for her Royal Highness Princess Basma Bint Talal, who patronises the workshop, said governments around the world are increasingly engaging in economic development and that the danger in it was the negligence of the situation of the poor.
“Equity has never been a virtue of markets, nor is long-term social vision. Correspondingly in this transition, many sections of the society, particularly the poor, are left vulnerable...[Economic] development needs a human face otherwise it will be unbalanced and with a heavy social long-term price, that can impede the whole development process,” Khatib said.
Khatib also stressed on the necessity of cooperation between the government and NGOs in the quest to eliminate poverty.
“The government cannot implement all these programmes by itself. It has to depend on its own organisations, its own departments, but also on the civil society, the non-governmental organisations. So, the work is complementary,” Khatib told the Jordan Times.
Else Oyen, chairperson of the Comparative Research Programme on Poverty (CROP) that offers consultance to governments and the U.N. on poverty elimination strategies, believes that the key in reduction of poverty lies not only in work with the poor.
“It is not enough to work with the poor. You have to work with the non-poor and make them understand that they have to give up some of their privileges in order to help the poor. Those privileges are to transfer some of the political power to the poor, to transfer resources to the poor, to give the poor access to education and health services.”
“I do not understand why Jordan is not taxing those [very rich]. You need an income in Jordan and one income is from the very wealthy people. It may not be enough, but symbolically, it is very important that they contribute to a society they live in. And we need to create a social consciousness among the non-poor,” Oyen added.
“An effort has to be made to make better use of our resources, spend less on armaments and more on pressing subjects, such as the basic needs of people,” agreed UNESCO Representative Giovanni Boccardi.
During the five-day workshop, participants from international walks will present papers dealing with theoretical deliberations on poverty reduction strategies as well as practical approaches and the experiences of their respective countries.
“The best strategy has yet to come. But the second-best in Sri Lanka is the involvement of the poor and enabling people to participate in shaping their own destiny. We educate them and provide financial support. Once they have the basic needs, they get technical assistance in the sense that we [endow these people] with skills. But ultimately, these people can work for themselves. That will enable self-respect and self-reliance,” said Karori Singh, associate professor at the South Asia Studies Centre in Jaipur, who works on the problems in Sri Lanka.
“We have a government poverty alleviation programme for the poorest of the poor. The programme is based on providing basic housing and income. Then, the government involves them in agricultural community projects. The government provides marketing, and the necessary means such as fertilisers,” said Madeline Berma, professor at the Economics Faculty at the Malaysian University Kebangsaan.
The workshop is organised by the Comparative Programme on Poverty Research (CROP) in cooperation with UNESCO Amman and Management of Social Transformation (MOST).
The workshop is the third on the role of the government in poverty reduction.