|
|
b) Large scale industry without the prior development of small-scale industry;
c) Urbanization outpacing industrialization;
d) Services growing faster than the productive base of agriculture and industry;
e) Population growth racing ahead of employment growth.
LESSONS LEARNT FROM PAST EXPERIENCE
Due to poor targeting, most poverty alleviation schemes seldom reached the needy. The middle classes and the influential hijacked them. We can infer these lessons from the past experiences.
• Don’t treat alleviation of poverty as a sector. How can you expect to reduce poverty by launching few programs while other macro policies continue to increase poverty?
• Don’t start grandiose programs and projects to help the poor. They never work. Start small, scale-up and mainstream gradually
• Don’t believe that massive foreign aid can lead to poverty reduction. The IMF and the World Bank are not the solution. As a matter of fact they are the part of problem. Dependence on aid giving agencies has created a new sort of poverties and in many cases has resulted in an erosion of sovereignty and destabilization of societies. Sustainable development is only possible through local resources, which can always be found if the programs are participatory in nature and low in cost.
• Don’t use soft programs/ subsidies to solve social sector problems- they will not be sustainable in the long run.
• Don’t believe that NGOs can replace the government- they can at best quicken the process of social mobilization; can do intermediation between the state and the poor.
• Don’t believe that community participation means that people participate in government programs. It should be other way round. Government should support what the people are doing.
POINTS TO PONDER
While devising poverty alleviation strategy the following points are to be pondered upon:
• It must be admitted that conventional methods to eradicate poverty won’t work. Similarly it must also be accepted that in the social sector, government cannot do everything. It has neither the capacity nor the resources to do so. In Pakistan, the problem is neither shortage of funds nor lack of skilled manpower. The main issue is poor governance and poor management.
• Grass root realities needs to be studied and its result accepted with open mind. It must be admitted that people have been surviving in spite of the state, not because of the state. The initiative of the communities and small enterprises in solving their problems need to be supported and supplemented. They do not expect much from the government. What they need is an enabling environment, and availability of research oriented technical support in solving their problems.
• Smaller things in the following sectors should be left to the poor and their associations. There is empirical evidence that they can undertake these activities on ‘self-help and self-managed basis’ with the support of cooperatives and community based organizations: check dams and water management –agriculture cooperatives- rural water supply-sanitation and solid waste management- agriculture cooperatives-rural water supply- sanitation and solid waste management at lane level- housing- basic health-education at primary level-family planning-social forestry-saving and credit societies. What they need is technical support from the professionals and space for social mobilization. Bigger things like big dams, trunk sewers, treatment plants, water source development, making land available for housing and big hospitals, colleges, universities etc. should be the responsibility of the state. To implement this approach structural partnership based on the concept of component sharing needs to be developed.
• The myths and misconceptions about the poor that 1) they are not organized; 2) they are too poor to pay for the services; 3) they are not bankable (they will not return the money if given to them in small loans); 4) they do not want to change their lives, need to be thrown in the dustbin. There is empirical evidence across the globe to disprove these myths and misconceptions; 5) we must now go beyond the rhetoric of creating awareness, capacity building, advocacy networking and running training courses- the much touted strategy advocated by the NGOs and donor agencies. What people need are low-cost, easy to implement, sustainable packages which can solve their basic problems.
• Technocrats and policy makers should unlearn what they have learnt in the universities, and start a process of relearning. They must realize that text book prescribed in the universities and colleges have no link with ground reality.
|
Tags
You must be logged in to add tags.
|
Writer Profile
aneel SALMAN
aneel SALMAN Lecturer, Dept of Economics Forman Christian University, Pakistan. Currently a Fulbright Scholar, pursuing PhD in Economics at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI) Troy, NY USA 12180-3590 Email: aneelsalman@yahoo.com
|
Comments
Great job John | Mar 25th, 2003
great job
Very true Bash Balogun | Jun 16th, 2003
I completely agree with you, and I hope those in authority get a full understanding of this.
Good job.
It is Good Madan Paudel | Jul 4th, 2003
The issues you raised is very good.Keep it up.With best Regards
Madan
paudelmadan@hotmail.com
graet job aneel ImranAmeen Khan | Oct 6th, 2003
assalam o alaikum aneel
i m really glad to see ur comments specially on Pakistan, as a patriot Pakistani we should join hands together to keep our country from developing to a developed country,i fully agree with ur views, as i have no time so far to write an article, but i wish u write more about the other burning issues of Pakistan. keep in touch aneel
regards.
imran.
Allah Hafiz
You must be a TakingITGlobal member to post a comment. Sign up for free or login.
|
|
