It is certainly true that much antipoverty work has had little effect. In many Sub-Saharan countries the favoured government anti-poverty measures were public works programmes. Botswana, Ghana, Lesotho, Malawi, Mozambique, Tanzania, Zim-
Гbabwe and more recently, South Africa have launched ambitious programmes to generate employment while building much needed infrastructure such as roads and clinics. While there has not been a comprehensive evaluation of these programmes in all these countries indicators are that in South Africa, the Public Works Programmes create at most, cyclical employment at wages below trade union-suggested minimum levels.
In response, some development practitioners have developed participatory approaches. For example, the "Organisational Workshop" methodology was first developed and implemented in South America and more recently in Zimbabwe. The method has at its core objective the transference of organisational and entrepreneurial skills that will remain with participating community members long after the roads and clinics
Key to the organisational workshop is that the participants determine the "products' that are to be built, they determine the composition of the teams that will build the products and how these products will be built. Participating community members also decide the rate at which they will be paid and how these payments will be made and utilised.
However, even progressive interventions such as these become pedantic and meaningless if the poor are not mobilised to articulate their needs in the bigger political sphere. The poor far outnumber the privileged. It is time that the political and economic cultures reflected this.
A commitment to participation and including the poor in decision-making is the first step in any anti-poverty prog ramme. And this commitment to participation should be extended to all aspects of development programming including the managing of aid flows and growing the capacity of the poor.
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The poor and the market
Within the framework of structural adjustment in Sub-Saharan Africa, the World Bank seeks to bring the poor into the very market which has isolated and marginalised them. The Bank observes that although most (rural) poor have some assets, the value and uses of these assets vary considerably. Most farmers operate on a small scale; and the kinds and small quantities of commodities produced often mean these products are not part of the market economy.
In Côte d'Ivoire, Ghana and Malawi, for example, the rural poor grow 60% of their food, and in Tanzania the poor produce 50% of what they consume. Subsistence farmers sell nothing of what they produce in the
The Bank concludes that the poor are only marginal producers for the market, but important buyers in markets for consumer goods. Thus, "only to the extent poor farmers produce tradable products will they be affected by broad macroeconomic developments."
The degree to which the poor interact with the market as sellers of their agricutural produce or labour depends not only on the demand for these products and for labour in the urban centres, but also on accessibility to the urban market, determined by distance and quality of the road infrastructure that connects their community to these markets.
These limitations, particularly on the rural poor, restricts their ability to use modern technologies and inputs and prevent them from benefiting from subsidies for inputs such as fertilisers.
In addition, the participation of the poor in the labour market depends not only on their skills and location but also their gender. The notion that a large supply of "surplus" labour exists among structure of incentives, which determines whether resources flow to the poor or away from them.
Economic restructuring is most effective when based on expansionary macroeconomic policies that promote growth through increased investment and investment in the poor. The state, he argues, has an important role in stimulating greater investment and in strengthening the economic linkages to the sectors where the poor are concentrated.
More controversially, McKinley argues that public expenditure should be reallocated to promote investment in the poor and less emphasis should be given to transfers and social safety nets!
The French radical economist Maxime Durand (1998) challenges the argument for a drastically reduced public sector. Thirty years ago, he points out. most economists agreed there was a theoretical justification for the existence of a public sector. According to Durand, the arguments used then have not lost their weight today.
"One primary example applies particularly well to the networks (health, transport) built up using public funds. Heavy infrastructure means large investments in upkeep, extension and modernisation. If these networks are opened to private exploitation, investors will obviously do their best not to shoulder any of these expenses and they will see it as completely natural that such support should come from the national budget.
It would therefore be necessary to create regulations and to define a system of financial obligations, and later to ensure co-ordination between the various private enterprises involved. That is why, even in the most ultra-liberal programmes, it is necessary to draft regulations to fulfil different functions. The absurd vision in which regulation is purely an administrative deviation does not hold water."
In any economy, difficult social choices must be made. But, according to Durand, there is a great risk that privatisation will go hand-in-hand with a short-term vision that not only leads to less concern for safety or quality, but entails burdening the state with the bill for operating expenses.
According to Durand, the poor stand to benefit most from a system which guarantees certain rights (which are increasingly demanded by social movements) to jobs, housing, health care, and education. National policy options
Third World countries, like those in Sub-Saharan Africa, face a particularly difficult challenge in the new world order. Despite the immensity of the tasks facing countries in Africa, there are still a number of practical policy options open to governments. Even without overtly radical policies, there are things countries can do to increase their economic space without having to succumb to the logic of globalisation.
• Manage trade and capital flows more carefully: national governments can exercise more discretion when adopting policies of liberalisation.
• Invest in the poor: greater social expenditure (education, etc.) in national populations are required to meet the demands of increasingly complex world of work.
• Encourage small enterprises: local economic development which is based on facilitating small homebased enterprises to emerge and the poor applies more to males than to Rural-urban inequality females. In general, females have little, if any, surplus labour to supply because they are often fully employed
There is no doubt that investment is the driving force of economic growth under market conditions. The issue is whether investment in the poor is growth enhancing. McKinley (1997) asserts that what matters is not simply the level but also the composition of the output -whether the production of goods and services enhances human well-being.
According to McKinley, what matters most is the character of economic growth, which is determined in part by the structure of the economy and by government policy. Pro-poor growth occurs when growth of output is concentrated in economic sectors in which most of the poor labour, and this output generates income for the factors of production they possess. This requires an enabling environment which determines whether the poor have access to resources and can use them efficiently. Central to this enabling environment is the
Although urban income-poverty is growing rapidly, the income-poor are still overwhelmingly found in rural areas.In Third World countries, 43% of rural men are illiterate, more than twice the share in urban areas. For women, the shares are 66% and 38%. This rural-urban inequality in literacy reflects the general differential access to social services.
There has been a rapid rise in the urban population in recent decades. The population of cities like Nairobi, Dar es Salaam, Nouakchott, Lusaka and Kinshasa, increased 700% between 1950 and 1980. Africa's urban population is growing at 6% per year. By the year 2000, between 40 and 50% of the population will be living in urban areas.
The urban poor are confronted by a different set of constraints than their rural counterparts, including the need to rent accommodations, pay higher costs for transportation, seek work where employment opportunities are scarce, and deal with abysmai sanitation facilities. In addition, the urban poor pay higher prices for urban land, when it is available. This land often receives no services. Many of the poor live in peri-urban (peripheral) areas, and have no access to formal land
Per capita consumption in the Cameroon capital, Yaounde, dropped 45% between 1983 and 1993. The average resident consumes 10% less than in 1964. (Source:
1995, Cameroon Poverty Assessment). *
International Viewpoint #306 December 1998 15
Income poverty
* Sub-Saharan Africa flourish within a community setting benefits the poor more.
• Promote labour-intensive enterprises above mechanised/automated technology: Labour-intensive enterprise development favours the poor when operating within accepted minimumwage regulated industries. • Develop and implement long-term poverty eradication strategies: These should involve at their core the poor, from design to implementation. • Promote political democracy, and increased participation of the national population in the daily running of their own lives: Increased empowerment and ownership of the poor will increase the likelihood of them mobilising to eradicate the patterns of poverty and inequality. • Promote international relationships between the poor: Globalisation is an international phenomenon - we need international networking and solidarity-building to meet the challenges of organising and mobilising to block neoliberal market impulses. * This paper was originally commissioned by the UNDP (New York) in March 1998. Zane Dangor contributed to the section on "Reaching the Poor". The author can be reached at <hercules@wn.apc.org>
People in Sub-Saharan Africa remain among the poorest in the world in real income. Some 220 million people in the region are income-poor, and it is estimated that by the year 2000 half the people in Sub-Saharan Africa will be in income-poverty. According to the World Bank (1996), about 45% of the 590 million people in Sub-Saharan Africa in 1992 lived below the national poverty line. In 1993, an estimated 40% lived on less than US$1 per day.
Over half these people are from five East African countries and Nigeria. In Gambia and Zambia, nearly two-thirds of the people were income-poor; in Cameroon Guinea-Bissau and Uganda, more than half; and in Côte d'Ivoire, Kenya and Nigeria more than a
The depth of poverty - how far the poor's incomes fall below the poverty line - is greater in Africa than elsewhere in the world.
The growth of income in Sub-Saharan Africa has been dismal. Between 1970 and 1992 average per capita GDP in relation to purchasing power parity grew only $73, compared with growth of $420 in South Asia and US $900 in East comparable to those of Sub-
In 1994, GDP per capita (in 1987 dollars) in Sub-Saharan Africa was $507, compared to $823 for all Third World countries, and $14,473 for all First World countries!
Between 1981 and 1989, per capita GDP fell in 27 of the 42
In Lesotho the per capita income of the richest 20% is 22 times that of the poorest 20%. For South Africa, the figure is 19 times, and for Kenya 18 times. *
References. Alavi, Hamza & Shanin, Teodor (ed.s). 1982, Introduc- Human poverty ton to the Sociology of Developing Societies. Macmillan Press: London. BIDPA, 1997 Study of Poverty and Poverty Alleviation in Botswana. MFDP: Botswana Government. Durand, Maxime. "The neoliberal assault on the public sector, International Viewpoint #286. Hercules, Antonio 1997 "Monitoring Anti-Poverty Programmes". Unpublished paper, first draft. Development Resources Centre. Toussaint, Eric and Drucker, Peter (eds) 1996, IMF/ World Bank/WTO: The Free Market Fiasco, NSR. Landell-Mills, Pierre & Serageldin, Ismail 1991 "Governance and the Development Process". Pp.14-17 in: Finance & Development, September 1991. Leftwich, Adrian. 1993 "Governance, democracy and development in the Third World". Pp.605-624 in: Third World Quarterly. Vol. 14:3, 1993 Leys, Colin. 1996 The Rise and Fall of Development Theory. EAP: Nairobi, Indiana University Press: Bloomington & Indianapolis, James Curry: London. Lok, Renata. 1996 Poverty Technical Support Document - Module 2. UNDP: New York. McKinley, Terry. 1997 "The Macroeconomic Implications of Focusing on Poverty Reduction." Technical Support Document: Poverty Reduction, Module 4 - Macroeconomic Policies and Poverty Swilling, Mark (ed.). 1997 Governing Africa's Cities. Witwatersrand University Press: Johannesburg. UNDP. 1992 Human Development Report 1992. Oxford University Press: New York & Oxford. 1993 Human Development Report 1993. Oxford University Press: New York & Oxford. 1996 Human Development Report 1996. Oxford University Press: New York & Oxford. Human Development Report 1997. Oxford University UN System Zambia. 1997. Prospects for Sustainable Human Development in Zambia. UN: Zambia. Watkins, Kevin. 1995 The OXFAM POVERTY World Bank. 1993 Poverty Reduction Handbook. "Key Indicators of Poverty in South Africa." Analysis prepared for the RDP Office (South Africa). *Taking Action for Poverty Reduction in Sub-Saharan Africa. Report of an Africa Region Task Force, Human Resources and Poverty Division, Technical World Development Report, 1997: The STATE in a changing world. Oxford University Press: Oxford & New York. 16 International Viewpoint #306 December 1998
Sub-Saharan Africa has the highest proportion of people in -and the fastest growth in - human poverty. Alongside this, the current availability of social services in most Sub-Saharan African countries is the lowest in the world
There are 22 AIDS cases per 100,000 people in Sub-Saharan Africa, compared to 5 per 100,000 for the Third World as a whole, and 6 per 100,000 in the First World
In the same year, there were 94 tuberculosis cases per 100,000 in Sub-Saharan Africa, 69 in all Third World countries, and 27 in First World countries. There is one doctor per 18,514 people in Sub-Saharan Africa, compared with one doctor per 5,833 people in all Third World countries.
Meanwhile, Sub-Saharan Africans consume 120 cigarettes per year, as compared with 113 for all Third World countries and only 97 in First World countries.
In 1990, 42.25% of the population in Sub-Saharan Africa were illiterate, compared with 29.6% of all Third World countries (illiteracy is virtually 0% in First World countries). Sub-Saharan African women represent 51% of all illiterates in
Similarly, between 1990-1995, 29% of children did not reach grade 5 in Sub-Saharan Africa, compared with 25% for all Third World countries, and only 2% for First World nations.
In 1993-1995, 37% of children in Sub-Saharan Africa were not in school, compared with 9% for all Third World countries, and 5% in First World countries.
1990, more Sub-Saharan African women died in child-birth than in any other region of the world. There were 971 women deaths per 100,000 live births, compared to 471 for all Third World countries, and just 31 in First World
Thirty one percent of all children under five in Sub-Saharan Africa were underweight, compared with 31% in all Third World countries, and virtually 0% in the First World.
149 Sub-Saharan Africans have radios per 1000 people, compared with 178 for all Third World countries.
In the First World there are 1018 radios per 1000 people. There are 1.1 telephone lines per 100 people in Sub-Saharan Africa, compared with 3.3 lines per 100 people in all Third World countries, and 40.1 in First World countries. *
If I were a rich man...
Most analyses of poverty in Sub-Saharan Africa are inadequate or superficial. Antonio Hercules outlines the problems in measuring poverty, and takes a critical look at official "poverty profiles"
from Zambia, Botswana and South Atrica
Many national definitions of poverty are expressed only in income terms (Lok, 1996). At the centre of such definitions is an income or consumption-based poverty line comprised of two elements. • The expenditure necessary to buy a minimum standard of nutrition and other basic necessities. • a further amount reflecting the cost of participating in the everyday life of
The first part is quite straightforward, and can be derived from minimum nutritional standards (adequate calorific intakes), and related to the cost of foodstuffs in different countries.
The second part is more complicated, and varies a great deal from country to country. Not just in terms of the costs of different items but also in terms of the actual items to be included. These depend on the generally accepted standard of living in a specific society at a particular time. The minimum income needed to stay out of poverty (the poverty line) changes over time. Usually it rises as countries become wealthier. This is partly because the range of goods and services needed to participate in the life of a richer society is much greater
These income-based definitions of poverty suffer from four central weak• Relativity: some analysts emphasise relative poverty as opposed to absolute poverty. This is appropriate when studying poverty in richer countries. But in a country where everybody Is starsocial classes or layers. This class structure may well provide a more accurate insight into the dynamics producing social and income inequality within these social formations.
Further, the international economic order and the relations between countries of the "First World" and the "Third World" are completely ignored in conventional tabulations of income poverty around the world. Human development
Given the limits of the incomepoverty approach, many writers have analised poverty within the "human development" framework. development is defined as the process of enlarging people's choices as well as raising the level of well-being achieved.
After all, human poverty encompasses all aspects of human deprivation. The orthodox view of development as the achievement of economic growth and hence improved living standards has been shown to be inadequate. Decades of experience has demonstrated that economic growth does not by itself lead to improved living standards for the majority. It is more realistic to measure human poverty as the denial of opportunities for a tolerable life.
This understanding of poverty is structured to include four main dimensions of impoverished human existence: short life, illiteracy, exclusion and lack of material means.
Human poverty is understood to manifest itself in the deprivation of people's lives, and often includes much more than a lack of material things - the denial of opportunities and choices most basic to human development - a long healthy creative life, enjoying a decent standard of living freedom, dignity, self-esteem and the respect of others.
This definition of human poverty includes income, but goes far beyond the narrow focus on income, jobs, and the ability of individuals to purchase commodities on the market. Indeed, it raises the social and collective needs of human beings to project a more holistic image of humanity and social progress.
The UNDP (1996) introduced a multi-dimensional measure of human deprivation called the capability poverty measure. This was intended to complement income measures of poverty, by considering the lack of three basic capa• the capability to be well nourished and healthy • the capability for healthy reproduction • the capability to be educated and knowledgeable.
High income-poverty is associated with high human poverty, and low income-poverty with low human poverty (UNDP, 1997). But the two forms of poverty can move in different directions. High income poverty coexists with low ving, relative poverty is relatively un- Unemployment important. Where there is starvation, or the risk of it, we need measures of • Common resources: the income definition of poverty is quite narrow. It pays insufficient attention to the value of common property like communal grazing land, or state-provided services like free education. (Baulch, 1996). • Capability: the maintenance of a certain standard of living depends not just on incomes but also on individual human capabilities which provide individuals with the skills, knowledge or health to acquire income. • International relations: conventional definitions of income-poverty provide relatively little insight into income inequality within specific national social formations. Income poverty definitions may not correspond with the generalised manner in which the specific social formations are stratified in terms of
The lack of employment opportunities has precipitated incomepoverty in urban areas and led to increases in human poverty, where self-employment (predominantly in the informal sector) is the main income-generating activity.
But even the World Bank recognises that self-employment is strongly associated with unstable working conditions and vulnerabi-
The informal labour market is
How ties sometimes usually associated with low wages,
low productivity, jobs, temporary activities, sometimes clandestine employment, unsafe labour conditions, and no protection under labour legislation.
According to the Senegal Priority Household Survey, participation in the public and private formal sector is weak for both sexes and self-employment is the only steady occupational opportunity.
Family enterprises are actually on the rise: men are leaving the formal and public labour market to work in the informal sector and women are leaving the informal wage labour market to avoid exploitation.
These changes result from the interplay between economic crises, a depressed formal job market for males, and increased pressure on women to generate additional income. *
International Viewpoint #306 December 1998 17
* Measuring poverty human poverty in Peru and Zimbabwe, and low income poverty coexistz with high human poverty in Côte d'Ivoire and Egypt.
Income-poverty and human poverty statistics tell us different things. For example, income poverty explains only about 10% of the variation in child malnutrition. This is because child malnutrition depends not so much on the income or food available as on the health care available to children and women. Country poverty profiles
Poverty indicators form an essential ingredient to national poverty eradication strategies and programmes. They reflect a country's definition of poverty and the strategies or approaches adopted to combat it. They often reveal fundamental assumptions as to the perceived forms and causes of poverty.
Poverty indicators are also core components required to compile poverty profiles. Poverty profiles are analytical tools that summarise poverty-related information in a country and attempt to answer questions like: who are the poor?; where do they live?; what are the main characteristics of their poverty?; why are they poor?
Usually, the information for developing poverty profiles comes predominantly from service records, and surveys, but also from the analysis of a country's policy framework. Poverty profiles should provide both a snapshot of poverty within a country at a specific point in time, and an indication of poverty trends. Ideally, this should be updated on a regular basis.
Poverty profiles should provide information on the extent, depth and severity of poverty and identify the relevant sub-groups of the poor by their distinguishing characteristics and circumstances, highlighting priority issues and concerns.
They should serve as a guide in the formulation of poverty assessments and the design of national poverty reduction strategies, and as a basis for assessing the possible impact of policy proposals prior to their implementation. *
Poverty in South Africa
South Africa has one of the worst records in terms of social indicators (health, education, safe water, fertility) among comparable middleincome Third World countries, and among the worst records in income inequality.
Income poverty in South Africa has a strong correlation with racial discrimination. More than 99% of the income-poor in South Africa are black. Nearly 95% are so-called "African" , 5% are so-called "Coloured", and less than 1% so-called "Indian"
Some 75% of South Africa's income-poor live in rural areas, concentrated in the former labour reserves - the Bantustans (homelands). Compared to the urban income-poor, the rural income-poor suffer even higher unemployment rates, even lower educational attainment, much lower access to services such as water and electricity, as well as lower access to productive resources.
Nearly two-thirds of South Africa's income-poor live in three provinces: the Eastern Cape (24%), KwazuluNatal (21%) and the Northern Province (18%).
Less than 30% of income-poor working-age adults are actually working. As a result, 40% of income-poor households and 50% are dependent on pensions and remittances as their primary source 18 International Viewpoint #306 December 1998 of income
Female-headed households have a 50% higher income-poverty rate than male-headed households. Women suffer from substantially higher unemployment rates: as a result, poor rural women spend more than four hours a day fetching water and wood.
Over 45% of the income-poor are children below the age of sixteen years.
The apartheid era has left a legacy of poverty and inequality in South Africa. In spite of the wealth of the country, a large share of the population has been unable to benefit from South Africa's resources.
A particular problem in South Africa has been the inequality in access to jobs, services, and economic resources for the poor, as well as opportunities to escape poverty (afforded through education, skills training, and better health, for example). Poverty and unemployment status are closely linked: most of the poor do not have jobs, and those who do, work for low wages - often far away from their families. This makes the poor very dependent on pensions and remittances, and hence vulnerable.
Many of the poor live in "substandard" housing; most have no access to piped water, electricity or modern sanitation. As a result, they are afflicted with the diseases of poverty, and have to spend hours every day fetching water and wood These problems make it extremely difficult for the poor to improve their economic position and escape poverty — especially since apartheid also resulted in the separation and disintegration of families and communities.
While it contains some useful information, the report focused exclusively on income-poverty. The arbitrary manner in which the income-poverty line was chosen for South Africa raises the critical questions of who defines incomepoverty, and why. By concentrating on a description of income-poverty and its major characteristics, the report does not analyse the causes or dynamics of poverty, nor make the relevant recommendations.
In reality, of course, human poverty in South Africa has come about as the direct product of colonialism and the historic path of capitalist economic growth.
The economic and social arrangements which today act as the structural foundations of the new South Africa, lie at the roots of how poverty came to be widespread, and came to have the almost exclusively black face that it has today. Any really useful poverty profile would start from an analysis of those issues. *
Poverty in Zambia
Zambia is experiencing a social crisis. There has been two decades of decline in the economy, in government services, and in virtually all walks of life. Over six million people, two thirds of Zambia's population, are living below the poverty line. The incidence and severity of poverty has been worst in rural areas, especially in remote areas, but poverty is also widespread in urban areas, where conditions are deteriorating rapidly.
By 1995 the majority of the population had to struggle simply to obtain the basic necessities for their survival.
Among the most critical symptoms of this social crisis are worsening problems of public health and falling life expectancy.
Children's access to education and their level of attainment at school has declined alarmingly. Poverty has led to increasing numbers of children living in especially difficult circumstances, including the estimated 70,000 street children. Worsening poverty
During the first decade after independence, Zambia recorded important improvements in the situation of children, with the under-fivemortality rate declining from 220 to 152 deaths per 1000 live births.
Over the same period there were also major improvements in the infant mortality rate, which was reduced from 125 to 80 deaths per 1,000 births.
After 1980 these gains have been reversed. By 1992 the under-fivemortality rate and the infant mortality rate had risen to 202 and 113 deaths per 1,000 respectively.
A similar trend is evident for life expectancy at birth. After reaching a peak of around 54 years in the mid-1980s, by 1992 the average life expectancy of a Zambian was only 45.5 years. This is well below the average of 50.1 years for Sub-Saharan Africa, the poorest region in the Third World
The rise in child mortality and the decline in life expectancy is closely linked with the economic decline and the growing poverty in which people live. The leading cause of death among children is malaria; other major child-killing diseases are respiratory infections, and diarrhoea. These preventable diseases are linked with the impoverished, unhealthy and unhygienic environments that people have to live in.
The maternal mortality rate is estiat 500-880 deaths per 100,000 live births. These levels are high compared with other countries in Africa, and at least 50 times the rates in developed countries.
The main causes of maternal death are young age at first pregnancy (average is 17.9 years), short spacing between pregnancies, lack knowledge of high risk pregnancies on the part of health staff and mothers, the high number of deliveries supervised by untrained personnel, poorly equipped health facilities, poor referral systems and the use of traditional herbs during labour.
Almost half the children and adults have manifestations of past or present malnutrition. According to the 1992 Zambia Demographic and Health Survey (ZDHS), about 40% of children under age five are stunted (low height for age) as a result of chronic undernutrition over a prolonged period; 25% are underweight for their age, and 5% are wasted (low weight for age).
Overall levels of malnutrition have remained high over the past twenty years, with no signs of improvement. By the early 1990s the rates of under-nutrition and stunting among under-fives in Zambia were approximately twice the levels in Botswana, Lesotho and Zimbabwe.
As Zambia's economic situation deteriorated over the 1980s, its education system underwent a
This was both quantitative and qualitative, and resulted in reduced access to education and lower educational attainment. About 50% of all children of primary school age are not in school. The situation was more acute in rural areas, with rural children accounting for 66% of all out of school children. The national gross enrolment for primary education fell from 96% in 1985 to 88% in 1990 and to 77% in 1992.
The limitations in the quantity and quality of education have contributed to the persistence of high levels of illiteracy, In 1990, 33% of people over the age of 15 years were illiterate, especially in rural areas and among women. The roots of poverty
The immediate causes for poverty in Zambia are explained as the erosion of the poor's livelihoods, due to lack of jobs in the towns and the weakened situation of subsistence farming in rural areas. Other immediate causes focus on the lack of basic services to protect people's health and to provide education and a social safety net. Structural adjustment has had an immediate, harsh impact on people's living conditions and the related collapse of mechanisms for caring, especially Long-term factors
Poverty is also the outcome of a series of long-term factors:
• structural economic imbalances economy for 20 years.
• the oppressive dependency on the State has suppressed civil society and prevented communities and NGOs from attacking the country's problems before they became severe.
• within the central government bureaucracy and the local authorities much of the institutional capacity has been depleted. Basic services are in disarray and
Government has been unable to come to grips with Zambia's enduring economic catastrophe.
• women in Zambia have suffered from legal, cultural, social and economic discrimination
• Zambia has invested in a lot of inappropriate technology over
Fundamental problems
At the most fundamental level, the report explains poverty as a result of the interplay between the national resource base, economic shocks in the 1970s, and above all, inappropriate national development policies (structural adjustment).
Urban bias and poor performance in agriculture were linked to the existence of considerable, exploitgovernment misplaced strategy of industrialisation and failed to appreciate the opportunities offered in many parts of the country by the abundance of good farmland.
External economic shocks - such as the fall of the copper price in 1974 and successive international oil price increases - caused consider-
But the more fundamental problem was that national policies failed to evolve the kind of response that was needed. Ins-tead, Zambia's rulers resisted addressing the underlying structural weaknesses until the country's resources had been run down and its capacity for adjustment had been considerably
International Viewpoint #306 December 1998 19
Poverty in Botswana
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* Measuring poverty The most recent Botswana poverty assessment defined poverty as "an inability to meet basic needs" denoting a minimal standard of living which encompassed a variety of components, both physical and social. The broadness of the working definition appeared in practice to resemble a definition of human poverty, since it encompassed both income- and capabilitypoverty. However, poverty indicators produced were mainly income-
The manifestations of poverty in Botswana included: a lack of adequate shelter and clothing, high mortality and morbidity, malnutrition, dependency, lack of child care, child vulnerability, an inability to participate meaningfully in the life of society, lack of economic and social mobility, and rural-urban
Detailed analysis of Botswana's Household Income and Expenditure Survey (HIES) results 1985/86 and 1993/4 was used alongside a national poverty datum line (PDL) to determine whether households were living in poverty.
The proportion of Botswanans living in income poverty fell sharply - between 1985/6 and 1993/4 the proportion of poor and very poor persons within the national population declined from 59% to 47%, while the proportion of poor and very poor households declined from
49% to 38%. Income and capability poverty was found to be higher and more severe in rural areas, and to a lesser extent in urban villages. As in many other countries, femaleheaded households were poorer than male-headed households
The immediate causes of poverty were identified as a combination of failures on three levels: • Failure of economic opportunities: a lack of jobs and opportunities for income generating activities leading to high unemployment; low wages for those in work, or low incomes from self- employment. These factors led to low primary incomes. • Failure of social provision by the state: inadequate coverage, poor targeting, or a low level of social safety nets; inadequate provision of health
• Individual and family roles: an unequal distribution of income within the household; a dependency syndrome, whereby individuals expect government to provide everything and show a lack of initiative in helping themselves; large family size, which increases the burden of dependency upon household income without contributing additional income.
The study also identified number of underlying causes of poverty:
• highly adverse climatic and soil conditions • unequal distribution of access to and control over assets • high population growth • low population density •remoteness of many communities
The authors also identified aspects of social organisation, beliefs and practices which are potential barriers to anti-poverty strategies These include fatalistic cultural beliefs, gender relations, and discriminatory attitudes towards particular groups in society, such as the Basarwa.
The Botswana poverty assessment linked income-poverty indicators with capability poverty indicators. As discussed elsewhere in this special report, income poverty lines are invariably arbitrary. The report also neglected important indicators of human poverty, such as health and education, and the relationship between these indicators and income-poverty.
Like the World Bank report on poverty in South Africa, the Botswana report failed to analyse land distribution and ownership patterns, and other critical factors in the national dynamic generating poverty and inequality within the Botswanan social formation were entirely absent. Botswana's growth path (one of the success stories in Sub-Saharan Africa) and macro-economic policy was not adequately analysed in relation to long-term eradication of human poverty in the country.*
No.11/12 The Bourgeois Revolutions. Robert Lochhead (72pp. £4,
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No. 16 Do the Workers Have a Country?, Jose Iriarte Bikila (48pp.
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No. 19/20 The Fragmentation of Yugoslavia. An Overview. Catherine
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20 International Viewpoint #306 December 1998
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Power and the people
There is growing resistance to energy privatisation in India. Joint ventures with western multinationals mean higher prices, and heavy environmental costs. On August 17th, project officials arrived at the Kannur power project area at Trinavu with equipment for soil testing and geological surveys. The villagers gathered around the lorry and demanded from the public. They paid out US$20m. as "Educational Gifts" - considered bribes by many people, and there was no environmental assessment carried out.
The power this project is going to provide comes at too high a cost, in rupees and in loss of livelihood and ecological damage. And, of course, the long-term cost of allowing the entrance of a multinational corporation into the alca.
The Enron project is not an isolated event but one of the first manifestations of the ongoing process of privatisation of the power sector in India.
The anti-Enron agitation symbolises the struggle against multinationals, global capitalism, traud, corruption, betrayals of the common customer, and to protect the rights over resources like land, water and forest for equitable and sustainable development.
Over-priced power is not a viable and acceptable solution to Kerala's power shortage. [Ag/JD] * that they not unload the equipment. Port privatisation, protests, and P&0
Each day the numbers grew until on August 19 the ISPPL men were compelled to leave.
The people of Kerala are rising up to fight the Kannur power project by the Chief Minister's nephew K.P.P. Nambiar and Enron, an American-based multinational corporation. Enron has undertaken projects in Gujarat, West Bengal, and the extremely controversial Dabhol project which has been met with mass protests and agitation.
Ironically the Communist Party of India (Marxist) (CPM) in Maharashtra has been opposed to the Dabhol project and they have campaigned actively against Enron whereas in Kerala, where the CPM is in power they seem to be welcoming Enron with open arms.
Land is already being acquired for the US$400m. project in Kerala. 176 acres will be required. The land that has been selected is mainly agricultural land with some houses, and the products of the land are the sole means of support for many people in the area.
A further 5,000 acres will be required for the privatisation of the port, again in collaboration with Enron.
Local fishers, and India's environmentalists, decry the water pollution and the effluents which threaten the fish stocks. This, in turn, jeopardises the livelihoods of the fisher folk and compromises the aquatic ecosystems in the area.
Two political parties, Yuvajana Vedi and Samajwadi Jana Parishad, openly oppose the project.
Enron says the project will provide energy to the power starved state. But Enron has a history of providing extremely expensive electricity.
The Dabhol Power Project in Maharashtra is a poignant example. The project cost and power tariffs were much higher than other power projects in India. In Maharashta state, Enron's power purchase agreement was initially kept secret
The National Alliance of Peoples' Movements recently sent this letter to the Chairman of multinational investors P&O. Dear Lord Sterling of Plaistow,
Your multinational company P&O has become a familiar name to the thousands of fishworkers, farmers (mainly tribals) and the dock workers of Maharashtra state. They have realised the seriously devastating impact on their lives and livelihood as a result of your multi-million rupee joint venture with the local government.
The environmental impacts of ad-hoc, ill-planned, anti-democratic, coastal management plans have always been fought against by fishworkers' organisations. Some 700800,000 fishworkers have been successful in stalling the fishing by foreign vessels that would have depleted fish stocks and displaced them from their source of liveli-
Meanwhile, dock workers of the Hind Majdoor Sabha trade union have been agitating against the invasions of "The New Economic Policy" leading to unprecedented
And now, fishworkers and dock workers have joined hands and allied with agriculturists and horticulturists to fight the construction of a mega-port at Wadhawan.
The people are determined to fight tooth and nail in the face of a gigantic plan to privatise 48 ports in Maharashtra.
The environmental impacts have been assessed by independent experts. Land and mangroves will be affected, and this will in turn be detrimental to fish breeding.
Natural processes of pollution treatment and water purification will also be affected
The overall space for fish and fishing will be reduced, affecting 200,000 families from Maharashtra and Gujarat directly. There will also be indirect suffering for 2,000,000 people who are dependent on the
P&O, we know, is prepared to go ahead and invest its money. Your agreement on equity with the state government has been pushed though, without any knowledge or involvement of the local people.
P&O has not even followed the constitution of India or the environmental laws and regulations. You may even be kept in the dark by our own sovereign government with regard to the strong opposition by the people to this project.
We, the People's organisations, allied through a National Alliance of People's Movements spread in 15 states across the country, therefore warn your company against any futher steps towards the Wadhwan port development.
We support the alternative policy and development plans prepared by the people's organisation for coastal resource management that are people centred, focus of selfreliance, and are equitable and
We strongly support the struggle against privatisation, and globalisation of fisheries that would also displace the dock workers from their jobs, as intended in all other sectors. We, therefore, suggest that P&O should keep off Wadhwan! *
The National Alliance of Peoples Movements
International Viewpoint #306 December 1998 21
Environmental racism
Since 1996, the Japanese chemical company Shintech has been trying to locate three factories and an incinerator next to homes and schools in the small African-American community of
Convent in southern Louisiana. Charlie Cray and Monique Harden of Rachel's Environment and
Health Weekly unroll the PVC story.
THAT'S WHY GREEDY COMPANIES Disney Haiti Justice Campaign
LIKE DISNEY CALL HAITI THE Pocahantas pyjamas cost $12 in New York. The Haitian women who make them get 5-7 cents. No wonder workers at Disney subcontractors are trying to organize. We want Disney to stop doing business with subcontractors who refuse their workers' demands for • A wage of at least
$5 per day (double current rates) • genuine collective bargaining. •