Delivering the goods to the poor
Syed Fattahul Alim | Wednesday, 18 June 2008
Alleviation of poverty is a big issue that the successive governments of the country have been trying to address over the years. Not in the distant past, the United Nations (UN) and the leaders of the rich nations at their G-8 summits made poverty alleviation a big agenda of their discussions. The UN has also set its Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) for fighting poverty globally and set a timeline for halving global poverty by 2015. The basic issues of MDGs were incorporated in the overall development strategy of the governments in the form of poverty reduction strategy papers (PRSPs) in order to mitigate this basic scourge of society in a phased manner.
Surprisingly though, the global drive for poverty alleviation is now put on a backburner both at the international and the local levels. However, the focus on poverty alleviation is still there in our annual national budgets including the latest one. But for all practical purposes, there is no denying the fact that the thrust of the international community, the UN and development partners on the issue has, of late, got a bit watered down.
The reasons for this shift in attention are also not hard to see. The recessionary trend in the world's largest economy (the USA), especially in the wake of the subprime crisis, skyrocketing price of fuel oil and the recent volatility in the food grains market jacking up the prices of rice, wheat, corns, pulses, soybean, etc twofold or more in the global market and such other issues of urgent concern have understandably stolen the attention of the global community. Ironically though, it is exactly these issues that have rendered the fundamental problem of poverty alleviation more urgent. The poor in the Least Developed Countries (LDCs) like Bangladesh are facing further difficulties as a result of ever soaring prices of food grains as well as other essentials of life. However, the syndrome is global, not specific to the conditions of Bangladesh.
One can say that the poor in Bangladesh as well as in other parts of the world are passing their hardest days in the recent times. Against this backdrop of uncertainties in every sphere of life globally, the LDCs like Bangladesh will have to face the crisis more or less on their own, make do with whatever resources they have in their hands and evolve their own strategies to address the scourge of poverty. Bangladesh, in a similar vein, will also have to continue the fight against the scourge of poverty on its own armed with its numerous institutions dedicated to the purpose and operating both at the government and the non-government levels.
On this score, the local chapter of the Transparency International (TI) at a post-budget roundtable brought the issue of poverty alleviation afresh and stressed the issue of planning at local level to address the problem of poverty.
As a matter of fact, the issue of poverty alleviation has a lot to do with planning. The traditional approach is centred on allocation of some resources at the centre and deliver the same through the existing government machinery to the village level where the poverty-stricken people reside. Unfortunately, the bureaucratic juggernaut can hardly ever reach the ultimate beneficiaries the resources allocated at the centre. This is again the age-old top-down approach to solve a problem at the grass-roots level. On this score, the chairman TI, B, Professor Muzafar Ahmed, stressed village plans to attack poverty at the grassroots and strengthening of the local government institutions as the vehicle for delivering the resources allocated from the centre to reach the beneficiaries. What the TI, B chief was saying was in fact a re-statement of the bottom-up approach to tackle the all-important issue of poverty. But the question of the mechanism to deliver the resources to the poor, even if it is through 'village plan,' as the TI, B head has pointed out does not make issue any clearer until one also knows about structure of the 'village plans' and the exact role of the representatives of the local government institutions in the preparation of the village plans. What is being stressed here is the composition of the decision-making apparatus for the village plans. Though the talks and concerns on the issue of depoliticising as well as strengthening of the local government institutions has reached a crescendo in recent time, many question still remain unanswered on how to make those institutions efficient and especially designed to address the issue of poverty alleviation. The older generation of the country may still remember the notoriety of the local government institutions of the past in eating up the public resources meant for local level development activities. At a stage they turned out to be one of the most corrupt institutions of the country. And it is also not for nothing that the local government institutions like the Union Councils or their latter-day version, the Union Parishads, were stigmatised for their records of corruption despite the fact that those were elected bodies. Therefore, one cannot say that putting the development resources in the local government institutions, even though those are elected ones, would automatically guarantee the delivery of the resources to the intended beneficiaries
As it was the case with the central bureaucracy, or the elected public representatives like Members of Parliament (MPs), so it is with the elected members of the local government bodies. One has also to make the delivery mechanism foolproof before it can handle resources meant for the public more efficiently.
Under the circumstances, one has to take additional care this time, so that the resources vested with the local government for development and poverty alleviation purposes are not gobbled up by the delivery institutions themselves. And for the 'village plan' as suggested by Professor Muzaffar Ahmed to be of any worth, one has also to be cautious about the composition of the planning body at the local level so that those remain free from corruption and representatives of the real beneficiaries may take part in the decision-making.
At this point, it would not be beside the point to have a look at the non-government organisations or NGOs, who are supposedly dedicated to the cause of poverty alleviation in the country. It would be, on this score, interesting to know what particular strategy these NGOs have taken to reach the marginal and the ultra-poor at a time when the prices of essentials have gone beyond the reach of the limited income group of people. The micro-credit providing NGOs, for example, advance small loans to the target group members for the latter's job creation. But are those target group members now able to meet their needs and make repayments as usual as the cost of living have about doubled meanwhile? Have they also been able to each the extremely poor? It would be helpful for the nation and the people at this hour of need if all the thousands of NGOs working for poverty alleviation would also share their ideas with the government, the media and other stakeholders in society on how they are dealing with the issue at the moment.
What the nation needs most at this critical hour is working in sync for making the lives of the most vulnerable section of society more tolerable. The entire strategy for development of the incumbent government as well as the one to be elected soon should, therefore, keep issue of reaching, especially the core poor, at the centre stage.
Surprisingly though, the global drive for poverty alleviation is now put on a backburner both at the international and the local levels. However, the focus on poverty alleviation is still there in our annual national budgets including the latest one. But for all practical purposes, there is no denying the fact that the thrust of the international community, the UN and development partners on the issue has, of late, got a bit watered down.
The reasons for this shift in attention are also not hard to see. The recessionary trend in the world's largest economy (the USA), especially in the wake of the subprime crisis, skyrocketing price of fuel oil and the recent volatility in the food grains market jacking up the prices of rice, wheat, corns, pulses, soybean, etc twofold or more in the global market and such other issues of urgent concern have understandably stolen the attention of the global community. Ironically though, it is exactly these issues that have rendered the fundamental problem of poverty alleviation more urgent. The poor in the Least Developed Countries (LDCs) like Bangladesh are facing further difficulties as a result of ever soaring prices of food grains as well as other essentials of life. However, the syndrome is global, not specific to the conditions of Bangladesh.
One can say that the poor in Bangladesh as well as in other parts of the world are passing their hardest days in the recent times. Against this backdrop of uncertainties in every sphere of life globally, the LDCs like Bangladesh will have to face the crisis more or less on their own, make do with whatever resources they have in their hands and evolve their own strategies to address the scourge of poverty. Bangladesh, in a similar vein, will also have to continue the fight against the scourge of poverty on its own armed with its numerous institutions dedicated to the purpose and operating both at the government and the non-government levels.
On this score, the local chapter of the Transparency International (TI) at a post-budget roundtable brought the issue of poverty alleviation afresh and stressed the issue of planning at local level to address the problem of poverty.
As a matter of fact, the issue of poverty alleviation has a lot to do with planning. The traditional approach is centred on allocation of some resources at the centre and deliver the same through the existing government machinery to the village level where the poverty-stricken people reside. Unfortunately, the bureaucratic juggernaut can hardly ever reach the ultimate beneficiaries the resources allocated at the centre. This is again the age-old top-down approach to solve a problem at the grass-roots level. On this score, the chairman TI, B, Professor Muzafar Ahmed, stressed village plans to attack poverty at the grassroots and strengthening of the local government institutions as the vehicle for delivering the resources allocated from the centre to reach the beneficiaries. What the TI, B chief was saying was in fact a re-statement of the bottom-up approach to tackle the all-important issue of poverty. But the question of the mechanism to deliver the resources to the poor, even if it is through 'village plan,' as the TI, B head has pointed out does not make issue any clearer until one also knows about structure of the 'village plans' and the exact role of the representatives of the local government institutions in the preparation of the village plans. What is being stressed here is the composition of the decision-making apparatus for the village plans. Though the talks and concerns on the issue of depoliticising as well as strengthening of the local government institutions has reached a crescendo in recent time, many question still remain unanswered on how to make those institutions efficient and especially designed to address the issue of poverty alleviation. The older generation of the country may still remember the notoriety of the local government institutions of the past in eating up the public resources meant for local level development activities. At a stage they turned out to be one of the most corrupt institutions of the country. And it is also not for nothing that the local government institutions like the Union Councils or their latter-day version, the Union Parishads, were stigmatised for their records of corruption despite the fact that those were elected bodies. Therefore, one cannot say that putting the development resources in the local government institutions, even though those are elected ones, would automatically guarantee the delivery of the resources to the intended beneficiaries
As it was the case with the central bureaucracy, or the elected public representatives like Members of Parliament (MPs), so it is with the elected members of the local government bodies. One has also to make the delivery mechanism foolproof before it can handle resources meant for the public more efficiently.
Under the circumstances, one has to take additional care this time, so that the resources vested with the local government for development and poverty alleviation purposes are not gobbled up by the delivery institutions themselves. And for the 'village plan' as suggested by Professor Muzaffar Ahmed to be of any worth, one has also to be cautious about the composition of the planning body at the local level so that those remain free from corruption and representatives of the real beneficiaries may take part in the decision-making.
At this point, it would not be beside the point to have a look at the non-government organisations or NGOs, who are supposedly dedicated to the cause of poverty alleviation in the country. It would be, on this score, interesting to know what particular strategy these NGOs have taken to reach the marginal and the ultra-poor at a time when the prices of essentials have gone beyond the reach of the limited income group of people. The micro-credit providing NGOs, for example, advance small loans to the target group members for the latter's job creation. But are those target group members now able to meet their needs and make repayments as usual as the cost of living have about doubled meanwhile? Have they also been able to each the extremely poor? It would be helpful for the nation and the people at this hour of need if all the thousands of NGOs working for poverty alleviation would also share their ideas with the government, the media and other stakeholders in society on how they are dealing with the issue at the moment.
What the nation needs most at this critical hour is working in sync for making the lives of the most vulnerable section of society more tolerable. The entire strategy for development of the incumbent government as well as the one to be elected soon should, therefore, keep issue of reaching, especially the core poor, at the centre stage.