Increased in-depth analysis of the multifaceted experience of poverty is leading to a growing awareness of the need for a range of policies that are specific to the problems faced by different communities and countries. Given that the causes of poverty are many and interconnected, targeted policies have most effect when they act in combination to break cycles of poverty.
One of the most encouraging aspects of the new approach to poverty reduction and eradication is therefore the emphasis on policy coherence, based on a comprehensive development framework.
Poverty restricts the freedom of women and men to enlarge and realize their capacity to achieve and enjoy a long, healthy and productive life as respected members of cohesive communities. The setting of goals such as those agreed by the Millennium Summit is an important mechanism for deciding on priorities and measuring progress, but eradicating poverty is essentially about ensuring that people have the power to shape their own lives by their own efforts and by cooperating with others. Coherence should not be imposed, but constructed by people organized in networks of public and private social institutions, respecting each other’s fundamental human rights, and thus able to agree to act together for a common goal.
The need for poverty reduction strategies tailored to the specific needs, capacities and opportunities of communities and countries means that a “one-size-fits-all” approach to policy coherence will not work. Communities and countries must fix their own priorities and put together, from a range of policy options, a balanced and integrated strategy. Decisions about potential trade-ins and trade-offs and the best sequencing and pace of the strategy are often critical, but if they are to work well they must be taken by those who will have to implement programmes.
The twin principles of ownership and participation that underlie the new global strategy for poverty reduction imply a substantial degree of decentralization of decisions about priorities, both to countries and, within countries, to communities. However, decentralization without respect for basic human rights will not empower people living in poverty and vulnerable to the arbitrary exercise of power by local elites. Recent research by the World Bank in Indonesia indicates that village-level governance structures are more effective where people also participate in other social organizations, such as credit cooperatives and water user groups. For people living in poverty, a collective voice is important to participation in local decisions that can become dominated by the strongest families in the village. 29 The foundations for effective ownership and participation in policies and programmes for poverty reduction are the freedom to organize and the power that collective action gives to individuals who otherwise are not able to shape their own lives.
In broadening and deepening participation in the development process, the role of parliaments and other democratically elected bodies is central.
Commitments made by donors are for many countries a major part of the financing needed for national budgets. Recipient countries’ parliaments could play an important role in ensuring that promises are kept on both sides and that the costs of managing aid flows are kept to a minimum. 30
International agencies, including the ILO, are changing their approach to development to encourage and facilitate a much stronger role for governments of aid-receiving countries, parliaments, and national partners, such as employers’ organizations, trade unions and community groups. The Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper (PRSP) process initiated by the World Bank and increasingly being implemented by other international and national development agencies aims to place the main responsibility for policy design and implementation in the hands of the governments of the poorest countries.
The United Nations Development Group is also working to align its planning mechanisms with the poverty reduction strategies set by developing countries.
In addition, the new approach encourages governments to consult widely with business and trade unions, parliaments, local authorities and civil society in developing their PRSPs. Yet progress is slow, both in ensuring that coherent national policies receive adequate international financial support and in shifting the aid relationship away from excessive conditionality to donors towards increased accountability to citizens in poorer countries.
As part of this effort, the ILO aims to spread awareness of the decent work approach to poverty reduction, to make available the portfolio of ILO technical assistance and, most importantly, to encourage the range of social institutions that comprise the “community of work” to participate in the design and implementation of nationally owned strategies. The ILO is assisting its tripartite constituents to develop mechanisms of social dialogue as a vital component of this process. An important vehicle for this work will be the ILO’s own decent work country programmes.
The ILO will continue its efforts to ensure that national and international policy-makers concerned with issues such as financial stability and trade liberalization take into account the interrelationship between employment growth, social stability and other macroeconomic and development goals.
To learn more about this author, visit International Labour Organization's Website.
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