Giving priority to the poor

Giving priority to the poor

Siwage Dharma Negara, Economic Researcher, The National Institute
of Sciences (LIPI), Jakarta

Indonesia will host a ministerial-level gathering of the
Preparatory Committee Meeting of the World Summit on Sustainable
Development from May 27 through June 7 in Nusa Dua, Bali.

The summit will review how far governments worldwide have come
in promoting sustainable development and prepare extensive
actions to deal with development related issues such as poverty,
communal diseases and environmental destruction, all of which are
perceived to be interrelated and need a comprehensive and focused
strategy to cope with.

The ministerial-level meeting is very important and precedes
the World Summit on Sustainable Development in Johannesburg,
South Africa, from Aug. 26 to Sept. 4 this year. The meeting is
not meant to be a talkfest but it is hoped it will be an action-
oriented meeting, which is expected to yield political
declarations, an action agenda and partnership documentation. The
meeting itself will not merely concentrate on the environment,
but will be an integrated meeting incorporating economic, social
and environmental issues.

One striking fact is that the meeting will not be dominated by
government officials but will include business leaders, civil
society leaders, labor leaders, farmer leaders, academic leaders
and other groups. Therefore, it can be predicted that the meeting
will consist of various agenda proposed by each participant.
Despite the variety of interests, there is one common similarity
among them, at least on a moral basis, that they are all aware
and willing to commit to sustainable development.

The term sustainable development has been a long consensus,
since the Rio Earth Summit 10 years ago, that the environment and
development are inextricably linked. Its birth came about because
of concern that prevailing approaches to development are highly
fragmented and piecemeal, and production and consumption patterns
continue to overburden the world's ecosystems.

As UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan mentioned, our way of life
has to change, and Agenda 21 has given us a clear picture of what
the problem is and what principles must guide our response. But
how to bring about the necessary changes and how to get things
done are still being debated as various interests are involved.
One thing is clear: that we have consumed much more than our
share of the Earth's resources and have produced too much waste
and pollution. This way of life cannot be sustained for much
longer, particularly if we are concerned about the quality of
life of the next generation.

It is clear that a sustainable development approach is one
kind of development pattern that attempts to optimize the inter-
generation's welfare. It implies that current generations must
consider the stock of natural resources left for future
generations in their development agenda.

However, there are numerous challenges for this development
approach to be carried out. The ultimate challenge is how to
change people's short-horizon mind-set given the high incidence
of poverty. For the poor, it is almost impossible to think about
future generations while they themselves are subject to survival
hardships.

Realizing the possible adverse effects of poverty on
sustainable development, one crucial issue that will be tackled
during the meeting is poverty alleviation. We talk about poverty
in a broader sense, which is not merely in terms of how much the
poor earn but also how considerable is their access to basic
needs such as water, energy, services, housing, education,
sanitation and equal chances to participate in social and
political life as well.

Based on a UN estimate, about 1.2 billion people can be
classified as living in poverty, measured by an international
poverty line of US$1 per day. Almost one billion people worldwide
are undernourished and more than one billion people are without
access to adequate water supplies. Around 2.4 billion people lack
access to adequate sanitation.

In Indonesia, the incidence of poverty is very serious. Even
though the World Bank does not classify Indonesia as one of the
poorest countries, the absolute number of people in abject
poverty dwarfs even some of the poorest countries in Africa given
the huge population it has.

According to an official Indonesian estimate, 15.2 percent or
around 33 million people live below the poverty line. Using the
international measurement of poverty, 7.8 percent or 17 million
people live on less than $1 a day. Even worse, 58 percent or more
than half of the total population of 210 million live on less
than $2 a day.

In fact, the monetary crisis has put considerable pressure on
the state budget. As a consequence little room is left for
development spending. The government is being tested on its
seriousness in protecting spending on services to the poor such
as health, education, sanitation, etc.

Unfortunately, the mind-set of the government remains
unchanged. It is too busy bringing the economy onto the recovery
path by targeting rapid economic growth. This is ironic, while
the global perception about development has shifted, we still use
the old paradigm in our development agenda. A high growth rate
does not guarantee a fundamental difference in poverty reduction.

Cross-country studies have proven that economic growth, while
necessary, does not always lead to widespread improvement in
standards of human's well-being. Economic policies that
prioritize growth alone always adversely affect the poor by
diverting resources away from them.

Any effort to fight poverty and vulnerability will not only
need economic growth, but more importantly needs pro-poor
government policies and empowerment of the people. The first has
to ensure that any economic policies do not inadvertently work
against the poor and do not divert resources away from them. The
latter has to give the poor the chance to shape the policies and
programs that affect their lives and ensure efficient and
effective implementation of any development program.

Given these facts, development should not be seen only to be
related to increasing per capita real income but it also has to
bring about change beyond simple economic growth. It means growth
has to bring a desired result such as poverty reduction,
distributional equity and environmental protection. If the goal
is to take poverty alleviation seriously, the current paradigm
must be shifted beyond chasing rapid economic growth alone.