Words alone cannot eradicate poverty: Activist
JAKARTA (JP): Poverty cannot be eradicated by statements and criticism, but by tenable cooperation between the government and non-government organizations (NGOs), an international social activist said yesterday.
The president of the International Council on Social Welfare, Julian Disney, reproached NGOs working on poverty eradication programs for thinking they know more about strategies to alleviate poverty than other people.
"It's ironic that many community organizations preach cooperation, indeed they regard it as inherent to the human spirit, yet they signally fail to achieve it internally or practice it externally," Disney told participants of the 27th Asia and Pacific conference on social welfare in Jakarta.
The conference, attended by 330 participants, will last until Saturday.
Social workers, he said, need to work closely with governments because cooperation could accelerate the eradication of poverty, where at least 1.25 billion are living in severe hardship.
"Make detailed proposals for action which might have some chance of being considered by relevant authorities," Disney advised the 330 participants.
He said the accuracy and credibility of their analysis of problems, and proposals for change, would be more enhanced if they were reasonable and balanced.
President Soeharto when opening the conference on Tuesday said 800 million of the world's estimated 1.3 billion poor live in the Asia-Pacific, a region regarded as the most dynamic and fastest growing.
The dean of University of Indonesia's School of Economics, Dorodjatun Kuntjoro-Jakti, suggested that developing states give serious attention to the development of informal sectors, including small enterprises, and the agricultural sector to combat poverty.
"In an effort to avoid a sociopolitical problem, it is an accepted practice for governments in developing countries to use this sector as the main instrument for the policy of creating employment," Dorodjatun said in a prepared speech.
According to Dorodjatun, a strong informal sector is very useful in slowing down the process of urbanization because people can earn money at their own villages.
A sociologist from the University of Pennsylvania, Richard J. Estes, warned that the poverty bridling the world's poorest regions, if left untreated, could threaten stability.
"Thoughtful action must be taken if the social tragedies of the last quarter century are to be averted in the next," Estes said.
He pointed out the need to focus on five categories which affect future development: population, weapons, economics, deepening global poverty and reactive threats to national and international "mal-development".
He explained that unemployment, the absence of adequate occupational health and safety standards and expanding world poverty were potential threats to the world economy.
He further pointed out that the existence of weapons of mass destruction and their continued trade in the global market would also threaten international security. (09/prb)