One of the first sessions we had here in Toronto was about poverty and defining it. If we are committed to eradicating poverty or more realistically, reducing widespread poverty, we need to ask what it is.
POVERTY:
Being VULNERABLE to outside shocks, and lacking the AGENCY to chose the direction of your life.
This is my broad and simplified definition of poverty. There are definitely varying degrees of poverty, but if you gave me two words to describe poverty they would be vulnerability, and agency. I want you to take your typical farmer in rural Africa and think of the possible shocks that can affect this person. If we're speaking about agriculture, irrigation typically comes to mind. Most rural farmers in Africa depend on the rains to irrigate their staple crop. It is exactly this dependency that we are trying to mitigate. If a farmer is completely dependent on the rains, then they are vulnerable to any shocks, and do not have the means of responding or bouncing back from those shocks.
Let's break this down for a second. If the rains fail, what are the short term implications? The crop is completely lost and the family does not have enough to eat for the rest of the year. What about the long-term implications? Potential malnutrition of children, dropping out of school (hungry children can't learn), selling off of other crucial assets such as oxen to pay for food. Likelihood? With increasing climate changes the weather is becoming more difficult to predict so the likelihood of this is high. And last what is this farmer's ability to control that? Nothing whatsoever.
Let's look at health. If someone in the house gets sick? Short-term: loss of labour, cost of health care, loss of education. Long-term: death, cost of funeral, if an adult dies, loss of safety-net and income generator. Likelihood: high: unsanitary situations, AIDS, malaria. Ability to control: not very much without money.
What makes me sad and angry all at the same time, is the fact that people are completely vulnerable. Even in areas where rain has been consistent for years, all it takes is one drought, one death, one shock, and all accumulated assets overtime are now lost.
With this extreme vulnerability to factors out of your control, how can one have choice to live the way they want to live. How can one have agency. You see, until you can feel comfortable with with your quality of life, and a certain security (food, personal, health), how do you start to choose your own future.
This is unacceptable. To really grasp what I am saying, take a worry that you have in your life, right now or at a time you thought you were most vulnerable, and apply the same questions. What are the short term implications? Long-term? Likelihood it will happen? Ability to control?
I'll put one of mine below, but if you don't want to read it, the point is this. Because of the way society has evolved around us, we have safety nets. Whether social safety nets through our family, or institutional ones through loans, healthcare, or welfare; our vulnerability is covered by these safety nets. This enables us to have the choice of what opportunities we take advantage of.
Thanks
Out of high school:
worry: can't afford university.
Short Term: borrow money from family, take student loan, get part-time employment and save
Long-term: Working full-time and doing night classes. Doing a trade or gaining a cheaper qualification
Likelihood it will happen: For me, low
Ability to control: High. I have the choice of what mitigation strategies I take.
Tuesday, February 5, 2008
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