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<P class=MsoBodyText style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 11pt"><FONT face="Times New Roman"><FONT size=2>Human Rights
Reader 144<?xml:namespace prefix = o ns =
"urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" /><o:p></o:p></FONT></FONT></SPAN></P>
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style="FONT-SIZE: 11pt"><o:p><SPAN style="TEXT-DECORATION: none"><FONT
face="Times New Roman"></FONT></SPAN></o:p></SPAN></U></P>
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style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal"><FONT size=5><FONT
face="Times New Roman"></FONT></FONT></B> </P>
<P class=MsoBodyText style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><B
style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal"><FONT size=+0><FONT
face="Times New Roman"><FONT size=3>PROGRAMS FOR THE POOR MOST OFTEN ARE POOR
PROGRAMS: REDUCING THE INCOME GAP BETWEEN THE POOR AND THE NON-POOR IS THE REAL
CHALLENGE FOR HUMAN RIGHTS ACTIVISTS.<o:p></o:p></FONT></FONT></FONT></B></P>
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face="Times New Roman" size=3> </FONT></o:p></P>
<P class=MsoBodyText style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><FONT face="Times New Roman"
size=3>1. Long centuries of poverty and injustice have accumulated too many
insatisfactions, too much misery and too much indignity, as well as a heavy load
of preventable ill-health, malnutrition and deaths that have all been buried in
time. </FONT></P>
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face="Times New Roman" size=3> </FONT></o:p></P>
<P class=MsoBodyText style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><FONT face="Times New Roman"
size=3>2. That is why, in the human rights-based framework (HRBF), it is the
structural problems that cause poverty and underdevelopment that we try to get
at. That is also why the HRBF does <U>not</U> endorse individual targeting of
the poor. Focusing only on the poorest of the poor is so restrictive (and
actually blames the victims) that little or no impact will be seen in the
population at large. In that case, geographic targeting is to be preferred. (We
note that the HRBF is also sympathetic to the idea that poverty reduction should
start with children). </FONT></P>
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face="Times New Roman" size=3> </FONT></o:p></P>
<P class=MsoBodyText style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><FONT face="Times New Roman"
size=3>3. Instead, the HRBF strives, among other, to give voice and influence to
most beneficiaries in relation to the services delivered (or not delivered) to
them (including health). It thus frames poverty reduction as a matter of the
meeting of obligations rather than as acts of benevolence or as acts geared at
achieving greater administrative expediency. This is why we always have to keep
in mind that many of the decision-makers and duty bearers we have to deal with,
yes, do think the poor have to be respected and helped…but ‘from the
far’.</FONT></P>
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face="Times New Roman" size=3> </FONT></o:p></P>
<P class=MsoBodyText style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><FONT face="Times New Roman"
size=3>4. Meeting the above obligations unavoidably passes through creating
productive employment. But we note that employment gets no mention in the MDGs.
With others, we contend that without more jobs, all other goals (including the
health-related) stand on a shaky foundation. </FONT></P>
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face="Times New Roman" size=3> </FONT></o:p></P>
<P class=MsoBodyText style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><FONT face="Times New Roman"
size=3>5. Moreover, wages worldwide have lagged behind economic growth actually
causing some of the problems the MDGs set out to address to begin with. (Keep in
mind that, due to the law of supply and demand, mass unemployment worldwide
means that higher wages cannot generally be expected in the run-away course of
globalization). Instead, the MDGs overwhelmingly focus on transfer payments, but
not on newly created employment that would make such transfers less
necessary.</FONT></P>
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face="Times New Roman" size=3> </FONT></o:p></P>
<P class=MsoBodyText style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><FONT face="Times New Roman"
size=3>6. It may well be we need to focus less on poverty reduction and more on
employment generation policies. After all, there are valid entitlements for
able-bodied, healthy individuals to have access to productive work --and, as we
know well, labor is the poor wo/man’s most important asset.</FONT></P>
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face="Times New Roman" size=3> </FONT></o:p></P>
<P class=MsoBodyText style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><FONT face="Times New Roman"
size=3>7. Decent work for all thus needs to become a global objective --one that
needs to set a time-bound goal (‘<I style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal">a la
MDG’</I>) to effectively reduce current unemployment levels. (We admit that this
is easier said than done, but without a concrete objective and a plan, it is
much less likely to become a reality).</FONT></P>
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style="mso-spacerun: yes"><FONT face="Times New Roman"
size=3></FONT></SPAN> </P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><FONT
face="Times New Roman"><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt">8. Mind you that the IMF and
the World Bank have also pretty much ignored employment matters and have not
taken on the issue frontally </SPAN><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 14pt">(or have
mentioned it only to ignore it later)</SPAN><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt">... But then, it does not
cost the Bank anything when their solutions or non-action-in-some-areas (such as
employment) prove to be wrong. They simply see it as a hiccup --not a reason to
call the neoliberal paradigm into question. Recipients, who may not even be
aware that the Bank exists, are the ones to pay for the bad advice.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>(A. Traore) This is profoundly unjust
</SPAN><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 14pt">and raises many fundamental and disturbing
concerns</SPAN><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt">.</SPAN><SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"><FONT size=3> </FONT></SPAN></FONT></P>
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face="Times New Roman" size=5> </FONT></o:p></P>
<P class=MsoBodyText style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><FONT face="Times New Roman"
size=3>9. Let us take two examples:</FONT></P>
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face="Times New Roman" size=3> </FONT></o:p></P>
<P class=MsoBodyText style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><FONT face="Times New Roman"
size=3>9a. The Bank mothered the DALYs (Disability Adjusted Life Years). DALYs
measure quantity of ill-health so as to set priorities. But DALY’s have many
detractors. Some are of the opinion that, for instance, weighing
a-year-lived-at-age-70 half the value of a-year-lived-at-age-25 is ethically
untenable. Others think DALYs are biased against individuals with permanent
disabilities since ‘burden of disease’ does not capture the individuals’
different ability to cope with those burdens. More accepted is the objection
that ‘burden’ actually means ‘burden of disease <U>and</U> of poverty <U>and</U>
of underdevelopment’ --and not that of disease alone. </FONT></P>
<P class=MsoBodyText style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><FONT
face="Times New Roman"><FONT size=3><B
style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal">Bottom line:</B> The widespread use of
DALYs has for years siphoned off the attention of health economists away from
giving greater priority to actions that tackle the social determinants of
health.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>…So recipients pay for the
bad advice.</FONT></FONT></P>
<P class=MsoBodyText style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><o:p><FONT
face="Times New Roman" size=3> </FONT></o:p></P>
<P class=MsoBodyText style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><FONT
face="Times New Roman"><FONT size=3>9b. Poverty Reduction Strategy Papers
(PRSPs), of which there were 52 by March 2006, are nothing more than another of
the Bank’s top-down approach to poverty reduction. In them, country ownership is
illusory. Conspicuously absent in their preparation have been, parliaments,
trade unions, women’s groups and civil society organizations out of favor with
the government. The Bank actually never specified what constitutes an
acceptable-participatory-PRSP-process and this raises questions about the
intentions of the Bank for ensuring participation by the poor and by civil
society. (P. Kamruzzaman) <SPAN style="mso-bidi-font-size: 14.0pt">To be made
democratically legitimate instruments, the PRSPs preparation <U>and</U>
monitoring process has to be opened up to the conspicuously absent groups
mentioned above.<o:p></o:p></SPAN></FONT></FONT></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><FONT face="Times New Roman"><B
style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal"><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 14pt">Bottom
line:</SPAN></B><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 14pt"> For all the rhetoric of community
participation and of addressing the priority needs of the poor, PRSPs are
replete with top-down prescriptions and many of us are left quite convinced they
will not deliver the poverty reduction expected. </SPAN><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt">…So recipients pay for the
bad advice.</SPAN><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 14pt"><o:p></o:p></SPAN></FONT></P>
<P class=MsoBodyText style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><o:p><FONT
face="Times New Roman" size=5> </FONT></o:p></P>
<P class=MsoBodyText style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><FONT face="Times New Roman"
size=3>10. We all know the World Bank is staffed by (some) well-meaning planners
and bankers who see poverty as a technical engineering problem that their
answers will solve. (W. Easterly) As is well known too, the Bank’s culture is
primarily analytic and focuses mostly on macro-economic issues. The question we
are left with is: Are we to believe that there is such a thing as socially
responsible macro-economics?<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>As it
seems the answer to this is no, …people who are poor pay for the bad advice.
</FONT></P>
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face="Times New Roman" size=3> </FONT></o:p></P>
<P class=MsoBodyText style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><FONT
face="Times New Roman"><FONT size=5><FONT size=3>11. A closing note:</FONT>
</FONT>P<FONT size=2><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt">romoting an ethos that people
who are poor are lucky, because they will be the first to enter Heaven, has led
to the political position that ‘we-the-rich’ have something we should give to
‘them-the-poor’. (Be reminded that, as opposed to rights, charity is given
mostly when convenient). In the HR context, charity is to be seen as nothing but
the escape valve of guilt feelings that having money brings on. </SPAN><SPAN
lang=PT-BR style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: PT-BR">(G. Cabrera
Infante)</SPAN><SPAN lang=PT-BR
style="mso-ansi-language: PT-BR"><o:p></o:p></SPAN></FONT></FONT></P>
<P class=MsoBodyText style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><U><o:p><SPAN
style="TEXT-DECORATION: none"><FONT face="Times New Roman"
size=5></FONT></SPAN></o:p></U></P>
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face="Times New Roman"><FONT size=5></FONT></FONT> </P>
<P class=MsoBodyText style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><FONT
face="Times New Roman"><FONT size=5><FONT size=3>12. [And on a more sarcastic
note perhaps,</FONT> </FONT><FONT size=2><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt">Mark
Twain was of the opinion that a banker is someone who lends you an umbrella on a
sunny day and wants it back immediately when it starts raining…].</SPAN>
</FONT></FONT></P>
<P class=MsoBodyText style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><U><o:p><SPAN
style="TEXT-DECORATION: none"><FONT
face="Times New Roman"></FONT></SPAN></o:p></U></P>
<P class=MsoBodyText style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 11pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt"><FONT
face="Times New Roman"></FONT></SPAN> </P>
<P class=MsoBodyText style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 11pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt"><FONT
face="Times New Roman"><FONT size=2>Claudio Schuftan, <?xml:namespace prefix =
st1 ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags" /><st1:City
w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Ho Chi Minh
City</st1:place></st1:City><o:p></o:p></FONT></FONT></SPAN></P>
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<P class=MsoBodyText
style="BORDER-RIGHT: medium none; PADDING-RIGHT: 0in; BORDER-TOP: medium none; PADDING-LEFT: 0in; PADDING-BOTTOM: 0in; MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; BORDER-LEFT: medium none; PADDING-TOP: 0in; BORDER-BOTTOM: medium none; mso-border-bottom-alt: solid windowtext 1.5pt; mso-padding-alt: 0in 0in 1.0pt 0in"><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 11pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt"><A
href="mailto:claudio@hcmc.netnam.vn"><FONT face="Times New Roman"
size=2>claudio@hcmc.netnam.vn</FONT></A><o:p></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoBodyText
style="BORDER-RIGHT: medium none; PADDING-RIGHT: 0in; BORDER-TOP: medium none; PADDING-LEFT: 0in; PADDING-BOTTOM: 0in; MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; BORDER-LEFT: medium none; PADDING-TOP: 0in; BORDER-BOTTOM: medium none; mso-border-bottom-alt: solid windowtext 1.5pt; mso-padding-alt: 0in 0in 1.0pt 0in"><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 11pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt"><FONT
face="Times New Roman"><FONT size=2><SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN><o:p></o:p></FONT></FONT></SPAN></P></DIV>
<P class=MsoBodyText style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><FONT
face="Times New Roman"><FONT size=2><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 11pt">Mostly adapted
from D+C Vol. 33, No.5, May 2006; F+D (IMF) Vol.42, No.4, Dec. 2005; SCN News
(UN Standing Committee on Nutrition), No.30, mid 2005; </SPAN><SPAN lang=PT-BR
style="FONT-SIZE: 11pt; mso-ansi-language: PT-BR">Carlos Fuentes, La Silla del
Aguila, <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:City w:st="on">Santillana
Ediciones</st1:City>, <st1:State w:st="on">Madrid</st1:State></st1:place>, 2005;
and </SPAN><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 11pt">U. Jonsson: Changing Approaches to the
Problem of Child Malnutrition, 2006,
Forthcoming.</SPAN></FONT></FONT></P></FONT></DIV></FONT></DIV></BODY></HTML>