From Poverty to Development

" Poverty is not an accident. It is a man-made and can be removed by the actions of human being ."  - Nelson Mendala

For the accomplishment of any dream, proper understanding (what you want to achieve?), planning and then implementation is a pre-requisite; this is basically what I follow to work upon my dream and I firmly believe realization of the dream of world without poverty needs the same. This has even been proved by China which successfully reduced poverty from 77% in 1980s to just 14% in 2008. In the modern world, very few countries successfully married their anti-poverty policies as per the need and yielded fruitful results but most of the countries failed to solemnize policies properly due to which even today, almost 1.4 billion people in the world are living in the helm of poverty. This situation indicates proper planning and execution is still required to fulfill the dream.

POVERTY ERADICATION PLAN: A LADDER OF THREE MAIN STEPS WITH FEWS ADDITIONS  

First Step :

The Chinese action plan in combating poverty starting from proper evolution of poverty mechanism by adoption of Headcount rate and then shift towards National Poverty Monitoring with multi-dimensionality to reach the most vulnerable group with proper understanding of causes of poverty point out the importance of such a mechanism which has to be according to the regional circumstances, no single universal process is possible. The evolution of mechanism is a first step in marching towards the direction of eradication of poverty.

Second Step:

After having knowledge of causes, crafting of a set of specific strategies for targeted group to bring them out from the helm of poverty is a subsequent task. . For example, if cause of poverty in the region is lack of employment opportunities than focus on self help groups, regional handicraft business and promotion of tourism are the economically useful means to promote economic viabilities. Here, example of China is worth noting whose reduction in poverty in four different phases with different strategies for each phase did wonders. China adopted specific policies from rapid economic growth to investment in infrastructure, education, and other public goods to eliminate poverty. For this task, global cooperation with important responsibility on International organizations, regular transfer of knows how and financial assistance to regions can do wonders.

Moreover, in the context of tackling poverty, planning for reduction in income differences with change in pattern of income distribution is very useful.

While planning, it is important to keep in mind that poverty is a complex concept having many different aspects such as hunger, lack of wherewithal, inequality, human physiological read with dignity etc.  Government should not plan such policies which on the face of it deal with one of the aspect of poverty but in actual, leads to horrific consequences for the country as whole. For example, policy of free food for poor, it may stamp out hunger but simultaneously, it’ll push for inclination towards no need to work approach. Such approach will make whole economic and human resource of country a defunct one and at the most, will only facilitate people to merely cope with poverty instead of permanently climbing out of it. 

Third Step:

After planning, execution is the most difficult task which requires lot of determination, proper institutional framework and most importantly, good governance. The failure of State of Jordan in applying Poverty Reduction Strategy because of poor institutional coordination of Department of Statistics and Ministry of Social Justice indicates the importance of proper institutional implementation to realize the dream. Even India stands on the same line where even after scheming many anti-poverty programs and spending billions on eradication of poverty, it has failed to achieve much success because of institutional incompetence coupled with problems in the system such as corruption, lack of willingness etc. to execute the programs properly. On the other side, Chinese government allocated and utilized poverty alleviation funds channeled through number of plans specified for meeting poverty alleviation targets set by government. Financial authorities of the country transferred the funds through innovative means such as Direct transfer of funds to poverty stricken areas, Implementation of preferential policies and tax relief for economic development in poverty-stricken area and Interest subsidies for poverty alleviation and development loans etc. as per the necessity of the area and also ensured appropriate mechanism in line to supervise and inspect the utilization of fund properly and timely. This implementation is a determinant factor in success of any planning, so regions needs specific attention for this step.

Having said this, Stable and Harmonious political environment with auxiliary help from International governmental, non- governmental organizations in monitoring implementation can be fruitful. This monitoring will even play a crucial role in prevention of wastage of valuable resources such as food grains etc.

Additional Steps:

Having focused on three steps, role of individual and public at large in eradication of poverty is hard to ignore. Even all Poverty Strategy Reduction Papers by International Monetary Funds conclude that: "Successful plans to fight poverty require broad based support from the public in order to succeed".

Here, example of 2012, Magsaysay award winner, Kulandei Francis, whose pioneering community initiatives in Tamil Nadu (India) empowering thousands of rural women to form micro enterprises and break the poverty spiral can be an inspiration for many to contribute in the war against poverty. Our approach should be to ensure contribution of every-individual in poverty alleviation as social responsibility instead of looking for governments to uplift the poor every-time. For this point, Global campaigns associated with some already popular programs such as Clean Development Mechanism initiated for environment protection along with encouragement and recognition of contributions of individual’s in poverty alleviation will promote public participation without much efforts.

CONCLUSION

At last, I would like to conclude by saying that in lieu of above submission nothing else but the full determination and focused approach is vital in the whole journey of realization of dream of World without Poverty. The simple mantra of success here is ‘Just Do it’.