Poor, statistics and professionals

By JEEVAN RAJ SHARMA

Time has come to understand poverty from a wider perspective. The understanding of poverty as an issue has been widening since 1950-60s. The much-debated recent World Development Report 2000/01 titled "Attacking Poverty" came with a multidimensional perspective for looking at poverty, and alleviating it. But, there is an uncontested terrain in the field of poverty. When we talk about poverty alleviation, we are not merely concerned with the issue but also with the professionals involved and the methodology they follow. These latter categories are very important as they shape the world of poverty alleviation. This article is concerned with these uncontested categories in the Nepalese context.

A lot of negative statistics has been presented on Nepal’s poverty; pessimism dominates Nepal’s policy dialogue and public debate. These negative statistics have been analyzed and conclusions have been drawn with new lines of recommendations. However, poverty remains a great political and policy rhetoric in Nepal.

In Nepal, the 8th and 9th plans focused extensively on poverty alleviation. The Tenth Plan is again coming up with the same slogan of poverty alleviation. The repeating of the same objectives in the new policy document necessarily means failure of the earlier policies. If one attempts to review the studies and assessments of these failures, these are full of tables and statistical figures. The bottom line is that these tables with statistical figures do not present the poverty situation in Nepal. Such a reductionist approach has never studied the poor people, their life and their misery. The problem lies with the statistical nature of these studies and evaluations that form the base of poverty alleviation efforts. The contemporary need is to look beyond such statistical facts that tend to define poverty, and thus the alleviation efforts, narrowly.

The issue is how we came to such a situation in Nepal and how we can take this issue seriously. Development discourse all over the world has definitely dominated the policy discourse in Nepal. The availability of resources both monetary and human has led us to this situation. Our planning authorities are dominated by economists, demographers and geographers socialized in the positivist tradition and they continue to claim that they can understand and derive the best possible ways to alleviate poverty. It is very clear that these planners have preferred to understand poverty as a technical subject and not consult or involve those who believe in defining poverty in a holistic manner. Nor do they seem interested to understand poverty as a process. I did not find any studies that have made an attempt to understand poverty as a process. All the studies seem like evaluation studies that attempt to assess the individual programs and projects. There is definitely lack of a comprehensive study that looks at poverty in a comprehensive manner, studies various policy inputs and considers local cultural and historical variables.

The second issue would be the financial constraints. Are the donors available and willing to invest resources to tackle poverty as a process? There is a need to shift away from paradigm that understands poverty as mere statistical figures. Though the rhetoric of a participatory approach has become an official language when policy makers meet and in policy documents the question is what do we understand when we say participatory? Poverty alleviation programmes continue to be drafted and planned by so-called experts at the centre. Decentralization in planning is virtually non-existent. The documents continue to state that there exists a nexus between different problems but there does not seem any coordination between different stakeholders involved in different issues. Another issue is that poverty alleviation has been a project, and not a social movement. Some micro level successful projects have not been found successful because of the very nature of such attempts as projects and not as movements. NGOs have not been able to transform themselves as sustainable movements and are found troubling with issues of status quo.

Let me share my own experience of discussing with women in a village about poverty. The issue was who is poor and why? One woman said, and later others too supported her that she is poor because her husband is physically weak. The issue is how to understand such a state of poverty? My question would be how Nepali policy makers look at such an issue? This is just one case that I was confronted with in the field; there are lots of such cases.

Poverty has been a big issue and a lot of world resources are spent on this issue. The most dominant practice has been to study the numbers of poor people and plan out resources accordingly. Under this approach, poverty alleviation efforts have been curative in nature and have failed to look at preventive aspects.

That poverty is not a technical fact but a social, economic, cultural and political process demands an active role by policy makers academically and professionally socialized in a context different and wider than that traditionally accepted for economists, demographers and geographers. Academic discourse has taken place on how social scientists like anthropologists and sociologists and professional social workers can play an increasingly important role in policy formulation.

To sum up, poverty is not an absolute concept, but a construct. Professionals and policy-makers in this field play an important role in this process of construction. The dominant way poverty has been defined, studied and worked upon needs to be deconstructed, rethought and redefined so that a new paradigm will emerge. In a democratic polity, a democratic representation of different views can give a new perspective to poverty alleviation efforts. The challenge lies in how to change the dominant culture of thinking and presenting poverty alleviation in terms of negative figures.

May it last long

By PERINA PATHAK

Looking toward the smooth and clean road and newly made beautiful garden at Maitighar Chowk one of my friends gave a smart comment, which has encouraged me to question the Municipality officials. He said, "Let Shrawan (month of rainy season according to Bikram Sambat) come then all this beauty will collapse along with the rain."

Though these words were said just to criticize the rapid, overnight work done by the Municipality, they have some depth and truth.

We can see pitched roads in every part of the city. The thundering and busy New Road has now become smooth and splendid. Let alone the wide and black-topped road bus-park side, even Jamal has been widened within a week to welcome the heads of state and government.

Thanks to Kathmandu Metropolitan City nowadays Kathmandu Valley is glittering under and looks as beautiful as a bride ready for her marriage rites.

New parks have been built at Maitighar and Tin Kune, which are central attractions. No one had even thought that buildings would be pulled down and parks opened in those places. Believe it or not the parks have been built but temporarily, investing millions of rupees.

Even a small area used for dumping a day ago was planted with a small tree to cover the place. It is sure that after or within a week the same place is going to be a dumping site again and there will be no one to look after the tree.

More than fifty sweepers cleaned up Tudikhel in two days, a place for hundreds of people to have peanuts and a sunbath. Along with the concluding day of the summit Tudikhel has been full of people.

Almost every potholed road has been pitched over. Those frustrated by jolting rides now are enjoying the ride. May be private vehicle owner are enjoying long drives too. Leave the story of local bus commuters aside. Sorry folks!

This maintenance has given new look to the city. And of course it will help to enhance the beauty of the city, declared a UNESCO heritage site. Hope further development is also carried out. But the question here is not of further development. Will the work done last for years or will it collapse within months? This is a question that not only I am eager to have answered. Every one is very anxious to know how long the beauty will remain.

Our poor government has spent millions of rupees for all this maintenance and it will be very unfair if these works do not remain for long. If the work does not last then the main sufferers will be the unlucky citizens who could but will never have the luxury of urban inhabitant elsewhere. May this work done in the eleventh-hour, and with limited time last for years. May the gardens and trees planted not die after a week. May all beauty remain as long as possible?

Responding to HIV/AIDS through collaborative efforts

By PITAMBAR ARYAL

HIV/AIDS has been creating severe threats to human existence. It has been spreading rapidly throughout the world. By the end of 2000, there were 36.1 million people living with HIV/AIDS in the world. Among them, 53,00,000 people have been infected in the year 2000. From 1991 to date, it is estimated that about 3.6 million people have already passed away due to AIDS. Likewise, majority of infected cases passing through AIDS stage where opportunistic infections occurred. In the year 2000, more than 30,00,000 people passed away due to AIDS. In this connection, HIV/AIDS has been one of the major killer diseases throughout the world.

The intensity of HIV infection shows that most people infected with the virus are from productive and reproductive age groups. Human resource development index indicates that there is tremendous pressure on social, economic, educational and human resource development of a nation where its intensity is very high. In Zimbabwe, Tanzania and Kenya, more than 25 percent population of these countries have been infected with HIV. Consequently, per capita income is falling down, average age of the people is decreasing by 50 percent, maternal and child mortality rates are increasing steadily. This situation explains that HIV is not only a clinical problem but also problems associated with social, educational and economic affairs. It is highly essential to address the problem through consolidation of multi-sectoral and collaborative efforts.

Nepal has been facing the same kind of problems. According to National Centre for AIDS and STD Control, there are 2097 tested HIV+ve cases in Nepal by the end of October 2001. Big segment of these tested cases, (93 percent), is from 14 to 39 year’s age groups. As per estimation of WHO/UNAIDS, there are 34,000 HIV+ve cases in Nepal. It also reflects that there is lack of accurate information on prevailing situation and its mode of transmission, which needs sound epidemiological surveillance for mapping the actual situation about transmission rate, route of transmission and intensity based on age group. The rapid spread of HIV indicates that the effects of HIV are going to be more severe in the future.

There are several factors which lead to promote HIV/STD infection in Nepal. Illiteracy, ignorance, migration for seasonal jobs, women trafficking, drugs, social and cultural beliefs, unsafe sexual practices, etc are the root causes to create vulnerable situation for being infected with HIV/STDs. Nepalese society is still in denial phase of HIV infection so that nobody wants to accept the reality that they are at risk. People blame others, saying that only bad people and drug addicts get HIV. However, in reality, we have seen that even innocent infants are becoming HIV victims. Therefore, it is not a matter of good or bad people but a matter of safe or unsafe practices.

In spite of such sad factors, less access to health delivery services, lack of sex education in school curriculum, sexuality issues as social taboos, and poor knowledge about condoms are also contributing to increase HIV infection in Nepal. Discrimination and social stigma have also been barriers for people disclosing their hero status and they are great obstacles for getting access to voluntary testing and counselling services. Hence, this situation points that there are several factors, which are responsible for creating vulnerable situation. In these perspectives, HIV prevention intervention alone will not be enough to overcome the problem. Therefore multi-sectoral and integrated approaches could be effective to carry out HIV/AIDS related interventions.

Long-term policy and appropriate strategies are essential to address the issues associated with HIV/AIDS and STDs, which need political commitment. Political commitment provides new dimensions for developing national strategies, establishing network and consolidating efforts made by different agencies to fight against this killer disease. To address the high mobility of migrant workers, tourists and general population, and cross border collaboration is also one of the effective strategies. Different agencies, such as UNAIDS, I/NGOs and state run organisations have been putting their efforts to combat against the spread of HIV in the region. Especially, there is a greater effect of advocacy campaign initiated by these organisations to develop policy and ensure legal protection to the PLWHAs. This may be the reason why GIPA (greater involvement of people living with AIDS) approach has been adopted to make the programme more realistic and need-based.

It is equally important to ensure human rights, maintain confidentiality and provide voluntary testing and counselling services to the PLWHAs. Moreover, it is essential to establish community-based care and support services to carry out activities by community people locally in an affordable and efficient manner. For effective implementation of the said initiatives, capacity development of concerned stakeholders will prove a milestone. This process plays a significant role for effective management of the entire interventions.

Institutional development could be another strategy to strengthen efforts made by various agencies. There exists a high level National AIDS Coordination Committee under the chairmanship of the Health Minister and mid-level coordination committee under the chairmanship of health secretary. National Centre for AIDS and STD Control (NCASC) is serving as a secretariat and focal point to carry out all these initiatives. In this connection, the capacity development of NCASC in terms of human and financial resources is essential to lead other agencies and work as a resource centre.

Likewise, in the district level, district AIDS coordination committees have already been formed. However, due to inadequate political commitment and low functional support of financial and human resources, it is not functioning as it was expected.