Poverty
National And International Perspectives

By Uttam Maharjan

POVERTY is a multi-dimensional privation of human beings that includes, in its basics, socio-economic as well as psychological components. As a matter of fact, poverty is the fate of 1.2 billion people living across the world when viewed from their inability to earn less than one US dollar a day.

Fledgling Stage

Like other Third World countries, Nepal too is in the clutches of poverty. Infrastructure development is almost at the fledgling stage in the country. Infrastructure ramifications like education, healthcare, transportation, communication and drinking water and sanitation are still undeveloped despite several institutional attempts by various successive governments.

Poverty alleviation has been emphasissed since the first periodic plan. However, it has been given special prominence only since the Eight Plan. While crafting the Ninth Plan, the development planners came up with a long-sighted concept of reducing poverty to 10 per cent over a period of 20 years. Poverty was targeted to be reduced to 32 per cent by the end of the Ninth Plan, to 23 per cent by the end of the Tenth Plan, to 15 by the end of the Eleventh Plan and to 10 by the end of the Twelfth Plan. At the beginning of the Ninth Plan, poverty hovered at 42 per cent.

Although the long-term vision was glamorous, the failure of the Ninth Plan to achieve the target has proved to be a severe setback for the development planners, forcing them to revise their entire vision on poverty alleviaton so much so that the current plan has no such long-term vision; the only target set is to reduce poverty to 30 per cent by the end of the plan period.

But given the topography of the country and the miserable socio-economic conditions of the vast majority of the rural people poverty alleviation is not so simple a task. As per the National Populaton Census of 2001, 85 per cent of the people live in the rural areas. And the rural areas are in development backwaters in every aspect. Poverty, unemployment, ignorance, superstition, lack of healthcare facilities and lack of other amenities are closely interlinked with rural life. The rural folk are so poor that they find it heavy going to manage even two square meals a day.

Agriculture is the mainstay of the country's economy. Over 81 per cent of the people are involved in agricultural and allied activities. But the seasonality of agricultural work and inadequate availability of off-farm employment have compounded the living conditions of the rural farmers. Besides, old-fashioned agricultural methods, lack of improved farming inputs, lack of irrigation facilities and the like are a great stumbling-block to agricultural development. The contribution of agriculture to the country's Gross Domestic Product is only 39 per cent, streets below the expected level of 80 per cent.

The other sectors of the economy-trade, commerce and industry- are also equally pathetic. The economy of the country has yet to recover from the global recession. As a result, exports are falling. As per the quarterly review of Nepal Rastra Bank, exports have declined by 18.5 per cent over a 6 per cent decline during the corresponding period of last year, whereas imports have increased by 7.3 per cent over a 5.4 per cent decrease during the corresponding period of last year. This has obviously widened the already unfavourable balance of trade.

Poverty is a world-wide problem. The United Nations is much concerned about alleviating poverty in developing and underdeveloped countries. Rich and industrialised nations must help poor countries to fight poverty through development assistance- monetary and technological. It is noteworthy that the UN has called upon developed countries to provide poor countries with 0.7 per cent of their GDPs. But the USA, the greatest economy in the world, has provided just 0.1 per cent, and EU nations 0.3 per cent. Only Finland, Denmark, Norway, Sweden and some other nations have fulfilled the UN request.
During the Millennium Summit held in 2000, the world leaders issued a directive seeking to halve the number of people earning less than one US dollar a day by 2015. The directive also targeted the elimination of hunger, illiteracy and disease from the face of the earth. The other goals of the summit were to provide universal education, to reduce child mortality, to curb AIDS and to improve development prospects.

Similarly, during the Monterrey Summit held in 2002 poverty alleviation was mooted. And, the UN said that USD 100 billion would be required to halve the number of poor people earning less than one US dollar a day by 2015. The 16-page Monterrey Agreement proposed to double a foreign aid of US$ 50 billion for developing nations but unfortunately the proposal was not passed.

Poverty is a relative term. A poor American might be actually rich by Nepalese standards. So, to bring uniformity into the definition of poverty, the UN has devised a criterion by which those earning less than one US dollar a day are considered poor. By this criterion, 1.2 billion people living across the world are poor. Given the per capita income of US$ 220, the country obviously falls under the category of poor countries.

It may be reiterated that poverty is more rampant in developing nations than in deveoped ones. Latin America, sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia are extremely poor regions. Some developing countries, especially those in Asia, have made remarkable headway in development endeavours. China and India are striking examples.

Developing nations are facing hassles in development endeavours. To help them, the Brussels Plan of Action needs to be implemented. Foreign aid is an effective tool for accelerating development activities in developing countries. But donor nations and agencies have now put forward preconditions for developing countries to be eligible for such development aid. Donor nations and agencies have become aware that foreign aid is often misused. So, they have put forward such conditions as good governance, corruption control and good use of aid money. It is true that lack of good governance, rampant corruption and non-transparency in development projects have exacerbated the conditions of developing countries.

Nepal is a case in point. The country has been receiving foreign aid for five decadess. And, the foreign aid policy has also been formulated. Still, the country is lagging behind in development endeavours. Bluntly speaking, five decades of using foreign aid has had a very minimal effect on the development of the country, although some positive results have mainfested themselves in certain sectors.
Is there no room for alleviating poverty in Nepal? Yes. But the government lacks vision and commitment. Political parties shoot a line about alleviating poverty. Every five-year plan stresses poverty alleviation. But no tangible headway has been made in poverty alleviation yet. This must be taken as the misfortune for the teeming poor of the country.

Political Will

What is really needed for poverty alleviation is, therefore, strong political will and commitment. If the government and political parties really want to alleviate poverty in deeds, not in words, then poverty can come down. Otherwise, just institutionalising poverty alleviation will not work at all. So, the exigency of poverty alleviation lies in political will and commitment. Cooperation from other sectors is secondary vis-à-vis such political will and commitment.

Role Of NGO/INGOs In Development

By Deepa Poudel

THE UN charter in 1947 first used the term International Non-governmental Organisation (INGO) in one of the clauses saying, "any organisation which is not established by inter-government agreement shall be considered as an International Non-governmental Organisation." In many respects, the beginnings of the NGO/INGO concept can be traced to antiquity, when the notion of evolution was first used with reference to human society.

Idea

The idea of progress is a continuing theme in Western world so that European philosophers and some social critiques promoted the usage of the term to external anarchism in social affairs. Long before the State came into power, the works of state development were carried out by the civil societies in the units of the family, community and the neighborhood association. After the Second World war, NGOs / INGOs were made so popular that the international funding agencies as the World Bank are promoting for the development of NGOs to fullfill their own interests on the long run.

NGOs are especially motivated for development. There is not an agreed definition of development. It is a normative term, which at various times has meant economic growth, structural economic change, autonomous industrialisation, capitalism or socialism, self-actualisation, and individual, national, regional and cultural self-reliance. Hence, development is a positive change that involves deliberately planned change and guides thought and action across the world through countless energy, effort and resources. That is the main reason why, least developing countries like ours are trying to achieve development in spite of hunger, illness, illiteracy, corruption and insecurity.

There is the greater share of NGOs on the improvement of education and health status of Nepalese people after the restoration of democracy. Most straightforwardly, David C. Kartan is suggesting that NGO works as a catalyst, a chemical compound which remains through out the reaction i.e. participation between the people for the drastic change in the society. NGO works on small scale because it believes that development of small scale leads to the large one.

In Nepalese perspective, if we go through the history of the evolution of the society, we can find community effort of citizens for the sake of their own welfare. Religious concepts such as "Work is Worship", "Help Ever Hurt Never" etc. can be categorised as the main foundation stones of NGOs/INGOs. These concepts had helped a lot to promote different positive programmes for the development.

Till 1990, before the restoration of democracy, there were only 191 NGOs working in Nepal. But, after the restoration of democracy, the number NGOs increased dramatically. Approximately, there are 14,745 NGOs registered in Social Welfare Council. In spite of these efforts, our country is still compelled to remain behind in its development endeavours. The terms slavery, drought, illiteracy, corruption etc. are not new to us. Still child labour and child marriage exist in certain rural areas. NGOs should generate more local resources for development work by mobilising the groups especially on those sectors where people lack basic needs such as communication, transportation, drinking water, security, sanitation and so on. NGO movement needs to contribute to empowerment of these aspects by education, training and advocacy.

As NGO works on small scale or covers small areas, it takes a long time to cover the whole nation. So, it is not successful enough to generate local resources for development work.

"NGOs are truly based on non-profit making"-this statement sometimes goes wrong due to the negative impact left by fake NGOs. Determined and motivated NGOs/INGOs are also affected. Similarly, publics also criticise NGOs as donor - owner. Communication has developed so far that we are capable to know about the problems of the women of Doti and Achham living in Kathmandu. They are compelled to stay far from their house during their period and are left to be taken by wild animals. We show sympathy on them but we can't imagine even a single second in place of them. We know, it's horrible! Various NGOs are established in order to improve the poor condition and health status of Nepalese women. But the questions arise there - Are these NGOs able to serve those helpless women? Are these NGOs able to create community effort on those sectors? One can easily answer i.e. "NO".

Hence, NGOs are basically prioritised on rural and remote areas. Perhaps due to the lack of financial and technical feedback, these NGOs are unable to reach there.

Necessary

Thus, it is necessary to think about promoting public awareness programmes through NGOs/INGOs. Unless and until the people are educated and make aware of their rights, we cannot improve the living standards of our people.

Imitation, An Easy Task

By RRS

GREEK philosopher Plato decried art and literature as the imitation of imitation and claimed that they are three times away from the reality.

Rationalist Plato then could hardly imagine that imitation would one day become a system of human life.

These days imitation has become an integral part of human life. If you fail to copy others, you may find yourself lagging behind in the social, political and economic race. One can easily notice this even in art, literature and cinema.

Imitation is, perhaps the most universal human instinct. This can be witnessed in almost every community, culture and country. Why do people imitate others? Maybe, it is the easiest job in the world. One need not spend much energy to imitate others.

In his theory, Charles Darwin claims that those species, which fall behind in evolution, contain great potentiality of development than that of already developed species. According to Darwin, this is applied in animals, plants and human beings.

However, this theory does not seem to be working in society seeing the humans' strong inclination to imitation. The imitation traits are normally found among the less developed people. Backwards imitate the forwards. The poor mimic the rich. Lower class imitates middle class and the middle class copy the upper class. Poor nations imitate the rich ones. It seems people think to be great while imitating the superior.

The very remarkable trend in the days is the imitation of the developed nations by the developing ones. Life style, manner, fashion and cultures of the former are quickly imitated by the latter.
You can see teens imitating MTV culture. They feel superior in copying the worn hippie culture of the west. Appearing in short and transparent attire some damsels want to give an impression that such is the touch of the modernity.

Styles of big figures affect their followers who, in turn imitate them. A minor example is the last year's World Soccer game. Many youths across the world were seen copying the hairstyle of Ronaldo and Beckaham, the two most popular stars of soccers. However, it is not only teens and boys but also the politicians and development planners feel pride while imitating others. Our politicians still follow the old theories, which were in vogue in western countries hundreds of years ago. Their current political rhetoric is also based on them. Our planners blindly imitate the development model developed elsewhere in the world without considering their disadvantages in the native soil. In some cases, some countries and people are compelled to imitate others. For example, our politicians and economists asymmetrically focus on the liberalisation and privatisation, because they are the global trends. If they do not follow them, there is a danger that won't get financial and other assistance from the developed world.Nonetheless, all imitations are not bad. When you imitate good and right things, the outcome will also be right. However, the worrying matter is that only a few people imitate the right things. Human nature has it that he/she tends to copy everything but superficially.If the people imitate only right things from others, they won't undergo sufferings.A mere imitation often invites misery. Many communist nations broke because they only mimicked others and ignored reality of their countries.Great men hardly imitate others. They innovate things and other mimics them. All persons cannot be great. There are more imitators and less trendsetters.