Beneath The Surface
Who and where are the most deprived ones?
At the turn of the millennium seven years ago, the international community sang the siren song of halving the proportion of people living in extreme poverty and hunger between 1990 and 2015. Quite obviously, as we stand at about half-way point between the declaration and the deadline, an assessment of performance to that effect warrants attention.
Happily, however, the task has already been started under the aegis of the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI). The Manila mini-symposium in August and the brainstorming sessions in Beijing in October 2007 reveal both the good and bad side of the issue of poverty and hunger in the world.
New wine, old bottle
In this context, I would like to refer my readers to a book titled: "The World's Most Deprived: Characteristics and Causes of Extreme Poverty and Hunger" (IFPRI 2007). The book presents some interesting findings. The critics could argue that it is the old wine in a new bottle as a lot of things dealt in the book have already been delivered by others. But I personally reckon it as the new wine in an old bottle implying that, using same kind of economic and statistical tools, the authors put up a few observations rarely researched in the past. The lead author of the book is a soft-spoken and smiling Bangladeshi economist, Akhter U. Ahmed, and it was co-authored by Ruth Vargas Hill, L.C. Smith, D.M. Wiesmann, and T. Frankenberger. The beauty of the book, as I presume, lies in the title it beholds: The World's Most Deprived. In popular discourse delving into poverty and hunger, the pleasant news is that the world witnessed a wane in poverty and hunger. But, beneath the surface, the news bypasses the painful picture of those regions and segments of the society where the sun of the siren song has never risen at all. Allow me to draw upon the book. Pockets of poverty
The authors categorise the communities in terms of the depth of their poverty. They are, for example, Subjacent Poor living on between $0.75 and less than $1 a day; Medial Poor living on between $0.50 and less than $0.75 a day and Ultra Poor living on less than $0.50 a day. In other words, the authors intended to capture the progress hovering around the very poorest. It should be noted here that $1 a day is the threshold defined by the international community below which survival is questionable (extreme poverty). The authors observe that 162 million people live in ultra poverty, fetching a feeble fifty cents per day. This is undoubtedly a significant number to subdue the success so far. If all the ultra poor of the world were concentrated in a single nation, it would be world's seventh most populous country after China, India, tUS, Indonesia, Brazil and Pakistan (but bigger than Bangladesh)! Globally, sub-Saharan Africa is the home to more than three-quarters of the world's ultra poor. In contrast, only a minor portion of the Asia's poor are ultra poor. Thus, seemingly, the bell of the siren song of MDG did not toll for the regions where poverty and hunger were severe. East Asia and the Pacific bagged the "gold medal" with substantial reduction of subjacent, medial, and ultra poor. In South Asia, the number of subjacent poor actually increased but, during the same period, there was a significant decline in the number of medial and ultra poor. The contrasting scenario between East Asia and sub-Saharan Africa apparently rejects the predictions of the growth models that growth and poverty reduction would converge in course of time. By and large, the progress against poverty reduction has been slow for those far below $1 a day line but faster for those lying close to the fence. Poverty pockets
The chemistry of the composition of the poor also reveal interesting insights. For example, despite a global trend of poverty shifting toward urban areas, the incidence of poverty is still higher in rural areas. Second, the poorest and most undernourished households are located furthest from roads, markets, schools, and health services. Third, children from poorer families are less likely to go to schools. For example, only 48 per cent of the children from ultra poor families attend schools compared to 81 per cent of subjacent poor. Fourth, landless are the poorest. In Bangladesh, for example, 80 per cent of the ultra poor do not own cultivable land. Fifth, minority and other sub-groups have higher incidence of poverty. And finally, Akhter et al point to the persistence of poverty traps. It is a vicious circle that acts and reacts to keep people poor. The inability of poor households to invest in the education of children, the limited access to credit for those with few assets and the lack of productive labour fuel the poverty trap. Within such a trap, poverty begets poverty and hunger begets hunger! Cosmetic policy changes hither and thither are hardly to make any dent to the den of the ultra poor. The whole gamut of the gruesome poverty syndrome requires political commitment and good governance. Poverty and prescriptions
First, improve access to markets and basic services for those in the most remote rural areas. Second, provide insurance to households to deal with health crises and adopt policies and programs to prevent child malnutrition. Third, enable investment in education and physical capital for those with few assets and finally, address the exclusion of disadvantaged groups. And the last but not the least, do not adopt one size fits all policies. Policies must take into count the socio-economic, geographic and climatic conditions of the locality to address poverty and those policies must be home grown through bottom-up strategy of governance. Abdul Bayes is a Professor of Economics at Jahangirnagar University.
In this context, I would like to refer my readers to a book titled: "The World's Most Deprived: Characteristics and Causes of Extreme Poverty and Hunger" (IFPRI 2007). The book presents some interesting findings. The critics could argue that it is the old wine in a new bottle as a lot of things dealt in the book have already been delivered by others. But I personally reckon it as the new wine in an old bottle implying that, using same kind of economic and statistical tools, the authors put up a few observations rarely researched in the past. The lead author of the book is a soft-spoken and smiling Bangladeshi economist, Akhter U. Ahmed, and it was co-authored by Ruth Vargas Hill, L.C. Smith, D.M. Wiesmann, and T. Frankenberger. The beauty of the book, as I presume, lies in the title it beholds: The World's Most Deprived. In popular discourse delving into poverty and hunger, the pleasant news is that the world witnessed a wane in poverty and hunger. But, beneath the surface, the news bypasses the painful picture of those regions and segments of the society where the sun of the siren song has never risen at all. Allow me to draw upon the book. Pockets of poverty
The authors categorise the communities in terms of the depth of their poverty. They are, for example, Subjacent Poor living on between $0.75 and less than $1 a day; Medial Poor living on between $0.50 and less than $0.75 a day and Ultra Poor living on less than $0.50 a day. In other words, the authors intended to capture the progress hovering around the very poorest. It should be noted here that $1 a day is the threshold defined by the international community below which survival is questionable (extreme poverty). The authors observe that 162 million people live in ultra poverty, fetching a feeble fifty cents per day. This is undoubtedly a significant number to subdue the success so far. If all the ultra poor of the world were concentrated in a single nation, it would be world's seventh most populous country after China, India, tUS, Indonesia, Brazil and Pakistan (but bigger than Bangladesh)! Globally, sub-Saharan Africa is the home to more than three-quarters of the world's ultra poor. In contrast, only a minor portion of the Asia's poor are ultra poor. Thus, seemingly, the bell of the siren song of MDG did not toll for the regions where poverty and hunger were severe. East Asia and the Pacific bagged the "gold medal" with substantial reduction of subjacent, medial, and ultra poor. In South Asia, the number of subjacent poor actually increased but, during the same period, there was a significant decline in the number of medial and ultra poor. The contrasting scenario between East Asia and sub-Saharan Africa apparently rejects the predictions of the growth models that growth and poverty reduction would converge in course of time. By and large, the progress against poverty reduction has been slow for those far below $1 a day line but faster for those lying close to the fence. Poverty pockets
The chemistry of the composition of the poor also reveal interesting insights. For example, despite a global trend of poverty shifting toward urban areas, the incidence of poverty is still higher in rural areas. Second, the poorest and most undernourished households are located furthest from roads, markets, schools, and health services. Third, children from poorer families are less likely to go to schools. For example, only 48 per cent of the children from ultra poor families attend schools compared to 81 per cent of subjacent poor. Fourth, landless are the poorest. In Bangladesh, for example, 80 per cent of the ultra poor do not own cultivable land. Fifth, minority and other sub-groups have higher incidence of poverty. And finally, Akhter et al point to the persistence of poverty traps. It is a vicious circle that acts and reacts to keep people poor. The inability of poor households to invest in the education of children, the limited access to credit for those with few assets and the lack of productive labour fuel the poverty trap. Within such a trap, poverty begets poverty and hunger begets hunger! Cosmetic policy changes hither and thither are hardly to make any dent to the den of the ultra poor. The whole gamut of the gruesome poverty syndrome requires political commitment and good governance. Poverty and prescriptions
First, improve access to markets and basic services for those in the most remote rural areas. Second, provide insurance to households to deal with health crises and adopt policies and programs to prevent child malnutrition. Third, enable investment in education and physical capital for those with few assets and finally, address the exclusion of disadvantaged groups. And the last but not the least, do not adopt one size fits all policies. Policies must take into count the socio-economic, geographic and climatic conditions of the locality to address poverty and those policies must be home grown through bottom-up strategy of governance. Abdul Bayes is a Professor of Economics at Jahangirnagar University.
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