ADMINISTRATION
OF RURAL DEVELOPMENT
Definitions
of major terms
Development
according to the World Bank development is seen as the increase of wealth,
income per capita, and the quality of life. International organization looks at
development as an opportunity to live a long life and access to knowledge and
resources (capital and material world development report)
The
UNDP used a universalistic approach to explain the term development. It
considers it in the following ways;
In
terms of life expectancy, consumption of animal proteins, primary and secondary
enrolment, vocational enrolment, news paper circulation
According
to Kaggwa (2000:71) development is a process that aims at the improvement in
the people’s quality of life. It involves progress in all spheres, economic and
non economic. It is a process characterized by the increase in the real per
capita incomes of the country over along period of time. The entire system
moves upwards and the country attain most of the ideals of modernization and
all its major goals. The economy is transformed from backward economy to modern
advanced industrial economy pp.75.
Todaro
(1992:100) said development is perceived as a multi-dimensional process
involving changes in structures, attitudes and institutions as well as the
acceleration of the economic growth, the reduction of inequality and
eradication of absolute poverty.
Development
is a process of improving the well being of the people. It is about raising the
standards of living of the people improving their education and health and also
opening out to them new and equal opportunities for richer and more varied life.
Better health- a longer life with less sickness. This is crucial to better
standards of living (Sapru 2002:5) the process of society transformation from
tradition to modern society. Such transformation is also known as
modernization.
Rural development
Rural
development in general is used to denote the actions and initiatives taken to
improve the standard of living in non-urban neighborhoods, country side and
remote villages. These communities can be exemplified at a low ratio of in habitants
to much open space.
Rural
development is a multi sectoral and focused on improving the well being of
rural people by building their productive social and environmental assets.
It
mostly aims at the social and economic development of the area.
Outsiders: these are
people concerned with rural development who are themselves neither rural nor
poor. Many are headquarters and field staff of government organization in the 3rd
world. They also include academic researchers aid agency, journalist, lawyers,
social workers, politicians, priests, school teachers, Staff of training
institution and other professionals. Outsiders under perceive rural poverty.
They are attracted and trapped by urban ‘cores’ which generate and communicate
their own sort of knowledge while poor peripherals are isolated and neglected.
The direct rural experience of most urban –based outsiders is limited to their
brief and hurried visits from urban centres of rural development tourists.
Outsiders
have much in common. They are relatively well off, literate and mostly urban
based. Their children go to urban schools, they carry on parasites, expect long
life, and eat more than we need, trained and educated they live in countries of
the world or nationalists and they have a better standard of living.
Rural
development tourism;
this is a phenomenon of brief rural visit. This is most common in third world
countries professional make brief visits to rural areas to search for
information about rural conditions or problems affecting rural people. This information
is revealed in brief form which at times is not of much help in as far as
solutions to the problems of rural people is concerned.
Robert
chambers said, in any case, self critical introspection is not one of the more
prominent characteristics of the rural developers. Yet it is through thus rural
development tourism, if at all the ‘core’ (urban based, professional, powerful)
visitors see and meet those who are in peripheral (rural uneducated weak). The
brief rural visits by ‘core’ personnel can scarcely fail to play a key role in
forming their impressions and beliefs and influencing their decisions and
action. For example visits may be for one day or for several. The tourists or
visitors may come from capital city, town, district headquarters or any urban
place. They may be agriculturalists, administrators or government officials.
They have 3 things in common ie they come from urban areas they want to find
something out and they are short of time. They are always involved in many
meetings with the rural people.
Urban trap
It
is no means only the international system of knowledge and prestige with its
rewards and incentives, that draws professionals away from rural areas and up
throughout the hierarchy of urban and international centre. They are also
attracted and held fast by better houses hospital, schools, communications, and
consumer goods recreation.
Urban
trap may then mean attraction or issues that attract people to migrate from
rural areas to urban centre.
In
terms of places of work or job placements, officers in the capital city or in
the regional or provincial headquarters, bureaucrats too are trapped. In
otherwords people or employees will be trapped to work in urban offices than
rural ones. Robert chambers put it that foreigners are also urban based and
urban based. Foreigners in 3rd world countries who concerned with
rural development and rural poverty include staff in voluntary agencies and
organizations personnel of various sorts and consultants. Many voluntary
agencies and workers and few technical cooperation staff do live in rural areas
but most of these foreigners care urban based many of them in capital cities
and the familiar problem of paper work; meetings and political and family
pressures which tie them there. In addition their rural movement may be
restricted by suspicions government or smoothened by protocol.
Concepts of
development
Economic growth
Economic
development
Sustainable
development
Under
development
Economic growth
Is
a term generally measured by the amount of production in a country or region
over a certain period of time. It may be done quarterly or annually. Production
is measured through gross domestic product. However local government and
individuals may use different standards to measure economic growth.
Economic
growth implies the increase in the quantitative output. Economic growth can
either be negative or positive. Negative growth can be referred to by saying
the economy is shrinking. Negative growth is associated with economic recession
and economic depression.
Economic
growth is a term used to refer to the increase of per capita gross domestic
product (GDP) it refers to only the quantity of goods and services produced. It
does not consider the way by which those things are produced or their
distribution across members of the economy.
According
to Kaggwa (2000:64) said economic growth is the sustainable goods and services
(GNP) produced. He noted that for the economic ot be described as having grown,
the rate of growth of GNP should be greater than the growth rate of the
population.
Economic
growth include increase in GNP< an increase in the resources bases of the
country an increase in capital accumulation and an increase in the quantity of
services.
According
to Mubazi 2009, said growth is a means to an end and the end is development. He
added that we look at the welfare implications of the GNP which is for both
present and future consumption. The rationale of constructing GNP figures is to
know or find out how well people live.
Costs and
benefits of economic growth
Benefits
Economic
growth leads to an increase in national income other factors being constant the
welfare of the people may also improve.
The
number of economic activities increases as a country attains economic growth.
The government will earn more revenue by taxing the numerous economic
activities this may reduce dependence on external resources.
The
social and economic infrastructure of a country expands and improves
Economic
growth reduces the dual nature of the economic and instead another sector ie
the informal sector rises, playing an increasingly important role in the
economic activities of a country.
The
level of resource exploitation increases idle resources are tapped this
increases opportunities for improved welfare to the people.
Urbanization;
the increase in the number of economic activities in an area leads to
urbanization and modernity.
The
increase in the level of economic activities increase the level of employment
opportunities as well as increase in their purchasing power.
The
country attains balance payments stability the export level increases while the
important level increases due to self sufficiency got from the import
substitution industrial the dependency on external resources also increases.
There
is high level of technological progress. Agricultural mechanization and the use
of capital intensive production techniques raises level of out.
Costs
Rural
urban migration; urbanization leads to the rural urban drifts and its consequent
problems ie congestion, pollution, poor housing, sanitation facilities etc.
The
high rates of resource exploitation may lead to the depletion of some of
societies non renewable resources
Economic
growth leads to income inequality between individuals, sectors and regions. The
income gap widens between the resource owners (rich) and the workers (poor)
some regions become growth poles.
Economic
growth involves a sacrifice of the present consumption for future consumption.
A growth calls for increased savings and investment. Resources are channeled
towards the production of capital goods, the provision of education and health
which increases the productive capacity of a country in the future, this causes
a reduction in the supply of consumption goods.
Unemployment;
economic growth causes unemployment; economic growth causes unemployment. This
economy under goes structural changes which makes some labour absolute. The
demand for unskilled labour declines. Change in technology also lead to unemployment.
Occupational
hazards; the increase in the pace of economic activities may result into
accidents and occupational increases such as TB, Influenza, colds etc.
Industrialization
which is a component of economic growth leads to environmental degradation.
There is noise, pollution, the loss of the Nakawa, Ntinda industrial areas has
been made at the expense of the natural environment (swamps) a wetland.
The
non economic costs, economic growth the disrupts the traditional society, its
values, life style, the family life / extended family) with its security and
calmness is replaced by the life of crowded urban areas and slums and new
individual money oriented values.
Determinants
of economic growth;
Natural
resources; the quality and quantity ie minerals, soils, landscape, water, air
etc.
Human
resource: this is a mental and physical man’s efforts put in the production
process. Quantity = number of workers and the quality is the labourforce ie
their level of education and skills.
Capital
resources; these are non man made resources they include the buildings,
machines, equipments etc.
Technology;
a high out level is got due to increased level of efficiency. Better quality
goods are produced at a lower cost. Technology increases the factor
performance. It increases the effectiveness of labour.
Institutions
or social cultural factors; a correct institutional arrangement facilitates
economic growth by creating an enabling environment for factor performance.
Economic
development
Economic
development is the increase in the standard of living of the nations population
with sustainable growth from a simple,
low incomes, economy to modern, high income economy. It includes the process
and policies by which a nation improves the economy, political and social well
being of its people. Economic development refers to the social and
technological progress. It implies a change in the way goods and services are
produced, not there an increase in population achieved using the old methods of
production on a wider scale.
Economic
development typically involves improvements in a variety of indicator such as
literacy rates, life expectancy and poverty rates. It involves human
development which incompasses among others health and education.
According
to Kaggwa, economic development is a multi dimensional aspect invovlign both
quantitative and qualitative dimension. It is economic growth plus change ie
qualitative change. Examples of qualitative change.
A
change in the methods and techniques of production from traditional inefficient
labour intensive methods to modern capital intensive methods.
The
social, political and religious institution change towards increased harmony
and to accommodate the qualitative and quantitative changes that have taken
place. There fore in attitudes and values.
Economic
development involves growth and a high real percapita income or a more even
distribution of national income.
The
elimination of the state of backwardness, underdevelopment and self
sustianance.
According
to Mubazsi (2009:34) provides that growth is one aspect of development of
societies and that therefore are other equally important dimensions such as
political democracy and human rights health education, the environment and
equal access to opportunities.
Under development
Underdevelopment
refers to the low levels of development of resources the natural resources, the
man made resources and the human resources remain under exploited and under
utilized. The techniques and structure of production leaves the potential
resources under exploited.
Underdeveloped
countries are also called developing countries. They are found in Africa, Asia
and Latin America. Collectively they are called the third world. These
countries are technologically, scientifically, economically and politically
below the developed industrial countries of Japan, Europe and North America
which have realized their full potential for development.
Characteristics
of economic backwardness or underdevelopment
A
predominant agricultural sector with low output levels and tradition
unscientific production techniques.
An
export oriented economy, geared to export of one or two semi processed primary
products.
Low
income levels, very low per capita income levels and inequitable.
The
deficiency of interprenuerial and managerial skills in developing countries.
Political
instability
Social-
cultural factors, traditional attitudes beliefs, cultures values and practices
are still rooted in the people ways of life in developing countries.
Poorly
developed social economic infrastructure. There are few banks, stock markets,
schools, hospital, recreation facilities etc.
The
low levels of development of science and technology, inefficient outdated
technology. This has left many resources unexploited
The
vicious cycle of poverty; this is the social economic state where phenomenon
Poor
leadership in most low developed countries.
Sustainable
development
Sustainable
development is a term widely used by politicians all over the world even though
the notion is still rather new and lacks a uniform interpretation. Important as
it is the concept of sustainable development is still being developed and the
definition of the term is constantly being revised, extended and refined.
According
to the classical definition, given by the UN world commission on environment
development in 1987, development is sustainable if it meets the needs of the
present without compromising the ability of the future generation to meet their
own needs. It is usually understood that this intergenerational equity would be
impossible to ahceive in the absence of present day social equity if the
economic activities of same groups of people continue to jeopardize the well
being of people belonging to other groups or living in other parts of the
world.
Sustainable
development could probably be otherwise called equitable and balanced
development meaning that in order for development to continue indefinitely, it
should balance the interests of different groups of people with in the same
generation among generations and to do so simultaneously in three major
interrelated areas ie economic, social and environment.
Therefore
sustainable development is about equity defined as equality of opportunities
for well being as well as about comprehensiveness of objectives.
According
David, sustainable development is a development strategy that manages all
assets, natural resources and human resources as well as financial and physical
assets for increase long term wealth and well being. Sustainable development as
a goal rejects policies and practices that supports current living standards by
depleting the production base, including natural resources, and leaves future
generation with poorer prospects and greater risks than our own.
THEORIES OF DEVELOPMENT
Dependency
theory
Dependency theory is a body of
social theories, both from developed and developing nations which are predicted
on the notion that resources flow from periphery’ of poor and underdeveloped
states to a ‘core’ of wealthy states, enriching the latter at the expense of
the former.
Dependency theory sprung in the
late 1950s under the guidance of the director of the United Nations economic
commission for Latin America, Paul Prebisch. They were troubled by the fact
that economic growth in the advanced industrialized countries did not
necessarily lead to growth in the poorer countries. It often led to serious
economic problems in the poorer countries. This trend of events had not been
predicted by neoclassic theorists that had assumed economic growth was
beneficial to all even if the benefits were not always equally shared.
Prebisch’s initial explanation
for the phenomenon was very straight forward. Poor countries exported primary
commodities to the rich countries which manufacturers them into finished
products. Poor countries sell this primary raw material at cheap prices and buy
the finished products at expensive price because of value added by
manufacturing the very primary products from poorer countries. The poorer
countries will never earn enough from the exports earnings to pay for their
imports. Thus a prevalence of the balance of payment problem (BOP) persistent
in the LDC’s to this day.
Prebisch’s solution was similarly
simple and straight forward. He proposed that the poorer countries should
embark on programs of import substitution so that they need not purchase the
manufactured products from the richer countries. They would still sell their
primary products on the world markets but their foreign exchange reserves would
not be used to purchase their manufacturers from abroad.
Three
issues hindered this policy
The internal markets of the poor
countries were not large enough to support the economies of scale used by the
richer countries to keep their prices low.
The political will of the poorer
countries, as to whether a transformation from being primary producers was
possible or desirable
The extent to which the poor
countries actually had control of their primary products, particular.
Criticism
It leads to peripheral nations into
chronic current account balance deficits
Corruption free markets
economists hold state-owned companies have higher rates of corruption than
privately owned companies.
Lack of competition; by
subsidizing in country industries to improve their products to try to become
more efficient in their processes, to please customers or to research new
innovation.
Un sustainability; reliance of
industries on government support may not be sustainable for very long,
particularly in poorer countries and countries which largely budget out of
foreign aid.
Domestic opportunity cost,
subsidies on domestic industries come out of state cotters and therefore
represent money not spent in other ways like development of domestic
infrastructure, capital and social welfare programs. At the same time, the
higher prices caused by tariffs and restrictions on imports require the people
either to forego these goods altogether or buy them at higher prices, forgoing
other goods.
Rostows theory
One of the
principle applications of the modernization theory has been the economic field
presented to public policy decision. From this perspective, it is very well
known that economic theory of modernization is based on the 5 stages of
development; he came up with a conclusion that economic growth follow stages;
- Traditional society
- Pre-condition for take off
- Take off process
- Drive to maturity
- High mass consumption society
Traditional stage
It is dominated
by tradition subsistence sector the aim of production is to satisfy their own consumption.
Any exchange of the little surplus is done through the barter system.
The society is
communal work is done communally in groups. The tradition models of production
tradition tool and techniques are through:
Traditional
beliefs and values are dominant. People are not profit motivated. They appear
contented with the little or nothing.
Poverty,
ignorance and disease are prevalent. Society lacks sophistication and there is
no specialization and economic growth is Zero
NB: many
developing countries exhibit these characteristics however no country is at
this stage growth.
The precondition for take off stage
A change in
attitudes and beliefs from tradition to modern and scientific beliefs and
towards material advancement.
Economic
transformation begins to take shape. There is rise in saving and investment and
modern technology begins to replace traditional techniques of production.
The rate of
resource exploitation rises because of improved technology
Societies
becomes dualistic nature a modern sector emerges while the tradition one also
persists.
The leading
sectors ie agricultural sector export sector and the social overheads capital
starts undergoing transformation. Agricultural productivity rises, the export
generates more foreign exchange. The social over head capital is expanded with
more investments in education, transport and power.
The rate of
economic growth is high. These changes continue and usher the country into the
text stage ie take off stage.
The take off
stage
This is the decisive
stage in a country’s economy if growth. It is the traditional stage. The
country overcomes all the bottle necks to economic growth. It has the following
changes;
Social, economic
and political transformation takes place which harmonizes and exploits the
impulses to expansion
Industrial
expansion with linkages ie forward backward, vertical and horizontal linkages
with the sectors of the economy.
The economy
ceases to be a dualistic and transformed into a modern one.
The economy is
fully monetized with almost no subsistence sector.
Output per
capita rises and rising per capita income because a regular feature of the
economy.
Not investment
rises from less or 5% to over 10% of the national income.
Savings and
investment rates grow higher than the population.
A shift of
income distribution and capital transfer from land lords etc to members of
society who can save and undertake productive investment.
Production
techniques advances and productivity increases.
A continued
expansion of the social overhead of capital eg roads, railways, schools, or
education, communication facilities. The economy becomes self sustaining this
stage lasts for at least 20 to 30 years.
Drive to maturity stage
Technical
advancement, modern technology begins to used in most section of the economy.
Due to increased research, innovation and invention, the country acquires
techniques maturity.
The rise and
increased role of professionals in the organization of the production process e.g.
the consultants, the managers, the accountants, the economists. The semi
skilled and skilled white color workers expand.
Rising level of
saving (10-20%) and investments within and outside the country. Multinational
cooperation’s (MWC) become a big addition to GNP.
The range of
production expands; new leading sectors come up to supplement the old leading
sectors.
Heavy industries
come; iron and steel industries come to play an increasing role in the economy.
Rising resource
productivity, resources are efficiently utilized.
The age of high mass consumption
This is the
fifth and the last stage according to Rostow’s; it has the following
characteristics;
All the basic
needs of a society are fulfilled.
High consumption
of goods and services. The consumption of durable goods becomes wide spread.
Resources become
fully utilized and the economy becomes fully developed.
Society becomes
industrialized. Industrial civilization makes “life easier”, more pleasant and
more interesting at home”
New leading sectors
come up, such as automobile, rubber, oil, road building construction of complex
structures, productivity of electric households’ equipment etc.
The age of high
mass consumption is characterized by automation and computerization of the
economy. MODERNIZATION THEORY
According to
Frik De beer (2003) in the later 1950 and 1960s considerable emphasis was
placed on the transfer of significant amounts of aid and the provision of
extensive technical assistance to the third world countries. Modernization theory
emerged in the climate of cold war and was conditional by strategic concern of
the U.S.A to contract the actual and potential influence of USSR in third
world.
Frik De beer
discussed with theory by classifying it into four classes. These classes are
discussed as follows;
Economic approach, this class of modernization is
expressed through economic growth or theory by ww. Rostow. Rostows clearly
explains that development journey follows a systematic pattern of five stages
of development as earlier discussed.
Political approach
Although the
political modernization emphasis is not so clear cut, there are some
reoccurring themes. Generally, political modernization emphasize
rationalization and secularization of authority, the growing differentiation of
new political functions, specialized structural and increased participation in
the political process.
Most
modernizationist stress the inadequacy
of political superstructures and incapable leadership as the underlying causes of the third world’s industrial backwardness
as compared to the west. Fore instance, theorists such as Rothstein and
Huntington argue in one way or another that the establishment and maintenance
of stable and secular political elite is a necessary precondition for the
achievement of industrial, social and political modernization.
Sociological approaches
Frik De
beer considered the contribution of non economic
aspects to the growing theory
of modernization which were discussed
under the sociological aspects to the growing theory of modernization
which were discussed under the
sociological approach.
The sociological
aspect tends to stress the range of social and institutional variables in the
process of change. There were two perspectives of sociological thought feeding
into modernization theory; the first one incorporates Max Webers writings on the relationship between protestantism and
the development of capitalism, and concentrates on the cultural and individual
psychological as prerequisites of modernization involves a great
deal of increasing
rationalization of life.
The second
perspective is from the thought of Herbert Spencer and Emile Durkeim which
stresses social or structural differentiation as the main feature change. The
Spence and Emile provided two main themes
Firstly, the
development of social evolution which is a process of social differentiation as
a result of which societies becomes structurally more complex. Secondly as
differentiation proceeds, the question was how the process of re-integration of
the increasingly diverse structural elements could occur. The implication for
this theory was industrialization as it led to standardization of economic
structures and techniques. Differences in societies and cultures would diminish
as industrialization brought about a shift to modern society.
The psychological approach
This emphasizes
internal factors and psychological motives as the main spring of transition. Mc
Chellend (1961) identifies the need for achievement of a self conscious desire
to do well as a crucial factor. By
spreading among actual and potential entrepreneurs in a particular society.
This will contribute significantly to economic development. This is hereditary
and can be inculcated and reinforced in a country on the path to modernity
through structured education.
A related
approach is what carter 1986 terms. Psychologists which is often deployed when
economic, social or political explanations for underdevelopment seem in
realizable. It locates the reasons for underdevelopment firmly in the cultures
of third world people who are thus said to be passive, conservative, fatalistic
or superstitious when what they need is to be creative, innovative, and
entrepreneurial, get up and go types thus a psychological pattern variable
schema.
Neo liberalism
By the late
1970s prescriptions for an interventionists role for the state had become tainted by the
excesses of statistics experiments and
by the declining influence
at national and international
levels. The 1980s witnessed the
declining influence of Keynesian economics and the paring down of the welfare
state coupled with the
re-surgence of neoclassic and new right
social theory which stressed the role
of markets. It should be noted that an emphasis on market- driven public policy
in the north impacted on
development theory and policy and
influenced the thinking and activities of the IMF
and world Bank. The latter institution shifted from basic needs
perspective to one directly informed by a neoclassical agenda.
The global economic
recession of the early 1980
declining a commodity prices
and marketing third world debt were particularly decisive in the policy shift. The situation
obliged the World Bank and IMF for financial assistance. This funding in turn
were usually conditional on the recipient country shifting to out ward oriented
and market liberalizing development
policies.
Neo liberalism
or market liberalism became
the dominant view of development,
especially in industrialized west
and in several of the more influential
international bodies in the
development field, the world bank and IMF most notably.
The dominant
feature of neo-liberalism is regulation through the market. Individual and
groups of individuals act in a rational manner to maximize their material
interests. The philosophy underlying here is individualism.
Market
competition is crucial and is
acknowledged as the motive power
behind economic growth and progress,
thus development there should be
expansion and innovation for
continued profit realization.
Growth will attract large economies
of scale, innovation and investment of
additional capital in production
which in turn will contribute to
improved labour productivity.
The competitive process will then
penalize any department from
rationality among procedures
and consumers by driving them out of the market altogether.
The system
outlined above is seen to be beneficial to society as a whole. It provides the scope for
hardworking and entrepreneurial
individuals to flourish and the benefits of their work
will percolate through to others
via hard working of the invisible hand of the economy hence development.
Understanding poverty
Poverty
is a state of having insufficient income to provide a minimum standard of
living. According to Mubazi (2009:47) poverty is inability to attain a minimum
standard of living, assumed to be a certain amount of money.
Poverty is expressed in
two terms ie absolute or relative poverty. Absolute poverty is a state of
extreme poverty, where there is poor health, malnutrition, lack of education,
clothing and shelter. In Uganda poverty is biting hard especially in the rural
areas (Kagwa, 2000:61). Absolute poverty refers to the position of an
individual or household in relation to a poverty line. An absolute poverty line
is based on the cost of a minimum consumption basket, based on the food
necessary for a recommended colorie intake. Number of people who are unable to
command the sufficient resources to their basic needs (Tabaro 2009, 218).
Absolute poverty is where an individual not in position to purchase the basic
need of life.
According
to Stan (2002) absolute poverty is
an inability of an individual, a community or a nation to satisfactorily meet
its basic needs are met but where there is an inability to meet perceived needs
and desires in addition to basic needs
Mubazi
in his study made analysis of poverty and differeciated between absolute and
relative poverty. According to him, relative poverty refers to the position of
an individual or household compared with the average income or living standards
in the country or community. It relates to a given social way of living in
reference to a particular set of values within a particular society at a
particular time. People are relatively poverty stricken when their income is
not adequate for survival or falls below the average income of the community.
The poor: the poor are
those individuals and families whose resources are so limited that they are
excluded from the patterns of consumption and activities that make up minimum
acceptable standards of living of the society they live in.
The poorest of the poor, are those unfortunate
individuals who because of serious mental or physical handicaps are incapable
of meeting their basic needs by themselves.
Interns of
external assistance, people existing in absolute poverty needs immediate relief
in order to survive while those existing in relative poverty should benefit
from development assistance which ideally help them to become more independent
of such assistance.
An English
industrialists working In Norway in the 1880s said there is no use in trying to
help these people. These dirty, ignorant people are putting too many children
into the world. They will not work, they have no discipline, and they misuse
every opportunity they get. Every time they get some money in their hands it
all goes to drinking and senseless waste. All the help give them is just an
incentive to laziness and another opportunity to produce even more children
(Stan 2002).
The poorest of
the poor should survive on charity which unlimitedly must be provided by their
own family or communities either privately or through government programmes.
Many disabled or handicapped can be assisted to manage on their own.
Poverty
can also either be direct or indirect. Indirect poverty is measured according
to the disposable income for households whereas the concepts of direct poverty
measure how low incomes influences consumption, lifestyle, or the accumulation
of other factors that personal deprivation.
A
locality, region or country with a large number of people living under poverty
circumstances is in turn also regarded as poor.
Measures of poverty
Measure
of poverty is the aggregation of the dimensions of poverty into a single
statistics with respect of an individual or household. The statistics is
usually restricted to the concept of material or economic welfare, omitting the
non material factors that influence human welfare. This is because measuring
the non material factors is not an easy task. There is no single measure of
poverty and all choices have their advantage and weaknesses.
Poverty line or income of poverty
The
poverty line is defined according to the minimum income required to satisfy the
person’s basic needs. This approach is generally based on the cost of basket of
everyday consumer commodities. The poverty line is defined individually by the
society concerned according to its income distribution. The poverty line is a
measure that separates the poor from the non-poor. The one whose income
(consumption) falls below the line are poor; those above are non poor. World
Bank (2008:1) defines it as a level of consumption below which people tend to
think they are poor and above which they do not. The poverty line portrays the
extent of poverty and the distinguishing characteristics of the poor. Poverty
line can be set in relative or absolute terms.
Basic needs approach (BNA)
This
defines households or poor if their basic needs such as food (calorie intake),
clothing, shelter, education, medical care and other basic needs are not met.
The basic needs approach, nutritional indicators and health indicators.
As a
measurement technique, the BNA is used to determine the extent of poverty in a
country on the basis that citizens are deprived of certain basic needs. The
approach involves identification of the basic needs such as education, health,
housing, food, water, security and amenities. Once identified, indicators are
chosen for each basic need and based on these indicators, a poverty line is set
and the status of the individual is determined. If the household lacks the
acceptable minimum in terms of the indicators, then it is termed as poor. The
indicators can be weighed into a composite index of poverty.
The head count index
The
head count index is equal to the number of individuals falling below the
poverty line divided by the population of the area under consideration. As a
measure of poverty, the head count ratio does not show the depth of poverty
though we would know how many fall below this line.
The possession score index
The
possession score index is a simple index for measuring poverty basing on the
material well being of households using a possession of assets criterion. It
focuses on durable assets and others that are considered to be vital in
household’s income. Usually a score is given to each asset. In calculating the
index, a maximum score is specified and deprivation level obtained so as to
distinguish the poor from the non poor. The possession score can be categorized
into groups, say the 20% poorest and 10% richest.
The necessities approach
In
this approach, information concerning non necessary goods coverage would be
irrelevant, since the aim of index is to identify people suffering deprivation
in a set of explicit basic aspects of life. According to this view, whether a
household lacks or not “ a non necessary” good does not affect the deprivation
index. Although this would appear to be more cleanly concerned with measuring
poverty, its validity relies heavily on the fairness of the criteria applied to
define necessities, a question particularly difficult to deal with when
measuring relative poverty.
The life style approach;
The
life style approach takes into account the household’s position concerning a
wider series of variables which could also include items regarded necessities.
Other measures;
General
other measures of poverty are total household income; total household
expenditure, per capita food consumption and proportion of household budget
spent on food. Measurement of the incidence of poverty is by the number in the
total population living below the poverty lines. While the intensity of poverty
is reflected in the extent to which the incomes of the poor lie below the
poverty line.
Decomposable poverty index (DPT)
The
DPT measures the incidence of poverty (numbers below the poverty line) and
degree of inequality among the poor. It also shows the living standards and
relates them to the population at large. Symbolically DPI = I/n (e- e) x /ep.
The approaches reviewed above are considered conventional. The measure of
poverty have been used because poverty is traditionally perceived as an
standard of living, using are other dimensions which have to be taken into
consideration , using income and consumption as measure of poverty is therefore
inadequate.
INDICATORS OF WELFARE
GNP,
purchasing power purity (PPP), Income share (how much income go to a group),
Gin index it measures the extent of the distribution, Weighing incomes, the
difference in descending order, Human and social development indices Note PPP
comparing prices of the same commodities in different countries
Social indicators
Calorie
consumption/ protein intake, Mortality rates, especially age specific, infant
mortality, Life expectancy, Literacy, Maternal mortality rate.
Human and social development indices
Human
quality of life index: is a measure which combines literacy rates, life
expectancy and choice, (freedom) society enjoys. These are combined and an
index is made from the ranking from 0-1. The high the index, the better the
welfare. This is the accurate indicator of welfare because it is free of bias
of income. It considers only those aspects that consider the quality of life
and welfare enjoyed in the society.
Human
physical quality of life index is closely related to the former and considers
physical indicators of welfare only, like life expectancy, caloric consumption,
literacy, and level of urbanization
Human
development index (HDI) is composed of 3 social indicators namely life
expectancy, adult literacy and years of schoolings. To this is added GDP per
capita based on PPD. In this way, the HDI considers along and health life as
well as knowledge and decent standard of living. The maximum index is 1 and
minimum 0. a low index would be between 0-0.5, medium, 0.51 and 0.8 while high
would be 0.81
GNP
per capita (HDI) is computed by having GNP per capita rank minus HDI rank. A
positive show that HDI rank is better than the GNP percapita rank, a negative
the opposite.
Composite
social development index (CSDI) it was developed by the United Nations research
institution on social development (UNRISD).
It is composed of a selection of a number of core indicators at
different levels of development. It has social and economic factors where the
economic factors include;
Total
GDP; foreign trade per capita, agricultural production per male agricultural
workers, percentage of adult male labor engaged in agriculture, school
enrolment social indicators also includes;
Average
number of persons per home, news paper circulation per 1000 persons,
electricity consumptions and energy consumption
Gin Index
According
to the World Bank (2005:268) it shows the extent to which distribution of
income or in some cases, consumption expenditure, among individuals or
households with an economy deviates from a perfectly of weigh incomes.
Causes of poverty
There are almost
as many theories explaining the causes of
poverty in the 3rd world as
there are development theorist. For many people the statement by the English business quoted
sums up the problem. If he had been talking about Africa
instead of Norway.
The reasons for continued poverty in third world
1.
Lack
of modernization tendencies.
2.
Physical
limitations.
3.
Bureaucratic
shifting
4.
Dependency on third world countries
5.
Exploitation
by local elites
1.
Lack of
modernization tendencies
Those who
explain poverty interms of lack of modernization tendencies in third world
communities often group these reasons into two main categories, ie lack of
modern technology and lack of outlooks among the people. They are inclined to
believe that if these growth inhibiting factors can be removed and replaced by
modern technology and innovations, then development will take off for the
betterment of all concerned.
It is argued
that poverty exists because the poor lack modern techniques of agriculture, fishing, industry etc farmers lack not only modern equipments, improved seeds, fertilizers
and pesticides but also the necessary
knowledge to use these
techniques. They lack irrigation, poor roads, cooperatives and other
support facilities. Fishermen lack motorized boats and equipments.
Industries need modern equipments,
electricity management etc. those who interpret
the causes of poverty in this tend to believe that introducing modern technologies together
with the required training and extension programmes will lift the poor
out of these destitute situation.
Although
these ideas were widely accepted during the first two development decades, many more recent researchers
have vigorously pointed the
weakness in these arguments. They maintain that the development
of modern cash crops agriculture has not led to generalized improvement of the
incomes and living export crops have replaced food crops. Although incomes have
risen, food consumption has decreased. Profits have concentrated in the hands
of merchants, middlemen, large land owners inputs has increased the debt of
small producers. Modernization has produced a pool of under employed landless.
Violent price fluctuations in the international markets have severely affected
small producers as well as national incomes. Modern technology is going to help
peasant farmers unless they also have access to land, reasonable credit and
fair market prices.
Lack of a modern outlook
point
relating to the presumed lack of modern
outlook among the poor vary from the
based on the broad concept of the
genuinely serious and tend to be based
on the broad concept of resistance to change. Poor people are said to resist
change because they are ignorant, superstious, fatalistic, traditional etc.
They have a limited worldview and are unable to see the advantages of
modernization. They lack innovativeness and unable to perceive the advantages
of investing today for a better tomorrow. They have limited aspirations and are
unable to defer today’s gratifications to the future. They are either dependent
on or hostile to government and other outside interventions. Poor people
concentrate on producing adequate qualities of food and a little surplus to
sell in order to purpose necessary consumer goods. They cannot afford to risk
everything on maximizing profits. They tend towards mixed farming to spread the
risk. They avoid hybrid seeds which require expensive fertilizers and
insecticides and which are often more susceptible to bad weather conditions and
pests. Poor farmers are not afraid to make money but they are deathly afraid of
losing an entire harvest.
Physical limitation
Another
explanation for poverty, relates
to limitations of geography, many areas
of the 3rd world are subject
to long periods of drought, rain when it comes, tends to
come all at once causing flooding and water logging, soil are thin and very delicate, cyclones and
earth quakes, supplement drought and
flooding in frequent cycle of national
disaster. Often, however, the problem is not natural disaster, but a nation’s
inability to respond to it effectively. The physical condition of the poor
resulting from their destitute condition create new barriers of development.
The symptoms of poverty become the causes of continued poverty. Malnutrition,
diseases lack of clean water and proper sanitation weakness the poor and often
make physically difficult for them to break the vicious cycle of poverty.
High
rates of child birth weaken the women physically and lead to greater pressures
on the environment. However physical limitation can be
Overcome
assuming that political and social conditions especially population growth can
be changed rapidly enough to reverse environmental deterioration.
Bureaucratic shifting of development
A
third set of reasons, often proposed by non- governmental organizations is the
shifting of development by bureaucratic heavy handedness. Third world
governments are in this view, saddled with one grown bureaucracies attempting
to control all aspects of rural people’s development. Over centralization leads
to decisions and programmes which are not only unrelated, but also often
detrimental, to the real interests of the people. The lack of genuinely
representatives in local government prevents the emergence of local
initiatives. Government bureaucrats and political leaders are said to be part
of an elite who are uninterested in or even worse, antagonistic to the real
needs of the poor. Their formation make it impossible for them to communicate
to the common man and woman.
Programmes
and projects formulated from top down either never reach the poor or even make
their situation worse. Finally there is a wide spread conception that all
bureaucrats and government officials are corrupt that their actions and
decision are related primarily to their desires for personal gain and prestige.
When government programmes succeed in reaching the poor, those programs are
often based on the provision of subsided inputs. The poor therefore tend to sit
back and ask when are they coming again to develop us.
Dependency of the third world countries, It is
maintained that colonialism was the beginning of a process in which the profits
or surplus from the production of exported food stuff, minerals and other raw materials were expropriated by
the colonial powers, thus draining the colonized countries
of their wealth. Before independence the process was maintained through
military force but it has continued since independence in the form of neocolonialism
in which economic power has replaced military power. Third world countries are dependant on
developed countries for capital, technology and markets. The rich countries of
the west set the copy and market. The rich countries of the west set the interest rates, the terms
of trade, the tariffs and import
barriers and generally, through their economic power, drain off the surpluses
produced in poor countries. The world has been patacised by the rich and
powerful homes and the poor and dependents have “nots” capitalism inform of all
powerful transnational corporations have
monopolized the production and extraction of raw materials, the production
of manufactured goods, commerce,
marketing, banking and
information. It is maintained that they use not only their enormous economic
power but also corruption and unfair or immoral
practices to eliminate
competition and preserve their dominance. Some observers maintain that
the so called development assistance is another made of domination leading to dependency.
Aid
is often given on terms which benefit the donor countries own bankers, industrialists and industrial workers. It is also suggested that many
leaders and bureacrates are dependent on aid programmes to maintain their
positions and lift style.
Aids projects are exported from the high techonology
donor economies and placed
in very inappropriate
situations and even good
development projects dependent
on outsiders for progress.
Exploitation of the poor
The
final set of explanation for continued poverty focuses on the local social economic situation of the poor.
It
is maintained that the immediate
causes of poverty lie in the dominance of poor people and their resultant dependence
on powerful local elites inform of landowners , merchants, middlemen,
money lenders, corrupt officials and sometimes
even religious leaders.
Exploitation of the poor in this context takes many forms. Unable to accumulate
their own savings and obtain reasonable loans from established credit institutions.
They must borrow perchance agricultural inputs food and suppliers in lean pre
harvest periods or to meet the unexpected expenses like funeral and wedding. In
order to secure those loans, they mortgage their land and all too often lose it
thus becoming land less laborers, share croppers or even indentured/bonded
laborers little better off than slaves. As share croppers, they must pay
excessively high rates of share cropping rentals (often as much as 50% of their
harvests) without the landowners contributing to any of the production input
costs. As agricultural laborers, they are paid minimal wages and are thereby
denied their rightful share of the production surplus on every hand, they are
cheated. Not only do they pay high prices
for agricultural inputs, food and supplies but these
essential supplies are often short weighted, diluted, impure and of inferior quality. When selling their products, they
are subject to exceedingly low
prices resulting from their inability to store produce for
letter sells and as well as to
monopolistic pricing by the merchants or government marketing boards. The
merchandise is usually the money lenders high quality produce is low graded
resulting into low prices. Observers, in their indignation, maintain that the poor
are never visited by the government extension agents. They cannot get bank.
They have no say in co-operative decision. Their children are discriminated
against at school, as are the women at health clinics. They cannot draw water
at the wells controlled by the wealthy and the high caste. They are always the
tail end of irrigation systems and never receive their rightful share of the precious water. The list of
oppression is endless.
RURAL POVERTY
Since the goal
of rural development is to improve the living standards of rural poor, it is imperative that development workers
are able to identify the poor and understand rural poverty.
However in most cases
development workers come from the
rural poor, is influence by the view of the poor and what poverty is.
Chambers urges that
outsiders view poor people as
lasy fertilizers, ignorant, stupid and responsible for these poverty. They
assume that the poor are poor planners
because they is hardly any
communication between the poor and out siders. If development workers
are to useful to poor, they need to get a clear idea of the poor people and understanding their situations.
Poverty can be analyzed at two level of individual and that of
community analysis at the community level
enables the identification of two types
of situations ie
The case wehre communities are poor either
because they are located at
periphery and therefore isolated
or because they have inadequate resources for both.
The second
situation is where the community has a
mixture of people some of them vary poor and others very rich.
When poverty is
analyzed at individual level, it helps in identifying the people
who are most disadvantaged in the
community who in most cases tend to be women. Women are usually bug not actually poorer than men.
Champers has suggested analysign poverty at the house
hold level urging that they are the common and distinguish enteties for
production, income generation and consumption. He put forward the case for
distinguishing clusters of persons in order to ensure that the term poverty is meant to only these areas of disadvantages that constitute poverty.
Such
aspects lack of wealth and assets and lack of
cash.
Food flows
Chambers further
out line five aspects of
disadvantages experienced by rural
house hold
Poverty
Physical
weaknesses
Vulnerability
Isolation
Powerlessness
HOUSE- HOLD
POVERTY
Most house
hold lack basic needs like nutrincious food, safe drinking water, reasonable
cloth, adequate medical care, education and participation in decision
making. It has been urged that most people who live in rural areas
are mulnerished drink unsafe
water wear very old and torn clothes, sleep in poor and hygiene houses and have very
low access to medical and education. They are rarely included in meaningful participation
when decision that affect
their lives ad being made.
It is
further asserted that in most cases labour in such house hold is provided by women
who work long hours both inside and outside the women.
The income for
work done in such house hold is very low
and in some season they hardly have any income.
In such house
hold the number of people who are dependent
on productive out weighs the
number the productives ones
such non productive include children, old people, sick and students.
Reasons why
there are fewer boded and productive and
non productive members
For example the poor sanitary conditions and lack of safe drinking water exposes
members to diseases and remain
untreated because which remain un
treated because of poor access to health facilities due to high poverty levels.
The result is that members become weak.
The absence of
men as heads of house hold.
The female
headed house hold is at a disadvantage
the women have to carry on all
the responsibilities including caring for all children growing processing
and preparing food collecting water,
fire wood as well as ensuring that
the family gets some income such house
hold are carries a risk of being
physically weak although not all female
headed house hold fall in this
categories.
Chambers
asserts that such house hold are seasonally hungry, are thine, are prone to sickness and babies born in such families have low birth rates, theu end up
grow s started and do not
gain their genetic potential.
ISOLATION OF
HOUSE HOLDS
Mainly rural house holds are isolated from the center where
resource like health care,
schools and veterinary services are
located. The locations are peripheral either in an area far from town and also communications.
The raod if any
are impassable and such areas have no any
telcomunicationn facilities. The house hold are often illiterate can not afford to buy a radio or new paper and are not access to get
information from the out side. Their children do not go to school and those
that do, attend poor primary rural education.
THE HOUSE HOLD
IS VULNERABLE
The house hold
has little protection against unpredictable situation such as drought, floods and crop failures.
The ability of the house holds which
stand their conditions in dependence onteh availability of productive economic
activities where they can extract cash savings, stock and any other
reserves.
However most
house holds in the rural area like hand
to a mouth existence and are not in
position to protect themselves against such conditions instead
they meet their needs by selling
food and cutting consumptions.
HOUSE HOLD VS
POWERLESSNESS
Most of the
house holds do not know their legal
rights and they do not know the law.
They do not seek legal advise and those who
would like to can not afford to pay
for it. They cannot favourably
compete for paid work because of low levels of skills.
Those that
are able to find work, are
exploited b y the rich land lords
or the local elite. They are in a
week bargaining position for selling their products. The prices are fixed by the buyers and the rural farmers have no
say over them. It is important to note however that not all rural farmers sit in the above category.
In some
countries the situation is a lot better
than others. However, the description
is applicable to most rural areas in developing countries in South East Asia, Africa and Latin America applied for nearly half or three quarters of rural people in poor developing.
The five claster
of the disadavantaged, interest to form
the viscious cycle of poverty or poverty
trap of the five clusters,
poverty gives the most degree of strength of the others. It contributes to
physical weaknesses because poor feeding to leads to malnutrition and sickness.
The poor
household is unable to afford medical
services, can not access education and has number means of transport.
They have no savings to use as a
protection are of emergencies e.g. floods. They have low status in the community which means
that no one listens to them. In
the same way poverty contributes to the
other for, they also affect others.
HOUSE HOLD PHYSICAL WEAKNESS
Weak labour
leads to low productivity.
Women and those
who are weak are paid low wages. Sickness means that low labour is available
and the end result is poverty.
Interms of isolation, people who are physically weak have no
time and energy to go for
meetings and access introduction.
Interms of vulnerability. If there is a crisis, weak
people cannot one comes it. Than working harder because they lack the energy.
Interms of powerlessness. Physical weak people are two weak to protect, organize or
ever bargain for better prices.
Isolation and
poverty. No services are available to them because they are far from centres. No Inflation education acquired. Physical weaknesses and isolation, able boded people non away from remote areas
leaving, women, children and the sick.
Since
isolation means that the people
are not isolated and. Illiterate it means
that they do not know how to acquire
land and they can easily be cheated.
In terms of isolation and powerless isolation means
that families do not
have access to political
leaders nor ca they access legal
advise.
VULNERABILITY
Interms of poverty because people are vulnerable to dissenters it means
that they are more likely to sell
off the few productive
ventures that they have thus
being even more vulnerable.
Physical weakness. Vulnerability to contingencies
means that the house hold have to
spent so much time and energy to copy up since they have no money.
Interms of isolation. Being vulnerable
leads to .. draw from some
areas after the shock.
Interms of
powerlessness. The condition of vulnerability
makes people depend on those who
are better off and t his contributes to powerlessness.
APPROACHES TO RURAL DEVELOPMENT
Agricultural development
This approach is
based on the assumption that the main occupation in rural economy is
agricultural. Activists of this approach believe that most rural poor are
peasants and depend much on subsistence farming. To improve their standard of living or
wellbeing, agricultural development is vital or relevant. Specific policies and
initiatives should be undertaken to improve agricultural products and this will
consequently lead to high improvement in the general wellbeing of the rural
poor. Policies aiming at improvement of lands reforms, agricultural technique
transformation, improvement in marketing of inputs and outputs, modernization
of agriculture programs should be emphasized mostly in the rural setting.
However problem with this approach is that
it fails to recognize that rural development
is not only based on one sector
which is agriculture but it goes
beyond agriculture. It covers sectors like education, health, water
sanitation etc. This sector is also affected by many factors like natural
calamities, price fluctuation etc.
Basic needs approach
The definition
of what is adequate and human needs vary from a country to another, person to
another, age, gender and social cultural context. Despite of the above
phenomenon, these are some of the agreed up basic needs in most communities.
One should have
a minimum amount of balance food. The must be balanced and relatively enough
for the members in a house hold or family.
It is also
important that members of the community have a sense of belonging must be able
to fit in a social structure of the community in which he or she lives. Access
to health services and education opportunities. It has been urged that, lack of
these in the final analysis affects an
individual’s productivity. It is
important to note that access to these services are of two levels
the individual and society.
Economic growth approach
This aims at
improving the economic growth especially through transition of the economy from subsistence to market
oriented economy. This approach focuses
mainly on industrialization which will
eventually result into high employment
level created and thereby availing basic needs to the
people. It points to the needs not to fragment development efforts by looking at development
problems in all areas. It also looks
at the need to facilitate fast growing
regions to develop faster and
subsequently leading to the development
of other areas. It holds to the fact
as the products of this will
trickle down to slow growing regions.
Integrated rural development
It is generally
understood to be a multi-sectoral and multi functional development
initiative in one or several
occasions. The reason why there is an integration of different sectors in that rural people’s poverty comes from a variety of problems. And it
requires a percentage of coordinated resources from health sector,
agricultural extension, credit techniques changes and provision education. Integrated rural development is
often used as a project format to fight
rural poverty. It has had limited success because of High deals both financial and
human. The presence of limited donors who always want to donate to sectors of interest
and abundance of poverty.
Empowerment approach
This is approach
is based on the assumption that some people are poor because they are powerless. They cannot influence issues,
making and policies that affect their livelihood. It therefore urges that the
poor must be given power to influence
the decision that affect them and this is the genesis of popular
participation.
Participation is
where or act of involving the people concerned in situation that enhances their wellbeing. In many LDCs
participation is being seen to be catered for in the decentralization
policy. The purpose of all this is to
see all people becoming partners in the
development process.
It is becoming
partners in the development process. It is important to note that empowerment
refers to the process through which people’s ability to participate in decisions that affect them is improved. It
refers to the initiatives of improving people’s participation in their
decisions.
Vicious circle of poverty
According to
Stan, disease/malnourishment cause poor health, if you are sick, you do not
work. As a result of not working, there is low production on the other hand
leading to low income. On the other, what is the root cause of debilitating
disease and malnourishment Poor seem to get sick more often and recover more
slowly or not at all. This is because they do not get proper treatment. They do
not get treat because government has not put hospital and clinics which are
well facilitated. Why not because it has
no money to run the programme. Where does the government, get money, through
taking production and people’s incomes. But there is low production if any why
production low? Because people are sick and why sick because of the poor
health. Yes we are going round the circle hence vicious circle of poverty. One
problem causes another and that leads to another one until the cycle is
complete.
Lack of health facilities
|
However, there
are other factors other than lack of health facilities causing illness in poor
families and communities. Three of these factors are poor sanitation (lack of
toilets or sewage facilities), lack
of clean water and poor housing. Why are these lacking) once
again, low taxation and low incomes.
However not all these are a result of lack of money. People have money but poor sanitation
and housing why not because people lack
the knowledge of close connection
between health, sanitation and
clean drinking water . some people do not care, perhaps the man in the family prefers to use the little surplus
money they have on a bicycle or
watch or perhaps drinking . this is what we can call misdirected priorities. Some people do not like the test of water from bore holes, they prefer
rivers water, some people will not
build or use a latrine because they
are jealous, neighbors will bewitch
the latrine or the pathway leading to it and they will fall ill and die.
Thus superstition and social traditions also play a role in the vicious circle of disease but also
social factors.
These factors can also be integrated in the
vicious circle of poverty as shown below
Lack of health facilities
|
Over population
Large families
|
Felt
need for more labour
|
Low
production
Low
productivity
|
Lack
of knowledge
Lack
of awareness
|
Low
investment in education
|
There are social factors disease and poverty some of the diseases mentioned
above can be controlled to some extent through mass social mobilization to eliminate
the vectors. Communities called spiring or even rural poor do not
drilled. Why are these things done. For one thing, many rural poor do not trust each other or
their leaders. They will not poor their meager funds because they are afraid
that some will misuse them. They lack
co-operation, they lack social cohesion and they lack local organizational
structures. All these are lack of social
factors which contribute to the continuation of the vicious circle of poverty. Some governments in third world do have enough revenue to considerably improve the health
facilities, carry out the water programmes and implement
the disease –eradication
programmes that their people need. But the funds get diverted to fight
civil wars , to finance
prestige projects or through blatant corruption.
Some of the
reasons for these is political instability
lack of representational
government, over centralization
and lack of local government.
In addition to economic, social and physical factors,
we also have a series of political
factors which are contributing
to vicious circle of disease and
poverty. Below are some of the
factors identified by the rural development
workers in Uganda.
Illiteracy
Lack
of education
|
Inadequate
& inappropriate education system
Inability
of sponsor literacy programs
|
Lack
of knowledge
Lack
of skills
Lack
of awareness
Lack
of self- confidence
Lack
of innovation dependence thinking
|
Low
production
Low
productivity
|
Over population
Large families
|
Felt
need for more labour
|
Low
production
Low
productivity
|
Lack
of knowledge
Lack
of awareness
|
Low
investment in education
|
Vicious circle
of economic constraints
Lack of assets (collateral)
|
Analysis of poverty by Ugandan Development workers
Rural calls structures
Every rural
society has some of the social economic class structure. Rural development
workers would therefore try to promote development activities. A group of rural
development workers in Uganda evolved the following analysis which relevant in
most families of the country.
Laborers; men and women who lack access to land,
and who must survive by working for others as hired/indentured laborer.
Poor
peasants.
Have insufficient land and / or
live stock to meet their needs often
work as part time labourers for
others:- never hired others but
often join in mutual help digging
group.
Middle peasants; have sufficient land/live
stock to meet their own needs normally
would not work as hired labourers
and would seldom hire others to work for
them.
Wage earners /professionals; have a high
level of clients etc. In many 3rd world countries
professionals as teachers nurses and extension workers in government services
extremely poorly paid and usually must find additional source of income.
Capitalism; are those having sufficient capital to
invest in productive assets and to
purchase the necessary factors of production eg commercial farmers
/ranchers. Petty capitalists are shop owners, taxi and long owners etc.
Bureaucratic capitalist; have
acquired their capital through
land or favoritism, they use their influence to get
land title on which they get a
bank loan for commercial productive
investment.
Community development
The common
accepted approach to rural community development has been to establish projects which treat
the villages as a more or less harmonious unit.
Working with
communities
Characteristics of participatory projects
Social
development work is based upon groups.
Group work and
group development are basic to the education process. There is formation of clearly identified peasant
groups.
Poor themselves
are very often disunited and in a competition with each other. Their
difficult situations have taught them to distrust outsiders, local elites and each other. This often result into
resistance to change.
The groups
believe that development efforts benefit only those who are well off. Hence
resistance to change and this resistance in inheritance.
Peasants are quite
able and willing to participate
anthusianstically in programmes or movements
that are clearly designed
to solve their grievances and benefit
them instead of the better off.
Development as social transformation
Stan says
Development is
more than the provision of social services and the introduction of new
technologies. Development involves changes in the awareness, motivation and
behaviour of individuals and in the relations between individuals as well as
between groups within a society. These changes must come from within the
individuals and groups and cannot be imposed from the outside.
A transformation
implies that people are actively engaged
in deliberating upon their problems, setting priorities and seeking solutions,
taking actions to realize their privileges.
Transformation
is further reflected in the development of individual personalities. This
timidity and shyness that characterizes many of great previously is gone. Each
individual now comes forward to
great a visitor, insists on shaking
hands with their visitor, and proudly
introduces himself or herself
as I am so and so, a member of
this organization. According Rahman, a sense of pride and dignity is belonging
to the organization, and hence pride and dignity in oneself, it’s visibly
present.
Social
transformation and hence development, will not take places unless there is
consensus among the groups attempting to carry out a transformation.
Through internal dialogue must sort out the options
available to it and choose those that are consistent with their
own social frame work. Changes
must be socially accepted to the group as a whole. New ideas and new behavior
cannot be imported and unmodified. This group cohesiveness is essential as there
will always be individuals and groups
within the community as a
whole who will try to prevent
social transformation being introduced.
Those wishing to
provide technical advice and assistance groups try to implement development
activities must first try to gain an understanding to the social realities
within which groups are functioning. This understanding of the social realities
will make it possible to help the groups to find its own consensus from which groups
behavior changes proceed These changes will lead to social transformation those
again open new possibilities for further development.
A transformation
requires integrated rural approach to development. A simultaneous consideration
of multi sector program is vital. Such program consists of sector activities
like health, education, water and sanitation and agriculture. Each sector
should be planned by sector experts who are primarily interest in seeing people
organized to implement these programs.
Support to
development activities must not be limited by our own sectoral thinking and
budgetary code systems. We must follow where people lead. Development
activities must be achieved through participatory approach. The people are the
main actors in the lead and development workers follow.
The rural poor
will generally attempt to first solve
those problems which they
consider to be the most pressing
or urgent with in limits of their
resources and capabilities. They are not
in the least concerned with trying to classify these problems as economic,
social or political problems. Agencies which genuinely wish to help people must
be willing to respond wish to help people must be willing to respond to those
needs. Experience indicates that most groups will first choose activities which
can help them to remove the constraints on their economic development. Once
they have achieved success in this area, they will often decide to move onto
areas which affect the quality of their lives such as water, sanitation
curative and preventive health.
Self reliance
This is doing
things for one self, maintaining one’s self confidence, making independent
decisions either as an individual jargon in within the content of collective
group to which each member has voluntary allied him or herself.
Self reliance
has become another pieces of jargon in development circles similar to basic
needs, awareness and participatory. Aid agencies however think of self reliance
of the people but most of their supports are used to pay salaries of shaft,
buying vehicles, expensive inputs, buildings etc. These can make people self
reliant. Self reliance is a question of attitude than money. To much money and
materials from external resources can easily prevent the emergencies of self
reliance.
People must feel
and believe that it is their own efforts that are driving the development
process. They must feel that they
themselves contributing the maximum of their own human, financial and material resources
and that assistance from
outside is only for what they cannot
yet manage themselves.
The correct
attitude must be encouraged from the very start. Field staff must be instilled
with the idea that they are not to do things for the people. That their job is
to help people do work themselves. There should be no promises that the project
anything to anybody. What your problems are and how they can be solved.
We can also help
you to acquire the skills and knowledge that you need to carry out what you
have decided to do but it you who must decide and act.
Self reliance
requires a wide variety of knowledge and skills people need to learn how to
form and manage their own organization. They need to learn how to use their
organization gain access to resources and services and to prevent
exploitations. They need to learn how to acquire and adopt new knowledge and
technologies for improved agriculture and other income generating activities
learn how to establish and manage their activities.
People must have confidence in their
own knowledge and skills, in their
abilities to identify problems
and find solutions in order to
make improvements in their own lives.
This can best be done starting with small groups and small problems. As their self confidence increases, they can
move onto bigger and more complex activities. This involvement
of self confidence leading
to self reliance, can be easily destroyed by outside
agents pushing the process
too quickly.
Self reliance
comes from within but is directed out side. It is based on social
relationships. Like minded
individuals come together and voluntarily pool their efforts and their resources
in small groups, small
groups ally themselves with other small groups working
towards the same or similar
goals. These may form an association
which can further the interest
of the members in interactions with external
entities such as merchants, exporters, banks
and government departments. This
is a true self reliance. It can be learned, but it cannot be given. No
government and no development agency is ever going to develop a rural region.
It can only be done by the people themselves perhaps with the assistance of
government and other development agents.
Self
reliance in the economic sense is the ability of a family, community
or nation to produce some or al of the its basic needs as well as producing
surpluses with which to trade
for those commodities and services
which it does not produce efficiently itself. Self reliance must not be
confused with self sufficiency. No individual can over time be self
sufficiently. These are few communities today that are self sufficient. There
are essential. Global interdependence between nations and communities are
essential. Global interdependence is a fact
of life.
Participation
Is a continuous educative process, a
process of progressing conscientization.
Participation of
the rural people in their own development has been measured as a key
factor in the success of projects. Cohen
and VP (1977) found out that local participation in decision making during implementation was even more critical to projects
success than that such
participation in the initial design.
Local actions take by the people to complement outside management of the projects are very
vital for the success of a
project.
Participation is
an essential part of the human growth, that is the development
of self confidence, pride, initiatives, creativity, responsibility cooperation. Without such development within the people themselves
all efforts to alleviate their property will be immensely more difficult, if not impossible. This process whereby people learn
to take charge of their own lives and
solve their own problems in the essence
of development.
Participation,
if it is to really release the people’s
own creative energies for development,
must be much more than the mere mobilization
on labour forces or the coming together to hear
about pre-determined plans.
Participation must be more than a policy statement. There must be a genuine
commitment to encourage participation in all aspects and at all levels of development
work.
Stan quotes Paulo
who says attempting to liberate
the oppressed without their efforts or
reflective participation in the act
of liberation is to treat
them as objects which must be
saved from a burning building. It is to lead them into the
populist pitfall and transform them
into masses which can be
manipulated.
The first step in achieving genuine
participation is a process in
which the rural poor themselves
become more aware of
their own situation, of the social economic realities a round them, of their real problem,
the courses of these problems and
what measures they themselves can take
to begin changing the situation.
This process of awakening, raising
a process of self
transformation through which people
grow and mature as human beings. In this sense participation is
a basic human need.
Where there is
genuine participation, mistakes will be made, there will be failures and there
will be progress- a few forward, a step or two back. This implies that
participation is essentially a learning by doing exercise. Plans are made,
actions are taken, results are studied, lessons learnt and new plans
and actions are taken. This is a
step process is often referred in the literature of participatory development
as praxis which means practice s distinguished
from theory.
Stan quotes Mohammed
who said, participation is a process whose course cannot be determined from
outside. It is generated by the continuing praxis of the people, by rhythm
of collective action and reflection.
He believes that his what make the process people’s own as opposed to the people being mobilized,
led, directed by outside forces.
In the debate on
the meaning of people’s participation there has been much discussion as to whether
participation is a means used to achieve development or an end in
itself. By establishing a process of
genuine participation , development will occur
as a direct result. The
proponents of the second view often maintain that development for the benefits
of the praxis of participation.
We can conclude
that the meaningful participation of the rural poor in development is concerned
with direct access to the resources necessary for development and some active
involvement influence in decisions affecting those resources. The ability positively to
influence the course of events.
Participation involves organized
efforts to increase control over resources and regulative institutions in given social situation, on the part of the groups and movements
of these thirty to excluded from
such control.
Participation in
this context leads to greater control by the poor over their own life
situation. Through acquisition of knowledge and awareness they become better, able to understand the
causes of their poverty and
are in a better position to mobilize
and utilize the resources available
in order to improve their
situation. Poor people must
come together and pool
their human and material resources
in order to attain the objectives
which they set for themselves.
Participatory development implies a collective process of self improvement.
Rahaman 1984
identified five basic needs which make participatory development difficult.
1.
Participation will develop
in different ways in
specific situations depending
upon the problems faced by specific groups of the poor
and the specific factors
inhibiting their development. The
promotion of people’s participation according to neatly defined standard
development objectives may actually
inhibit people’s initiatives rather than
promote them.
2.
The
poor need to be approached as a specific group and their economic situation
must be improved if participation to be successful. This will in most situations,
automatically imply conflict with more well to do elements in differentiated
rural societies.
3.
This
is a complex relationship between self reliance and the need for external
assistance. Participation requires self- reliance and is surrendered by
dependence. However the promotion of participation in initiating non-
participatory. Dependent situations often requires some initial external.
