Fair trade, micro-enterprise development and aid are bringing change to the fortunes of developing-world communities. But there is another approach to tackling poverty which, if widely implemented, would empower poor communities not only to manage their own livelihoods in ways that are sustainable, healthy and affordable, but also to play an active role in the global economy Simon Jenkins, the Times correspondent, is redoubtable on the subject of foreign aid. Echoing the views first championed by world-famous Hungarian economist Peter Bauer, Jenkins describes the moral basis for foreign aid as ‘no different from that of the l9th century – the assumed superiority of Western capitalism and the assumed superiority of Western governance’.
According to Jenkins, aid has corrupted good men; it has supported the world’s worst dictators and denied developing nations the dignity of self-reliance.
It’s a formidable saddle of blame, and one which is unlikely to sit comfortably with those of us who make annual pledges from our armchairs. We might be donating in good faith, but have we checked recently to see if our actions are working?
The fact is that in spite of decades of substantial aid from governments and NGOs, global poverty continues to grow. Fifty per cent of the world’s population lives on less than two US dollars a day and 1.2 billion live on less than one US dollar a day.
The problem with foreign aid is that it is not self-sustaining. overty is a complex problem that demands a complex approach. Aid needs a sidekick, or a coterie of sidekicks, that can empower the poor and deliver them the infrastructure to ensure themselves sustainable progress.
Fair trade, of which Jenkins is an advocate, is one such approach. Others include Micro Enterprise Development (MED), whereby small finance institutions provide small loans (a couple of hundred pounds) to poor entrepreneurs, and social enterprise, which sees venture funds actively investing in small and medium-sized enterprises in developing nations.
But there is another approach to tackling poverty which, if widely implemented, would mobilise all the aforementioned activities to greater effect. The development of appropriate technology is a grassroots approach, which promises to provide poor communities with the manifest werewithal to manage their own livelihoods in ways that are healthy and affordable. Crucially, the right technology could kick-start the process relatively quickly and make it tenable.
Climate change now threatens to add significantly to the burdens facing the world’s poor. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change described Africa as ‘the continent most vulnerable to the impacts of projected change because widespread poverty limits adaptation capabilities’. And as we are all too aware, the effects of climate change are not waiting for us to find the solution.
Technology developed for poor communities must therefore be sustainable in every sense of the word. They should, where appropriate, be based on renewable energy. Those technologies that do not require a source of power should promote clean living and be founded on local knowledge and resources in order that they can be sustained on an indigenous basis.
Simply transferring technology from industrialised to developing countries does not work. The gulf in technological capacity between such countries has been described as the ‘technology divide’, and the New Scientist has claimed that this divide ‘marginalises developing countries and makes it hard for them to meet their basic needs, participate in the global economy and the environment’.
The good news is that the shortcomings of this transfer have been identified and there are several organisations around the globe which are now listening and responding to the real needs of the rural and the urban poor. The call might demand a large-scale response, such as the provision of electricity to a town or village, or an effort on a relatively small scale, such as the development of an educational aid.
Either way, people are being involved in the technology decisions that are designed to affect their lives and those of generations to come…
