Eradicating Extreme Poverty

Description

The failure of attempts to tackle global poverty have bred cynicism and 'compassion fatigue'. Eradicating Extreme Poverty provides an urgently needed fresh approach which will re-energise action on this issue.



Rejecting traditional 'top-down' approaches, Xavier Godinot and his colleagues start from the experiences, capabilities and strategies of the poor themselves. They argue that the first step is a close connection with poor communities followed by a commitment to take action alongside them. Life-stories from Burkina Faso, France, Peru and the Philippines are used to show that the poor must be involved in their own liberation.



After decades of failed development policies, this book outlines a radical new approach which will enliven debate amongst policy-makers, researchers, students and academics.
Preface to the English Edition, by Xavier Godinot

Acknowledgments

Foreword, by Christopher Winship

Introduction: Insecurity, poverty and extreme poverty, by Xavier Godinot

PART ONE

Introduction: Resisting extreme poverty every day, by Xavier Godinot

Country Profiles: Burkina Faso, The Philippines, France, Peru

1. The child who walked with death (Burkina Faso), by Patricia and Claude Heyberger

2. Gold under the bridge (The Philippines), by Marilyn Ortega Gutierrez and Alasdair Wallace

3. Resist to exist (France), by Floriane Caravatta

4. Staying together through thick and thin (Peru), by Rosario Macedo de Ugarte and Marco Aurelio Ugarte Ochoa

PART TWO

Introduction: Human rights and human responsibilities, by Xavier Godinot

5. Basic ties and fundamental rights, by Xavier Godinot, Patricia and Claude Heyberger, Rosario Macedo de Ugarte and Marco Aurelio Ugarte Ochoa

6. Democracy, globalisation and extreme poverty, by Xavier Godinot

Conclusion: The eradication of poverty, by Xavier Godinot

Index

Sujets

• Social Science
• Sociologie, société et politique
• Homelessness
• Development studies
• General officer
• Poverty
• Development
• General

Informations

• Publié par: Pluto Press
• Date de parution: 06 janvier 2012
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781849646321
• Langue: English

Extrait

Eradicating Extreme Poverty

First published in French 2008 by Presses Universitaires de France English edition first published 2012 by Pluto Press 345 Archway Road, London N6 5AA
www.plutobooks.com
Distributed in the United States of America exclusively by Palgrave Macmillan, a division of St. Martin’s Press LLC, 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10010
Copyright © Xavier Godinot 2008; English translation © 2012 ATD Fourth World
The right of the individual contributors to be identified as the authors of this work has been asserted by them in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
ISBN 978 0 7453 3198 0 Hardback ISBN 978 0 7453 3197 3 Paperback ISBN 978 1 8496 4632 1 Epub ISBN 978 1 8496 4633 8 Kindle
Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data applied for
This book is printed on paper suitable for recycling and made from fully managed and sustained forest sources. Logging, pulping and manufacturing processes are expected to conform to the environmental standards of the country of origin.
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Designed and produced for Pluto Press by Chase Publishing Services Ltd Typeset from disk by Stanford DTP Services, Northampton, England Simultaneously printed digitally by CPI Antony Rowe, Chippenham, UK and Edwards Bros in the United States of America
Contents

ATD Fourth World
Preface to the English Edition by Xavier Godinot
Foreword by Christopher Winship
Acknowledgements

Introduction: Insecurity, Poverty and Extreme Poverty
Xavier Godinot

PART ONE
Introduction: Resisting Extreme Poverty Every Day
Xavier Godinot


1 The Child who Walked with Death: The Story of Paul in Burkina Faso Patricia Heyberger and Claude Heyberger
2 Gold Under the Bridge: The Story of Mercedita and her Family in the Philippines Marilyn Ortega Gutierrez and Alasdair Wallace
3 Resist to Exist: The Story of Farid, Céline and Karim in France and Algeria Floriane Caravatta
4 Staying Together Through Thick and Thin: The Story of the Rojas Paucar Family in Peru Rosario Macedo de Ugarte and Marco Aurelio Ugarte Ochoa

PART TWO
Introduction: Human Rights and Responsibilities: The Foundations for Living Together
Xavier Godinot


5 Basic Ties and Fundamental Rights Xavier Godinot, Patricia Heyberger, Claude Heyberger, Rosario Macedo de Ugarte and Marco Aurelio Ugarte Ochoa
6 Democracy, Globalisation and Extreme Poverty Xavier Godinot

Conclusion: The Eradication of Extreme Poverty: A Civilising Project
Xavier Godinot

Index
ATD Fourth World

The international movement ATD Fourth World is a non-governmental organisation with no religious or political affiliation which engages with individuals and institutions to find solutions to eradicate extreme poverty. Working in partnership with people in poverty, ATD Fourth World’s human rights-based approach focuses on supporting families and individuals through its grassroots presence and involvement in disadvantaged communities, in both urban and rural areas, creating public awareness of extreme poverty and influencing policies to address it. It brings together people from all walks of life, starting with people living in the most extreme poverty and has a presence on the ground in 30 countries on five continents. Through its ‘Permanent Forum on Extreme Poverty’, an international network of anti-poverty organisations and human rights defenders, it maintains links with people and associations in 155 countries. Florianne Caravatta, Marilyn Ortega Gutierez, Alasdair Wallace, Patricia and Claude Heyberger, Rosario Macedo de Ugarte and Marco Aurelio Ugarte Ochoa, who authored this book, have been full-time volunteers in this movement for many years.
Trained in politics and economics for 40 years, Xavier Godinot, who coordinated the book, has combined academic and grassroots approaches in the fight against extreme poverty. He directed ATD Fourth World’s research institute for twelve years. He then ran anti-poverty projects in Madagascar, with families living in rubbish dumps. He is now working at the headquarters of ATD Fourth World in France where he is coordinating an action research project in eight countries to evaluate the Millennium Development Goals.
Preface to the English Edition

Xavier Godinot
Three years have elapsed since the French version of this book was published by the Presses Universitaires de France. I spent most of this time in Antananarivo, the main town of Madagascar, as Regional Coordinator for the Indian Ocean region of the International Movement ATD Fourth World, a non-governmental organisation dedicated to combating extreme poverty and exclusion in both the northern and southern hemispheres through partnerships with people in extreme poverty. 1 It was an outstanding position from which to expand my knowledge of what it means to live in extreme poverty, and how to fight against it in different contexts. This preface reflects a lot of what I learnt in these three years.
In Antananarivo, my wife and I did not stay in any of the wealthy and gated communities used by mostly white foreigners. For three years, we rented a flat in a working-class neighbourhood, close to the shanty town of Antohomadinika, at the north-west limit of the capital. With French and English colleagues from the same NGO, we were the only white inhabitants in the area. We were lucky enough to have electricity, cold water and toilets in our flat, which was a luxury in a town where 75 per cent of the inhabitants have none of these facilities. We learned a lot from some inhabitants of Antohomadinika and Andramiarana, who had worked closely with our predecessors for years. Eventually, we delivered a collective report to the World Bank on ‘The Urban Challenge in Madagascar: When Destitution Wipes Out Poverty’. 2 It was presented to a large and diverse audience, including families in extreme poverty, in October 2010, on the occasion of the International Day for the Eradication of Poverty, providing these families with a platform to voice their daily struggles and concerns.
The shantytown of Antohomadinika III G Hangar is a maze of shacks and alleys inaccessible to cars and invisible from the main road. It comprises more than 9,000 inhabitants, of whom 70 per cent are under 18 years old. Its population has increased by more than 50 per cent in 14 years. An additional estimated 10 per cent, who did not register at the city council mainly because of their poverty, should be added to this count. Most people survive on precarious and informal work, and most of the households, comprising on average six people, live in wooden shacks of between four and eight square metres with dirt floors, built on land that is flooded during the rainy season. Within their shacks, they may paddle in water for weeks. During a meeting in the area in January 2010, convened for the preparation of our report to the World Bank, a group of inhabitants shared their concerns, including Mrs Mamy who said ‘When it rains, dirty water flows into the houses. Then, we put the beds up on bricks.’ Most families rent their shacks and struggle to pay the landlord, leading to the constant risk of eviction. As only five public water taps are available, people have to queue for hours to bring home the buckets of water they need for the day. ‘Personally, I go to the tap at 4.30 a.m. to get water, and I come back at 5.50’, said Mrs Hanitra. The sanitation and waste collection are very poor: only two garbage skips and three toilet blocks, which residents must pay to use. As this area has the highest prevalence of severe food insecurity and monetary poverty in Antananarivo, few people use the toilets.
The living conditions on the garbage dump of Andramiarana, ten kilometres north of the capital, are worse still. More than 650 people stay here, making a living as waste pickers. Among them, 63 per cent are under 20 years old. Most households are homeless families who have been evicted from place to place for years, eventually ending up at the dump. All of them strive to survive in dire straits. The poorest live in shacks made of plastic bags and wood, that one can enter only on all fours. Before starting a cash transfer programme funded by UNICEF, we found out that 70 per cent of them were not registered at the city council, which means that they had no legal existence, no citizen rights, and that their children could not enrol in school. Mrs Hanta, a single mother of four living on the dump, told us in July 2009: ‘The biggest injustice we suffer is ignorance. Here, people had no schooling and are abused, since they dare not confront those who are educated. We dare not and cannot voice our ideas to those who are educated. This is why we get only precarious and low paid jobs, that comply with no legal standard.’
How many tens of thousands of people throughout the world are too poor to be captured by statistics on poverty? If ‘people are the real wealth of a nation’, as stated in the first Human Development Report in 1990, the fact is that this wealth is too often ignored, despised and wasted.
Our proximity to these areas of extreme poverty helped us imagine the intensity of the hardship and indignity that is hidden behind a recent assessment of the Millennium Development Goals:


The number of urban residents living in slum conditions is now estimated at some 828 million. In the developing world, it is actually growing and will continue to rise in the near future ... The practice of open defecation by 1.1 billion people is an affront to human dignity ... and the root cause of faecal-oral transmission of disease, which can have lethal consequences for the most vulnerable members of society – young children. 3
It must be stressed that resisting such conditions of deprivation and exclusion demands a lot of resilience, which can be observed in the s