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Poverty - economic growth

economic growth
Course

power distribution systems (3150)

8 Documents
Students shared 8 documents in this course
Academic year: 2021/2022

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Introduction Poverty is a global problem that affects citizens around the world. About 1 billion people earn less that one dollar per day, and they face daily risks and hardships that determine their very survival. The development community, including government agencies, banks, and nongovernmental organi- zations (NGOs), seeks to improve the livelihoods of impoverished citizens through poverty reduction strategies that address the root causes of poverty and its crippling effect on people trapped in adverse situations. But after years of implementing programs to solve these issues, poverty remains a multi-dimensional problem with many faces.

Evidence A poor person’s inability to accumulate wealth from these resources may lead to overexploitation and environmental degradation. This “downward spiral thesis” relates population growth and economic marginalization to worsening environmental quality and declining resources, resulting in long-term de- clines in food consumption, human health, and food security. This view assumes that poverty leads to cycles of further environmental degradation and ever-increasing poverty. Others view population growth as a source of economic expansion and innovation that leads to greater wealth and better resources management. Research findings describe a great deal of variability in the causes of environmental degradation, ranging from adverse or catastrophic natural events to corrupt local institutions. Evidence from the field also reports a wide range of environmental and social outcomes where the poor exercise management control.

Ecosystem and Poverty Reduction Links Some contemporary policies attempt to link ecosystems to poverty reduction. Unfortunately, contemporary poverty assessments and poverty reduction strategies often under- estimate rural incomes from natural resources management and undervalue ecosystem services as an asset for the poor. In the past, development often emphasized high-input, ex- port-driven use of natural resources and government-spon- sored industrialization. These efforts unfortunately were not particularly pro-poor. In the case of forestry, large-scale con- cessions and plantations followed a strategy that deprived the poor of access to essential resources and ultimately has not contributed to national development goals. Recent reviews of the World Bank, International Monetary Fund (IMF), and United Nations reveal an ambivalent endorse- ment of the value of healthy ecosystems as an asset for the poor. Consider recent reviews of the UN Millennium Development Goals and the Poverty Reduction Strategy Papers required by the World Bank and IMF in exchange for debt relief and assistance.

Millennium Development Goals The UN 2000 Millennium Declaration is a global agenda of eight development goals including MDG 1: Cut world pover- ty in half by 2015 innovative approach to achieving this infuses accountability by establishing quantified, time-bound targets and measurable indicators to track progress. MDG 7, ensuring environmental sustainability, has three targets and eight indicators to link poverty and environment. Some observers criticize the targets as too vague and missing the cross-cutting nature of the environment’s relevance to the other eight goals, such as eradicating hunger, disease, and child mortality, and promoting gender equality and sustain- able development critics suggest stronger recognition of the ecosystem-based and NRM approach as the founda- tion for poverty reduction; moreover, they suggest more specific targets to measure ecosystem integrity and capacity to provide ecosystem services. In this context, indicators should reflect the importance of communal areas and ex- pand the extent and condition of common pool resources. Other indicators should be expanded to monitor land ten- ure, resource access, and access to information. Poverty Reduction Strategy Papers Countries seeking debt relief and concessional loans from the World Bank and IMF must prepare a PRSP—a document detailing the nation’s strategic approach and plan to reduce poverty. They have emerged as important policy mechanisms to help developing countries implement MDGs. Begun in 1999, PRSPs introduced a participatory, results-oriented ap- proach that allowed countries to decide for themselves how to shape policies, develop plans, and set budget priorities for poverty reduction. Early PRSPs emphasized the social sectors, then increasingly focused on economic growth and other aspects of poverty. By 2005, about 70 countries were expected to have prepared PRSPs, with 39 full PRSPs and 14 preliminary versions prepared to date. Some progress has been made under the PRSP process. It has led to better analysis and understanding of poverty at a national level, increased government transparency, helped create better institutions to serve the poor, and provided greater opportunities for civil society input and citizen participation. Critics of the PRSP process identify problems related to vague commitments and ambiguous outcomes that do not specifically target poor populations or establish provisions to monitor and evaluate results.

An important criticism of PRSPs has been their failure to adequately “mainstream” environmental and natural re- sources management issues into the lives of the poor and to realize the potential contribution of environmental income to sustainable livelihoods PRSPs emphasize techni- cal issues related to poverty-environment issues, they often fail to address more controversial issues related to access, ownership, control, and the rights of poor people related to natural resources opportunity to use natural capital as an important pro-poor growth area has often been missed. The World Resources Institute (WRI) suggests seven steps to more strongly integrate environmental assets into poverty reduction efforts:

  • Ecosystem orientation and environmental income. Emphasize the ecosystem approach and value ecosystem services as a source of income for the poor.
  • Sustainability of income over time. Take a long-term approach and consider the consequence of developing agriculture, fishery, and forestry sectors.
  • Tenure and access to resources. Recognize the central importance of land tenure to reducing rural poverty.
  • Decentralization and Community-Based NRM (CBNRM). Devolve power over resource management to competent local authorities and community groups.
  • Participation, procedural rights, and gender equality. Ground the strategies in broad-based participation by civil society. Emphasize free, prior, and informed consent by lo- cal communities in economic development projects.
  • Environmental monitoring. Include plans to monitor environmental conditions to track impacts of economic growth on environmental income.
  • Targets, indicators, and assessments. Specify poverty and environmental indicators to evaluate performance and allow for adaptive management,
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Poverty - economic growth

Course: power distribution systems (3150)

8 Documents
Students shared 8 documents in this course

University: Khuleiya Taqaniya fi Nizwa

Was this document helpful?
Introduction
Poverty is a global problem that affects citizens around the world. About 1.1 billion people earn less that one
dollar per day, and they face daily risks and hardships that determine their very survival. The development
community, including government agencies, banks, and nongovernmental organi- zations (NGOs), seeks to
improve the livelihoods of impoverished citizens through poverty reduction strategies that address the root
causes of poverty and its crippling effect on people trapped in adverse situations. But after years of
implementing programs to solve these issues, poverty remains a multi-dimensional problem with many faces.
Evidence
A poor person’s inability to accumulate wealth from these resources may lead to overexploitation and
environmental degradation. This “downward spiral thesis” relates population growth and economic
marginalization to worsening
environmental quality and declining resources, resulting in long-term de- clines in food consumption, human
health, and food security. This view assumes that poverty leads to cycles of further environmental
degradation and ever-increasing poverty.
Others view population growth as a source of economic expansion and innovation that leads to greater
wealth and better resources management. Research findings describe a great deal of variability in the causes
of environmental degradation, ranging from adverse or catastrophic natural events to corrupt local
institutions. Evidence from the field also reports a wide range of environmental and social outcomes where
the poor exercise management control.
Ecosystem and Poverty Reduction Links
Some contemporary policies attempt to link ecosystems to poverty reduction. Unfortunately, contemporary
poverty assessments and poverty reduction strategies often under-
estimate rural incomes from natural resources management and undervalue ecosystem services as an asset for
the poor. In the past, development often emphasized high-input, ex- port-driven use of natural resources and
government-spon- sored industrialization. These efforts unfortunately were not particularly pro-poor. In the
case of forestry, large-scale con- cessions and plantations followed a strategy that deprived the poor of access
to essential resources and ultimately
has not contributed to national development goals. Recent reviews of the World Bank, International
Monetary Fund (IMF), and United Nations reveal an ambivalent endorse- ment of the value of healthy
ecosystems as an asset for the poor. Consider recent reviews of the UN Millennium Development Goals and
the Poverty Reduction Strategy
Papers required by the World Bank and IMF in exchange for debt relief and assistance.

Students also viewed

Related documents