Category: Poverty

Revisiting Hirschman鈥檚 Tunnel Effect and Its Relevance for China

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As within-country inequality is on the rise worldwide, considering how people actually perceive inequality in their societies and how they respond to it is a question worth asking. In 1973 Albert Otto Hirschman proposed an explanation of changing tolerance for inequality associated with different 鈥榮tages鈥� of the development process. In this post I鈥檒l revisit Hirschman鈥檚 theory and link it to emerging studies of how inequality is perceived in China. The Chinese people generally seem to be satisfied with rising inequality, yet it is unclear how long this tolerance will last.Read More »

A Critical Review on the documentary 鈥淧overty, Inc.鈥�

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The documentary 鈥淧overty, Inc.鈥� has become so influential that it is now part of many courses at the university level. The good news is that at universities we apply critical thinking to the information we receive (or we are supposed to). As a development economist, I share here my views on this famous documentary.

On the positive side, the documentary does a good job in making some points for an audience unfamiliar with economic theory, such as the idea that dependency does not end poverty, or that current foreign aid (money flows between governments) has 鈥渦nintended consequences that do more harm than good.鈥� However, both ideas are not new in development studies. The much quoted 鈥渢each a human to fish鈥� is an idea associated with many philosophers, including Maimonides (about 850 years ago). This criticism of the structure of current foreign aid is a relatively old idea in the development literature. Perhaps the best point made by the documentary is the argument that Non-governmental Organizations (NGOs) can do a better job if they base their strategies on effective communications with local entities, although this idea is not new either.

What are, then, the problems with this documentary? Many. Firstly, the development literature has two main perspectives; namely, the conservative and the progressive. A documentary that omits a of argumentation is not responsible and carries 鈥渦nintended consequences,鈥� such as misinforming that unfamiliar audience. Besides mentioning supranational entities, the documentary did not expose crucial structural problems: there is no serious analysis on geopolitics, global power relations, or class issues, among others. A class analysis would not, for instance, focus on stressing that 鈥淣GOs need the poor to exist鈥� but that 鈥渢he rich need the poor to exist鈥�.Read More »

Caveat emptor: the Graduation Approach, electronic payments and the potential pitfalls of financial inclusion

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By Paulo L dos Santos and Ingrid Harvold Kvangraven

The Graduation Approach to poverty reduction is inextricably bound up with programmes promoting financial inclusion. Proponents for the approach see it guiding a series of interventions that encourage poor households to 鈥榞raduate鈥� into 鈥榤ainstream development programmes鈥� which are centred on the provision of credit and other financial services (). Indeed, the approach has been presented as a way to address the needs of those 鈥渢oo poor for microfinance services鈥� (). The presumption is that the development and poverty reduction needs of 鈥榞raduates鈥� will be well served by financial inclusion initiatives.Read More »

Human rights are not losing traction in the global South

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An indigenous Filipino woman sells bracelets. Source: Flickr/Andy Enero

and have set off an important debate about whether human rights have run out of steam as a force for human progress. Other commentators such as have argued that human rights no longer have the power to mobilize international condemnation and moral pressure against totalitarian regimes. Posner argues, for example, that the rapid expansion in the ratification of human rights treaties since the 1990s has had no impact on the respect for human rights. Further, since the end of colonization, human rights movements such as the right to self-determination, the civil rights act in the US, and overall equality in the US have run out of steam.

On closer reading and reflection, these arguments tell a very partial story about human rights. 聽They are limited to human rights as civil and political rights to end brutal authoritarian rule, as law in international treaties to be enforced by the UN human rights system, and as a mission of international institutions embodied in international treaties and bodies, both inter-governmental and non-governmental. 聽Indeed, these opinions reflect a view of human rights as a civilizing mission of the Western world by the use of law and political power鈥攁 vision of the dominant human rights scholars and organizations.

Yet there are other ways of understanding the process of human rights progress. As Michael Ignatieff forcefully argued at a recent conference at Kings College, human rights is not about international law but about politics: 鈥渕oral politics expressed as or clothed in law鈥�. And the politics is not just about foreign policy goals of powerful states.Read More »

How We Know It鈥檚 Christmas Time

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As Christmas approaches and the infamous Band Aid charity song resurfaces on radios, in supermarkets and in malls, so do old and harmful stereotypes of poor people living in oblivious destitution, in need of a foreigner鈥檚 donation to help them escape poverty. These stereotypes portray the poor as passive recipients of aid and poverty as a phenomenon disconnected from structural political and economic processes. In recent years, alternative charity awards – the – have been organized every December. This is聽 a concerted effort to counteract the negative stereotypes perpetuated by many charity videos and songs.Read More »