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People: from impoverishment to empowerment
American Journal of Economics and Sociology, The, April, 1996 by S.K. Kaushik
People: From Impoverishment to Empowerment (New York and London: New York University Press, 1995) is, in the words of James Gustave Speth, Administrator of the United Nations Development Programme, the result of a collaborative international effort of more than fifty global citizens of different backgrounds committed to improving the state of humanity. The papers were presented at the third Round Table Conference on global "Change: Social Conflict or Harmony?" held at Stockholm, Sweden in 1994 under the auspices of the UNDP Development Study Programme (The first Round Table was held at Antalya, Turkey in 1990 and the second at Bucharest, Romania in 1992. The product of the Bucharest conference was reviewed in this Journal under the title A World Fit for People, April, 1995).
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The Round Table was initiated by the UNDP Development Study Programme under the leadership of Uner Kirdar, Senior Advisor to the UNDP Administrator and Director of the Development Study Programme. He co-edited the conference with Dr. Leonard Silk, the late author and economic columnist of The New York Times, Distinguished Professor of Economics at Pace University's Lubin School of Business and Senior Research Fellow of the Ralph Bunche Institute on the United Nations at the Graduate School of the City University of New York.
Explaining the mission of the book, Uner Kirdar and Leonard Silk state that despite advances over the past fifty years in the quest for empowering people, a large unfinished agenda to combat human deprivation challenges humanity in the twenty-first century. Global poverty is worsening, unemployment is on the rise, and social disintegration is becoming an ill that plagues all countries. The editors present to the development community a new challenge that requires a new development vision. This vision can be captured by the phrase, put people first, or perhaps, poor people first.
This collection of economic and social policy papers is presented in four parts: (1) Reduction of Poverty, (2) Expansion of Productive Employment, (3) Enhancement of Social Cohesion, and (4) Building Blocks of Security for People. Each part is divided into three or more chapters each of which contains multiple essays. The papers are of high quality and are logically sequenced so as to allow the reader to understand the evolution of the policies or programs under each of the broad topics. Stimulating summaries of the issues and arguments appear at the beginning of each main part of the book and are followed by the lessons learned and measures needed to alleviate the problem.
Part 1, on Reduction of Poverty, in its first chapter explores how poverty affects politics, the economy, the environment, and society. The next chapter reviews what other has been tried before and the lessons learned. The essays include performance in the Sub-Sahara of Africa, Eastern Europe, and Taiwan. The third chapter reviews possible solutions to reducing poverty in the world today. These, according to the essayists, include a role for the state to close the gap between the rich and the poor and in educating the people to change for the better the way they live. It calls on an empowerment of the people to initiate the change. Its final essay looks at empowering women to initiate change and to help end poverty and discrimination to which they all too often fall victim.
Part 2 on Expansion of Productive Employment covers the topic of increasing employment. It looks at the trends and causes of unemployment and underemployment. A worldwide phenomenon of persistent high unemployment is attributed to the world economy operating below its potential. Three essays share experiences in Russia, East Asia, and Africa; and what can be learned from these experiences. The final three essays in this section explore ways to expand the work force. Two of the authors look at the unemployment problem from a global approach and the other looks at entrepreneurship and smaller businesses as a way to create productive employment.
Part 3 is entitled Enhancement of Social Cohesion. Its first section, the Challenge of Social Integration, considers the impact of globalization and integration on society. The focus is on learning from the past experiences of Asia, South Africa, and Eastern and Central Europe which will help create mechanisms to build Social Development and Integration.
Part 4 on Building Blocks of Security for People, the largest section of the book, appropriately highlights the pieces of the puzzle that need to be placed together to build a foundation for change. Change include putting people first, and their involvement in creating change from an individual level. Governments can aid in the change, but the people are the real agents of change. Role of non-governmental organizations (NGOs) is highlighted. This section also looks at the role of the United Nations in empowering and integrating people. In the words of the late Dr. Leonard Silk,
In this changed world, cooperation among the major economies in policy making has become increasingly important. But there are no technical solutions to the economic problems the world is facing. What is most needed is the political will - the will of the United States, Germany, Japan, and other industrial countries - to deal more effectively with their own problems and the will of all the major developed countries to work together for a common end.
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