In an event hosted by Cambridge University International Development and Cambridge Futures, Pasca Lane gave the ‘1.4 billion reasons’ presentation, exploring the meaning of extreme poverty, what can be done to combat it, and how lawyers can help to tackle the barriers that sometimes stand in the way. Pasca is the Educational Programmes Coordinator at Advocates for International Development (A4ID), an organisation that seeks to unite legal and development professionals in order to achieve the Millennium Development Goals.
Approximately 1.4 billion people are currently living in extreme poverty around the world. Living in extreme poverty is defined by the World Bank as surviving on less than $1.25 per day. Those living on less than $1.25 lack access to the resources that are needed to secure basic life necessities. They may lack access to food, safe drinking water, sanitation facilities, healthcare, and educational opportunities. Since 1981, the number of people living in extreme poverty has fallen by 50 percent, but patterns in poverty reduction have varied around the globe.
It was suggested in this presentation that tackling poverty requires a two-pronged approach. Firstly, it is necessary to look to the past in order to understand how poverty has already been successfully tackled. A good example is provided in South Korea, which within a short timeframe transformed itself from a foreign aid recipient into an aid donor. This was achieved through investment in education and infrastructure, and export driven economic growth.
Secondly, it is important to work towards achieving tangible objectives, such as the Millennium Development Goals. For example, promoting gender equality and empowering women in Bangladesh has reduced infant mortality rates and allowed women to use microfinance in order to set up self-sustaining commercial enterprises. However, much progress still needs to be made if the Millennium Development Goals are to be achieved.
Attempts to address poverty can be hampered by numerous obstacles. Particular attention was given to the need to ensure that aid is properly targeted, and to the importance of tackling corruption. Foreign aid cannot help to lift people out of poverty unless it is spent in the right areas. Successes in South Korea, India, China, and Botswana indicate that increasing trade is vital, so aid used to build credit markets, invest in infrastructure, and create effective legal systems is likely to be well spent.
Continuous action needs to be taken against corruption to prevent money which could otherwise be used to help those in most need being illegally siphoned off by those in positions of power. Pasca explained that lawyers can play a central role in tackling barriers such as corruption. This requires greater pressure for transparent state organisations, more informed populations who will demand greater accountability, the enactment and enforcement of anti-corruption laws, and the courage to ask whether our businesses are complicit in illegal behaviour.
A4ID has experience within this area, having assisted Global Witness in obtaining legal representation. Global Witness had published financial statements that suggested that the son of the Congolese President had spent $35,000 of state oil proceeds on luxury designer goods. Denis Christel Sassou-Nguesso sought an injunction against Global Witness, but the latter successfully defended itself in the London High Court.
More broadly, lawyers who wish to join the movement to eradicate poverty need ‘to learn, to volunteer, and to shout’. They can use their skills to help eradicate extreme poverty by learning about the issues involved, undertaking pro bono work, and demanding legal changes that will benefit the poorest people in the world.
*
By Sundeep Athwal ~ 20th February 2011
*
*
Links
Advocates for International Development (A4ID): www.a4id.org
‘1.4 billion reasons’ , by the Global Poverty Project: http://www.globalpovertyproject.com/pages/presentation
Cambridge Futures: www.cambridgefutures.com
Cambridge University International Development: www.cuid.org
Global Witness: www.globalwitness.org
It was a shame the 1.4 billion reasons template was used – there have been many opportunities to see that film and I would have liked to have found out more about the specifics of A4ID’s interesting work.
(The few moments when the talk did …depart from the GPP template and described A4ID’s involvement in particular projects, it was really compelling…)