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| Poor and Rural Centered Development:: |
6/17/2009 |
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The issue of poverty reduction has gained wide currency in many government policies and development discourses in recent time. Poverty in developing countries is particularly acute among the rural population and women are the most vulnerable. The forlorn cry of the poor emanates from the failure of the economic growth to generate the “trickle-down” effect and reduce poverty. Other causes include: the economic mismanagement and non-transparent and unaccountable government at all levels. Urban biased development policies all have worsened the state of rural areas. Some previous government policies were politicized and only paid sheer lip-service thereby glorified poverty alleviation on the media. The policies ended up scratching the problem of poverty on the surface. Political instability which led to disruption and truncating of even laudable poverty alleviation programs, non-involvement of the principal actors in policy making and implementation amongst others have constituted clogs on the wheels of poverty eradication machine.
The good news is that some African countries have for sometime now, enjoyed an overall atmosphere of relative peace and political stability and witnessed the consolidation of a democratic culture, good governance, the rule of law and respect of human rights. It is therefore, an opportune time to implement a realistic poverty reduction policy. Good governance after all is about openness, and is about participation of the citizenry on issues that affect their livelihood instead of exogenous imposition. It is under a stable administration that a practical poverty reduction targeted at women and rural poor could be realized. The people are optimistic that realistic solutions exist and the cost of implementing them is affordable. There is also consensus that the political will and concerted action are what is required. It calls for focus and continuity and a departure from the old system of “policy somersaulting”, (where programs are no sooner started than disrupted and dismantled and the abandonment of every program of the previous administration).
Poor people live in rural areas of developing countries. Fighting poverty means, first and foremost, transforming rural lives and livelihoods. Urban and rural areas are interdependent economically, socially and environmentally. In order to achieve a more sustainable development, measures that critically address these rural settlements need to be valued and supported. This places emphasis on improving the poor''s human and productive capacities, and on removing barriers to their full participation in the society. For a Poverty alleviation policy to succeed in reducing poverty sustainably, it must comprise a combination of measures producing medium-term effects as well as measures with long-term impact.
The policy should stress on rural-urban linkages and treat villages/rural areas and cities as two ends of a human settlement continuum instead of discrete locations. A renewed focus on rural development, and strengthening and expanding the rural-urban linkage will serve to bridge the rural-urban gap, and bring about a balanced development. The relegation of the rural areas and the lack of employment opportunities in rural areas exacerbates rural-to-urban migration and results in a loss of human capacity in rural communities.
The policy should also include women empowerment as its core strategy. This is because most women in the rural areas are illiterate. They lack initiatives, innovations and self-reliance attitudes. They are isolated, confined and marginalized through the non-interactive government policies on rural areas.
Rural women''s participation in the development process has always been more preached but less practiced. The time for action is now. Recognizing the plight of rural women''s participation in the development process should be the beginning of wisdom. According to this philosophy, every state in the country should promote women''s economic independence, which includes the creation of employment, access to resources and credit, the eradication of the persistent and increasing burden of poverty, malnutrition, poor health and illiteracy on women. Poverty is a vicious circle. It deprives a person of the basic necessity of life and of his dignity. Women empowerment is therefore, an essential tool to dislodge this poverty circle.
It is this that informed the Sokoto state government to adopt a multi-pronged approach to attack poverty in all its ramifications in the state and restore the people’s dignity. They made the livelihoods of poor people and women the starting point of their campaign. They are addressing poverty in a holistic way- at the skills and assets people assemble to make a living, their vulnerability to economic or environmental events, and the way they are affected by policies and regulations. This policy has reinvigorated the enthusiasm of Sokoto people with the slogan “conquering poverty-yes we can!” While previous policies on poverty were like dishing pieces of fish to hungry rural women, the Sokoto state Poor and Rural Centered Development approach is turning out fishermen/women. The policy is not only workable, it is working. What’s more, it is amenable to replication.
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