Truth Dealer

Here is a collection of thoughts and points gleaned after reading through various books. Agree or not, it’s always good to challenge ideas and possible misconceptions.

Definitions of Poverty

• Varies depending on who you talk to. Within Western countries poverty generally refers to relative wealth or income. So if most of the population owns a Mercedes Benz, but you own a brown 1979 Datsun Sunny – you are poor. Global definitions of poverty are also typically economic but are absolute measures. The World Bank currently uses < US$1.25 daily income to indicate extreme poverty.
• A good definition can also be lack of choice or unfreedoms. You might have access to basic utilities, but you can’t send your kids to school, or participate politically, or have access to land – this is poverty.
• An even broader sense is that we are all poor – but in different ways. This is the impoverishment of broken relationships (with ourselves, with others, the environment, and with God).

Those of us from the West typically have a narrow material-based definition of poverty. Because we value materials and individual wealth highly, we tend to look at those who lack this as being poor. I believe we miss the mark with this view.

As we look at other cultures we tend to reduce things to economic outputs and inputs, and emphasise an extremely individualistic sense of identity.  We can misunderstand collectivism and the value of relationship.  To us, time is a finite linear resource (which is why we measure success by how much we can jam into a period of time). In the developing world, tasks and schedules take a back seat to the process of forming relationships.

Elephants Dancing Among Mice

• People and Process over Project and Product.
• Do not do for people what they can do for themselves.
• Always use local resources, bringing in external resources is a last resort.
• Bringing in outside resources can cripple initiative, and even promote a patronising ‘god-complex’ among those of us who are helping.  It can potentially harm existing networks, businesses in a small vulnerable community.
• Think twice about in-kind donations. Cash is almost always a better option. There are many reasons for this (which can be elaborated on in another post).

Better: First discover all assets, skills, talents among individual, and community networks, connections, and existing organisations, Figure out their wins and build on these.

The challenge: If one characteristic of the poor is low self-esteem and lack of voice, then how do we assess what tensions might lie behind their silence and compliance?

Many thanks to When Helping Hurts: Alleviating poverty without hurting the poor… or ourselves. Also Duncan Green’s From Poverty to Power.  Photo (cc) evanlavine / flickr