DEVELOPMENT: Missing Link Between Democracy and End of Poverty

By Marcela Valente Reprint | | Print |

Marcela Valente

STOCKHOLM, Jun 13 2000 (IPS) - The global debate on governability in the world’s poorest nations is gradually giving rise to an increasingly frank discussion of why democracy has not always served as a useful tool for alleviating poverty.

The World Bank and United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) sponsored a forum in Stockholm this month to discuss the barriers to and strategies for reducing poverty in democratic systems.

Around 100 academics, politicians, donors and leaders of civil society from different regions came up with a string of recommendations for fighting corruption and promoting participation by the poor in democratic governments.

Convoked by the Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance (IDEA) – created by 14 countries six years ago to promote democracy – leaders from eastern Europe, Asia, Africa and Latin America identified hurdles impeding the poor from enjoying the benefits of democracy and outlined strategies to boost their levels of participation.

But before the participants in last Thursday and Friday’s gathering presented their recommendations, they held a wide- ranging debate.

At the opening of IDEA’s Fifth Democracy Forum last Thursday, the head of IDEA, Bengt Save-Soderbergh, said that in today’s world outside enemies were no longer the problem, but rather the big threat posed by the alarming gap between the ideals and implementation of democracy.

The theme of this year’s edition of IDEA’s annual forum was ‘Democracy and Poverty: a Missing Link?’. At the end of two days of speeches, debates and workshops, Save-Soderbergh said that given the abundant cases and proposals referred to by participants, the question mark could be removed from the title.

Save-Soderbergh told IPS he was pleased with the results of the meeting, which – he said – drew up an interesting agenda of questions and future challenges regarding a relationship that, as signalled by the forum’s theme, was not an easy one.

The gathering pointed out that in the past two decades, the number of countries that have adopted democracy has soared, and that in the past 10 years there has been an unprecedented number of countries where citizens voted for the first time ever or in the wake of lengthy dictatorships.

Nevertheless, poverty has continued growing throughout most of the world, Save-Soderbergh noted. Moreover, he acknowledged, some countries with undemocratic systems have made inroads against poverty, while in some modern democracies the number of poor and marginalised has risen alongside crime rates and corruption.

One of the participants, former Ecuadorean president Oswaldo Hurtado, told IPS that non-governmental organisations (NGOs) were represented in larger numbers in the forum than politicians, which he said led to a “lack of realism” in proposals that ignored the fiscal pressures suffered by governments.

The NGOs responded by pointing to the levels of corruption seen in many governments of developing countries, while others blamed the corruption on companies that bribed “mature democracies.”

Also taking part in the two-day meet were development aid officials from donor countries and representatives of the UNDP and World Bank, whose latest reports have pointed to the failure of democratic systems to eradicate poverty.

Development aid officials from Sweden, the Netherlands and Canada said they were disappointed by the lack of results from many anti-poverty programmes, and admitted that they were not sure how to take part more effectively in resolving such problems.

Deepa Narayan, the author of ‘Voices of the Poor: Can Anyone Hear Us?’, published by the World Bank in March, said in Sweden that the book was aimed at getting a clearer view of the needs and demands of the have-nots, through surveys of 60,000 people in 60 countries.

The World Bank and UNDP said they sponsored the forum because they shared a concern for the low level of participation by the poor in democracies. They also agreed in their assessments of the practical difficulties faced by democratic systems in terms of resolving social problems.

The UNDP’s latest report raised the question of the links between poverty, democracy and the need for good government, and set forth the idea — which the forum assumed as its theme — of the “missing link” between democratic governments and poverty reduction.

Narayan told IPS of her concern that while undemocratic countries like Cuba, China or nations in southeast Asia have shown good results in terms of economic growth and poverty reduction, the number of poor has been growing in countries in eastern Europe which recently embraced democratic systems.

In that sense, Federica Mogherini with the Global Youth Forum depicted the bleak outlook faced by the young in eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union regarding the lack of opportunities and apathy towards participating in a political system from which they felt excluded.

The vice-president of the World Bank, Matt Karlsson — who spoke at the closing session of the forum on Friday — admitted that the formula of economic growth, education and health, market liberalisation and state reforms had failed to reverse the rise in poverty.

The World Bank’s recent change in outlook was applauded by Save- Soderbergh, who observed that just 10 years ago, the free market was the institution’s “gospel.”

“We welcome this new way of thinking,” remarked the head of IDEA.

Participants in the forum — who took part in workshops on governance, participation, citizenship, rights, corruption and the role of donors — detailed actions aimed at integrating efforts to promote democracy and curb poverty.

They said governments were straitjacketed by the conditions set by international lending institutions; criticised the ineffectiveness of some democratic institutions in developing countries; and noted that the quality of political leaders was generally low while corruption ran high.

They also underlined that the poor were not organised in such a way as to enable them to participate in decision-making.

In order for good government to be possible, they stressed, trade unions and political parties must be strengthened; more funding must be transferred from the central government to local authorities; and there must be greater transparency on the part of multilateral lending institutions.

Participants suggested literacy drives and a stronger role by the state in order to raise awareness on rights and citizenship among the poor.

As an example of “empowering” poor women who later take an interest in politics, the forum pointed to the Grameen Bank, headed by Mohammed Yunus, which grants small, low-interest, collateral-free loans to the poor – 95 percent of them women – in Bangladesh.

Yunus stressed in Stockholm that the women who had received the loans not only enjoyed improved socioeconomic status, but also began to take an interest in demanding their their right to be informed and to obtain education and training, and to participate in elections, not only as voters but as candidates as well.

Before the participants broke up into workshops Thursday, they held a lengthy debate on why democracy is not always able to respond to the needs of the poor. While they stressed democracy as the best means to that end, they said it stood in need of generating better practical results.

Since 1995, IDEA has organised annual forums to discuss the problems faced by democracy. Last year’s gathering focused on the low level of participation by the young, this year focused on poverty – a growing global concern, as demonstrated by the participation of the World Bank and UNDP – while the theme of next year’s forum will be the opportunities and threats posed by the information revolution.