Voices of the Poor

Ronald Mazune, me, and Joseph Wanda

Over a period of several years in the 1990s, the World Bank interviewed some 60,000 poor in order to better understand their perspective. The idea was that it would shape WB policy, such as who to loan money too, etc.

The perspective of the poor is necessary - if a project with the poor is to be sustainable, they must have a voice.

I personally learned a lot working with people like Ronald Mazune, a friendly guy who I became close friends with in the short 2 months I was in Uganda last summer. Ronald had a rough childhood, living on one meal a day until an NGO took him in, fed him, and introduced him to Christ. Ronald has a huge heart for other people, is graduating from the University soon, and plans to work full time with MMM.

For his thesis, he is writing about the connection between health and poverty, and the other day he sent me the rough draft of his paper, I was super excited! Here is a bit of it to share with you all!

"Health is by far the most important thing in people's lives; it does not matter whether we are poor or rich. Good health is vital to make our life happy. Health and poverty are mutually reinforcing and can generate a vicious cycle of deterioration and suffering."

"Due to poverty and unemployment, [households in Bukhalu Sub County] have resorted to deforestation as a source of income, and this has left the area so dry and open to the Ozone layer....[it is] dangerous to human health" (Mazune, 2011)

Also said by Ronald,

"A hungry man does not think about development"

Great perspective - I love it! He is now doing a survey and further research in this area of Uganda, close to his hometown. When he gets the results, I'll let you all know!

Habits of consumption - thinking about the next generation

Our culture is so bent on consumption it makes me sick. Of course, I am part of it! I often find myself thinking about how I can upgrade to something better - new clothes, better quality electronics, many things that work just fine that I look for reasons to replace.

In a sociology class this semester, we studied the "insatiable appetite" for consumption that Europeans brought to the new world, and the wastefulness that followed. We are still stuck in that grind. A great example is ethanol, we want to justify using millions of barrels of oil a day, so we exploit the earth and say it's "green" so we feel better!

How to get the US to consume less? There are really 3 primary options:

1) Market - if we let the market determine consumption, we are basically handing the reins over to cartels like OPEC, who can change supply, mess with prices, and destroy any long term trends that will reduce oil dependency (such as electric cars)

2) Energy taxes - policy #1 - these reduce consumption among the poorest class, who spend the greatest percentage of their income on energy (food, gas, electricity). Basically, the poor would be without the little they had, the rich would be unaffected

3) Ration - policy #2 - my new favorite! Each person would receive a voucher each week to consume, say 10 gallons of gas. If people didn't want to use gas, they could sell it to someone else. This could directly control US consumption, but would potentially create a black market/smother private enterprises.

Dr. Schaeffer (my prof) suggests that policy such as these is needed to curb our consumption, but since most politicians are relatively wealthy, policy #1 and #2 are quite unpopular.

TV or food?

An interesting article from The Economist makes an interesting point when it states that the life of the poor is often very boring. "Villages do not have movie theatres, concert halls, places to sit and watch interesting strangers go by...even work."

I'm not sure I completely buy the argument-rural poor often find many things to keep themselves occupied, and are often much more innovative and creative than their lazy spoon-fed counterparts -referring to us-but it does partially explain why some people, if given the money, will purchase a television before they purchase food.

The argument is that "things that make life less boring are a priority for the poor," and therefore food policy should be redesigned with this in mind. It should not be a surprise that the poor reject nutritious food and dietary supplements. And why the rich eat McDonald's every day?

Basically, it is a great reminder not to ignore the preferences of the poor. They are real.

Thought of the Day

Two quick thoughts, actually:

1) From the Harvard Business Review, "Systemic problems are not solved by a few smart people … thinking really, really deep thoughts about really, really important things. They are solved when a vibrant and competitive marketplace first tests and then confirms or disproves an array of possibilities and approaches."

Coming from the idea that Africa's own entrepreneurs hold one of the keys to their own development, a lot more than our top-down planning. (See Easterly book White Man's Burden).

2) The "Seven Sins" of development, from the book Reinventing Foreign Aid, by Nancy Birdsall, President of the Center for Global Development:

• impatience
• envy
• ignorance
• pride
• sloth
• greed
• foolishness

Birdsall claims that each of these sins have a big effect on why development aid is not working...interesting to think about to say the least.

Inequality

Development history lesson: one country spending it's own money to develop another is something that has been going on a long time. In the 1970s, development was all about growth, getting a countries GDP higher, supposing that wealth would "trickle down" to the poor. While there is some truth to this in principle, it's often not the case. Check out this cool chart my sister made me aware of, it's worth understanding, read the quote below:

"Here the population of each country is divided into 20 equally-sized income groups, ranked by their household per-capita income. These are called “ventiles,” as you can see on the horizontal axis, and each “ventile” translates to a cluster of five percentiles.

The household income numbers are all converted into international dollars adjusted for equal purchasing power, since the cost of goods varies from country to country. In other words, the chart adjusts for the cost of living in different countries, so we are looking at consistent living standards worldwide.

Now on the vertical axis, you can see where any given ventile from any country falls when compared to the entire population of the world.

For example, trace the line for Brazil, a country with extreme income inequality.

Brazil’s bottom ventile — that is, the poorest 5 percent of the Brazilian population, shown as the left-most point on the line — is about as poor as anyone in the entire world, registering a percentile in the single digits when compared to the income distribution worldwide. Meanwhile, Brazil also has some of the world’s richest, as you can see by how high up on the chart Brazil’s top ventile reaches. In other words, this one country covers a very broad span of income groups.

Now take a look at America.

Notice how the entire line for the United States resides in the top portion of the graph? That’s because the entire country is relatively rich. In fact, America’s bottom ventile is still richer than most of the world: That is, the typical person in the bottom 5 percent of the American income distribution is still richer than 68 percent of the world’s inhabitants.

Now check out the line for India. India’s poorest ventile corresponds with the 4th poorest percentile worldwide. And its richest? The 68th percentile. Yes, that’s right: America’s poorest are, as a group, about as rich as India’s richest.

Kind of blows your mind, right?"

That's a really big quote I think, but necessary to start wrapping our minds around inequality in our world. If you were born in the US, you are at a huge advantage compared to the rest of the world. Period. Don't act poor - you aren't! I know there is poverty in the US, and suffering, and hurt, but most of the world experiences it on a whole different level.

After the 1970s, focus shifted to growth with equity, or equality. It is still a big question for what I think about and study - how can the poorest of the poor be lifted up? the small farmers, those on marginal lands, those with little access to health, education, credit, and many other services we take so for granted.

Is development of these people fighting the giant globalization? I don't think necessarily...but in some ways...more on this later, what do you think?

Demanding Change...

If you've been reading your international news lately, you've probably noticed things happening in the continent of Africa. Like the uprising in Tunisia, a Northern Africa Arab (98% Muslim) nation. The current president (dictator) was ousted by violent protests after 23 years of power, because of unemployment, freedom of speech, and corruption, among other things.

Or Southern Sudan, which is breaking off of Sudan in search for its own identity.

TMS Ruge, a Ugandan native and "successful entrepreneur" insightfully writes for CNN that "While the developed nations drag their feet on inclusive trade agreements with emerging markets, Africa is busy redefining itself."

His point throughout the article is something that I definitely experienced in my short time in Uganda - the youth are restless! And they, more than anyone else, hold the keys to change on their own continent.

Trends are already taking place:

• East Africa's MPESA which allows millions of people access to banking power (money transfer) that would typically not have access to services like this, let alone credit or savings which are a key to development
• Africa's strong access to broadband internet, meaning access to huge amounts of information
• Kenya's Business Processing Outsourcing, which provides cheaper services for international firms and jobs in Africa
• The "reaspera" movement, of Africans (usually well-educated, leaders, world changers) having the opportunity to return to their homeland

The point is, that times are changing in Africa, and with a very young, ideal, and hopeful population, that change could come about very quickly.

Some family friends recently moved to Uganda to work at a youth camp. What a great place to invest, in the lives of Africa's future innovators and leaders!

Who is responsible?

The other day I had a group presentation in one of my grad classes, "International Agricultural Development," on the United Nations Millennium Development Goals (goals that most of the world has agreed to). They are basically:

1. Eradicate extreme poverty and hunger
2. Achieve universal primary education
3. Promote gender equality and empower women
4. Reduce child mortality
5. Improve maternal health
6. Combat HIV/AIDS, malaria and other diseases
7. Ensure environmental sustainability
8. Develop a global partnership for development
   

These goals were designed jointly by 189 representative countries in 2000 with targets to be met by 2015. In my opinion they're a good thing and there has been progress in some areas in certain countries. However, there are still big challenges. This CNN article quote sums up what I'm talking about:

“President Obama is being criticized for increasing U.S. contributions to the international fight against HIV/AIDS by only two percent, with the result that people in Uganda are already being turned away from clinics and condemned to die.

When challenged, U.S. officials have had a fairly solid answer. Uganda has recently discovered oil and gas deposits but has gone on a spending spree, reportedly ordering fighter planes worth $300 million from Russia, according to a recent report in the New York Times.”

Although a government has a right to do what it wants with its own money, its kind of heart-breaking that Uganda's own government is ignoring such a huge problem.

But it brings up the question, who is responsible for helping the poor? Local governments? Other nations? Development agencies? Wealthy individuals? Or the body of Christ? More on this later...