I do not feel it is necessary before this group to provide a detailed definition of "poverty."
Rather let me begin by simply asking you to pause for a moment and to put before your
head and your heart a person whom you would describe to be "poor." Let it be a woman, a
man, a child, whom you have encountered in the recent past. Perhaps it is a relative, a
member of your family, or a working companion, a neighbour, a person who has come to
your door or whom you have passed on the street. Let that person enter into your head -
with all the analytical reasons for her or his poor condition - and enter into your heart - with
all the feelings, emotions, spiritual responses evoked by his or her presence. Let that
person be with us during our days together.
That there are many, many poor in our midst is an undeniable fact. Figures for Uganda tell us that 35% of the population live below the poverty line, down from 52% a few years ago. In Zambia, 80% live below the poverty line, up from 70% ten years ago.
Poverty is of course a multi-faceted phenomenon. We can speak of:
- Money deprivation - people living below a particular line, e.g., the World Bank's suggested line of one US dollar a day.
- Services deprivation -e.g., lack of adequate health or education services
- Access deprivation - e.g., very difficult access to water supply
- Voice deprivation - e.g., exclusion from effective participation in decision making
- Gender and geographic inequalities and consequent deprivations
- Etc.
Note that I speak here of poverty in physical, material terms - the way most people ordinarily use the term. Sometimes religious people tend to talk about poverty in broad terms, emphasising spiritual poverty, psychological poverty, etc. I personally don't think that this is at all helpful for our discussions here. When we speak of poverty - and its eradication - let us be very specific in referring to material want, physical deprivation, lack of basic necessities, economic insufficiencies, with consequent political inadequacies.
From the outset, let us be clear that poverty is a sign, a symptom of something very wrong in human society. And it is also a cause, an influence that perpetuates an unacceptable situation in human society. What do I mean by that?
Recall the great definition given by Pope Paul VI in his 1967 Progress of Peoples: "Development is the movement from less human conditions to more human conditions."
- Poverty is a sign that development has not occurred, if people are not enjoying the basic human conditions owed to them by reason of their innate dignity as daughters and sons of God, made in God's image.
- Poverty is a cause that blocks that development by preventing people from working toward these human conditions, marginalising them in the process of empowerment and achievement and thus bringing about more inhumane conditions.
Poverty is not, I repeat is not, a necessary, inevitable human state of being or an acceptable God-willed situation. It is a consequence of the way we humans have designed the economic, political, social, cultural, gender, ecological and religious structures of society. It is the explicit outcome of conscious decisions made by some humans. This fact is obvious - simply reflect that there is sufficient food produced in the world today to eliminate global hunger. But economic and political decisions have been made that prevent access to a daily sufficiency of food to more than two billions of our sisters and brothers this very day. Or closer to home, Uganda - or Zambia, or so many other African states - have adequate resources to meet basic needs such as housing, clean water, education and health services, but lack committed priorities to put those resources at the disposable of true national development. Simply put, Ministers drive Mercedes, children lack schoolbooks!
That is why I frequently prefer, both on analytical grounds of clarity and political grounds of motivation, to speak not of the "poor" but the "impoverished." People are impoverished, in the sense that their condition is by and large an imposed condition, the result of policies, programmes, priorities, and politics! They are indeed poverty-stricken, to use another phrase. Oh, yes, of course, some people are poor because they are lazy, lack responsibility, and are culturally ready to accept their deprivation. Oh, yes, maybe 1% of the 80% in Zambia…. But let's be realistic and talk about the vast, overwhelming majority, not the handful of exceptional cases!
I emphasise this obvious point because one still can hear in many circles the assertion that poverty is really a natural situation, one that we realistically cannot speak of ever eradicating. And then the positive, supposedly irrefutable point is made from Scripture, "Didn't Jesus say, "'The poor you will always have with you!'?
But my friends, please recall two points. First, Jesus made this as an empirical observation not as a policy mandate! Yes, the poor are in our midst, and indeed in great numbers, but that does not mean we should be sure that our policies are such that we perpetuate their presence! Second, and the strongest point, Jesus made that comment in the scriptural context of the Old Testament recognition that the presence of the poor in our midst is a sign that we are not living out the Covenant. Deuteronomy makes this very clear. And that is why Jesus could say so strongly, echoing Isaiah, that his mission was to "bring good news to the poor," overturning their structural and structured situation by means such as setting prisoners free, opening eyes of the blind (including the blind political and religious leaders!), lifting up the oppressed and proclaiming and establishing the Jubilee rule of freeing slaves, redistributing land and cancelling debts.
But what about this phrase, "poverty eradication" - is not that a bit idealistic, even quite unrealistic? Let me make the appropriate distinctions and then conclude why I believe we must keep that phrase as our solid guide.
- Poverty alleviation - this is the work of lessening the suffering of the poor,
meeting their immediate pressing needs. Welfare, handouts, social security,
safety nets, etc. Deal with the widows and the orphans, the elderly and the
handicapped. This is, basically, the assistance of charity.
- Poverty reduction - this is the task of lowering the numbers of those
living below the poverty line, eliminating them from the rolls of the deprived.
Provide them with jobs, with health and education services, with opportunities
to rise above the poverty line. This is, basically, the commitment of development.
- Poverty eradication - this is the challenge of restructuring society so that the
impoverished disappear, the immense absolute numbers decrease to minimal
exceptional cases. This calls for planning, for priorities, for shifts in power,
for restructuring society, for "revolution." This is, basically, the transformation
of justice.
Now why, in programmes we discuss here for Uganda, for Zambia and the rest of Africa, do we
speak of poverty eradication? Let me give a parallel case, possibly more at home
in this religious gathering. Let me compare poverty to sin. For example, the sin of
corruption, or adultery, or racism or sexism. All serious evils, all to be condemned,
all to be overcome with God's gracious help.
- Sin alleviation - well, corruption or adultery, racism or sexism, continues, but we lessen its impact on people who might suffer its consequences, we comfort but do not confront.
- Sin reduction - we try our best to lessen the instances of corruption and adultery, racism and sexism. We pass restrictive laws, we educate and promote moral development to reduce the numbers of sin.
- Sin eradication - we work to change the attitudes of hearts and the structures of society that make sin present, that encourages and facilitates corruption, adultery, racism and sexism. While recognising the universal and lasting presence of "original sin," we promote a conversion that would do away with its influence and its suffering.
Now you and I know that it is not possible to completely eradicate sin in this, our human vale of tears. We have no heaven on earth! Yet this is an ideal that we labour to achieve, that we struggle to establish. Because we have a vision of honesty, of fidelity, of respect for human dignity, we don't rest with only alleviating the suffering of sin or reducing its many instances. No, we commit ourselves to cooperate in realising the ideal that we pray for every day: "your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven!"
And so it is in the task of poverty eradication. This phrase or concept, with its attendant policies and priorities, gives us a vision that motivates our hearts and guides our heads - ultimately, that opens our hands in our involvement.
Let me add that it also gives us a particular direction in our work. One of our close partners in the work of justice, development and peace in Zambia, Professor V. Seshamani of the Department of Economics of the University of Zambia, has cautioned that a focus on reduction in numbers of those classified as poor - e.g., reducing the poverty statistic by 15% or 20% in the next ten years - can miss the most important dynamics of society. For we can have policies that provide those close to the line of poverty with improved conditions (e.g., health, housing) and thus pull them above the line, thereby reducing the absolute number to some desired goal.
But these very desirable policies might not "trickle down" to those living far below the poverty line, the really destitute. Yes, some improvement, but in the instances of poverty and not in the intensity of poverty. Professor Seshamani argues - and he influences our own work in Zambia - that poverty strategies should focus primarily on those who are most extremely poor and enable them to move progressively to less extreme, less inhuman, levels - even if this does not significantly reduce the absolute levels of poverty. While such a policy might not appeal to our international partners or national political leaders who emphasise poverty reduction, it promises to lay a more solid foundation for the poverty eradication that must be our clear goal.
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