In this essay, will attempt to explore how our Western understanding and perception of poverty is often wrong and can ultimately perpetuate the cycle of poverty. The concept of poverty is so vast and ever-changing that it makes it challenging to define the term, much less effectively try to reduce or eradicate it. Poverty was once seen as ‘the inevitable accompaniment of failure to develop economically’ (Green). However, under the leadership of Robert McNamara, the World Bank urged hegemonic discourse on poverty (Green) and as such led to poverty now being understood as a multidimensional concept of deprivation. Consistent progress has been made with regards to reducing poverty (thanks in part to international agreements such as the Millennium Development Goals, international development/aid organizations, etc.), nonetheless, many third world countries are just as poor, if not poorer than they were decades ago (Bandow).
As Westerners, our thought process tends to be: problem, find a solution, apply solution, problem fixed. The issue however is that, poverty is such a complex notion that the solution cannot be the same for every nation, the application of solutions cannot be the same, and the assumption that once one solution is applied, the problem will be forever fixed is a fallacy. Eradicating poverty is a work in progress, maintenance needs to be done, remaining current and up to date on the latest advancements in technology, being environmentally friendly, being morally/ ethically correct, while still trying to preserve cultural identity is an almost impossible task. According to the Human Development Reports created by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) ‘human development is about much more than the rise or fall of national incomes. It is about creating an environment in which people can develop their full potential and lead productive, creative lives in accord with their needs and interests’.
In the Global North, the assumption as to why poverty exists is because people are “lazy” and “don’t want to make the effort”, however poverty is not just a black and white concept. People are experiencing poverty not just due to a lack of monetary funds but also because of social, political, and environmental factors which inhibit their personal development thus forcing them to be impoverished. It is empirically shown that in many developing countries only 50% of poverty is reduced through economic growth, the other 50% need qualitative actions (such as: social programmes, government welfare, education, etc.). In Australia for instance, when a right wing government is in power, they refuse to give aid because they believe that trade will lead to economic growth and economic growth will result in the reduction or eradication of poverty. Although, to some extent economic growth is important in the overall development of a nation, there is jobless economic growth where the capital doesn’t reach the lowest sectors in the society. The money stays in the upper and middle class and circulates.
Moreover, because of the lack of evident segregation of ethnic groups in many developed nations, consideration of the social effects of said segregation fails to come into play in many poverty reduction strategies. For instance, in certain countries in Eastern Africa (e.g.- Rwanda and Uganda) there is such a systematic discrimination of specific ethnic groups (e.g.- the Pigmies) that regardless of the efforts made by NGOs to promote economic growth, improvements in the education system, and so forth there will be sections of the society that will be on the outskirts of development. Therefore, unless specific efforts are made to ensure all populations within a country will benefit from donations, aid, trade, etc. there will not be overall national development.
Furthermore, despite the fact that many national leaders in the Global North are questionable, none come close to competing with the sheer level of corruption and inauthenticity of those in a variety of third world countries. Increased discourse around the topic of poverty has prompted NGOs (such as the World Bank, the United Nations, IMF, etc.) to promote national ownership of poverty reduction strategies (Green). To a certain degree the encouragement of local governments to take the reins on poverty reduction strategies has proved to be effective and has resulted in the increase in female entrepreneurship within the nation, increase in primary and secondary education, increase in GDP per capita, and so forth.
An example of this would be Rwanda, a landlocked country in Eastern Africa. Under the leadership of Paul Kagame Rwanda’s economy is now one of the fastest growing economies (6.5% per annum) on the continent. And even though the country’s GDP per capita is an astonishing 750 U$D per year, the government is making strong efforts to lift their people out of dire poverty by building concrete housing for the poorest of the poor (the poorest in the nation typically live in mud housing), incorporating several women entrepreneurship projects (e.g.- the Urugo Women’s Opportunity Centre), etc. However, the success of few does not equate to the success of many and this is apparent in the crumbling of some nations (e.g.- Zimbabwe, Equatorial Guinea, Venezuela, Syria, etc.) because of the destructive tendencies of past and present governments and aid agencies persistence in lending to governments not people (Bandow).
Another issue with the Western mentality and perception with regards to poverty reduction strategies is that there is a belief that solutions only come from the Global North. Due to the fact that the education system is better, they have effective and working national strategies, they have the ideas, money, and don’t value the wisdom of the Global South. However, a key factor that fails to be considered is that the sharing of knowledge between developing countries may be more potent than the sharing of knowledge from a developed to a developing country. Neighbouring third world countries may share similar cultural values and beliefs, they have similar tribes and ethnic groups within their nation and learning how to evolve from a country that was in a similar position to them not long ago can be drastically more effective. This is not always the case, but sometimes people do know what is best for themselves they just don’t have the means of achieving it on their own. In school you are taught, if you are having a problem come and ask the teacher and they will help, not come and ask the teacher and they will erase everything you have done and do the work in the way they think is best for you while you sit by idly and watch.
Additionally, the effects colonization had on the cultivation of the Western thought process can lead to the perpetuation of poverty (Hinderaker). The idea that those living in third world nations are ‘backwards’ and in need of saving by the ‘white man’ through the conversion to Christianity, adaptation of familial social structures, and dictation of development strategies (Wilson). Race is a social construct used to further categorize and classify, not a biological fact (Kerry Greer) and the long hand of history still weighs upon the heads of many- specifically those in developing countries. Black and colonised women in particular are faced with consistent infantilization within colonised societies because they are perceived as in need of rescuing from their men and their backward societies (Wilson). The Western ideology that ‘they know all’ was apparent with the first wave feminist movement which failed to incorporate racial and colonial needs in the discourse and as such third world feminists were forced to reevaluate the approach to the women in development project because ‘people in the global south are the ‘objects’ of development for overwhelmingly white ‘experts’’ (Wilson).
In the Western world the idea that all solutions will work in all situations is an ignorant fallacy. Development agencies/ organisations that persistently dish out capital to governments, who then use that capital to fund them and their elite friend’s/ family’s lavish lifestyles (Bandow). Or give aid for assigned purposes, thus limiting the economic and innovative prosperity of the nation. For example, the United States annually donates a huge amount of rice to Ghana, a rice producing nation. This ‘aid’ does more harm than good because it takes away income from local rice farmers. The United States subsidizes billions of U$D (in 2003 it was 1.3 billion U$D) annually for their rice farmers to produce top quality rice, harvested by the latest machinery, and promoted by huge billboards. ‘Forty years of international aid transfers have left Latin America with a foreign debt of $430 billion, sub-Saharan Africa with per capita incomes lower today than they were in the 1970s, and India with an annual per capita income of around $300’ (Bandow).
Each country has its own unique requirements and pathways to development and as Westerners it is nonsensical to assume that because one solution works in Jamaica for instance it will also work in Indonesia. This then helps to develop the dependency mentality where locals lack the ability to be innovative and independent because they are so coddled by the government and NGOs. That to some degree, prevents economic growth and national prosperity because no one knows what to do with their resources. In some instances, NGOs will come into a country with the intention of teaching them a new skill as a means of promoting economic growth. However, that one skill is taught to everyone and the cycle comes around full circle because you then have everyone producing the exact same thing. There is no incubator for thoughts and ideas, the locals are not encouraged to come up with something new, merely soak up one idea and repeatedly regurgitate it. The people’s inability ‘to imagine, invent, theorize, organize and solve problems’ (all factors which are core to the developmental process) is what hinders the growth of so many nations (Hinderaker).
As a means of reducing poverty, an increasing amount of development agencies are using celebrities with high sex appeals to serve as spokespersons in raising public awareness regarding poverty (Cameron & Haanstra). A mere handful of the celebrities used as spokespersons are rarely from developing nations. The face of poverty that is so often portrayed by development organisations in the Global North perpetuates ideologies of the Global South. This then cultivates an inaccurate representation of many third world countries and limits the discourse around poverty reduction strategies because of an assumption of inability on the part of local authorities. The concept behind using sex appeal is to ‘generate funds and public awareness in the Global North (Cameron & Haanstra).
In the past, international development agencies attacked the pathos of potential donors by bombarding them with images and videos of immense poverty in the Global South. Now, development charities have analyzed the identity of the ‘self’’ in first world nations and found that by targeting the libido, one can increase the public awareness of issues relating to poverty. A lot of high profile persons categorise themselves as ‘sophisticated, affluent, cosmopolitan and sexy’ (Cameron & Haanstra) therefore by using certain celebrities, NGOs can promote charity as something that is sexy. The problem with this situation is that NGOs are evaluating those in the Global North and using their findings as a means of creating donations, instead of evaluating those in the Global South and incorporating the locals and their leaders in problem solving situations.
To conclude, poverty in itself is a concept which has been questioned for its plausibility and existence however the empirical analysis of the scale and dimensions of poverty has unified seemingly separate practices and institutions to strengthen the credibility of the existence of the concept (Green). The anthropological perspective of poverty enables the concept to be understood as a qualitative area of study and as such progresses the classification and conceptualization of the complex and multidimensional notion (Green). The issues highlighted above are merely showing the tip of the iceberg in terms of how Western understanding and perception of poverty has aided in the perpetuation of the cycle of poverty. Our Western understanding of poverty has in many ways hindered the developmental process for many nations. The step forward is to understand that, many of us truly have no idea what it is like to live in poverty because we have never been faced with such misfortune. We look at these nations from an outside perspective, we travel there on vacation and stay in lavish hotels, we go there after high school or university as a way to ease our privileged consciousness and glamourize our resumes, or we’re posted there on our rotations for work but we never really put ourselves in the shoes (or lack of shoes) of the people we’re claiming to help. The Western mentality has developed to such a stage where we think we know all, but the truth is, we don’t. Until the Global North starts treating those in the Global South as equals who can contribute and participate in the discourses and actions regarding poverty reduction strategies then the cycle will continue to perpetuate.
Works cited
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