Partnership against Poverty

MS is moving towards a more political approach in its development programme, still aiming at poverty eradication.

As a result of the evaluation of MS, which was conducted in 2003 MS has developed a paper, Partnership against Poverty, which discusses the future personnel assistance and a more political approach towards poverty eradication.

The paper has been debated within MS and the PABs and will be presented for the General Assembly in April for final approval.

Poverty eradication will remain the long-term objective of the activities of MS in the South, whereas poverty reduction is the medium/short-term objective.

Poverty is seen as a consequence of global, regional and local policies and therefore the future approach towards poverty eradication will be more political in order to change the root causes of poverty. Political is in this sense not meant as party political but should be understood on the advocacy level in terms of advocating for pro-poor policies and against unfair conditions on all levels. This includes a rights-based approach.

This means that there will be more emphasis on empowerment, advocacy, networking and creating links to global civil society.

Intercultural co-operation will no longer be an overall objective of the MSiS programme but will be seen as a tool to achieve poverty eradication. Intercultural co-operation will however remain an overall objective for MS as stated in the vision and mission statement.

MS is opening up for a more flexible use of Development Workers meaning that in the very near future South-South Development Workers will be recruited. This has already been done with success in some of the MS programmes and will also happen in MS-Zambia.

Edited from presentation