Reaching the poor: It is about more than money

The days are long gone when poverty was seen and analysed in pure economic terms

By Frede Hansen, development worker, HNSDA

During the last 15 years there has been an increasing focus on other dimensions of poverty than money. It is no longer merely a question about measuring household income.

UNDP includes aspects such as gender equity, human rights, health, literacy, participation etc. And the World Bank has been spearheading poverty assessments where the communities participate in defining poverty as well as identifying causes of poverty.

One famous pioneer study carried out in Tanzania by the World Bank has been published under the title Voices of the Poor. When the communities are asked to participate, other non-economic aspects are brought forward. It is, however, crucial not to underestimate the economic dimensions. A good economy in the family helps tremendously in addressing many of the other dimensions.

MS and poverty

Like most other development institutions and organisations, MS works for poverty reduction from a broad perspective. MS operates with the following poverty dimensions:

• Human dimensions – education, health, shelter, food
• Social dimensions – status, dignity, exclusion, isolation, respect
• Economic dimensions – resources, assets, opportunities
• Political dimensions – rights, influence, freedom, citizenship
• Temporal dimensions – insecurity, vulnerability, exposure

The short version of MS Uganda’s policy paper states that education, health, food, fair trade and peace are all to be considered when addressing poverty. MS Uganda perceives poverty as a structural phenomenon rather than a question of living on only one dollar a day.

“We aim at fighting the root causes of poverty, tackling the issue both at strategic and practical levels. Poor people carry the bitter experience of poverty. And usually they are the best to know how to fight it. MS Uganda supports organisations and local communities participating in the sustainable management of their own resources. Poverty reduction is also about equal opportunities. Therefore we support advocacy work for equitable development for both men and women,” the policy paper says.

Preach and practise

The concern is whether MS reaches the poor through the partners, or merely reaches the not so poor and the middle class. This made MS establish a Travelling Topic Team on Poverty.

The purpose of the team is to promote an understanding among programme officers and staff of the importance of addressing poverty reduction – and obtain knowledge of means to better do so.

The team reached MS Uganda last March and facilitated a workshop for programme officers and some partner representatives. Later it went to the field to meet beneficiaries of MS Uganda partners’ activities and find out if they are very poor, poor, not so poor or well off.

On the following pages you find some experiences and answers from partner organisations. And maybe the findings of the Travelling Topic Team on Poverty give us more answers in a near future.