Background

Building partnerships with families and communities living in poverty has long been advocated by people at the grass roots level as a key element in poverty eradication and social integration. This was recognised at the World Summit on Social Development in Copenhagen which formulated recommendations that Governments work in partnership with all “development actors”, in particular with people living in poverty and their organisations.

“People living in poverty and vulnerable groups must be empowered through organisations and participation in all aspects of political, economic and social life, in particular planning and implementation of policies that affect them, thus enabling them to become genuine partners in development.” [1]

What is meant by “extreme poverty”

The Copenhagen Declaration and Programme of Action uses the terms “absolute poverty” or “extreme poverty”, as distinct from “overall poverty”. The key characteristics of poverty, defined below, highlight the accumulation and interdependence of the insecurities which result in social exclusion :

Poverty has various manifestations, including lack of income and productive resources to ensure an ongoing livelihood, hunger and malnutrition, increased morbidity and mortality from illness, limited or no access to education and other basic services, homelessness and inadequate housing, unsafe environments, and social discrimination and exclusion. It is also defined by a lack of participation in decision-making and in civil, social and cultural life. The obvious characteristic of life in extreme poverty is therefore an accumulation of mutually reinforcing types of insecurity. Not only do these types of insecurity have unavoidable effects on each other but, as they increase and intensify, exclusion becomes worse and starts to erode family and social life.

Experiences of the International Movement ATD Fourth World

ATD Fourth World works to eradicate extreme poverty in industrialised as well as in developing countries. It supports the efforts of the very poor to free themselves from destitution, and engages other individuals and societal institutions to form partnerships with the poorest people as an integral part of the process. ATD Fourth World’s conviction is that true partnership with the poorest plays a vital role in any successful and sustainable social and human development. Families who experience extreme hardship can be the creators at every step, ultimately leading to better adapted solutions :

In an ATD Fourth World health care project in a community of Guatemala afflicted with a high infant mortality, parents were unable to control the nutrition of their young children. They felt powerless with sorrow and shame. A project was planned to fight malnutrition but surprisingly, in the beginning, very few of the poorest families took part in the project. Through a trusting relationship built up over time, the project workers understood that focussing directly and solely on combating malnutrition would stigmatise the parent’s inability and increase the feeling of failure. A pre-school was opened instead, in view of the community’s aspiration for the children’s education and its ability unite for this purpose. A nutrition program was included, enabling the parents to involve themselves in following the overall development of their children. Most importantly, it sent a strong message to the parents that, together with others, they were capable of meeting their children’s health and malnutrition needs [2].

Obstacles to partnership

It is undeniably a great challenge to allow people to really think together and not for each other. Despite its emergence into the international community’s vocabulary, few projects go beyond consultation to real and equal partnerships with people living in extreme poverty. To what extent do its advocators really believe in or feel capable of putting it into practise, creating appropriate supportive mechanisms ?

The most frequent obstacles inherent in many so called development projects are tight limitations on time, and conditions for funding that do not correspond to the priorities of the poorest. The pressure for short term outcomes hinders the necessary step of building a relationship and mutual understanding.
Specific measures designed to improve poor people’s situation can be counterproductive if they are not part of a comprehensive policy. They are an obstacle to partnership when they “cream off” the most dynamic and articulate participants, who move on and leave their community behind. There is little involvement of the poorest people in evaluation of projects in which they have been “partners”.
Furthermore, project assessments weigh too heavily on quantitative information ; when qualitative indicators are introduced, they need to go further to include questioning about the individuals still not reached.

Tackling the root causes of poverty

“Extreme poverty is the work of human beings, and only human beings can destroy it [3].”

Specialised government departments such as social welfare and the services provided by civil society play an invaluable role in developing policies to relieve and prevent suffering. The root causes of poverty, however, are so complex that it is necessary to look beyond specialised responses and poor communities themselves to find them. They lie in the structure of society itself, and the general public’s tacit willingness to support this structure. 

Poverty eradication requires a holistic approach to overcome the attitudes, policies and structural obstacles that engender exclusion. Only by taking into account the existence, the voice and the hidden potential of the poorest people in all spheres of life (political, economic, social, cultural...) will society create the conditions necessary to eradicate extreme poverty.

Inciting change in society

As part of this holistic approach, the ATD Fourth World volunteer corps nurtures and supports the creative initiatives of a much wider web of people called “friends”, who join ATD to act in their own spheres against poverty. The main thrust of this societal project is to question people as individuals and actors in their workplaces and communities : “are you really taking the poorest people into account in all your decision making, policies and processes ?”

Friends of ATD Fourth World have a personal commitment to the disadvantaged people they meet and learn from. They are prepared to use their position to challenge their institutions with the reality of extreme poverty, instigating a dialogue between the poor and the structures from which they are excluded. It is important to find a common language that respects both parties and leaves neither feeling humiliated. The friends search for support within organisations so that the people living in poverty are able to have a formal voice within them. Experience shows that when an institution responds to the poor it can rediscover its core values and be able to perform its mission better, to the mutual benefit of all [4].

Advocating and implementing true partnership with people living in great difficulties incites a wider change in society. It appeals to individuals and groups to step beyond treating the poor as “failures”, “ignorant” or “uneducated”. To implement such a challenging partnership requires a recognition that people from very different backgrounds can mutually benefit and learn from each other. The process opens up an avenue where social and cultural diversity is embraced as a strength and not a problem, and becomes an inspiration for the development of a pluralist and truly democratic society.

Conclusion

Partnership with the poorest populations should be integral to all social development. It implies reform within the very fabric of society.
Placing the most disadvantaged at the centre destabilises the existing hierarchies and challenges the way our institutions structure themselves and evolve. It is important to emphasise ATD Fourth World’s inclusive approach. ATD Fourth World aims to work with all people and all institutions, believing that everyone has potential to think and work, and that all have a vital role to play in eradicating extreme poverty. People living in poverty teach us that excluding any player from the table takes away a valuable resource and weakens the rest of the community. In their daily struggles to survive, the poorest become very capable network builders. Given the right environment and support, they can be instrumental in identifying root causes of social injustice, coupling it with the power to unite a wide range of people.