Giving a voice to the world's poorest
In the wake of the historic 2007 G8 Summit, and with the 'Make Poverty History' campaign still very much in the public consciousness, global poverty remains a pressing problem. A lack of voice or influence for people below the poverty line remain globally recurring themes, and are indicative of their wider political disempowerment.
An international research project at the interface between human geography, political science and development studies is seeking to evaluate attempts to tackle this core element of poverty through local governance reform. Led by Dr Glyn Williams of the Department of Town and Regional Planning at the University of Sheffield, the research seeks to determine how far participatory initiatives within local governance, such as self-help groups, enhance poor people's opportunities for political empowerment.
Local governance reform, with its aim to 'develop' the global South for the empowerment and sustainability of communities living there, is underpinned by an assumption that it will deliver positive feedback between popular participation, democratisation and poverty alleviation.
The project team are analysing this assumption, focusing on two Indian states, West Bengal and Kerala, both internationally recognised for innovations in local governance and pro-poor policies. Research Associates Sailaja Nandigama and Binitha Thampi interviewed people living below the poverty line in each state, to determine poor peoples' own evaluations of participatory governance initiatives. Specifically, they asked whether participatory initiatives create new public arenas where poor people voice their concerns, whether they practically assist poor people in pressing their claims in these arenas and elsewhere, and whether participation actually challenges underlying political exclusion. In essence, the team are critically analysing, from the perspective of the poor themselves, whether governance reform leads to positive improvements in participation, democratisation and poverty alleviation.
The team looked at two poverty alleviation programmes – a work provision programme designed to create employment for those seeking it, and a drive to mobilise the skills of small entrepreneurs through self-help groups – as a way of seeing how reforms were making an impact in practice. Their emerging results indicate the importance of local politics in shaping the actual opportunities institutional reform offers to the poor. Dr Williams explains: "One of the main benefits of local governance reforms has been to challenge traditional gender roles: for example, it is now statutory for women to occupy one third of local government seats in Kerala and West Bengal, and we have seen women below the poverty line becoming more politically active as a result. However, in doing so, many have faced pressure both within their families, and from established political elites. In this sense, although the trend is generally positive, there remain some serious practical obstacles to women gaining an independent voice in local governance".
Designed in collaboration with team members Professor D Narayana and Dr Dwaipayan Bhattacharyya, who are based at the project's Indian partner institutions the Centre for Development Studies, Trivandrum (CDS) and the Centre for Study in Social Sciences Calcutta (CSSSC), the project has engaged with potential users - from local research participants to policy makers - from the outset. Dr Williams notes the importance of these international partnerships: "Both the CDS and CSSSC bring a wealth of local knowledge to the project, and are held in high regard by policy makers in their respective states. This has been invaluable throughout the project, and will enable the project's findings and recommendations to be disseminated not only amongst local villages but also to state government officials, academics, politicians and NGOs".
The project findings will be important for academics, policy makers and a host of International Development Agencies, and will provide these key user groups with important insights into the potential – and limitations – of local governance reform.
For further information, please contact Dr Glyn Williams at:
email : glyn.williams@sheffield.ac.uk
Suggested link: