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Perception Of Poverty By Women And Men And Their Coping Strategies
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Despite
widespread poverty and the commitment from the vast majority of
countries there is no agreement as to who is supposed to do what and
when to achieve the goal of alleviating poverty. It is generally
reasoned that responsibility rests at one of two levels.
In a given
location the responsibility of extreme poverty is attributed to domestic
conditions such as the institutions, policies, practices and values of
that location. In addition, national governments normally help local
governments to improve the living conditions of people. However, there
is also a view that global institutions and the practices and policies
of various international actors must play a significant role in
addressing extreme poverty (Haydar, 2005: 240).
From this perspective
the fight against poverty requires the promotion of institutional and
policy changes both at the local level and at international level. It is
however difficult to determine which of the domestic or global
institutions are more responsible to lead the fight against poverty.
Nevertheless, I believe that international and multi-national
organisations need to participate and contribute more to poverty
projects. For example, aid donors representing the rich nations need to
be increasingly interested in how poor people in poor countries
understand poverty. However, it must be emphasized that addressing
poverty from a global angle does not imply the rejection of the
measurement of the impoverished local circumstances people are living in
such as lack of access to food, clean water and shelter (Bastiaensen,
De Herdt & D’Exelle, 2005).
Indeed, I want to reiterate that
poverty eradication campaigns should be approached from both a global
and domestic perspective. Accordingly, global initiatives should
establish factors that may impact on the well-being of communities,
while governments at the domestic level should assist local communities
to fight against local conditions that may prevent them from securing
their basic necessities. A key question in this regard is what local
communities themselves think contribute to poverty in their communities.
Although
poverty is considered to be a universal problem, it is especially
pronounced in Africa (Human Development Report 2005: 21). Note the 2003
Human Development Report which reported that 25 of the world’s poorest
countries are all in Africa and that most of these countries are located
in Sub-Saharan Africa, with countries such as Uganda and Ethiopia
receiving very low rankings in terms of human development (Human
Development Report 2003: 200).
To further demonstrate the impact of
poverty on the African continent the results of the Human Development
Index (HDI) showed that twelve of the 18 countries that have registered
lower scores on the Human Development Index (HDI) in 2003 than in 1990
are in Sub-Saharan Africa (Human Development Report, 2005: 21).2
Southern Africa recorded the steepest declines with South Africa falling
35 places and Botswana 21places. This decline on the HDI are mostly
contributed to economic stagnation, slow progress in education and the
spread of HIV / AIDS (Human Development Report, 2005: 22). An
alternative approach to understand the impact of poverty is to look at
levels of undernourishment. Again high levels of undernourishment were
found in Sub-Saharan Africa, with 24 of the 45 countries in Africa
overall indicating that more than 25% of their population is
undernourished (Human Development Report, 2003: 200).
It is evident
that Africa is confronted with a major poverty problem and needs to
increase its efforts to lessen the devastating impact it has on millions
of people. Numerous initiatives have been implemented in recent years,
including those by the New Partnership for Africa’s Development (NEPAD)
and various debt relief schemes but it is uncertain whether these
initiatives will meet the Millennium Development Goals (Williams, 2005:
532). The British Prime Minister Tony Blair’s Commission for Africa
suggested that three changes were needed if Africa wants to succeed in
the battle against poverty. There must be continued improvements in
governance in Africa, a substantial increase in aid from the
international community and a significant change in the way donors do
business in Africa (Williams, 2005: 532). There are however some studies
that have found that although foreign aid has increased, real per
capita growth has not been present and that increased investment did not
enable poor countries to break the vicious cycle of poverty (Erixon,
2003: 27). For example, aid has not boosted economic growth in countries
such as Kenya and Tanzania (Erixon, 2003: 28). The overwhelming opinion
among investors is that political stability and good governance is
needed for any investment to make a significant return.
All
considered, African countries need to build systems of good governance
which are effective and accountable to Africa’s people and
simultaneously address areas of concern such as health, education,
agriculture, infrastructure and corruption.
The roots of the special
poverty problems of African women are to be found not in globalization
but in restricted property rights, weak governance and frequency of
civil conflict--themselves interrelated. The economic vulnerability of
poor African women flows mostly from their weakly defined property
rights to major productive assets, such as land or cattle, in the many
countries where a combination of custom and laws restrict their ability
to own and manage land. Perversely, restrictions on women's rights to
land coexist with the reality that women are the main cultivators
undertaking about 80 percent of the work in food storage and
transportation, 90 percent of the work of hoeing and weeding, and 60
percent of the work in harvesting and marketing. (International Food
Policy Research Institute 2000).
The ‘feminization of poverty’ is a
feature of much of the developing world, with females accounting for
half of the world’s population but 70 percent of the poor (Moghadam,
2005).
Major causal factors of poverty among women in Sub-Saharan
Africa—mainly rural women in the countries of the tropical belt. 3 Of
course, there are significant differences in the condition of different
groups of women in the various countries. However, they share a common
predicament, rooted in the interaction of three major factors: weak
governance, traditional restrictions on women property rights, and
violent civil conflict. Although each of these factors has been present
at one time or another elsewhere, it is only in Sub-Saharan Africa that
all three have been present in contemporary times--as shown among others
by Collier, 2007, Cornwall, 2005, and Gordon, (2005).
The incidence
of poverty in Nigeria has been on the increase since 1980. The National
Bureau of Statistics (NBS) (2007) revealed that the incidence of poverty
increased sharply both between 1980 and 1985 (from 28.1 percent to
46.3percent) and between 1992 and 1996 (from 42.7 percent to 65.6
percent) though there were declines between 1985 and 1992 (from 46.3
percent to 42.7 percent) and between 1996 and 2004 (from 65.6 percent to
54.4 percent).
CHAPTER ONE -- [Total Page(s) 7]
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ABSRACT - [ Total Page(s): 1 ]Gender and perception of poverty in Surulere Local Government Area of Lagos State is the focus of this study. The main objectives of the study were to examine the way men and women perceive poverty and to understand the gender-based differences in the perception of poverty and to explore the effects of poverty coping strategies with/without taking into account the gender-based differences in perceptions of poverty and to assess the impact of intra household inequalities on household welfare and ... Continue reading---
