Why are policy responses to the needs of poor people inadequate?

Policy failure in developing countries is particularly acute where the chronically poor, vulnerable and excluded are concerned. Although there is now a much better theoretical understanding of poverty, many problems poor people face remain only weakly addressed.

A report co-published by the Chronic Poverty Research Centre and the Overseas Development Institute in the UK identifies areas of weakness and failure in social policy formation in India and Uganda. The authors highlight the need to better understand how policy making and implementation is a political and social process, involving different groups of people on both domestic and international levels.

Dominant poverty and development viewpoints may support the perceptions of elites that categorise the poor as ‘deserving’ or ‘undeserving’ and wrongly identify them as dependent or economically inactive. Such stereotyping and the rejection of certain issues that are seen as subversive or irrelevant help justify the limited attention and low financial resources given to particular issues and groups that are excluded from the process of development.

Because certain issues are overlooked, relevant research is not funded and relevant new policy is not formulated. Failure to change the agenda under debate is often due to leaders who fail to express the needs of the people whose interests they are supposed to represent.

The report examines a range of policy issues often neglected by developing country policy makers, finding that:

• Alcohol dependence is both a cause and a consequence of chronic poverty and is responsible for more deaths and disability than either malnutrition or poor sanitation.
• Male-biased inheritance systems often deprive widows and divorcees of their assets, plunging them into chronic poverty.
• Poor older people are not listened to and politicians are relucant to consider universal pensions.
• People with physical and mental disability are faced with hostile public attitudes that deny them the chance to earn their living or lead households; this is disastrous in societies where parenting is necessary for adult status and long-term security.
• Depression and other mental illnesses disproportionately affect the poor, particularly women and older people.
• Policies for economic growth rarely focus on the chronically poor or tackle the exclusion, discrimination, low asset holdings and returns underlying the insecurity of their means of living.

Without specific policies that reduce stigma and exclusion and protect and build assets it will take a long time to generate the type of growth to move the chronically poor out of poverty. Many countries have progressive policies on paper, but governments find it difficult to implement them because of political opposition or vested interests.

Barriers to policy innovation must be tackled by:

• identifying what can be done to overcome the resistance of domestic elites to certain types of policies
• seizing opportunities to push for progressive change via legislation, as has happened with women’s land rights in Uganda
• realising that it is not only social movements that can lobby for policy change: networks of researchers can have influence
• donor support of networks focused on change to influence the belief systems of policy makers and elites
• ensuring that social movements are supported by a flow of usable evidence based on research and experience.

Governments find it difficult to prioritise marginal groups and the chronically poor, so pressure, especially from donors, is crucial to change attitudes.

Source(s):
“Fracture points in social policy formation for poverty reduction” by Kate Bird, Nicola Pratt, Tammie O’Neil and Vincent J. Bolt, Chronic Poverty Research Centre, Working Paper 47, November 2004 Full document.
“Fracture points in social policy formation for poverty reduction” by Kate Bird, Nicola Pratt, Tammie O’Neil and Vincent J. Bolt, ODI Working Paper 242, Overseas Development Institute, November 2004 Full document.
‘Illustrative case studies of the fracture points in social policy formation for poverty reduction’ by Kate Bird, Tammie O’Neil and Vincent J. Bolt Full document.

Funded by: Department for International Development, UK

id21 Research Highlight: 20 June 2005

Further Information:
Kate Bird
Overseas Development Institute
111 Westminster Bridge Road
London SE1 7JD
UK

Tel: 44 (0) 207 922 0300
Fax: 44 (0) 207 922 0399
Contact the contributor: k.bird@odi.org.uk

Overseas Development Institute, UK

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Chronic Poverty Research Centre

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