New Directions Volume 15 | Issue 3 Article 7 7-1-1988 New Approaches To Development Moreen A. Qureshi Follow this and additional works at: http://dh.howard.edu/newdirections Recommended Citation Qureshi, Moreen A. (1988) "New Approaches To Development," New Directions: Vol. 15: Iss. 3, Article 7. Available at: http://dh.howard.edu/newdirections/vol15/iss3/7 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by Digital Howard @ Howard University. It has been accepted for inclusion in New Directions by an authorized administrator of Digital Howard @ Howard University. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Qureshi: New Approaches To Development New Approaches To Development By Moeen A. Qureshi impediments to development. Increasingly, maintaining past levels of expenditure on ome developing countries have sub­ these adjustment efforts include measures poverty programs, some want to channel stantially reduced poverty within to protect the efforts of poor people to meet the resources through NGOs to enhance Stheir borders, and virtually all coun­ their basic needs. cost-effectiveness. tries have at least made gains in education The third necessary change is to make Some NGOs in the developing countries and health for poor people. But the 1980s programs which are supposed to help the are strengthening their capacity to analyze have been a terribly difficult decade for the poor become more effective. issues of economic policy and to speak for developing world, and tens of millions of All three of these changes call for fresh the poor in public debate. And the re­ poor people have grown poorer. commitment and creative approaches, in­ surgence of democracy in parts of the Adverse conditions in the global econ­ cluding new forms of partnership between developing world has made some govern­ omy have slowed growth in even the most governmental institutions and the vigorous ments more responsive. dynamic, well-managed economies. Weaker legions of nongovernmental organizations, In our age of interdependence and rapid and less efficient economies went into a NGOs. information exchanges, international NGO tailspin. Economic growth, by itself, is no networks that were forged to channel assist­ guarantee of progress against poverty, but ance to developing nations are beginning to economic decline such as most of Africa and channel information back to the industrial Latin America have seen spells suffering all To eliminate mass poverty, countries. The insights carried on these around, for poor people most of all. we will need supportive people-to-people links bring grassroots ex­ At the same time, lessons have been perience to the public at large and to coming in from past efforts to reduce policies in the industrial decision makers who often need such alter­ poverty. In reviewing the World Bank’s countries. native, open channels. experience with direct efforts to reduce poverty since the mid-1970s, we conclude Supportive Policies that the bank’s basic strategies have been In recent years, NGOs have been multi­ To eliminate mass poverty, we will need sound. Small-scale agriculture is indeed the plying and expanding. In many developing supportive policies in the industrial coun­ front line of the fight against rural poverty. countries, the poor themselves are better tries. These will necessarily include sub­ Investments in human resources — in organized now than they were 15 years ago. stantial programs of official finance. But health, literacy, in managing population In neighborhood associations, women’s people in the industrial countries will not growth — yield high returns. And ap­ groups, religious groups, environmental support such programs if NGOs they trust proaches we advocated are helping many organizations, farmers’ organizations and — church or environmental groups, for countries to cope with urbanization. cooperatives, women and men have joined example — tell them that official develop­ If we are to succeed in overcoming mass hands to shape their own futures. Growing ment efforts are hopelessly ineffective or poverty, three fundamental changes are networks of regional and national NGOs sometimes even harmful to the poor. needed. bring the strength of numbers to these And if NGOs collaborate with official The first — and responsibility here lies grassroots groups. Confederations of the agencies to improve the quality of aid, I primarily with the developed countries—is local groups, national voluntary organiza­ suspect that NGOs will also learn in the to make the global economic climate once tions and think tanks on social issues are process. They may become more candid again right for sustainable development. mobilizing new resolve and imagination. about their limitations, more appreciative Second, the developing countries must As of 1985, NGOs based in the industrial of the importance and difficulty of what pursue economic policies that encourage countries transferred an estimated $4.4 developing-country governments do and economic growth and progress against billion a year to the developing countries. more knowledgeable about international poverty. This decade’s distress has exposed Despite their impressive growth, NGOs trade and finance. serious inefficiencies in the developing still reach only a fraction of the world’s poor There will be points of controversy countries. As they work to recover from people. between intergovernmental and nongov­ crisis, many countries are mounting sys­ But a number of developing-country ernmental organizations, but we should be tematic attacks on price distortions, governments are showing increased inter­ able to speak with less discord on certain bloated public sector spending and other est in NGOs. Where governments are basic issues of international policy. PublishedNEW by DigitalDIRECTIONS Howard JULY 1988 @ Howard University, 1 New Directions, Vol. 15 [], Iss. 3, Art. 7 continued from page 27 References 1. Amartya Sen, Poverty and Famines: An Essay on Entitlement and Deprivation. However, as indicated earlier, at world Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1981. market prices, Africa’s most competitive 2. Wilfred L. David. Conflicting Paradigms in export crops are not necessarily those that the Economics of Developing Nations. New bring the most lucrative financial returns. York: Praeger, 1986. Even if African countries were to practice 3. John Mellor and Bruce Johnston. “The more free trade, they will continue to face World Food Equation: Interrelations among Development, Employment, and Food Con­ barriers to trade in the markets of the sumption.” Journal of Economic Literature, developed countries. Further, they would vol. 22, 1984. face an increased vulnerability to fluctua­ 4. J.M. Higgins et. al. Potential Population tions in commodity prices, and the market Supporting Capacities of Lands in the De­ Renewed progress against poverty de­ power of agribusiness and transnational veloping World. Rome: FAO, 1982. pends on sensitive and successful adjust­ corporations. 5. World Bank. Accelerated Development in ment programs in the developing countries. At one level, the debate between the Sub-Saharan Africa. Washington, D.C.: NGOs at the grassroots are dealing first­ need to export more crops vis-a-vis domes­ The World Bank, 1981. hand with some of the low-income families tic food self-sufficiency can be considered a who have lost jobs or government services spurious one. The proceeds from exports due to economic malfunction at the global provide the foreign exchange needed to pay and national levels. for imported oil and other commodities that Some NGOs can give policymakers im­ are used in the production process or portant insights about the effect adjust­ provide basic amenities such as electricity. ment policies have on poor people and At the same time, food output must be suggest alternatives. When a government expanded wherever possible, and on a wants NGOs to help implement social massive scale. This requirement is related components of an adjustment program, to the nature of the development challenge such economic policy discussions become itself. First, for the majority of Africans, especially important. food production is a means of income, NGOs which grapple with adjustment employment, and other entitlements. Sec­ issues may come to recognize that many of ond, the relative price of food depends on its the policy reforms that are important for supply, and when output declines, prices economic efficiency also serve the cause of would be higher. Third, a direct role of equity. Price discrimination against agri­ increasing aggregate food output is related culture did not come about by change; it to the fact that, given inefficiencies and serves the interests of relatively well-off uncertainties of the market mechanism, urban groups at the expense of less power­ vulnerable groups, especially in rural areas, ful, poorer rural areas. Wasteful parastatal may find it safer to grow their own food than companies have gone uncurbed, partly depend on income from other sources. because they provide jobs to thousands of Finally, many African governments have politically influential city dwellers. recognized the need for policy reforms. At It is often such relatively well-off people the behest of international agencies, they who protest most vocally against adjust­ have raised producer prices and investment ment measures. As NGOs deepen their incentives for small farmers, reduced sub­ engagement on broad issues of economic sidies, cut public expenditures, devalued policy, they