The Poverty Challenge: the Case of Mozambique
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Tesis Doctoral ‘Capabilitizing’ the Poverty Challenge: The Case of Mozambique Estudiante: Frank Vollmer Supervisoras: Dra. Carmen Ródenas Calatayud Dra. Sonia París Albert Universitat Jaume I Cátedra UNESCO de Filosofía para la Paz Castellón de la Plana, España 2011 “Ser pober nao we nada” (“Being poor is nothing”) Written on a boat of fishermen from Inhambane, Mozambique. Re-quoted from the Poverty Observatory G20, 2004 Acknowledgments My sincere thanks are owed to many people who either directly or indirectly have proved invaluable to the process of preparing, researching and writing this doctoral dissertation. I first thought about conducting a study on “poverty” during my MA in “Peace and Development Studies” at the University of Limerick, Ireland in 2005-2006, a notion that was challenged in numerous ways, some of which were rather practical, whereas others more substantial in terms of intellectual challenges concerning the perception what “poverty” is or ought to be. These “challenges” were brought to my attention by many parties too numerous to reference all individually, though some I would like to mention explicitly. Special acknowledgements are definitely owed to the participating professors and fellow students at the UNESCO Chair of Philosophy for Peace, Universitat Jaume I, with whom I had the great fortune to study and debate with over the duration of my doctoral studies between February 2008 and May 2011. In particular, thanks are due to Professor Vicent Martínez Guzmán, the founder of the International Master and Doctorate Programme in Peace, Conflict and Development Studies at the UJI, without whom this doctoral study wouldn’t have been possible. To Dr. Irene Comins Mingol, Director of the Programme, and Dr. Sonia París Albert, Vice-Director of the UNESCO Chair and co-supervisor of this thesis, I would like to direct a particular appreciation for being such supportive, encouraging and active focal points throughout the entire stages of the dissertation process. Thanks are also due to the programme’s Student Coordinator Adela Almela Escrig, and the programme’s General Coordinator Sophia Herrero Rico, whose administrative support over the years cannot be praised highly enough. Further gratitude is due to my thesis supervisor Dr. Carmen Ródenas Calatayud from the Departamento de Análisis Económico Aplicado, Facultad de CCEE of the Universidad de Alicante. Her invaluable and indispensible feedback, particularly in regard to the statistical particularities of the applied “Counting Approach”, and the indicator-based analysis for pro-poor macroeconomics in Mozambique, not only have been a great source of encouragement and inspiration, but also due to her detailed supervision the measure and overall analysis achieved a greater level of accuracy, for which I am deeply grateful. Many friends and extended colleagues have helped and supported me in conducting this study, to whom I want to express my thankfulness. I received great technical assistance with the re-measurement of poverty in Mozambique from Mariana Zerpa from the Instituto de Economía, Facultad de CCEEA of the Universidad de la República in Uruguay, and Dr. António A. da Silva Francisco of the Instituto de Estudos Sociais e Económicos (IESE) in Maputo, Mozambique. I am grateful to the former for her statistical support with the measure, and to the latter for his help in accessing the dataset QUIBB (Questionário de Indicadores Básicos de Bem-Estar) from the Instituto Nacional de Estatística (National Statistics Institute) in Maputo. I would like to direct a further Thank you to Octavio Gamero, Armin von Schiller and Sonia París Albert for their meticulous help with the Spanish translation of the General Introduction (Resumen de la Tesis Doctoral en Castellano). Thanks are also due to the participating interviewees of the study and to those contributors of the conducted online questionnaire. To Dr. David A. Clark, Book Review Editor of the Journal of Human Development and Capabilities and Honorary Fellow and Research Associate of the Brooks World Poverty Institute, University of Manchester, who voluntarily reviewed my analysis of the philosophical particularities of Amartya Sen’s Capabilities Approach presented and discussed in this study, I’d like to express my gratitude, as well as to Dr. Sabina Alkire and the researchers associated with the Oxford Poverty and Human Development Initiative (OPHI) from the University of Oxford, for their thoughtful delivery of the Summer School on Multidimensional Poverty Measurement and Analysis at the Pontificia Universidad Católico del Perú in Lima (27 August – 12 September 2009). Particularly I would like to thank Dr. Alkire for taking a personal interest in my study plan, and her encouragement in tailoring the “Counting Approach” to the case specificities of Mozambique. This thesis has been largely produced (between November 2008 and October 2010) while working as a Research Assistant at the Development Assistance Research Associates (DARA) in Madrid. I was extremely fortunate to be able to join this dedicated team of researchers and humanitarians and herewith would like to thank my colleagues for granting me the opportunity of having worked in such a friendly, professional and inspiring academic environment. Gratitude is also due to my future employer, the German Development Institute, which gave me the necessary time to complete this dissertation with its required thoroughness before commencing this new challenge in May 2011. Finally, I would like to express my gratitude to my family and friends, to those people close to me who have been unconditionally supportive, especially during times I felt greatly overwhelmed at the task ahead of me. I’d like to thank my parents Friedhelm and Gisela for their immense support, encouragement and understanding over the years; my brother Stefan and his girlfriend Natalie for their positive and mood uplifting spirit; my close friends Christian and Jan for remaining in regular contact and for remaining true to themselves. To Jorge and Ximena, and Stephen and Donna I am grateful for having become good friends in the time I conducted this study, and Jorge’s brother Santiago who hosted me in Lima whilst attending the summer school. Yet most importantly I am indebted in gratitude to my girlfriend Sarah, who has supported me in every possible way there is up right front from the start of the study, and in doing so has shown some amazing personal sacrifices. To everybody mentioned I would like to direct a wholehearted and sincere Thank you, Gracias, Danke Schön and Go raibh maith agat! Table of Contents Acknowledgment Abbreviations List of Tables List of Maps List of Charts List of Figures List of Appendices Resumen de la Tesis Doctoral en Castellano 1 General Introduction 14 Research Rationale: Poverty and Philosophy 15 Methodology 18 Motivation 19 Personal Background 20 Personal Preference Formation 22 Objectives 24 Findings, Advocacy and Outputs 26 State of the Arts/Literature Review 29 Structure of the Thesis 30 Sources 33 Ethics of Poverty Research 34 PART I: Conceptualising Multidimensional Poverty – Amartya Sen’s Capability Approach Examined 35 Chapter 1: Problem Creation 36 1.1. The linear interlinkage of poverty definition, conceptualisation and categorisation 37 1.2. Looking for an inter-subjective common ground 41 1.3. Leaving the common ground 44 1.4. Recapitulation and outlook 46 Chapter 2: Understanding and conceptualising poverty: A diachronic theoretical analysis 47 2.1. The concept of poverty and the consequences for its understanding 47 2.2. Categorisations of poverty 52 2.3. Further Concept: Adverse Incorporation 53 2.4. Distinguishing evaluative criteria 54 2.5. Recapitulation and outlook 56 Chapter 3: Introducing Human Development and the Capability Approach 60 3.1. Human Development 64 3.2. Amartya Sen’s Capability Approach 65 3.2.1. The CA - Just about development? 67 3.2.2. Traditional evaluative frameworks of poverty and social arrangements – a critique 69 3.2.3. CA - Tracing the roots 71 3.2.4. Locating the CA into a school of thought 75 3.2.5. In a nutshell 76 3.3. The core concept 77 3.3.1. Functioning 77 3.3.2. Capability 78 3.3.3. Agency 79 3.3.4. Freedom 80 3.3.5. Real Opportunities – Commodities and beyond 80 3.3.6. A closer look at functionings and capabilities 84 3.3.7. An illustrative example 85 3.4. A closer look at freedom 88 3.4.1. Freedom – negative vis-à-vis positive liberty 88 3.4.2. Freedom as a universal human right 89 3.4.3. Freedom – Constitutive and Instrumental Roles 89 3.4.4. Interconnections and complementarity of instrumental freedoms 96 3.5. What kind of capabilities? 99 3.6. A closer look at agency and well-being, freedom and achievements 104 3.7. A closer look at evaluations, measurements and policy focus 107 3.8. Policy focus: process freedom or agency freedom? 111 3.9. Deliberate Breadth 112 3.10. Individual Diversity and Heterogeneity 114 3.11. The core principles 116 3.12. The CA - some misunderstandings 118 3.13. Misunderstandings continued 119 3.14. Who are the actors involved in enhancing opportunity freedom? 122 3.15. Recapitulation: Bringing it all together - Sen’s CA and outlook 123 Chapter 4: Discussing the CA 127 4.1. A question of responsibility – is the CA an opportunity or an outcome-based theory? 127 4.2. Welfare, preferences, respect, social status, fairness: an ethical relevant discussion? An introspective account 130 4.3. Sen’s CA: A Theory of Justice? 135 4.4. Preference formation and choices being made: a need for analysis? 136 4.5. Individualism 139 4.6. The adaptation discourse 141 4.7. Old Wine in new bottles? 142 4.8. One Size Fits All? 144 4.9. Martha Nussbaum’s CA and her list of 10 central human functional capabilities: A forceful demand for justice? 145 4.9.1.