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CHOICESCHOICESMAGAZINE ✦ SEPTEMBER 2001

EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW

OWNINGDEVELOPMENT

EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEWMongolia’s Prime MinisterNambar Enkhbayar

OWNINGDEVELOPMENTIn China, Morocco, Nigeria,Russian Federation and Venezuela

Partnerships to Fight PovertyPartnerships to Fight Poverty

CHOICES September 20012

Nkosi Johnson, the SouthAfrican boy with AIDSwho campaigned againstdiscrimination directed at

people living with HIV/AIDS,awakened his motherland tothe horrors of the pandemic.He died on 1 June this yearat age 12—a vibrant youngglobal hero who gave a child’sface to the statistical night-mare that is ravaging Africa.

With the help of his foster-mother, Gail Johnson, Nkosiwon admittance to a school,which had refused to acceptHIV-positive children. Heescaped deep poverty andadded several years to his life,becoming a universal symbolof courage, tolerance andunderstanding in the face ofthis incalculable human tragedy.

In July 2000, Nkosi toldthe 13th International AIDSConference in Durban, “Youcan’t get AIDS if you touch,hug, kiss or hold hands with

someone who is infected. Carefor us and accept us. We areall human beings. We canwalk. We can talk. Don’t beafraid of us.”

Nkosi’s words resonatedacross sub-Saharan Africa,where by 2010, more than 70million will have contractedHIV/AIDS. If the pandemicis not stopped, infection levelscould reach hundreds of mil-lions and struggling economiescould be brought to the verge ofcollapse. We cannot estimatethe terrible effect of wholegenerations lost, new infectionsunchecked and continuinglack of access to treatment.

Democratic governance—from transparent and account-able institutions and the rightto vote to equitable economicand political opportunities—and poverty reduction are therelated themes of this edition

of CHOICES. Advances ingovernance and povertyreduction could well be thetwin casualties of continuedfailure to halt the advance ofHIV/AIDS.

Essential workers—teach-ers, administrators, doctorsand scientists—must survive.The billions needed to sustaineven a minimal counter-attackagainst the disease must befound and wisely deployed.We cannot reconcile ourselvesto images of non-stop coffinconstruction and daily funer-als, which point to theincreasing destabilization thatthe pandemic will bring if itremains unchecked.

The United NationsDevelopment Programme(UNDP) Administrator MarkMalloch Brown made the casefor seeing our response toHIV/AIDS in the context ofgovernance and povertyreduction at the historicUnited Nations GeneralAssembly Special Session onHIV/AIDS (UNGASS) inNew York from 24-27 June.This issue of CHOICES tellsa positive story about whatcan be achieved, with UNDPassistance, as more and morewomen and men awake to thefact that they can be owners oftheir own development: newentrepreneurial ventures forwomen in China and theRussian Federation; integratedrural development in Nigeria;jobs creation for the poor inVenezuela; and improvedcommunication for humandevelopment in Morocco.

Coming inDecember

CHOICES

IN CHIEF

Cover: A woman from the Fulani ethnic group prepares food to sell in the market in the northern town of Kaduna in Nigeria.Photo: Giacomo Pirozzi/UNICEF

HIV/AIDS continues to jeopardize whole populations, threatening decades of progress inensuring people’s rights to education, health and release from deep poverty. In December,CHOICES will focus on the continuing pandemic in five regions where the efforts of UNDP tohelp defeat it are meeting with some success.

To advertise in CHOICES, contact Rajeswary Iruthayanathan (212) 906-5327 in UNDP New York or Ricardo Espinosa (41-22) 917-8316 in UNDP Geneva.

Pho

to:U

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P These stories show that,more and more, governmentsare involving people directlyin the struggle against poverty,thus broadening nations’ own-ership of development. Thisissue of CHOICES also con-tains thoughtful articles onhuman poverty, debt reductionand entitlement.

UNGASS made it crystalclear that overcoming HIV/AIDS is a governance issueand that poverty reduction isessential to winning the strug-gle. It called on governmentsand their partners in the pub-lic and private sector aroundthe world to show the will totruly roll back and defeat thismonster.

World-renowned econo-mist Amartya Sen once wrotethat development is a“momentous engagement withfreedom’s possibilities.” NkosiJohnson embodied freedom’spossibilities and so must we.Only then can the fightagainst the HIV/AIDS crisisbecome the vehicle by whichwe expand the scope of demo-cratic governance and povertyreduction in the years ahead.

Djibril Diallo

FROM

THE E

DITO

RActor Danny Glover and I met a frail Nkosi Johnson in Durban. His commit-ment to battle HIV/AIDS moved me deeply.

September 2001 CHOICES 3

Volume 10 Number 3

Editor-in-ChiefDjibril Diallo

EditorStephen C. Rose

Managing EditorRajeswary Iruthayanathan

DesignFerro+Ferro Graphic CommunicationArlington, Virginia

Translation ManagerElizabeth Scott Andrews

Production ManagerMaureen Lynch

Editorial/Production AssociateJennifer Prince

DistributionNora PerezShamsuz Zaman

Special Adviser to the Editor-in-ChiefNadine Gordimer

AdvisersDianne AbbottSharon Capeling-AlakijaMervin AubespinSandy CloseInge KaulGeoffrey Lean

CHOICESis published four times a year by:Communications OfficeOffice of the AdministratorUnited Nations Development ProgrammeOne United Nations PlazaNew York, NY 10017, USAtel: (212) 906 5325fax: (212) 906 5364e-mail: [email protected]

The articles in this magazine do notnecessarily reflect the official views orpolicies of the United Nations Develop-ment Programme, nor do the boundariesand names shown on maps imply officialendorsement by the United Nations.Articles may be freely reproduced as longas credit is given and tear sheets areprovided to the editor. CHOICES isavailable in English, French andSpanish.

The printed matter is recyclable.Phønix-Trykkeriet A/S, Aarhus,Denmark. ISO 14001 certified andEMAS-approved.

4 |CommentaryDemocracy and the Information RevolutionBy Mark Malloch Brown

5 |InterviewPrime Minister of Mongolia Nambar Enkhbayar

8 |EssayGovernance and Human Poverty By Stephen Browne

OWNING DEVELOPMENT

21 |ViewpointIs Debt Relief Good for the Poor?By Jan Vandemoortele

22|NotebookGlobal Action to Stem HIV/AIDSBy Richard Leonard

Action Plan to Reduce Small Arms By Daniel Shepard

26 |UNDP Goodwill AmbassadorThe Entitlement ApproachBy Nadine Gordimer

28 |Matters of Fact

9 Women On The Move in China’s New EconomyBy Tamar Hahn

12 Toward Good Governance in MoroccoBy Leila Barakat

14 Nigeria: Ikwa Community Makes Major StridesBy Tony Iyare

17 Growing Empowerment in VenezuelaBy Christina Hoag

19 Small Business Takes Hold in Russian FederationBy Sabrina Tavernise

UNDP: Partnerships to Fight Poverty

Visit CHOICES: www.undp.org/dpa

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CHOICESMAGAZINE ✦ SEPTEMBER 2001


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nformation and CommunicationsTechnology (ICT) has already changedthe way we work, the way we shop, theway we learn and the way we communi-

cate. Now it is starting to change the waywe relate to governments. And nowhere isthat potential impact greater than in thedeveloping world, where it is increasinglyintersecting with another, equally power-ful revolution for democracy and demo-cratic governance.

In this respect, we are now in a situa-tion similar to that of late 15th and 16thCentury Europe. Then, the spread ofknowledge triggered by Gutenberg’sprinting press both helped to drive, andwas supported by, a continent-wide rivalryof religious ideas. Now, the Internet hasbecome both the fuel and the vehicle for adramatic spread in democracy, intensify-ing demand for and supporting the spreadof genuinely transparent and participatoryand more efficient systems of governmentat both the national and global levels.

The number of democracies worldwidehas doubled in little more than a decade.But in too many countries, institutionsremain fragile, services are weak, officialsunaccountable. And the lack of a demo-cratic dividend—in terms of jobs andbetter services—has been underminingpublic faith in these new systems, particu-larly among the poor. ICT offers realhope in all these areas, offering greatercitizen input into decision-making andbetter social services for all.

From the Philippines to Zimbabwe, wehave seen over the past year how cell-phones and e-mail have been used togather supporters and spread ideas andinformation across grassroots and globalnetworks with dramatic effect. ICT is alsoproving a vital tool in helping link newcivil society networks around key issues,from global warming to women’s empow-erment to attempts to make globalizationmore responsive to the needs of develop-ing countries and the poor. And it is adynamic new way to help connect people

to their governments: When the newPrime Minister of Japan launched a regu-lar e-mail newsletter in July, 1.35 millionpeople—20 percent of the country’sInternet users—signed up within days.

ICT can also make government serv-ices and institutions cheaper, more effi-cient and more accessible. Developingcountries like Brazil and Chile alreadyhave successful experiments underway inthese areas. In parts of India, online gov-ernment licensing is cutting throughtraditionally tortuous bureaucracies.

UNDP is involved in a number ofpioneering initiatives in this area, including:■ Belarus: using the Web to help makelegal systems more transparent and acces-sible to the public;■ Botswana: linking all legislators onlineand allowing citizens to follow parliamen-tary proceedings on the Internet;■ Bulgaria: bringing non-governmentalorganizations and municipalities togetheracross a common network as part of amajor anti-corruption initiative.

These efforts do not require a computerin every house—just a focus on contentrelevant to the public and public accessthat can be developed through private,public or public-private initiatives.

Still, there is little point talking about theimpact of ICT on democracy and develop-ment in countries where ICT barely exists.Just 0.4 percent of Africans and SouthAsians have used the Internet, comparedto over half of North Americans. So thefirst challenge in harnessing limitedresources is to identify the strategic leversof change that best help countries toboost the spread and application of ICT.

As our Human Development Report 2001(www.undp.org/hdro) argues, governmentsneed to put in place an enabling environ-ment that encourages investments in hard-ware and tertiary education. A DigitalOpportunity Initiative study (www.opt-init.org) that UNDP recently undertookwith Accenture and the Markle Foundationshows the need for developing countriesto put in place comprehensive nationale-strategies that address issues such as

connectivity, regulatory environment, andhuman capacity. Usually a well-educatedtechnically-qualified pool of potential ITemployees is a more critical advantagethan the quality of a country’s telecominfrastructure. This revolution really isabout people. Helping countries to moveforward in these ways will be a centralfeature of our Global Network Readinessinitiative that we are rolling out first inBolivia, Romania and Tanzania.

Estonia is one of the world’s bestexamples of how much can be achievedwith the right enabling environment.That country’s Tiger Leap project, sup-ported by UNDP, wired the entire coun-try starting in the early 1990’s and hasensured that the current generation ofEstonian student is 100 percent computerliterate. Tiger Leap has also been a catalystfor regional economic development andprovides access points across the country,which citizens can use to conduct most oftheir transactions with the government.Almost all government documents—aswell as Real Audio broadcasts of parlia-mentary sessions—are available online.

Other countries should followEstonia’s lead. The global surge of democ-racy is real but fragile. And ICT can helpconsolidate the gains of the past severaldecades. Not just through encouragingthe flow of ideas and information, not justby transforming how states deliver serv-ices from schools to security and hospitalsto highways, but by supplying the mostimportant democratic dividend of all: areal say combined with choices andopportunities, particularly for the poor. ■

Mark Malloch Brown is the Administratorof the United Nations Development Programme.

MARKMALLOCHBROWN

Democracy and the Information Revolution P

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How would you relate good gov-ernance to reducing poverty inMongolia in a period of politicaland economic transition?The experience of Mongolia for the last10 years of democratic reforms has notbeen easy. It is especially true when acountry carries out simultaneously politi-cal and economic transformations. In thisquest, many people were not prepared toadapt to a complete change of the system,which was one of the core reasons trig-gering poverty across the nation. Fightingpoverty is a complex task requiring com-plete mobilization of every potential thesociety possesses. An effective anti-povertypartnership among citizens, non-govern-mental organizations (NGOs), the privatesector and government institutions hasbecome a major prerequisite for success. Wesee this as the essence of good governance.

My government’s priority objectivesare aimed at ensuring human security inall its dimensions. Early this year, thegovernment, in collaboration with theUnited Nations Development Programme

(UNDP), launched the Good Governancefor Human Security Programme to helpstrengthen governance mechanisms andefficiently mobilize them in implement-ing our objectives. We are addressingpoverty through a host of policy measuresdesigned to generate employment, improvepeople’s access to social and health serv-ices, reduce income disparity in societythrough tax and other policy instruments.

Good governance rests on the conver-gence of two major factors, i.e. the improve-ment of government institutions alongwith the availability of knowledgeableand capable personnel, on the one hand,and, on the other, heightening of overallpublic accountability of governmentinstitutions and officers. The GoodGovernance Programme seeks to provideus with a necessary tool to create a flexi-ble mechanism responsive to the realneeds of the people. The governmentequipped with such a concept, attitudeand institutionalized structure would bebetter poised for tackling such pressingissues as poverty. If poverty is notreduced, all the debate about good gover-nance would amount to simple hypocrisy.Therefore, one of the measurements ofthe final outcomes of the implementationof the Programme would be the level ofpoverty reduction.

Does decentralization play a rolein good governance and there-fore in addressing poverty at thelocal level?Yes. In the modern world the role and placeof the State in society has changed dra-matically. Some may associate good gov-ernance as a concept based on the virtuousstate, which takes care of every little thingin society. However, good governance isfirst of all rational governance and therationality in its turn requires that theState withdraws from many of the activi-ties where government involvement isinefficient and counterproductive.

Decentralization has been a prioritypolicy of the Mongolian Government.The National Poverty AlleviationProgramme (NPAP) that Mongolia hasbeen implementing since 1994 hasdecentralization as one of its crucial oper-ating principles. Decentralized decisionmaking and community participationencouraged the poor to decide what wasbest for them and to assume responsibil-ity for their own lives while helping tobuild a strong network of decentralized


INTE

RVIEW

In an exclusive interview

with CHOICES magazine,

the Prime Minister reflects

on the role of good gover-

nance in Mongolia’s poverty

reduction efforts.

Prime MinisterNambarEnkhbayar of Mongolia


local government institutions. This was,actually, the first effort to introduce ele-ments of good governance to include andto motivate the poor to take charge oftheir livelihood with strong and inducivesupport from local governments.

What have been the lessons ofthe National Poverty AlleviationProgramme and how are theybeing addressed?One of the important lessons learned inthe course of implementation is thatwhile NPAP has been making a modestheadway in alleviating and reducingpoverty, inadequate growth and deterio-ration of the economy have been addingmore people to the ranks of the poor.

Therefore, it is essential for the successof any poverty alleviation programme thatit be harmonized with and supported bybroad-based, people-oriented and labour-intensive growth strategies. In the absenceof such strategies, the gains of the pro-gramme in some sectors could be offsetby growing unemployment and economicdeterioration in other sectors.

In the course of the programme imple-mentation, we realized that poverty is acomprehensive and multi-rooted problemrequiring a complex approach. It becamevery evident that ‘plastic surgery’ was notsufficient for solving the problem.

In retrospect, it can be said that NPAPhas been too ambitious in its objectivesand implementation schedule. Speedyand effective programme implementationis hard to achieve in a vast country ofharsh climates like Mongolia where thesettlements are sparse and distant fromeach other and the delivery of basic serv-ices is made arduous by hugely inadequatetransport, communication and energysupply facilities. To expect the reductionof poverty from 26.5 percent in 1994 to10 percent or less in 2000 was unrealistic,given the state of the economy, infra-structure and preparedness of the country.

The absence of effective rural bankinginstitutions has caused delays in disburs-ing funds from the capital city to ruralcommunities. Disbursement delays inturn caused implementation delays.

The design of the credit scheme forincome generation, under which relativelylarge loans were granted for four years atno interest and without collateral proved

to be highly inefficient in terms of cover-age, financial discipline, sustainability andrepayment. Although some of the weak-nesses of the original credit design werelater improved, the project implementingunit had never any access to the much-needed professional technical assistancein micro-credit management.

The most important lesson learnedfrom success cases of income generationis that pre-selection scrutiny, basicknowledge of small business managementand post-implementation supervision bylocal Poverty Alleviation Councils areessential to the success of income-gener-ating schemes. Therefore, loan operationsand financial services need to be linked tothe provision of skills development andbusiness management training to theborrowers, as well as a strengthened sys-tem of loan supervision.

The next phase of the programme has,therefore, been formulated to build onthe successes and to incorporate appro-priate improvements in light of the les-sons learnt. Particular attention will bepaid to banking reforms, entrepreneurial

Photos: T. Batzorig/UNDP

We wil l not overcome poverty without partnership and cooperation between

the people and the government.


training, skills formation, improvementsin credit schemes and their rules, furtherstrengthening of social and economicinfrastructure and herd-restocking withadequate risk management measures.

How does poverty relate tohuman rights issues in Mongolia,in particular child rights?Poverty has a direct impact on humanrights issues because it limits the right offree choice that is the fundamental basisof human development. We are well awarethat the rights of the poor have beenseriously undermined. Children suffermost from poverty in Mongolia. Forexample, 70.4 percent of the pre-schoolage children do not have access to neces-sary educational facilities; 13.5 percent ofchildren aged eight-15 do not attendschools. The number of street childrenand working children has not decreased.

Therefore, the Government ofMongolia has worked out a nationalprogramme to improve householdincome generation that could provideopportunities to ensure freedom fromhunger, homelessness, disease, ignoranceand violence. We also approach the issueof human rights within the context ofgood governance.

We know that guaranteeing humanrights legally is not enough to overcomepoverty.

And we know also that we will notovercome poverty without partnershipand cooperation between the people andthe government.

Where do you see yourcountry in terms ofpoverty-reduction infive years?Currently 35.6 percent of the population ispoor or extremely poor according to the1998 Living Standard MeasurementSurvey. The medium-term goal of mygovernment is to reduce extreme povertyby 25 percent and the proportion of peo-ple under the poverty line by half. Thisgoal is consistent with the InternationalDevelopment Goals stated in “Strategy-21” by the Organization for EconomicCooperation and Development. If wesucceed, some 80 percent of all householdswould live above the poverty line.

Can you comment on what valueUNDP has added to your effortsto reduce poverty?UNDP has been a partner and partici-pant in the National Poverty AlleviationProgramme of the Government ofMongolia from the very outset. Its con-tinued and unwavering support, bothfinancial and moral, has been of immensevalue to the government’s efforts toreduce poverty.

It was UNDP that the governmentapproached in early 1994 for assistance inpreparing a concrete programme of povertyalleviation. UNDP promptly obliged byorganizing a mission that produced ananalytical assessment of poverty inMongolia and helped draft a programmedocument, which was approved by thegovernment on 25 May 1994.

The most tangible example of UNDPsupport can be found in the developmentand strengthening of Mongolia’s institu-tional structure for the effective imple-mentation of NPAP. The UNDP-funded

Women’s Support Project, for example,helped the programme pay particularattention to the alleviation of women’spoverty. NGOs were trained to act asfacilitators and implementers of women’straining and income-generating schemes.

The UNDP poverty-related projectsalso helped to recruit two internationaland 33 national United Nations Volunteers(UNVs) to strengthen the institutionalcapacity of NPAP. The UNVs made aninvaluable contribution to the effectiveimplementation of NPAP.

What do you see as the greatestforce leading to poverty reduc-tion in Mongolia?My belief is that the Mongolian peoplehave the strength and will to prosper. It isthe people, not government, that producethe wealth. The government, as the facili-tator and catalyst of development, shallcreate an enabling environment andensure people’s active participation inpoverty alleviation. The tripartite part-nership among civil society, the privatesector and the government is the enginefor consolidating the potential, effortsand resources of the country to achievethe human dignity for all. ■

Left to right: Thenumber of streetchildren in Mongoliahas not decreased.

Newspapers flourishin Mongolia’s marketeconomy. A womansells newspapers inUlaanbaatar.

A cottage industryto produce bootsgives rural womenincomes to boosttheir livelihoods.

Mongolia’s settle-ments are sparseand distant fromeach other


raditionally, we have always consideredpoverty to be a lack of means. It is certainlythat in part. Without resources, people can-not satisfy even their most basic physio-logical needs.

But a more meaningful definition ofpoverty is based on deprivation of capability,a concept associated with Nobel prize win-ner Amartya Sen and elaborated in theUnited Nations Development Programme(UNDP) Human Development Report 1997,which called it “human poverty.”

Capability deprivation means that peopleare unable to play a full part in society, areeconomically inactive and marginalized byconflict or discrimination. While they lackincome, simply providing more money willnot be sufficient to lift them from their depri-vation. In any case,being incapacitated,inhibits people’s capacity to earn a living.

As highlighted in UNDP’s HumanDevelopment Reports, and most recently inthe study on Voices of the Poor, conducted forthe World Development Report 2000/2001,the poor themselves often allude to theimportance of non-material deprivation.They often define their own lot not somuch in terms of “lack of money” as anabsence of empowerment.

This is where governance becomes cru-cial. Resources in themselves are importantas is economic dynamism. But even whenthe economic engine is revving, the trans-mission may be faulty: empowerment andresources often do not reach the poor.Thisis why we say that governance is the missinglink. Unless the machinery of governanceitself is operating in a decentralized fashion,and on the side of the poor and marginal-ized, the myriad conditions of non-materialdeprivation cannot be confronted.

A critical instance of the governance gapis the denial of basic human and legal rightsto women and girls. Poverty is, to a consid-erable degree, ‘feminized’ because in manycountries women suffer disciminatory con-ditions from the earliest age.Their depriva-tion is, at root, not a lack of resources, but astate of subordination.

More than resources Sound governance makes the links moresolid between needs and empowerment.When people have a say in the choice ofelected decision-makers and can expresstheir views in free media, they are able toexert some control over their lives. Andwhen people have more access to informa-tion about government activities, they areempowered to play an informed role in acommon process of human development.

This control also helps to ensure thatresources voted for the poor are used pro-ductively.

In today’s developing world, the overalllack of resources is commonly not the stum-bling block, but the use of them is. Empow-ering the poor is itself a means of overcomingpoverty. It helps to ensure that, rather thanremaining the hapless recipients of benefitsdelivered from some distant centre, the poorwill benefit from public spending intendedfor basic social services.

Take the case of Andhra Pradesh inIndia.There, village women have organizedthemselves into self-help groups. Usingtheir own resources, they are increasinglyable to respond to the growing needs of thepoor for access to credit. Similarly, in Cam-bodia’s SEILA initiative, local communitiesare encouraged to formulate their own anti-

poverty projects. And in Ghana, districtauthorities are raising their own local taxrevenues to fund poverty reduction pro-grammes.

Transparency is crucial, so that people cantell if their interests are being considered.

Uganda’s government has made effortsto increase transparency in its budget proce-dures, both at central and local governmentlevels.The country has encouraged broadparticipation in its Poverty EradicationAction Plan.

These examples demonstrate that gover-nance is playing a role in directly attacking

human poverty in some of the world’s poor-est countries. By helping to decentralizepower and authority, governments are mak-ing a difference. By promoting such struc-tural changes as land reform, communityparticipation and the emergence of civilsociety organizations,we see the beginnings ofwhat will hopefully be a successful effort toaddress the “deprivation of capability,” andtherefore poverty itself. ■

Stephen Browne is the Principal Adviser andGroup Leader of UNDP’s ManagementDevelopment Group.

G O V E R N A N C E A N D H U M A N P O V E RT Y B Y S T E P H E N B R O W N E

TWhen people have a say in the choice of

elected decision-makers and can express

their views in free media, they are able to

exert some control over their lives.


TIANJIN, CHINA

Four years ago, Zou Lian Hui lost herjob at an ink factory here in China’sthird-largest industrial city, 137

kilometres southeast of the capital, Beijing.For the next two years, she collectedunemployment from the government.

But then the cheques stopped comingand Zou found herself desperately in needof an income to help support her family.

“I decided to open my own business,”she said. “But I had no idea of how to goabout it. I had spent my adult life workingin an assembly line and had no real busi-ness qualifications and few prospects.”

Today, dressed in a smart business suitand sitting in a modern office, Zou speaksof her past troubles with the self-assur-ance of someone who feels confidentabout what’s ahead.

Indeed, Zou is now the proud managerof a community centre that providesfuneral and wedding services. Morerecently, she embarked on a new line ofbusiness: recycling polluted water.

“Here in Tianjin we have a watershortage problem. We can’t use drinkablewater to clean cars, so I thought I couldtake the dirty water from the factories,clean it up, and sell it to car washes,” Zousays, as she surveys work on her state-of-the-art filters, thermostats and pipes.

“If everything goes well we might alsobe able to clean the water to the degreethat it can be used in laundry facilities andrestaurants. I dream of being able to com-pete with similar technologies that are nowbeing used in Japan, but that’s in the future.”

Zou’s success in becoming one ofChina’s new women entrepreneurs isremarkable, but much more needs to bedone to bring laid-off female workers intothe economic mainstream.

Zou Lian Hui, left, wasa laid-off Tianjin fac-tory worker. Now,thanks to a UNDP-sponsored project, sheis a full-fledged entre-preneur. She conferswith government rep-resentative Tian Yuan-sui (centre) and TianjinBusiness Incubatortraining and consult-ing director, YangLinyi (right).

T E X T A N D P H O T O S B Y T A M A R H A H N

Women On The Move in China’s New Economy

As she struggled to build her own busi-ness, Zou heard about the Tianjin BusinessIncubator, which is part of a project forre-employment and venture creation forlaid-off women workers. The project issponsored by the United Nations Devel-opment Programme (UNDP), the AustralianAgency for International Development(AusAid) and the Chinese Government.

The Incubator’s aim is to help womenlike Zou insert themselves in China’semerging market economy. By providinglow-rent facilities, counseling and advo-cacy services over a period of three years,the programme is a launching pad forsmall businesses created and run bywomen who, until not too long ago, hadlittle idea of what a private company was,let alone how to run one.

“Every day I have questions and diffi-culties and it is very helpful to just be ableto go downstairs and talk to the consult-ants who work in the Incubator,” saidZou. “Their guidance and advice makesall the difference.”


State-owned enterprises, unable tokeep up with the demands of China’sgrowing market economy, continue to layoff workers or go bankrupt altogether.Fully 60 percent of the laid-off populationare women.

Kerstin Leitner, UNDP Resident Rep-resentative in China, says, “In many citiesin China more women workers are laid offthan male workers. The UNDP/AusAidproject is thus targeting thesewomen workers to helpthem on a priority basis toenter the mainstream of theemerging market economy.”

She is encouraged by theresults so far. “We are confi-dent that we have created amodel which can be repli-cated elsewhere in China,”says Leitner, “and possibly inother developing countries.”

Dislocation and reform After he gained power in 1978,Deng Xiaoping launched a setof ambitious economic reformsthat would effectively openChina for business. Respondingto the motto “Getting rich isglorious,” China’s annual aver-

age growth reached a staggeringnine percent—three times that of

the United States in that periodand about 70 percent more than the

growth rate in India or Indonesia.Over the past 20 years, China has

achieved both an extraordinary decline inpoverty and high levels of education andhealth status. In 1978, China was amongthe world’s poorest countries, with80 percent of the population withincomes of less than US$1 a day, andonly a third of all adults able toread or write. By 1998, the pro-portion of the population withincomes of less than $1 a dayhad declined to about 12 per-

cent, life expectancy was an enviable 70years, and illiteracy among 15 to 25-year-olds was about seven percent.

Still, in cities like Tianjin, there arethousands of people whose lives havebeen impoverished as a result of movestoward a market economy.

Combating urban poverty is now apriority for the Chinese Government.Local authorities in Tianjin donated a$1.5 million Business Incubator facility,which previously had housed a state-owned enterprise.

The All-China Women’s Federation, anational women’s organization supportedby the state, is in charge of implementingthe Business Incubator. China’s Inter-national Centre for Economic and TechnicalExchanges is the executing agency.

Know-how and nurtureThese days, the Business Incubator isfilled with women like Wang Sheng Yun,who has a sweater knitting business. OrZhang Chun Ping, who went from work-ing in a cap-making factory to producingmetallurgy products and commemorativemedallions for the Asian Games and forTianjin’s Environment Protection Agency.All these women enjoy hands-on helpfrom the staff and receive training in basicbusiness skills.

Zou stands next toher pride and joy—a water purifyingmachine.

Below. Wang ShengYun is the owner ofa sweater-knittingfactory that employsover 200 workers.

Chen Ke Gang (top) directs microfinance activ-ities at the UNDP-supported Business Incubator.

Below, Tianjin women leave the assembly line foremerging opportunities in China’s new economy.

“The main requirement for womenwho want to be accepted into theIncubator is to have a strong heart and bewilling to do something by themselves,”says Yang Linyi, director of training andconsulting. Yang’s work includes organiz-ing workshops on e-business, taxation,business registration and gender aware-ness. One of her most important respon-sibilities involves nurturing.

“When women first come to theIncubator, I take the time to build theirself-confidence,” she says. “Oftentimes

women who have lost their jobs feel inad-equate and depressed, so helping themsort out the emotional problems is asimportant as giving advice on how toregister their businesses or get tax breaks.

“In the end, it is not just about helpingthem earn money but about showingthem that there is a place for them inChina’s new economy.” ■

Tamar Hahn, freelance journalist, has writtenextensively on development issues for TheEarth Times and other publications.


Microcredit to the RescueZhang Hongying’s dumpling restaurant stands in a wide, tree-lined street in downtown Tianjin.Tucked between massive grey apartment houses, the modest storefront is easy to miss. Inside,the peeling wall paint runs the gamut of whites. Behind the counter, a dozen cans of Fanta sharetwo shelves with some Chinese soft drinks. The restaurant is too small to accommodate cus-tomers and mainly functions as a take-out.

The kitchen can only accommodate one person at a time, so Zhang and her husband installed somestoves in the adjacent roofless corridor where they toil over half a dozen potsand pans, boiling, chopping and working the dough for their dumplings.

This has not always been Zhang’s line of business. Until 1995 she worked in asewing factory. Soon after she was laid-off, her husband lost his job as well. Thecouple had no other source of income, and a son who needed help paying his uni-versity tuition fee. Zhang borrowed US$240 from friends and relatives to helpher son, but bill collectors soon came knocking at her door.

“When people came to me asking for their money back, I felt I lost all dig-nity,” Zhang says. She started selling cooked meals from a sidewalk stall. Herday would start at 3:00 am and end at 11:00 pm. But a street-cleaning projectdesigned to drive out street vendors put an abrupt end to her business.

Fortunately, Zhang heard about microcredit loans at a project for laid-offwomen workers run by UNDP and the All-China Women’s Federation. Zhang, whohad failed to get a loan from commercial banks, received 4,000 Yuan ($480) from the microcredit facility located inside the Tianjin Business Incubator.

“We do what no commercial Chinese bank is willing to do,” says Chen Ke Gang, director of the microfinance bank. “The financial policies of our country arevery limiting and banks will not bother with a dumpling maker.”

The facility has so far given out over 2 million Yuan (about $241,000) in microcredits to 432 women—who have never skipped a payment. For Zhang, the loan means the difference between making a living and sinking into abject poverty. She and her husband started their dumpling restaurant and,

though business has not been booming lately, they manage. Sitting in her small bedroom where she keeps trays of frozen dumplings in a fridge by her bed and an oversized poster of a red Ferrari, which covers the parti-

tion between her bed and her son’s, Zhang says she has high hopes for the future. “Once I repay my loan, I’ll be able to get another one, hopefully for more,” shesays. “It will take a lot of hard work and some good luck but I feel confident that success is on the way.” ■

Above, Zhang Hongying and her family pro-duce up to 10 kilos of dumplings daily to sup-ply their family restaurant. Below, ZhangChun Ping proudly displays auto parts andhousehold appliances made by her factory.

B Y L E I L A B A R A K A T

Toward Good Governance in Morocco

potential movers in the country’s economy.Fifteen-year-old Aicha says the proj-

ect is changing her life: “I’m very happythat I will learn to weave, to read andwrite and also to count. I’ll be able to sellmy work in the market, earn a bit ofmoney and help my family.”

The project requires a creative workingrelationship, not only between the UNand the Government of Morocco, butalso between these partners and a multi-plicity of governing agencies and organi-zations at the local level. The localassociation in charge of the Timlilt proj-ect is called Tamount which, in the Soussidialect, means “solidarity.”The TamountAssociation wasthe prime moverin mobilizinghuman andfinancialresources tomake thewomen’s cen-tre a dynamic

force for change. The project received anearly boost when the Communal Councilof Timlilt donated a parcel of its land on22 April 2000 so that the new centrecould expand.

El M’tougui Lhoucine, the Presidentof the Association, says the projectstarted on a small scale, but that it hassince expanded to address the multipleconcerns of rural women. “Tamount isnow the social and cultural centre of ourcommunity,” he says.

Today, as a result of this mobilization,girls in Timlilt not only are literate, theyenjoy better health and a much higher

level of self-esteem. As they expandtheir skills, they contribute

actively to the development oftheir commune and, by their

example, to sustainablehuman development inthe country as a whole.

TIMLILT, MOROCCO

A semi-arid dirt road leads to Timlilt,a rural commune in Chichaoua,one of the 14 most disadvantaged

provinces of Morocco. Here, a punishingclimate, high population growth, illiter-acy and a lack of basic infrastructurechallenge the people to turn this roadinto a path of promise. Here, too, theUnited Nations DevelopmentProgramme (UNDP) and Morocco, increative partnership, are developing proj-ects that are helping to reduce povertylocally and, thereby, to point the way forthe country as a whole.

As the new challenges of globalizationhave surfaced, Morocco has engaged in aprocess of institutional reform. A policyof openness is accompanied by efforts tostrengthen democratization and consoli-date the rule of law.

In Timlilt this has led to the creationof a Women’s Centre which offers train-ing in weaving and embroidery, along withcourses to teach girls and women to readand write and therefore to see themselves as

The construction siteof the Timlilt Women'sCentre. Right: ElM'tougui Lhoucine inwhite jellaba, Presi-dent of the TamountAssociation conferswith another partner.

Above: Partners in the Timlilt Women's CentreProject. Ahmed Gouitaa, a government povertyreduction official, wearing a white jellaba. To hisleft is Mohamed Boussami, UNDP Assistant Resi-dent Representative.


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A participatory approach The reason for assuming a ripple effectfrom a small local success lies in a long-term effort to sensitize all of Morocco tothe imperatives of development.

Though decentralization is deeplyrooted in national culture, the problemsof managing development in rural areaswere exacerbated by weaknesses inadministrative supervision. The lack ofdecision-making power, technical adviceand financial resources signaled the needfor an integral participatory approachinvolving governance at every level.

The Timlilt project is one result of acomprehensive governance and institu-tional reinforcement programme agreedto by UNDP and Morocco’s Ministry ofEconomic Forecasting and Planning inlate 1997. It succeeds because of thedetermination of girls and women toclaim their right to development andbecause provincial officials havesupported a participatory approach whichaffirms decentralization at the local andprovincial levels.

A national ripple effectAccording to Ahmed Gouitaa, NationalCoordinator for the Sustainable HumanDevelopment and Poverty EradicationProgramme, UNDP helped the govern-ment initiate a highly promising processof administrative reform beginning in1997. Now in its fourth year, this effortconcentrates on strengthening the insti-tutions of the country under the rubric ofdemocratic governance.

This programme aims to enable goodmanagement in the 40 communes of fourprovinces in the country: Al Haouz,Chichaoua, Essaouira and Chefchaouen.

Bouna Semou Diouf, UNDP ResidentRepresentative, says, “The originality of

the programme lies in the factthat many diverse institu-

tions are targeted. At thesame time, it repre-

sents our first part-nership with thehighest legisla-tive and auditorgans, workingin close collab-oration withour traditional

partners in theexecutive branch

of the State.”According to

Diouf, this pro-gramme comple-ments othernational projectsbeing executed inpartnership withUNDP. “Throughparticipation andcommunication, allcomponents ofsociety can becomeactively involved inthe management ofnational affairs.”

The Women’sCentre is one

example of the implementation of a par-ticipatory and decentralized approachtowards local management of develop-ment, based on principles of goodgovernance. ■

Leila Barakat is a communications officer atUNDP Morocco.


The Timlilt project is making economic strides with remunerativeweaving, crafts programmes and educational progress. Below, womenparticipate in a literacy class.

Photos: Houssaine Zouitni/UNDP


IKOT ABASI, NIGERIA

For Stella Umo Silas, a widow, themechanized form of producinggarri, a local staple food made from

cassava, has virtually wiped away her tears.She lost her husband a little over a year ago.

With a less excruciating and faster wayof processing garri, which also guaranteesa greater quantity than the traditionalmethod, Silas, 37, has been able to makemore money and to shoulder the burdenof raising her two children, Samuel, 19,and Comfort, nine. Even the lack of a regu-lar dole from her fairly prosperous uncle,who has been ill since last December, hasnot affected the family much.

“Thanks to the United NationsDevelopment Programme (UNDP), withthis garri project, I’ve been able to supportmy family without my husband,” Silas says.She is busy on the production floor, locatedin a building donated by Reverend JoshuaEkpeikhe, president of the ChristianWitness Team.

In the past, it took her four hectic daysto produce a basin of garri, which is soldat US$26 per 50 kilogramme bag. Withthe new method, five basins of garri canbe produced in just two hours. Ratherthan use hands for grinding and pressing,which was very strenuous, production cannow be achieved by the use of the graterand presser. She and her fellow villagersmake more money and have more time toattend the mass literacy class which is alsosupported by UNDP.

Mechanization was made possiblethrough an integrated rural development

B Y T O N Y I Y A R E

project involving UNDP, the Akwa Ibomstate government, the Ikot Abasi localgovernment and the Ikwa Village. Insteadof the former mode of frying, whichexposes the eyes and body to the hazardsof fire from the firewood and the chokingeffects of billowing smoke, Silas and hercolleagues now leisurely use the UNDP-provided fryer.

“In the past many of us got blisters afterfrying garri. Now, it is possible for us to doour work almost effortlessly,” Silas says.

Nigeria: Ikwa Community Makes Major Strides

Garri production inIkot Abasi is beingtransformed by theintroduction of newmethods that bothsave time andincrease productivity. P

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Success storiesFor Silas’ colleagues in the palm oil trade inIkwa village—some 2,000 people, located883 kilometres southeast of Abuja, the capi-tal of Nigeria—it is the same success story.Previously, the women could only make 6.8litres of oil per day. But with the use of theboiler, the grater and the presser, they cannow produce a drum (240 litres) of palmoil per day, which sells for $106. They alsohave another machine for cracking thepalm kernel and sifting the nuts.

In addition to supplying the necessaryequipment to the villagers, UNDP has alsoprovided microcredit loans at an affordableinterest rate of 14 percent to the men andwomen groups and cooperatives in thevillage. This is a great relief in a countrywhere loans are offered at a commercialinterest rate of 35 percent in the banks or100 percent if they come from local moneylenders.

This lower-interest credit has made itpossible for members of the community’smulti-purpose cooperative society, MbohoUforo, established in April 1999 andheaded by 78-year-old Akpan Jack Ekpe,to purchase raw materials, including garri,palm oil and soap. It has also enabled thesociety to engage in blockmaking andbuilding wheeled carts and to branch outinto fashion design and hairdressing.

One of the community’s treasures is aUNDP-assisted water project, powered bya 3.5 kilovolt ampere electricity generat-ing plant. It now supplies Ikwa and othernearby villages clean, sparkling water.“The water project is one of the greatestthings that has happened to us,” saysEkpe, a retired teacher and lawyer. “It hasimpacted the life of my people more thananything I know of.” Before, people hadto trek several kilometres to a stream tofetch brackish water. Water-borne dis-eases, especially diarrheoa has greatlydecreased in the village, he said.

Businesses spring upOne of the cooperative members, AkpanTobi who acquired a welding machine witha loan of $220, now makes wheeled carts,needed by the people for carrying heavygoods. He also has several orders fromsome of the neighbouring villages for thecarts, which he sells for $78 each. Tobisays it takes him two days to make one.

Deborah Usoro, who left school recently,obtained a loan of $440 through thewomen’s group to start producing soap.She and her business partner now haveorders from many market outlets in Uyo,capital of the southeastern state of AkwaIbom, and other nearby areas. The soap issold for $13 per carton.

Nko Aniefiok Akpan is proud of herhairdressing shop, which has trained 15apprentices in one and a half years. AliceUdoh Eyop also bought five sewingmachines with a loan of $265 she gotthrough the women’s group, and now runsher dressmaking shop with 10 apprentices.

Today, many of the villagers want morecredit to expand their businesses and meeta growing demand for their goods. “Thosedrums lying over there are from customerswho have placed orders for oil, and we can’tmeet them,” explained one of the villagers,pointing to some 10 empty drums.

They may soon get a favourable hearingfrom UNDP, whose state programmemonitoring adviser, Valentine Attah, isimpressed with the work of the villagersand plans to increase the loans. “I’mhappy with the work here and the repay-ment rate is excellent—95 percent,” hesays. Already a total of $5,310 has beendisbursed to some 300 members of theMboho Uforo.

Palm oil production is easier, nowthat a UNDP-supported programmehas introduced time-saving processesfor milling and extraction, with prof-itable results.


A waning economy, inadequate infra-structure and a foreign debt of $30 billionchallenge the future of this country’spopulation of 120 million, over 70 per-cent of whom live in rural communities.

Mbaya Kankwenda, UNDP ResidentRepresentative in Nigeria notes that, evenin the face of these formidable difficul-ties, UNDP’s partnership approach sug-gests a viable way forward, for government,for donors and for the people. “The suc-cess achieved in propelling rural people tobecome the engine of their own develop-ment is tremendous,” he says. ■

Tony Iyare is a stringer for The New YorkTimes in Nigeria and is also Sunday editor ofNational Interest, a prominent daily in thecountry.

projects haveempowered thepeople to takecharge of theirown developmentand they feel asense of pride intheir ownershipof the projects.

Twelve of these, including the project inIkwa village in Ikot Abasi local councilarea, are in Akwa Ibom State—inhabitedmainly by the Ibibio, Annang and Ogojaethnic groups.

The state government is pleased by thesuccess of the UNDP model of coopera-tives and microcredit, and plans similarprojects in other communities. The gov-ernment has set aside a $441,000 micro-credit loan for an integrated farmers’project. The state Deputy Governor,Chris Ekpeyong, says, “We are impressedwith UNDP’s approach to poverty eradi-cation, and we intend to replicate it as itfalls in line with our own programme toeradicate poverty from this State.”

Local participationAt the Bible Missionary TheologicalCollege in Ikwa where Dennis Shelly isdirector of studies, UNDP has providedassistance to the institution’s farms whereboth students and the villagers are trainedto produce poultry, fish, pigs, rabbits,turkeys, goats and snails. Shelly, a 50-year-old American, has lived in Nigeriafor 20 years and also works as a facilitatorof the village projects.

UNDP is involved in similar partner-ship projects in more than 300 communi-ties in the 36 states of Nigeria. These

Clockwise: Potablewater has improvedlocal health. Commu-nity leaders. Micro-credit helps the BibleMissionary Theologi-cal College maintain afarm in Ikwa.

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Growing Empowerment in Venezuela

CARACAS, VENEZUELA

In December 1999, theannual rainy season neverstopped along

Venezuela’s centralCaribbean coastline.Rivers overflowed, damsburst, mountainsidesdissolved into torrents ofmud. Tens of thousandslost their lives, theirhomes, and their livelihoodsin the worst disaster in theSouth American country’s history,known today simply, and fittingly, as latragedia—the tragedy.

“We didn’t know how we were goingto survive,” recalls Neida Guevara, whosaw her eight-hectare cacao plantationwashed away and, with it, her only meansof support for her four children and twograndchildren.

But today, the residents of Barlovento,an area plagued with 60 percent poverty,east of the capital, Caracas, are living withrenewed hope. They have grasped thechance to improve their standard of liv-ing, far beyond what it was prior to thefloods, thanks to a United NationsDevelopment Programme (UNDP) proj-ect, funded by the Italian Government’sdevelopment agency Cooperazione Italiana.

Some 44 percent of Venezuela’s 24million inhabitants live in scattered pock-ets of urban and rural poverty, despite thebillions of dollars in oil revenue that flowinto the 1.3 million square kilometrescountry annually.

“In regions such as Barlovento, socialprogrammes have proven ineffective atcombating entrenched poverty over theyears due to inefficiency, corruption andneglect. It has been a very depressed areafor 20 years,” says Niky Fabiancic, UNDP’sResident Representative in Venezuela.

“We saw the chance to turn thetragedy into an opportunity fordevelopment.”

The US$4.4 million, multi-pronged project is being carried outby a range of Italian and Venezuelannon-governmental organizations(NGOs), each in charge of a specificcomponent of the project, togetherwith local authorities. UNDP fundsand manages the project. “It hasbeen a very successful model and it hasthe potential to be replicated anywhere inthe world,” Fabiancic adds.

The 18-month project started in April2000, with primary relief efforts thatincluded psychological counseling,orphanages, provisional housing, debriscleanup, potable water systems, and med-ical attention. Last September, the projectmoved into a second stage aimed at giv-ing residents the tools to get back ontheir feet economically and organizingthem so they could continue the projectswhen the programme ended in June 2001.

Since the zone’s principal industry ofcacao had been wiped out by the disaster,

T E X T A N D P H O T O S B Y C H R I S T I N A H O A G

a project to help the subsistence farmersnot only recover what they had lost, butimprove on it to slash future poverty,was essential, says Nicola Minerva, Cooper-azione Italiana’s Venezuela representative.

An estimated 48,000 Venezuelans have profitedfrom recent economic empowerment pro-grammes, including one to rejuvenate the coun-try's cacao industry.


The cacaoprogrammeincludestraining thefarmers intechniquessuch as

fertilization,composting,

growingseedlings in

nurseries, as well asgiving each family$1,600 in credit tobuy tools and sup-plies, such as fertil-izer, that will enablethem to apply thenew methodology.

“I’ve learnt thingslike fumigation andhow we have toremove weedsbecause they take

water away from the cacao plants,” saysHilario Rivas, 72. “I think with this pro-gramme we’ll recover. It’s changing thepsychology of the people.”

Another phase, under the tutelage ofthe Italian NGO Cooperazione e Sviluppo(Cooperation and Development), encom-passes financing and building four smallfactories that will purchase and processlocal production to make semi-refinedcocoa paste to sell to industry, and drinkingchocolate for direct sale to consumers. Inworkshops, participants learn everythingfrom industrial safety and hygiene tobookkeeping and personnel management.

Changing farmers’ attitudes was a keypart of the project. Many did not want toparticipate. “People were used to receiv-ing a lot from institutions. They wantedmoney, or food,” Minerva says. “Theconcept of working together didn’t exist.”In this type of situation, partnership witha local NGO, Peasant Action, was partic-ularly important. The members knowlocal culture and are able to more easilywin residents’ trust.

Helping people to help themselves isthe theme of the whole programme. Inthe project to aid small fishermen, theItalian NGO, Comitato Internazionale perlo Sviluppo dei Popoli, is teaching some 70fishermen not only about fish and fish-ing, but also about sales and marketing.

The Committee is building warehousesthat will enable fishermen to store theircatches on ice, sell directly to consumers,and add value to their products throughdeboning and filleting. Fishermen are nowworking together for their collective benefit.

“This is an economic revolution. We’rebreaking the monopoly the buyers had onus,” says fisherman Fidel Perfecto, 36.“This has really lifted our self-esteem andgiven us a new outlook.”

Fabiancic notes that such empower-ment is an important goal of the project.It can be seen in the new manioc process-ing plant, which enables locals to reapmore value from this traditional crop byconverting it into a typical crisp breadcalled casabe. Further evidence is found intwo shiny new mobile medical units andtwo modern labs from the Italian RedCross—and in 12 schools rehabilitated bya number of local and Italian NGOs.

The four-room El Sapo School is abright splash of yellow amid the lushgreen vegetation that borders the reddusty track, thanks to another ItalianNGO, Centro Regionale di Intervento perla Cooperazione.

School wasn’t always such a beacon forthe neighbourhood’s 71 children, saysheadmistress Moraima Farinez. “It washorrible,” she recalls. “We didn’t evenhave bathrooms.” If pupils had to go to

the bathroom, they went home—andusually never returned.

The school now boasts bathrooms, akitchen and dining room, where childrenare given nutritious snacks and lunches.“This is the hook for parents to sendtheir children to school,” notes Fabiancic.Farinez is expecting enrolment to boomin September because of the new diningfacility.

UNDP estimates that some 48,000inhabitants in the region have directlybenefited by this multifacetedprogramme. Indirectly, it effects thou-sands more. As fisherman TonyCamacho, 39, says: “We can teach ourchildren what we’re learning here.”

The programme is also reaping manyunforeseen benefits. After a succession oflow-wage, menial jobs in Caracas, RobertSerranos, 24, now sees more future instaying close to home and helping hisfather Alejandro run the cocoa processingplant. Such a move is a reversal of theregion’s longtime abandonment of itscenturies-old cacao tradition by its youth.“We’re going to be entrepreneurs, andwe’re rescuing part of our culture. We feelproud of that,” Serranos says. That isexactly the sentiment that the programmeaims to inspire, and what is needed to breakthe endless cycle of entrenched poverty. ■

Christina Hoag is a freelance journalist based inCaracas,Venezuela whose published articles haveappeared in Time Magazine, Business Week,The Miami Herald and The HoustonChronicle.

Children benefit fromrehabilitation ofschools, carried outwith help from UNDPand Italian NGOs.

Fishing involves age-old tools, but new self-helpmethods are creating an economic revolution ina pilot project.


Small Business Takes Hold in Russian Federation

Olga Kushtal took advan-tage of a UNDP retrainingproject to become adver-tising director of a cakefactory in Fryazino. Below,a fork lift driver loadscakes for distribution inthe Moscow region. Saleshave been good.

FRYAZINO, RUSSIAN FEDERATION

Workers at the Maharishicake factory are paintingthe walls sun yellow.

The colour is part of the fac-tory’s new image—a face-liftthat has helped its sales soar.Its creator, Olga Kushtal, thefactory’s advertising director,recently graduated from aUnited Nations DevelopmentProgramme (UNDP) project toretrain unemployed profession-als in this small Russian town.

An articulate 30-year-oldwith an eye for design, Kushtalmet the factory managers while astudent in the US$1.3 millionprogramme, which is funded by Russia’sFederal Employment Service and theNorwegian Government. She spotted aneed for advertising at the sweets factory,proposed a plan, and was hired soon after.

“They showed us you have to create ajob for yourself and use your head,”Kushtal said, arranging cake brochuresshe designed on a table in the factory’sbright conference room. “You can’t just sitand wait for it to come to you.”

Fryazino’s difficulties are unique.Located about 26 miles southeast ofMoscow, the town was one of the formerSoviet Union’s most important producersof electronic equipment for the military.Specialists came from all over Russia towork in its factories and laboratories. Butafter the fall of the Soviet Union, stateorders dried up almost completely, plung-ing the city into depression. This leftmany of the town’s engineers and scien-tists without jobs or the skills theyneeded to adapt in Russia’s rapidlychanging economy.

Theprogrammeaddresses that prob-lem by offeringstudents likeKushtal six-monthclasses in market-ing, accounting,management andcomputer skills—disciplines ignored in the former Sovietcurriculums. Already in its third year, theprogramme has helped 60 locals find newjobs and start businesses—no small taskin Fryazino, where in its most depressedyears, as much as 50 percent of the town’sworking population was unemployed.

“We discovered there were so manybusinesses here and we had been livingwith our eyes closed this whole time,”said Kushtal.

A strong exampleThe UNDP project has been a brightspot in the community. It has helped toreturn some of the most highly educatedpeople back to work, said Nina Lebedeva,director of the city’s employment centre.And though the programme will notsolve all of Fryazino’s unemploymentproblems, it serves as a strong examplefor other towns to fight poverty and helpRussia along in its transition from com-munism to a market economy.

Elena Suzontova, a 38-year-old, whohad worked in one of the town’s factoriesin Soviet times, recently graduated from

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A student and professor confer. Businessclasses are an integral part of this UNDP-supported effort to help Russian women adjustto a recent transition to a market economy.


the programme. Afterworking for severalyears in a private con-struction company,painting and plaster-ing, Suzontova now ispreparing to open herown apartment repairbusiness.

“I knew my intel-lectual ability washigher,” she said. “Iquit my job and signedup for the course.”

Russia’s Government is only nowbeginning to realize how potentially pow-erful small business is to fueling growthin this country’s economy. A recent gov-ernment proposal to slash the number oflicenses needed to start a business couldencourage growth. Russia has lagged farbehind its former communist neighbourssuch as Poland, in small business.

Much has changed here since Soviettimes. New factories—a tea packagingplant and a bottle top maker—are provid-ing some new jobs. Employers who hadbeen based in Moscow now are choosingsmaller, nearby towns like Fryazino, whereoffice space costs less than half Moscow’sprices and average wages are lower.

Classes give students the chance tolearn more about these businesses byarranging visits with their managers andowners. This encourages students withtheir own ideas. In all, about 20 percentof the programme’s graduates havestarted their own businesses.

Despite recent changes, jobs here stillare hard to find. Many in Fryazino areforced to make the trip to Moscow—

about an hour and a half ride on thecommuter train—to work. The averagewage here totals about $100 a month,close to the Russian average.

While some of the programme’s stu-dents decide to start companies aftergraduation, most re-enter the job market.Vera Baranova, 54, was unemployed fortwo years after losing a job at the stateagency for certification. After completingthe programme, she found a more seniorposition at a company that gives qualitycertificates to importers of audio andvideo equipment.

A need for confidenceThe programme goes beyond businesstraining courses to help students withconfidence building and approach to newcareers. A psychologist works with themduring the training. Norwegian specialistscoach students on how to be moreproactive in seeking job opportunities.

This coaching was the most importantpart of the programme, its graduates say.After years of work in specialized pro-duction and a decade of post-Soviet eco-nomic reforms, people here say they nolonger feel they are a part of Russia’seconomy. They lack the confidence to testout business ideas.

Irina Lokhmatova, 38, had been sell-ing children’s clothing in local marketssince the collapse of the Soviet Union.After graduating from the programmelast year, she started her own company,Zolushka, the Russian word forCinderella, which provides maids,babysitters and nurses to wealthy locals.

“It helped me try something new,”Lokhmatova said, sitting at her desk inthe small basement space she has secured.“It helped me remove my complexes as awoman in business.”

Back at programme headquarters,which are based in a one-storey buildingthat used to be a clothing factory, a newgroup of students was beginning its firstday. Nervous questions follow an intro-ductory talk by one of the programme’sorganizers. The instructor, OlegYemilianov, who runs a corporate trainingcompany in Moscow, surveys the group.

“Some of them will turn out to beimplementors, but others will showthemselves as leaders,” Yemilianov notedafter the class. “Under the right condi-tions, these people will open their ownbusinesses. It will give them a chance tostart a new life in the market economy.” ■

Sabrina Tavernise, who is based in Moscow,writes frequently on business issues for TheNew York Times.


Is Debt Relief Good for the Poor?

The goal of halving global poverty by2015 is a huge challenge. Althoughglobal poverty estimates suggest thatthe world is on track for achieving the

target, most of the progress has been dueto one country—China. When China isexcluded, global progress during the1990s was less than half the rate needed.Moreover, the reliability of poverty datafor China is under scrutiny.

The sad fact is that since 1990, the num-ber of people in Latin America, South Asiaand sub-Saharan Africa below the interna-tional poverty line of US$1 per day hasincreased by an average of about 10 millionper year combined. Social progress hasfallen far short of promises made at worldsummits and global conferences—in termsof infant mortality, child malnutrition andadult literacy.

Why are over one billion people indeveloping countries struggling to surviveon less than $1 per day when the globaleconomy is seeing unprecedented prosper-ity? The answer is simple and complex atthe same time.

Most countries—for a variety of rea-sons—under-invest in basic social services.During the second half of the 1990s, devel-oping countries spent, on average, between12-14 percent of the national budget on basicsocial services. At the same time, donorcountries allocated, on average, between 10-12 percent of their aid budget to basic socialservices.These budget and aid allocationsfall short by about one-third of what isneeded—about $100 billion per year.

This seemingly daunting figure needs tobe put into perspective. A recent update ofthe global cost for achieving the educationgoal by 2015 yields a figure of $9 billion peryear needed in extra spending on primaryeducation.This represents 0.14 percent of thecombined Gross National Product (GNP) ofdeveloping countries, and a mere 0.03 per-cent of global GNP. “Education for all” isaffordable at the global level along withother international development targets.

Poor economicsHow then to achieve greater investment?One way is to reduce or eliminate the per-sistent, unalleviated burden of debt.Two-thirds of 42 countries surveyed spent moreon debt servicing than on basic social serv-ices. Some countries spent three to fivetimes as much.

To spend more on external debt than onbasic social services is not only morally wrong,it is also poor economics.

In the early 1980s, the debt crisis wasseen as a temporary liquidity problem. Debt

relief came in the form of partial and short-term rescheduling. By the mid-1980s, it wasapparent that this approach was not work-ing. Special terms were adopted, but theydid not stop debt from rising and arrearsfrom accumulating.

The Heavily Indebted Poor Countries(HIPC) initiative was launched in 1996 asthe first attempt to address the debt issue ina comprehensive way. Until then, Interna-tional Monetary Fund and World Bank loanshad not been part of debt relief measures.Unfortunately, HIPC implementation waspainfully slow. Only four countries receiveddebt relief in the first three years of opera-tion. Meanwhile, several countries saw theirdomestic debt rise to unsustainable levels.

An enhanced HIPC initiative was re-launched in 1999 in an attempt to speed upimplementation. It promised to give eligiblecountries immediate debt relief, but still didnot take into account the fiscal burden

when determining a country’s external debtsustainability.The criteria used were exclu-sively trade-related, despite the obvious factthat it is governments, not exporters, thatrepay external debt.

Lifting the burdenMany reasons have been advanced why debtrelief should be delayed or not considered atall.They usually include the argument thatit rewards poor performers, that resourcesare fungible so that it is impossible to trackthe impact of the debt dividend on poverty

reduction, and thatmany governmentslack political com-mitment and/orinstitutional capacityto reduce poverty.The following anal-ogy is meant todemystify most ofthem.

When NelsonMandela walked outof prison a decadeago, he knew thatthe only way for

South Africa to overcome the legacy ofapartheid was to look forward—not back-ward—and to be ready to forgive mistakesof the past. Rich countries need to followhis powerful example when it comes toovercoming the legacy of bad loans to poorcountries.

Although it would be unrealistic to assumethat debt relief will solve all the problems ofpoverty, it will be needed if the 2015 prom-ise vis-à-vis the poor is to be kept. ■

Jan Vandemoortele is the Principal Adviser andGroup Leader of UNDP’s Social DevelopmentGroup.

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UNITED NATIONS, NEW YORK

“Aworld that spent anestimated US$500billion to tackle theelusive Y2K bug on our

computers must be able to domore to tackle a virus that hasalready claimed 22 millionlives,” United NationsDevelopment Programme(UNDP) Administrator MarkMalloch Brown told the clos-ing meeting of the UNGeneral Assembly SpecialSession on HIV/AIDS(UNGASS) on 27 June 2001.

The session, the first evercalled to discuss a disease,adopted a Declaration ofCommitment, which includesa comprehensive blueprintand timetables for national,regional and internationalactions between 2003 and2005 to stem the pandemic.

“This must be the year theworld finally goes on a war-footing,” Malloch Brown said.He urged countries to mobi-lize all sectors of society toprevent new infections,expand equitable access tonew HIV treatments and“alleviate the disastrousimpact of AIDS on humandevelopment.”

UNDP will do all it can tohelp governments meet theirtimetables, the Administratorpledged. The hardest hitcountries could see their GNP

shrink by up to 40 percentwithin two decades, accordingto a new UNDP report,HIV/AIDS: Implications forPoverty Reduction, released ata panel discussion on mitigat-ing the impact of HIV/AIDSon human development.

Prime Minister ErnestYonly of Burkina Faso, told aUNGASS panel, “It is vital forpeople to understand that the

fight against poverty and HIV/AIDS is the same.” BurkinaFaso is targeting the most vul-nerable sectors of society in itsHIV/AIDS initiative, he said,including agricultural regions,tourism areas, students, womenand children.

Haiti’s FirstLady, MildredAristide, alsostressed the linkbetween povertyand AIDS. Thedisease flourisheswhere poverty isrife, she noted,adding that interna-tional aid for Haitihas been frozen dueto an electoral dis-pute. “Thisimpasse,” she said,“is punishing eightmillion Haitians.”


HIV/AIDS and PovertyReductionUNDP hosted a discussion on the impact ofHIV/AIDS on poverty reduction and how coun-tries can confront the many challenges thepandemic poses. Moderated by UNDP Admin-istrator Mark Malloch Brown, the panelistswere (clockwise) Ernest Yonly, Prime Ministerand Minister of Economy and Finance, Burk-ina Faso; Madame Mildred Aristide, First Ladyof Haiti; Reverend Gideon Byamugisha fromthe Diocese of Namirembe, Uganda; JuanSomavia, Director General, InternationalLabour Organization.

M·A·C Cosmetics President John Demsey (left) and UNDP AdministratorMark Malloch Brown (third from left) greet guests at the UNGASS reception.

Good intentions in fight-ing HIV/AIDS have notbeen matched by allocationsof resources at the nationaland international level, saidUganda’s Reverend GideonByamugisha, representing an

Presidents Meet the PressPresidents Abdoulaye Wade of Senegal (left)and Benjamin W. Mkapa (right) of Tanzaniamet with New York-based journalists at twobreakfasts organized by UNDP. PresidentWade spoke candidly and in-depth aboutSenegal’s experience in addressing HIV/AIDS.President Mkapa fielded a wide range of ques-tions on Tanzania’s success in democratiza-tion and economic growth.

UNITED NATIONSSPECIAL SESSIONON HIV/AIDSGlobal Crisis-Global Action

Global Action to Stem HIV/AIDS

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HIV/AIDS Coalition. Theinitiative aims to provide swiftand ongoing follow-up to thespecial session using the latesttechnologies to develop inno-vative new approaches totackle the crisis.

The Declaration ofCommitment calls for coun-tries to adopt national strate-gies and financing plans by2003 for fighting HIV/AIDSand set national goals forreducing the HIV prevalence

Ecumenical Team broughttogether by the WorldCouncil of Churches. “AIDSis not just a disease,” he said.“It is a symptom of the waywe relate to each other in theglobal village: it representsinjustice, inequality and mar-ginalization.” Faced with theepidemic, Byamugisha, who isHIV-positive, asked, “Shouldwe be asking for debt reduc-tion or debt cancellation forpoor countries?”

International LabourOrganization (ILO) Director-General Juan Somavia saidthat some three out of fourpeople living with HIV areworkers—25 million peopleworldwide. He introduced anew ILO Code of Practice onHIV/AIDS, developed inconsultation with governmentsand labour and employerorganizations. “The workplacecan be an important place toadvance the struggle againstHIV/AIDS,” he said.

Though current spending indeveloping countries to combatthe deadly virus is less than $2billion a year, Malloch Browntold the special session thatthe target of $7 to $10 billionannually, “would only give usthe tools to tackle the directproblems of prevention andtreatment on a limited basis.”

Malloch Brown announcedthat UNDP is mobilizing anInformation and Communica-tions Technology Against

HIV/AIDS and Business UNDP organized a panel discussion on how the business sector can work in partnership with governments, civilsociety organizations and the UN system to take action in response to HIV/AIDS, both nationally and globally.Panelists (left-right): Dr. Franklyn Lisk, Director, Global AIDS Programme, International Labour Organization;Maurice Tempelsman, Chair, Corporate Council on Africa and International Advisory Council of Harvard AIDS Insti-tute; Festus G. Mogae, President of Botswana; Mark Malloch Brown, UNDP Administrator and Moderator; WilliamH. Roedy, Chair, Global Business Council on HIV & AIDS and President, MTV Networks International, and Dr. DeniseClement, Director, Healthcare Quality Assurance in Ford Motor Company, South Africa.


rate among people aged 15-24 by 25 percent by 2005. ■

—By Richard Leonard, a com-munications consultant withUNDP.

Mandela Award for UNAIDS ChiefPeter Piot (right), Executive Director of the Joint UNProgramme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) receives theNelson Mandela Award for Health and Human Rightsfrom the UN Secretary-General Kofi A. Annan (left), ata reception organized by UNDP, the M·A·C AIDS Fundand the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation. “Dr. Piotbrings to this fight a blend of authority and commit-ment that can only come from long and first-handexperience. He is a living example of the kind ofwhole-hearted dedication we need,” Mr. Annan said.The annual Award was established in 1992 by theFoundation at the behest of former President Man-dela to honour two individuals—a South African and anon-South African—for outstanding dedication toimproving the health and life chances of disadvan-taged people.


UNITED NATIONS, NEW YORK

With job skills trainingand a micro-credit grantfrom the United NationsDevelopment Programme

(UNDP), former fighters in theRepublic of the Congo haveopened pharmacies, bakeries,butcher shops, and a wide vari-ety of small businesses in returnfor giving up their weapons.

In Albania, communitiesdecided on various develop-ment projects such as roads,bridges and urban improve-ments in exchange for theirweapons.

The same approach basedon the idea that people couldbe persuaded to give up theirguns when their safety isassured and they have achance to make a living, isnow being used in Niger and

the Solomon Islands as well.Such efforts to simultane-

ously collect and destroy illicitsmall arms, while promotingsecurity and development,gained further support fromthe international community atJuly’s UN Conference on theIllicit Trade in Small Armsand Light Weapons in all itsAspects, held in New York.

Rifles, handguns andportable machine guns havebecome the weapons of choicein the increasing number ofinternal conflicts that haveerupted in developing coun-tries over the last decade. Thepresence of small arms hashad a devastating impact onpeople and their communities.

The increasing use of theselight-weight weapons in con-flicts, a result of ever growingavailability on the market,claims more than 300,000lives a year. But the impact ofsmall arms goes even further.In the climate of fear andinsecurity fueled by smallarms, crime rises, schools andshops close and localeconomies grind to a halt.Buildings are destroyed,bridges are blown up, anddecades of development arereversed. Millions have had toleave their homes and nowlive in fear.

The UN actsResponding to the problem ofillicit small arms, the UN’s 189members agreed to a globalplan of action in July that callson governments and interna-tional organizations to takemajor steps to curtail the spreadof these weapons.

Most of the conference’srecommendations involvedmeasures aimed at trackingand curbing the supply ofillicit weapons. At the same

time, the conferenceacknowledged thelink between illicitsmall arms andpoverty and under-development, andcalled on countriesto reduce the demandfor small arms byaddressing the root

SMALL ARMS STATISTICS

More than half a billion smallarms—handguns, rifles, sub-machine guns—are in circula-tion around the world.

Percentage of illicit small armsin circulation: 40-60.

Small arms kill between 200,000and 300,000 people annually.

Eighty percent of small armsand light weapons’ victims arechildren and women.

Severe economic consequences:GDP of many countries plaguedby small arms can fall by about15 to 20 percent a year.

Illicit trade accounts for an esti-mated 20 percent of the totaltraffic in small arms, valued atbetween US$4-6 billion a year.

In Albania, UNDP assisted in thecollection of over 12,000 smallarms and 200 tons of ammuni-tion.

In Congo Brazzaville, UNDP hashelped to collect and destroyover 10,000 small arms whileproviding reintegration assis-tance to over 6,000 formercombatants.

In South Africa, handguns wereused in more than 85 percent ofrobberies.

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Destruction of armson 14 April 2001, inBrazzaville, Republicof the Congo.

New York rally againstsmall arms (page 25,top left)

causes of conflict, and byassisting ex-combatants inrejoining civilian life. RobertScharf, who heads UNDP’sSmall Arms Programme, saidthat the plan of action is anendorsement of the develop-ment approach. “There isgrowing realization thatpoverty, mixed with smallarms, is a volatile combinationthat can ignite deadly con-

flicts. By addressingpeoples’ welfare—their security andtheir livelihoods—we have been ableto collect anddestroy small armsand secure peaceand stability.”

Destroying thearmsTo prevent smallarms from beingrecycled and used in

one conflict after another, anessential element ofmost programmesinvolves thedestruction of theseweapons. Majorpublic weaponsdestruction eventshave been held,with huge bonfires,in the Congo andMali.

With funding from donorsto UNDP’s Trust Fund forSmall Arms, UNDP’s smallarms programme serves aspart of the organization’sefforts to build and maintainpeace in conflict or potentialconflict areas and to lay thefoundation for longer-termdevelopment.

In Niger, where a series ofrebellions over the last decadestalled development efforts,Steve Ursino, the UNDPResident Representative, saidit was a sound decision to start

a “weapons for development”programme in one of thepoorest districts in what maybe the poorest country in theworld. “Its success will allowcommunities to focus onpoverty reduction, which is areal development issue.” ■

—By Daniel Shepard, a mediaconsultant for UNDP’sEmergency Response Division.


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(Left and above) Small arms canbe destroyed through a variety ofmethods, including cutting.

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There is

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Governance: ‘theaction or manner ofgoverning,’ ‘the state

of being governed.’ In thepast this dictionary defini-tion was taken as referringspecifically to national gov-ernments and their people.But in our age of globaliza-tion, of global resources andcertainly global problems,the concept of governance inrelation to tackling worldpoverty starts at a muchhigher level, the Everest ofinternational finance. So wehave to begin by facing theopposing conceptions mostwidely held about the devo-lution from the heights,down-to-earth.

Recipient countries ofloan funds through theInternational MonetaryFund (IMF) and WorldBank resent conditionsimposed by the agencies ofthe financial Everest as tothe ways in which themoney is to be used. Theyeven assert that develop-ment—the object—is ham-pered by such conditions.

The agencies cite strin-gent necessity for conditionsin order to counter theirexperience of corruption as agovernment conduit throughwhich the funds disappearwithout any developmentreaching a country’s popula-tion.

So governance beginsabove a country’s own lawsand administration. Whetherdebt owed to the Everestshould be written off, in viewof crippling interest paymentsrequired even from countrieswhich do use the money forsustainable development, isanother question—shouldEverest be a usurer, or shouldit be a real agent of redistribu-tion of wealth in a worldwhere some 1.2 billion peoplelive in severe poverty, definedas less than US$1 a day?

There are encouragingsigns of a change in concep-tion on the part of donorsand recipients. MampheleRamphele, speaking asManaging Director of theHuman Development Unit ofthe World Bank, says that theapproach now needed is for“countries to take ownership”of development rather than“receive prescribed programmesof action…to leverage theirown destiny and build capac-ity for themselves.”

Senegalese PresidentAbdoulaye Wade says ofAfricans who have been‘financing debt by loans andaid for years,’ ‘those instru-ments don’t take us far…wemust first understand how wegot into debt in the firstplace.” This facing of realityby both donor and debtorgives credence to the claim by10 African leaders conferringwith the IMF and WorldBank this year, of a “major

step forward to define a newapproach to fight poverty inAfrica.”

What principal areas ofnational life depend on goodnational governance if povertyis to be tackled on the ground,within each country? Foremost,surely: unemployment, post-colonial land redistribution,use and exploitation of naturalresources, health care withemphasis on the AIDS epi-demic, education; and notleast, corruption. There is adetermining condition if theseare to be addressed: press andmedia freedom. There is nogood governance without apopulation free to participatein open debate on governmentpolicy and practice, to effectfor themselves progress in thecondition of their lives.

‘Entitlement relations’—Amartya Sen’s phrase definesfor me what global gover-nance through internationalfinance and national gover-nance on-the-ground need tohave with a population on thepremise that they are to tacklepoverty the only effectiveway—together. And hereUNDP, with partnershipstressed as its mode of opera-tion in the 21st Century, pro-vides a model in its provendedication to be, itself, a part-

ner in enterprises of and forgood governance. Experiencein product innovation hastaught the lesson that successis dependent on making suregovernance of a country hasthe minimum means, and thewill, to cooperate—the capac-ity. This implies that capacitytraining is, in itself, a projectin the partnership of gover-nance with poverty elimina-tion. A project cannot succeedwhere the capacity to imple-ment it—whether through thelack of trained personnel,communication facilities—isnot at least in a parallel stateof development.

To reach the end theremust be the minimal means.Then the energy and determi-nation of the population can,and does, take off for success.

The developing world, thepeoples of that world, haveentitlement, entitlement tothe redistribution of theworld’s wealth rather than theeuphemistic “aid,” entitlementto just, incorruptible gover-nance. The right to recogni-tion of, and action within, theinterdependence of gover-nance and the millenial, globalproblem, poverty. ■

Nadine Gordimer, winner of the1991 Nobel Prize for Literature,is Global Goodwill Ambassadorfor UNDP.

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