Post-Washington Consensus (poverty) Flashcards
what is absolute vs relative poverty?
absolute pov: minimal daily physical needs not met
relative pov: in relation to others in that society
what is objective vs subjective poverty
objective pov: empirically examined (e.g. property, land, health)
subjective pov: perceptions of people (e.g. dependence, status)
what are the advantages of hard quantitative data and qualitative data to measure poverty?
quantitative: (a) comparability (b) detailed qualitative: (a) deeper (b) more context
what are the disadvantages of hard quantitative data and qualitative data to measure poverty?
quantitative: (a) not attuned to context and causes qualitative: (a) normaive? (b) less comparability
what are the different approaches to resolve poverty?
- individualistic/voluntarist approaches
2. structural approaches
what are the individualistic/voluntarist approaches to resolve poverty?
- neoliberal and modernization framework
- poverty = result from bad luck (undeserving) + poor choices (deserving)
- poverty = temporary (will go away if national income increases)
- create econ growth through the market
- growth: necessary but insufficient for poverty reduction
what are the structural approaches to resolve poverty?
- poverty = result from lack of opportunities inherent in social and econ. structures
- > result of poverty traps
- > multidimensional
- > requires reforms and redistribution (investment in edu, food security, safety nets…)
what are micro vs macro level poverty traps?
micro poverty traps:
- edu, health, knowledge, income -> low productivity, low income, health decline…
macro poverty traps:
- demographic trap: national income growth needs to keep up with population growth
- taxation trap: low gov income -> low gov investment in edu and social services
How did the augmented/post-washington consensus emerge?
- policy outcome of 1990s-present (inclusive neoliberalism)
- poor SAP results of Washington consensus -> 2 pronged reaction:
(1) reexamine role of state in dev
(2) reemphasize need to address poverty - poverty reduction and social services needs comprehensive social policy
- culminated in ‘global compact’
what are the main principles of the augmented/post-washington consensus?
- partnernship between rich and poor countries (common fight against poverty)
(1) developing countries formulate Poverty Reduction Strategy (PRSP)
(2) UN: worldwide dev goals and targets to steer development policy
What are Poverty Reduction Strategies (PRSPs)
- multisectoral approach
- gov in developing country formulates own plan -> ownership
- participative policy (IFIs and donors approve and contribute + process conditionality)
what is the global compact?
within UN, m.s. agree to development goals -> concrete and measurable targets with deadline
what did the successor goals of 2030 (SDGs) add (vs. 2015 ones MDGs)?
- 2-sided:
(a) donors provide aid, relieve debt, provide access to markets
(b) developing countries (receivers) commit to good policies - focus on outputs
- more concreteness and measurability
What is the MDG goal number uno?
- theme: eradicate extreme pov and hunger by 2015
- target: 1/2 the people on less than 1.25 dollars a day
what were the results of the MDG goal numero uno?
- reduction of poverty from 36% to 10%
- > but it was mostly India and China though)
- African, central America, SEA: increase in povrety
What is the SDG goal number uno?
- theme: eradicate extreme poverty still
- target:
(a) eradicate for all
(b) reduce by half relative poverty
(c) implement nationally appropriate social protection systems
what were the results of the SDG goal numero uno?
- in 2030: still 6% in extreme poverty
- SEA, sub-subharan africa: increase in poverty
- 1/5 children in extreme poverty
- 2016: 55% benefit from no social protection at all
What does Sachs advocate for to reduce poverty?
- ‘The Big Push’ -> fill gap
- ‘fix the plumbing’ -> pipes for dev clogged or too narrow -> need to scale up channels
- so: increase development assistance
- top-down planning
According to Sachs, what causes poverty?
- poverty traps (vs. bad governance)
1. too little savings
2. demographic (too many children)
3. non-convexity in production function (input vs output)
what have been critical responses to the MDGs and SGDs (global compact)
- major distracting gimmick
- easterly: repeat of history and will fail again (deja vue)
- Saith: ineffective
why are the MDGs/SDGs/global compact considered a distracting gimmick by some?
- goals unfair to Africa (too far to reach)
- false progress (India and China already close to target)
- manipulation of stats for quantitative targets
- imbalance between goals and concrete target of north
- easy, quantifiable goals chosen over complex and strategic goals (technocratic approach)
- exclude rights-based dev
why are the MDGs/SDGs/global compact considered a a repeat of history by Easterly?
- repeat of history and will fail gain
- > too focused on state and neglects basic rights of poor
- need piecemeal approach (trial and error, small-scale, local)
- focus on incentives
why are the MDGs/SDGs/global compact considered ineffective by Saith?
- poor translation of goals to targets, ingores complexity and contexts (1 recipe)
- little ambition of MDGs (some reached when adopted)
- 1 - sided focus only on pov in South
- misrepresentation invited
