After the collective farms
October 17 marked the International Day for the Eradication of Poverty. Forces operating in the global market (which is just gaining momentum) refer to the periphery of peoples and countries failing to register general well-being and economic prosperity.
At present, approximately one- third of the Ukrainian population constitutes a category known as social exceptions, meaning people receiving no benefits from economic growth. Without access to resources, knowledge, and progressive technologies, these people are unable to break free from the vicious circle of misery, remaining the basis of stagnant poverty. Will the economic growth that has started in Ukraine bring this category of the population any relief? This author addressed the question to Ella Libanova, scientific consultant to the president of Ukraine, and Corresponding Member of the Ukrainian National Academy of Sciences.
“Unfortunately, one must admit that, despite obvious reductions in the scope of poverty in 2002, almost a quarter of the population still lives in misery. Personal incomes of the most underprivileged strata lag behind the average national indices. Thus, over the past four years such incomes of the poorest strata have increased by a mere 4.7%; those of the better-off by 12.4% — but the poll couldn’t practically embrace all of the wealthiest individuals.”
“Who were the neediest?”
“Families with many children, pensioners, disabled, and rural residents. There are 93% needy among families with many children; 50% with three children, and 34% with two children. This is the most difficult problem. Protecting pensioners and the disabled requires higher pensions and benefits. Strange as it might seem to many, this can be accomplished much easier. In fact, economic growth combined with the economy getting out of the shadows, anticipatory pay rises, and pension reform will do precisely that. Thus the problem is mostly economic.”
“What about children in needy families?”
“Although the number of university graduates has increased by 40% in the past decade, the situation with the children in the underprivileged families and the number of children in the rural areas hasn’t improved significantly. They can ill afford a competitive education, which is getting increasingly expensive, while post-secondary education is now the only guarantee against poverty. Even a single university graduate in a family lowers the poverty risk by 2.5 times. Although higher education doesn’t guarantee employment in line with one’s qualifications, it enables one to get a better-paid job. Therefore, the inaccessibility of a good education (not necessarily post-secondary but necessarily a competitive one) dooms children from low-income families to future noncompetitiveness in the labor market, turning them into stagnant poverty candidates.”
“We hear a lot about the Ukrainian countryside going from bad to worse; is stagnant poverty the case?”
“In 1999-2002, the poverty level in the urban areas dropped by more than one-third, and by approximately 9% in small towns, while no tangible progress was seen in the countryside, although the rural populace feels more optimistic than urban residents.
“Naturally, people living in the countryside are not starving, but they are denied even those simple amenities one finds in the urban areas — housing, work conditions, health care, and education. Therefore, we assume that the rural populace suffers mainly from the lack of opportunities; even if they happen to have some money stashed away they can’t secure living condition regarded as adequate by current [Ukrainian] standards.
“At present, people in the countryside mostly work on their own small farming plots, largely because it is probably the only way to make both ends meet for a large number of rural and even urban residents. However, the low productivity of labor, lack of modern technologies and quality seed make these farms low-profit. Ukraine’s agrarian sector shares 25% of employment, while in Canada, with its powerful farming, it is only 2.5%. Relieving people of the need to do subsistence farming, providing greater access to bank loans, retraining, effective technologies, and other economic assets, along with increasing productivity and diversifying small farming businesses will make it possible to increase productivity and accelerate economic growth in Ukraine.
“Yet here we’re threatened by rural unemployment, and there is another problem: one part of the working age citizens becomes active while dooming the other part to misery. Here the cruel principle of your misery is your problem is at play. People that can afford to enroll their children in elite daycare centers, schools, and move to plush apartments, and those who can’t — this is an inalienable component of a market economy. However, a country failing to overcome mass poverty will never become a full-fledged member of the European and international communities, nor will this country ever live in a socially and ethically healthy atmosphere. Care for the needy, social protection, empathy for those stricken by fate, offering such people even a glimpse of hope — this must become a top priority in our society, for both rich and poor.
“The Millennium Development Goals, worked out by the UN and adopted by 189 countries at the 2000 Millennium Summit, are aimed at revising the world development strategy with regard to the underdeveloped countries. Here the eradication of poverty is the highest priority involving poor and rich countries and meant to join their efforts. These goals are complete with statistics and indices of progress; they are understandable and socially oriented, serving as an implement of actual control over the efforts of governments and civil societies. They are a serious argument in political debate, making it possible to assess the performance of authorities, so the international community could decide not to support governments that fail to take real steps to eradicate poverty.
“Reaching the Millennium Development Goals is the key priority of the UN system at the global and national levels. At the 58th UN General Assembly Session, Leonid Kuchma presented Secretary-General Kofi Annan with Ukraine’s first report on the Goals, prepared by the Ministry of the Economy and European Integration, jointly with a team of UNDP experts in Ukraine. The document is expected to serve as the basis of extensive national and regional discussions.”
“What can civil society do to help overcome stagnant poverty and expand the social range of economic growth?”
“Unfortunately, we still fail to take into account the capabilities of a civil society, nongovernmental organizations, and citizens’ associations. Nongovernmental organizations are meant to exercise rigid control over municipal social spending and to assist the needy. Ukraine signed the Millennium Development Goals, thus undertaking to eradicate extreme poverty and lower relative poverty by half before 2015, as well as to lower maternal and child mortality, put an end to the spread of HIV/AIDS and TB epidemics, provide easier access to education, basic health care, and solve a number of environmental problems. The Ministry of the Economy and European Integration includes all this in strategic governmental documents along with regional development programs. Eradication of poverty in terms of [personal] incomes is to be gradually replaced by the eradication of poverty in terms of opportunity. This must become a priority for civil society and local communities. Our state isn’t likely to broach this problem in the immediate future. If a small town or village lacks something like a school, so the children have nowhere to study, if a hospital is closed, if the populace is not provided with fresh water, such problems can be solved by companies, by actively enlisting the public in the distribution of funds and reorienting local development programs. This is practiced by all the advanced countries and we’ll eventually have to follow suit. Of course, ranking officials won’t be overjoyed by such public initiatives, but this is the only way to build a new society where the people will have equal opportunities to live a happier life.”
