VULNERABLE MUST BE AT CENTRE OF DEVELOPMENT POLICY DESIGN, COMMISSION FOR SOCIAL DEVELOPMENT TOLD

17 February 1998

Press Release
SOC/4438

VULNERABLE MUST BE AT CENTRE OF DEVELOPMENT POLICY DESIGN, COMMISSION FOR SOCIAL DEVELOPMENT TOLD

19980217 Expert Panel Addresses Enhancing Source Protection, Reducing Vulnerability; Speakers Stress Need for Balance between Globalization, Community Development

Development must be redefined, with vulnerable groups and countries at the centre of policy design, the Commission for Social Development was told this morning, as it held a panel discussion on the theme of "enhancing social protection and reducing vulnerability".

The expert panel moderated by the Commission Chairman, Aurelio Fernandez (Spain), was part of the Commission's special session on implementation of the goals of the 1995 World Summit for Social Development relating to eliminating social exclusion. The panel format was part of the Commission's effort to open its debate to experts and civil society.

The following experts participated in the panel, in their personal capacities: Vappu Taipale, Director-General, Finland's National Research and Development Centre for Welfare and Health; Meryl James-Sebro, Director, First Works International of Trinidad and Tobago; John D'Mello, Professor, St. Pius College and Research Director of the Justice and Peace Commission of India; and Ana Maria de Frappola, Head of the Inter-American Organization's Unit on Children, Families and Disability.

Development should not be defined as rich countries of the North enlightening the poor countries of the South, said Ms. James-Sebro. Instead there should be a focus on the efforts of the exploited to move from hopelessness to self-determination and autonomy. Attempts by vulnerable groups and countries to determine their own fate should be encouraged.

Two opposing forces were vying for power, Mr. d'Mello said. Localization, driven by local groups, sought to return power to the hands of the people, while globalization was driven by transnational corporations and would bring power to an elite few. The Social Summit had supported localization. The Commission, therefore, must support grassroots organizations, which protected against State-private sector alliances.

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The challenge was to create a balance between globalization and community development, and between economic development and fairness, said Ms. de Frappola. While governments should retain their social responsibilities, civil society organizations best represented communities' needs. Development should be aimed at promoting people's self-determination and equality.

Ms. Taipale stressed the importance of information technology in development. Information technology must be harnessed to ensure it was not used to increase vulnerability by deepening cleavages between the educated and non-educated, she said. To involve vulnerable groups in the development process, social and technological policies should be aligned and information made universal.

The Commission will meet again at 3 p.m. today, to begin discussing the following two themes: enhancing social protection and reducing vulnerability; and violence, crime, illicit drugs and substance abuse as factors of social disintegration.

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Commission Work Programme

The Commission for Social Development met this morning to hear an expert panel discussion on the topic of enhancing social protection and reducing vulnerability. The Commission will consider this theme as it continues its review of the implementation of the outcome of the World Summit for Social Development (Copenhagen, 1995). (For background information, see Press Release SOC/4430 of 9 February.)

Expert Opening Statements

VAPPU TAIPALE, Director-General, National Research and Development Center for Welfare and Health of Finland, said the best way to enhance social protection and reduce vulnerability was through social policies. The world's current economic, environmental and social situation challenged national polices and neither the problems nor the solutions recognized national borders. While there had been a focus on the economic dimension of development, little time has been spent on global social policies. Those policies must be explored with the participation of researchers, politicians, international organizations and businesses.

The advent of the information age was among the most important issues in development, she said. The development opportunities of the information age were tremendous, because it allowed societies to overcome such obstacles as distance and time. Through satellite connections, the most remote health centre could get modern information on treatment. The technological innovations used for military and security purposes could be converted and used for social, human and everyday use.

The technology available, however, would not lead to development opportunities by chance, she said. If information technology was not influenced by the social leaders and was controlled only by people who were technologically advanced, but socially unaware, there were tremendous dangers. Technological development could increase vulnerability and deepen cleavages between the educated and non-educated, if the technology was kept in just a few hands. An alliance was needed between social policies and technological polices in every country. In addition, a concerted effort must be made to provide universal access to technologies.

MERYL JAMES-SEBRO, a sociologist specializing in health and poverty issues and Director of First Works International, a non-governmental organization in Trinidad and Tobago, said that structural vulnerability continued to undermine social protection. Structural vulnerability had arisen because some areas of the world had developed at the expense of other areas and some groups had developed at the expense of other groups. Poverty and vulnerability were linked to power and the existing power structures were continuations of colonial relationships between rich and poor countries. The

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former colonialist powers had retained their unfair advantage through economic, political, military and cultural exploitation. Exploitation and dependency were linked to all the development issues discussed in the Commission. They were the source of much of the poverty, violence, crime and political turmoil that led to social disintegration.

She said that the victims of colonialism, such as Native Americans, the indigenous peoples of South America and survivors of the African diaspora, continued to be among the most vulnerable groups in society. People in former colonized nations continued to suffer from uneven trade relations and the transfer of wealth and resources from dependent to dominant countries continued. For those reasons, the income gap between the rich and poor countries had grown dramatically in recent decades.

What was needed, she said, was a new way of looking at development that did not define progress as the rich countries of the North enlightening the poor countries of the South. Instead, there should be a focus on how people were carrying on, despite disadvantages and structural vulnerability. There should be a focus on the efforts of the exploited to move from hopelessness to self-determination and autonomy.

For real development to take place, powerful countries must eliminate their strangleholds on the so called "third world" countries, she said. The vulnerable were now looked at as if they were invisible and did not know their own needs. They were treated as if they were either too dumb or too lazy to seek their own good. Attempts by the vulnerable to determine their own fate, however, should be encouraged. Their inherent vulnerability must be acknowledged and a structurally-level playing field must be created, if the world was to see real development.

JOHN D'MELLO, Professor, St. Pius College and Research Director of the Justice and Peace Commission of India, said that rather than addressing efforts towards protecting the vulnerable, the international community must confront the factors that created vulnerability. People were affected by macro processes, such as structural adjustment programmes imposed by the "unholy trinity" of the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Trade Organization. The mammoth Narmada Dam project in India had displaced 40,000 indigenous persons from their land and transformed them into vulnerable groups. The "five-star culture" of tourism was transforming simple village people into mercenaries. Child prostitution was a direct consequence of tourism.

Local movements offered protection to vulnerable persons and groups, he said. Such local groups must create networks with other interest groups, by which civil society could become an alternate source of power. Could the State, private sector and civil society collaborate? he asked. It was not likely, given the conflict of interest inherent to those three sectors.

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Instead, it was more likely that there would be collaboration between State and private actors. In light of that, the importance of non-governmental organizations was becoming more marked. While some such groups shamed governments into responsible behaviour, others had been co-opted by state or private sector interests. Local, grassroots organizations must work closely with the people and act without the government's blessing.

Non-governmental organizations and community-based organizations should pressure the State to regulate the economy, he said. The State must safeguard the interests of the vulnerable. Multinational corporations were now investing in culture. "We are witnessing the 'MacDonaldization' of culture", he said. Integrated social development was being replaced by a focus on economic growth and culture was being commodified. Ancient systems were being repackaged to fit the desires of the consumer industry. For example, yoga was being promoted as a fitness programme, while its precepts were ignored.

Globalization and localization were two competing forces, he added. The first was driven by global corporations, the other by local groups. The first concentrated power upwards and the other distributed power downwards, to the local level. In such a reality, there was no neutrality. Institutions supported either one or the other

ANA MARIA DE FRAPPOLA, Head of the Inter-American Organization's Unit on Children, Families and Disability, described a model called "inclusion and human rights", which was being applied in several Latin American and Caribbean countries. In each of the participating countries, groups had been established, including representatives from State, regional, civic and private organizations. Those groups had analysed the current realities of communities and countries to develop policies that promoted equity. There had been agreement that environmental, economic and employment safety had become primary concerns. Further, the loss of values and cultures was creating anxiety.

Participants in the model were now focusing on national strategies for inclusion and human rights, she said. They were considering laws and policies to ensure respect for the needs of the individual. The premise of the model was that the development of communities must integrate social and economic factors and that the individual was the subject of law. That orientation meant that plans were aimed at people's self-determination and equality, without discrimination. Vulnerability must be managed based on a respect for life. Military conflict and acts of violence violated the right to life. State expenditures should be used for social purposes. Individuals must be allowed to develop and grow, a principle distinct from charity or compassion.

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The challenge was to create a balance between globalization and community development, and between economic development and fairness, she said. Mechanisms were needed by which communities could enrich the work done by State institutions. Any policy for reducing social vulnerability must focus on the family unit, as part of a support system for promoting inclusion. While the social responsibilities of governments could not be renounced, civil society organizations represented communities' needs. The private sector had resources that could empower all citizens, if it participated in development strategies creatively and not out of charity. The responsibilities of each sector were distinct. All social actors should be partners and no actor should dominate the cooperation.

Question and Answer Session

Responding to a question on how change and development was possible while retaining traditional ways of life, Ms. JAMES-SEBRO said that cultures needed to be validated and respected by countries. Unfortunately, countries were not currently acknowledging the importance of other cultures. The challenge was to look within the traditions to see how people were surviving. Governments could get a better idea of what was needed in development by seeing how traditional peoples were living and dealing with their vulnerability. Culture and the sovereignty of nations must be respected, regardless of the stage of development.

On the same topic, Ms. DE FRAPPOLA said mechanisms to protect against the harmful effects of globalization on traditional peoples must be created. Social and economic development must not exclude everything that was traditional. Development strategies must make it possible for an individual to preserve diversity and multiculturalism, while taking part in development.

Ms. TAIPALE said there was no reason to romanticize the past and traditional ways of life. Those ways of life might also have had vulnerable groups. To achieve the best possible future, the past should be respected, but change should be encouraged.

Mr. D'MELLO said there might well have been vulnerability in traditional societies, but vulnerability had increased and was more widespread under current development strategies. To address that problem, the impact of structural adjustment programmes and their social implications on the vulnerable must be evaluated. In cases where the State moved forward with development and actually relocated indigenous tribes, governments must play a role in seeing that the tribes were compensated with land and other resources, so they could restart their lives.

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A non-governmental organization representative drew attention to the continued existence of the caste system in South Asia, despite legislation prohibiting it. Most child labourers and those involved in the sex trade came from the lower castes.

Ms. JAMES-SEBRO said that notions of superior and inferior were perpetuated by the media and educational institutions, both of which were susceptible to structural vulnerability. The Commission must help developing countries use their own ideas to fulfil their unique visions of development.

Ms. TAIPALE, responding to comments on the need to address the social impact of economic liberalization, said research indicated that neoliberal market strategies were proving neither efficient nor effective. The economy, as well as the concept of development itself, must be addressed from a social perspective, she said.

Mr. D'MELLO said that the World Social Summit had stressed that local groups must be empowered to transform the goals of inclusive social development into reality. The Commission must, therefore, promote policies that favoured localization.

Ms. DE FRAPPOLA said that inter-sectoral partnerships must design global policies that focused on the local level and enabled individuals to participate actively in development. She agreed with comments highlighting the importance of strengthening the family unit, which one speaker had described as being "overwhelmed by development processes and the rise of individualism". The family unit was a critical element in protecting against vulnerability. Further, the participation of all sectors in decision-making must be encouraged, to provide a new vision for development.

AURELIO FERNANDEZ (Spain), Commission Chairman, reviewed themes that had arisen during the panel. One point was that development should not lead to the loss of cultural and individual identity. There were no uniform answers to development; instead, individual models were needed, which included participation of all sectors. While the panel had discussed the role of States and civil society, the responsibilities of the private sector had not been highlighted, he noted. Throughout, speakers had underscored the importance of assessing the social impact of economic policies.

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