Dying for Change [get by e-mail] January 31, 2002 Dying for Change reports on the health aspects of Voices of the Poor, an extensive World Bank study of people’s perspectives and experiences...
Voices of the Poor: From Many Lands [get by e-mail] January 1, 2002 This is the final book in a three-part series entitled, " Voices of the Poor. " The series is based on an unprecedented effort to gather...
The people who read this book have the power to make a difference. Most of us are neither powerless nor poor. We can influence thinking, policy and practice. To a degree denied to the poor, we are free to make choices and changes. What should those changes be?
Part of the Consultations with the Poor. Background research to inform 'Voices of the Poor' and the 'World Development Report 2000/1: Attacking Poverty.'
Agenda: Global Coalitions for Voices of the Poor: an information-sharing and brainstorming workshop that took place at World Bank Headquarters, Washington, DC
Monday, July 31st - Tuesday, August 1st, 2000
Poor people repeatedly stress the anxiety and fear they experience because they feel insecure and vulnerable. Most say they feel less secure and more vulnerable today than in previous times. They describe security as stability and continuity of livelihood, predictability of relationships, feeling safe and be-longing to a social group. Forms and degrees of security and insecurity vary by region and differ by gender. Women are vulnerable to abuse and violence in the home, when widowed, and in the workplace. Men, particularly young men, are more likely to be picked up by the police. The origins and nature of insecurities are related to types of threat, shock and stress. People most frequently mention the following:
Insecurities of work and livelihood.
Natural and human-made disasters.
Crime and violence.
Persecution by the police and lack of justice.
Civil conflict and war.
Macropolicy shocks and stresses.
Social vulnerability.
Health, illness and death.
Insecurities and mishaps are an integral and pervasive part of the illbeing of the poor, threatening them and making them anxious, fearful and miserable. Preventing and mitigating shocks benefit the poor. The practical question is: To achieve security for the poor as a base for material improvement, social well-being, and peace of mind, what and who has to change?
One of the most important institutions in the lives of poor people is the household. Poverty interventions directly or indirectly affect and are affected by the household and gender relations, and hence the importance of exploring intra-household gender dynamics. The household is a basic unit of society where individuals both cooperate and compete for resources. It is also a primary place where in which individuals confront and reproduce societal norms, values, power, and privilege. Gender norms expressed within the household are reinforced and reflected in larger institutions of society. “Gender relations are not confined to the domestic arena —although households constitute an important institutional site on which gender relations are played out — but are made, remade and contested in a range of institutional arenas” (Kabeer 1997). In other words, this is not simply a story of the household and its members, but about the shaping of gender identities by larger institutions, and the ongoing participation of family members in creating new gender norms.
This chapter is about gender anxiety. The household is an institution that is strained and in flux. Vast economic, social, and political restructuring has not —with few exceptions— translated into increased economic opportunities for the poor. Under increasing economic pressure, men in many parts of the world have lost their traditional occupations and jobs, and women have been forced to take on additional income earning tasks while continuing their domestic tasks. These changes have touched core values about gender identity, gender power, and gender relations within poor households, and anxiety about what is a “good woman” or a “good man” seems pervasive. Values and relations are being broken, tested, contested, and renegotiated in silence, pain, and violence. What is striking is that despite widespread changes in gender roles, traditional gender norms have shown remarkable tenacity, leaving families struggling to meet the often contradictory demands.
Adequate and secure livelihoods emerge as a central concern to poor people’s well-being. In rural areas much hardship is linked to reduced access to land, bad soils, adverse weather, lack of fertilizer and other inputs, deficiencies of
transport and marketing, and overexploitation of common resources such as fish, pastureland and forests. In both countryside and cities, people speak of lack of permanent employment and reliance on badly paid and unreliable casual labor and petty trades. Participants also frequently mention harass-ment and corruption from officials as well as mistreatment from employers and having no recourse to redress grievances.
