The Girl-Child and Government Service Provision.pdf - Tanzania ...

governments. In introducing the role of the private sectorsin providing services such as education, health and basicamenities such as water and electricity, the Bank hopes toinduce private investments in rural areas, easing the burdenof public financing of these services.However, meeting the needs of the poor is more complexthan just introducing choices and removing governmentsfrom public service provision. The Bank is right to addressthe imbalance of power between the clients and the serviceproviders; however, in pursuing changes in the powerstructure by shifting the power balance to favour the poor,the Bank needs to be aware that someone will have toaddress the resultant capacity gaps. That is, while givingmore choices to the poor is a good source of empowerment,the Bank must not forget capacity building. Whetherthe task of supplying information and building capacity forpoor citizens is left to governments, CSOs or the Bank,there is no denying that once there are more choices andoptions available to consumers, the once uninformed andundereducated consumers must take charge. In a sensethe consumers become managers of their own destiny,which translates to more responsibility for a group ofpeople that already spends most of its time just makingends meet. In looking to provide services to meet theneeds of the poor and most vulnerable, are the Bank andthe governments ready to provide the assistance (financial,political and moral) that will be required to empower thepoor? In focusing on choices for governments and for parents,has the Bank overlooked the youngest stakeholdersof all, the children? Will the new role of service provisionhave space for the children, particularly the girls, to participate?In order to provide the poor with the necessary resourcesas well as the information and knowledge needed to bemore effective and informed consumers, extensive resourcesare needed. Given that the international communityis having difficulties meeting the MDGs and that mostcountries in Africa and certain countries in Asia are offtrack to meet the 2015 targets, what is the likelihood thatthe poor will receive the necessary support? In analyzingthe WDR 2004’s discussion of service for the poor, thischapter will inevitably touch on more issues than those ofthe girl-child. The complexity of the problem rests with theinterconnections of themes such as power relations, accountability,serving and meeting the needs of girls, anddiscussing where the responsibility for service provisionshould rest.Who empowers the poor?While the most positive aspect of the WDR 2004 reportis recognising the importance of putting the poor (as clients)in the “driver’s seat”, when it comes to service provisionthe report does not adequately address a comprehensiveapproach to empowerment of the poor. Onemight describe this incomplete empowerment as puttingthe poor in the driver’s seat without first finding out if thepoor have ever taken driving lesson (which requiresmoney), or worse, whether there is a car for them todrive? By focusing only on structural institutional reformsthe Bank misses the opportunity to address the role thatgovernments have in empowering their citizens through arights-based approach. Providing public space for citizens’participation in decision-making processes should be afocus in the WDR 2004, but instead the emphasis is onempowering the poor vis-à-vis the service providersrather than their governments. In stressing the relationshipbetween the citizen and the service provider, there is asense that the Bank is avoiding the discussion of citizens’rights vis-à-vis their governments. By eschewing the discussionof the poor’s rights to expect the power bearersto reallocate or redistribute rights, the Bank’s call for ashort route to accountability could potentially weakencitizens’ links to their central government.Restructuring power relations can be tricky and usuallyobligates governments, policy-makers, and those in powerto recognise the needs and the rights of the poor. ThoughWorld Vision recognises that the World Bank is not a humanrights organisation, it also realizes the important roleand opportunities the Bank has in working with governmentsin developing countries in order to improve theconditions of the world’s poor. In “Doing the Rights Thing:The World Bank and the Human Rights of People Living inPoverty,” World Vision calls for the Bank to work with governmentsthat have already made commitments to rights,particularly those who have signed the Convention on theRights of the Child (CRC), to implement programmes thatwould serve both development and the rights of theirpeople. 3 Though counties might not actively seek help inmeeting their rights obligations – and some might prefer toforget about rights all together – the Bank can offer to workwith countries or, at least, not support projects that wouldfurther reduce the rights of citizens. In describing this lackof a real will by the WDR 2004 to change the power imbalance,Brendan Martin of Public World writes that the reportmakes “a powerful case for global redistribution of80 The Girl-Child and Government Service Provision