From poverty to power - Oxfam-Québec

FROM POVERTY TO POWERchange is such that, despite astonishing gains in output, the number offormal-sector manufacturing jobs fell from 98 million in 1995 to83 million in 2002, even faster than the fall in 14 OECD countries(86 million to 79 million). 186Environmental sustainability: As pursued to date, growth has rarelyrespected the carrying capacity of the environment. The world consistsof 11.5bn hectares of biologically productive space – grassland,cropland, forests, fisheries, and wetlands. There are approximately6.4 billion people on the planet. So, on average, there are 1.8 hectaresof ‘environmental space’ per person, but by 2003 the average humanbeing required 25 per cent more than that – paid for, in environmentalterms, by running down the earth’s environmental capital. 187Equity: Global growth during the 1970s and 1980s did not result inincreased inequality, according to a World Bank study, but in thedecade that followed the richer members of society came to benefitdisproportionately and inequality rose in tandem with economicgrowth. 188 Not only does inequality limit growth’s potential to reducepoverty, it creates a ‘highly toxic environment’ for growth itself. 189Social sustainability: Growth has unpredictable repercussions onunpaid labour such as caring, household chores, or raising children.Growth has sparked the massive entry of women into the labour forceover the past 20 years, but that has only enhanced women’s welfare whereit has been accompanied by changes in gender roles or matching stateaction to ease the burden of unpaid work. Where this has notoccurred, women’s welfare has been undermined.Secure livelihoods: The disruption that accompanies growth candestabilise the livelihoods of poor people. Pro-growth policiesrecommended by the World Bank and the IMF often explicitly adopta ‘shock therapy’ approach of radical change. Many political leadersput ‘flexibility’ and ‘change’ on a pedestal, but instability at the macrolevel (for example in financial markets) has inflicted a series of deepeconomic crises on developing countries. At the individual level,instability and shocks, such as losing jobs or assets, or sudden shifts inprices for farmers, can be very costly for people living in poverty.Pursuing well-being may therefore mean eschewing the moredestabilising elements of the ‘dash for growth’. Many poor people seehuge advantages in stability and predictability. 190190