From poverty to power - Oxfam-Québec
From poverty to power - Oxfam-Québec From poverty to power - Oxfam-Québec
4 RISK AND VULNERABILITY SHOCKS AND CHANGEin the upsurge of protest that led to the Sandinista Revolution sevenyears later. The feeble response of the Mexican authorities to theearthquake of 1985 galvanised independent social movements andweakened the stranglehold of the Institutional Revolutionary Party,which had ruled the country since 1929. Catastrophic famines inBangladesh in 1971 and in Ethiopia in 1985 led respectively toindependence and the fall of a dictatorship.The 2004 Asian tsunami set the stage for a resumption of peacetalks between the separatist Free Aceh Movement (Gerakan AcehMerdeka, or GAM) and the Indonesian government, culminating inthe signing of a peace agreement in August 2005 that officially broughta 30-year conflict to an end. The historic peace deal was followedquickly by the release of Acehnese political prisoners, the withdrawalof government troops from the province, the decommissioning ofrebel-held weapons, and the establishment of a government authorityto oversee the reintegration of ex-combatants and co-ordinate assistancefor conflict-affected communities. The following year saw a far-reachingautonomy law, giving the long-neglected province control over itsnatural resources.On closer examination, even gradual change often turns out tohave been a series of small shifts in which shocks played an importantrole. Key moments in the steady spread of women’s suffrage in Europe,for example, came after wars had redrawn social relations, sendingwomen out into newly independent roles in the workplace.Heraclitus believed that ‘war is the father of all things’. Modernobservers might not be so militaristic, but conflict is undoubtedly amajor source of political and social upheaval, not all of which isnegative, as the creation of the European welfare states followingthe Second World War demonstrates. War or other disasters hardlyconstitute a path to change for which reasonable people wouldadvocate, because of the immediate human cost and because thechanges that emerge are just as likely to be negative as positive. Thepoint rather is to recognise the potential of shocks to bring aboutchange and to seize the ‘moments of opportunity’ that arise, toencourage positive changes and to prevent negative ones.This raises challenging questions for the aid community abouthow to respond to wars, natural disasters, or political upheavals.287
FROM POVERTY TO POWERMajor changes (both good and bad) that would normally take decadesto happen may occur in weeks or months. Should humanitarian anddevelopment practitioners respond differently to promote widersystemic change, embrace new approaches to old problems, orencourage shifts in positions and alliances of political actors andmovements for change?Clearly there is a need to re-evaluate the division between a‘humanitarian’ approach to shocks (governed by the strictly neutralimperative to save lives) and the ‘development’ approach to peacetime(driven by the often political support for social change), appreciatinghow the seeds of vulnerability to shocks are sown through bad peacetimedevelopment models, and the role of shocks in triggeringlong-term change.BUILDING REAL SECURITYAll of us, but particularly people living in poverty, experience abewildering and ever-changing world of risk and vulnerability. Newthreats such as climate change or HIV join ancestral fears of illness,hunger, poverty, and violence. Still other threats will doubtless appearin coming decades. In this complex and uncertain scene, ‘security’ isabout much more than the absence of war or terrorism. In the lives ofvulnerable individuals and communities, security covers a great spanof daily anxiety and risk.Given the high price of inaction on climate change, violence,hunger, and disease, a combination of public pressure and far-sightedleadership is urgently needed, in both North and South. Vulnerablepeople must be equipped to cope with risk, by strengthening theirown capabilities and by building the state’s capacity to provide supportand protection.The concept of human security offers an invaluable compass inthis task, as well as the seed for a new model of development. At anational level, governments need to understand security as an essentialaspect of development that guarantees human dignity. Easing humansuffering by addressing the causes of vulnerability and anxiety shouldbe central to economic and social policy making. The growth monomaniaof recent decades is self-defeating (it has not delivered better288
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FROM POVERTY TO POWERMajor changes (both good and bad) that would normally take decades<strong>to</strong> happen may occur in weeks or months. Should humanitarian anddevelopment practitioners respond differently <strong>to</strong> promote widersystemic change, embrace new approaches <strong>to</strong> old problems, orencourage shifts in positions and alliances of political ac<strong>to</strong>rs andmovements for change?Clearly there is a need <strong>to</strong> re-evaluate the division between a‘humanitarian’ approach <strong>to</strong> shocks (governed by the strictly neutralimperative <strong>to</strong> save lives) and the ‘development’ approach <strong>to</strong> peacetime(driven by the often political support for social change), appreciatinghow the seeds of vulnerability <strong>to</strong> shocks are sown through bad peacetimedevelopment models, and the role of shocks in triggeringlong-term change.BUILDING REAL SECURITYAll of us, but particularly people living in <strong>poverty</strong>, experience abewildering and ever-changing world of risk and vulnerability. Newthreats such as climate change or HIV join ancestral fears of illness,hunger, <strong>poverty</strong>, and violence. Still other threats will doubtless appearin coming decades. In this complex and uncertain scene, ‘security’ isabout much more than the absence of war or terrorism. In the lives ofvulnerable individuals and communities, security covers a great spanof daily anxiety and risk.Given the high price of inaction on climate change, violence,hunger, and disease, a combination of public pressure and far-sightedleadership is urgently needed, in both North and South. Vulnerablepeople must be equipped <strong>to</strong> cope with risk, by strengthening theirown capabilities and by building the state’s capacity <strong>to</strong> provide supportand protection.The concept of human security offers an invaluable compass inthis task, as well as the seed for a new model of development. At anational level, governments need <strong>to</strong> understand security as an essentialaspect of development that guarantees human dignity. Easing humansuffering by addressing the causes of vulnerability and anxiety shouldbe central <strong>to</strong> economic and social policy making. The growth monomaniaof recent decades is self-defeating (it has not delivered better288