From poverty to power - Oxfam-Québec

2 POWER AND POLITICS I READ, THEREFORE I AMfill in forms, read letters from our parents after we get married, be ableto leave the village (we can’t read the destination on the bus!), get a goodmatch, find a government job’. 28Essential services improve the quality of life, enable poor communitiesto become active participants in society at large, and boost theeconomy.Properly funded, well-managed, quality public services are acrucial means of combating inequality, redistributing power andvoice across the generations. In contrast, underfunded, poor-qualitypublic services further marginalise the most excluded members ofsociety, entrenching inequality.Public services have a significant impact on gender inequality. Anabsence of good-quality essential services has a doubly negativeimpact on women and girls. First, when public services have to be paidfor, men and boys consistently have greater access to them. Boys arethe ones for whom families find school fees, and the cost of treatmentfor sick fathers comes before spending on sick mothers. Second, in theabsence of essential public services, it is women and girls who all toooften have to take up the slack. It is they who have to trudge for milesto get water, and it is an army of home-based women carers across theworld who have to take up the burden of care for relatives in theabsence of public provision. Free public services and the emancipationof women are two sides of the same coin.Workers providing public services are often among the more activecitizens, beyond their immediate roles as providers of education orhealth care. In rural communities, the teacher is often an importantlocal figure, and the school one of the few visible manifestations of thestate. Public sector trade unions are often highly active in broaderpolitics, and in some countries have faced severe repression.Nevertheless, despite the essential role of public services in development,millions of people are still dying, sick, or out of school becausethere are not enough teachers, nurses, or doctors in poor countries.Oxfam estimates that two million more teachers and 4.25 millionmore health workers must be recruited across the developing world tomake health and education for all a reality. Aid donors are failing toplug the gap: only 8 cents in each aid dollar is channelled intogovernment plans that include the training and salaries of teachersand health workers. 2941