A-21: COMBATING POVERTY
Distr.
GENERAL
A/CONF.151/26 (Vol. I)
12 August 1992
ORIGINAL: ENGLISH
REPORT OF THE UNITED NATIONS CONFERENCE ON
ENVIRONMENT AND DEVELOPMENT
(Rio de Janeiro, 3-14 June 1992)
Chapter 3
COMBATING POVERTY
PROGRAMME AREA
Enabling the poor to achieve sustainable livelihoods
Basis for action
3.1. Poverty is a complex multidimensional problem with origins in both the
national and international domains. No uniform solution can be found for
global application. Rather, country-specific programmes to tackle poverty
and international efforts supporting national efforts, as well as the
parallel process of creating a supportive international environment, are
crucial for a solution to this problem. The eradication of poverty and
hunger, greater equity in income distribution and human resource
development remain major challenges everywhere. The struggle against
poverty is the shared responsibility of all countries.
3.2. While managing resources sustainably, an environmental policy that
focuses mainly on the conservation and protection of resources must take
due account of those who depend on the resources for their livelihoods.
Otherwise it could have an adverse impact both on poverty and on chances
for long-term success in resource and environmental conservation. Equally,
a development policy that focuses mainly on increasing the production of
goods without addressing the sustainability of the resources on which
production is based will sooner or later run into declining productivity,
which could also have an adverse impact on poverty. A specific
anti-poverty strategy is therefore one of the basic conditions for ensuring
sustainable development. An effective strategy for tackling the problems
of poverty, development and environment simultaneously should begin by
focusing on resources, production and people and should cover demographic
issues, enhanced health care and education, the rights of women, the role
of youth and of indigenous people and local communities and a democratic
participation process in association with improved governance.
3.3. Integral to such action is, together with international support, the
promotion of economic growth in developing countries that is both sustained
and sustainable and direct action in eradicating poverty by strengthening
employment and income-generating programmes.
Objectives
3.4. The long-term objective of enabling all people to achieve sustainable
livelihoods should provide an integrating factor that allows policies to
address issues of development, sustainable resource management and poverty
eradication simultaneously. The objectives of this programme area are:
(a) To provide all persons urgently with the opportunity to earn a
sustainable livelihood;
(b) To implement policies and strategies that promote adequate levels
of funding and focus on integrated human development policies, including
income generation, increased local control of resources, local
institution-strengthening and capacity-building and greater involvement of
non-governmental organizations and local levels of government as delivery
mechanisms;
(c) To develop for all poverty-stricken areas integrated strategies
and programmes of sound and sustainable management of the environment,
resource mobilization, poverty eradication and alleviation, employment and
income generation;
(d) To create a focus in national development plans and budgets on
investment in human capital, with special policies and programmes directed
at rural areas, the urban poor, women and children.
Activities
3.5. Activities that will contribute to the integrated promotion of
sustainable livelihoods and environmental protection cover a variety of
sectoral interventions involving a range of actors, from local to global,
and are essential at every level, especially the community and local
levels. Enabling actions will be necessary at the national and
international levels, taking full account of regional and subregional
conditions to support a locally driven and country-specific approach. In
general design, the programmes should:
(a) Focus on the empowerment of local and community groups through the
principle of delegating authority, accountability and resources to the most
appropriate level to ensure that the programme will be geographically and
ecologically specific;
(b) Contain immediate measures to enable those groups to alleviate
poverty and to develop sustainability;
(c) Contain a long-term strategy aimed at establishing the best
possible conditions for sustainable local, regional and national
development that would eliminate poverty and reduce the inequalities
between various population groups. It should assist the most disadvantaged
groups - in particular, women, children and youth within those groups -
and refugees. The groups will include poor smallholders, pastoralists,
artisans, fishing communities, landless people, indigenous communities,
migrants and the urban informal sector.
3.6. The focus here is on specific cross-cutting measures - in particular,
in the areas of basic education, primary/maternal health care, and the
advancement of women.
(a) Empowering communities
3.7. Sustainable development must be achieved at every level of society.
Peoples' organizations, women's groups and non-governmental organizations
are important sources of innovation and action at the local level and have
a strong interest and proven ability to promote sustainable livelihoods.
Governments, in cooperation with appropriate international and
non-governmental organizations, should support a community-driven approach
to sustainability, which would include, inter alia:
(a) Empowering women through full participation in decision-making;
(b) Respecting the cultural integrity and the rights of indigenous
people and their communities;
(c) Promoting or establishing grass-roots mechanisms to allow for the
sharing of experience and knowledge between communities;
(d) Giving communities a large measure of participation in the
sustainable management and protection of the local natural resources in
order to enhance their productive capacity;
(e) Establishing a network of community-based learning centres for
capacity-building and sustainable development.
(b) Management-related activities
3.8. Governments, with the assistance of and in cooperation with
appropriate international, non-governmental and local community
organizations, should establish measures that will directly or indirectly:
(a) Generate remunerative employment and productive occupational
opportunities compatible with country-specific factor endowments, on a
scale sufficient to take care of prospective increases in the labour force
and to cover backlogs;
(b) With international support, where necessary, develop adequate
infrastructure, marketing systems, technology systems, credit systems and
the like and the human resources needed to support the above actions and to
achieve a widening of options for resource-poor people. High priority
should be given to basic education and professional training;
(c) Provide substantial increases in economically efficient resource
productivity and measures to ensure that the local population benefits in
adequate measure from resource use;
(d) Empower community organizations and people to enable them to
achieve sustainable livelihoods;
(e) Set up an effective primary health care and maternal health care
system accessible to all;
(f) Consider strengthening/developing legal frameworks for land
management, access to land resources and land ownership - in particular,
for women - and for the protection of tenants;
(g) Rehabilitate degraded resources, to the extent practicable, and
introduce policy measures to promote sustainable use of resources for basic
human needs;
(h) Establish new community-based mechanisms and strengthen existing
mechanisms to enable communities to gain sustained access to resources
needed by the poor to overcome their poverty;
(i) Implement mechanisms for popular participation - particularly by
poor people, especially women - in local community groups, to promote
sustainable development;
(j) Implement, as a matter of urgency, in accordance with
country-specific conditions and legal systems, measures to ensure that
women and men have the same right to decide freely and responsibly on the
number and spacing of their children and have access to the information,
education and means, as appropriate, to enable them to exercise this right
in keeping with their freedom, dignity and personally held values, taking
into account ethical and cultural considerations. Governments should take
active steps to implement programmes to establish and strengthen preventive
and curative health facilities, which include women-centred, women-managed,
safe and effective reproductive health care and affordable, accessible
services, as appropriate, for the responsible planning of family size, in
keeping with freedom, dignity and personally held values, taking into
account ethical and cultural considerations. Programmes should focus on
providing comprehensive health care, including pre-natal care, education
and information on health and responsible parenthood and should provide the
opportunity for all women to breast-feed fully, at least during the first
four months post-partum. Programmes should fully support women's
productive and reproductive roles and well-being, with special attention to
the need for providing equal and improved health care for all children and
the need to reduce the risk of maternal and child mortality and sickness;
(k) Adopt integrated policies aiming at sustainability in the
management of urban centres;
(l) Undertake activities aimed at the promotion of food security and,
where appropriate, food self-sufficiency within the context of sustainable
agriculture;
(m) Support research on and integration of traditional methods of
production that have been shown to be environmentally sustainable;
(n) Actively seek to recognize and integrate informal-sector
activities into the economy by removing regulations and hindrances that
discriminate against activities in those sectors;
(o) Consider making available lines of credit and other facilities for
the informal sector and improved access to land for the landless poor so
that they can acquire the means of production and reliable access to
natural resources. In many instances special considerations for women are
required. Strict feasibility appraisals are needed for borrowers to avoid
debt crises;
(p) Provide the poor with access to fresh water and sanitation;
(q) Provide the poor with access to primary education.
(c) Data, information and evaluation
3.9. Governments should improve the collection of information on target
groups and target areas in order to facilitate the design of focused
programmes and activities, consistent with the target-group needs and
aspirations. Evaluation of such programmes should be gender-specific,
since women are a particularly disadvantaged group.
(d) International and regional cooperation and coordination
3.10. The United Nations system, through its relevant organs,
organizations and bodies, in cooperation with Member States and with
appropriate international and non-governmental organizations, should make
poverty alleviation a major priority and should:
(a) Assist Governments, when requested, in the formulation and
implementation of national action programmes on poverty alleviation and
sustainable development. Action-oriented activities of relevance to the
above objectives, such as poverty eradication, projects and programmes
supplemented where relevant by food aid, and support and special emphasis
on employment and income generation, should be given particular attention
in this regard;
(b) Promote technical cooperation among developing countries for
poverty eradication activities;
(c) Strengthen existing structures in the United Nations system for
coordination of action relating to poverty eradication, including the
establishment of a focal point for information exchange and the formulation
and implementation of replicable pilot projects to combat poverty;
(d) In the follow-up of the implementation of Agenda 21, give high
priority to the review of the progress made in eradicating poverty;
(e) Examine the international economic framework, including resource
flows and structural adjustment programmes, to ensure that social and
environmental concerns are addressed, and in this connection, conduct a
review of the policies of international organizations, bodies and agencies,
including financial institutions, to ensure the continued provision of
basic services to the poor and needy;
(f) Promote international cooperation to address the root causes of
poverty. The development process will not gather momentum if developing
countries are weighted down by external indebtedness, if development
finance is inadequate, if barriers restrict access to markets and if
commodity prices and the terms of trade in developing countries remain
depressed.
Means of implementation
(a) Financing and cost evaluation
3.11. The secretariat of the Conference has estimated the average total
annual cost (1993-2000) of implementing the activities of this programme to
be about $30 billion, including about $15 billion from the international
community on grant or concessional terms. These are indicative and
order-of-magnitude estimates only and have not been reviewed by
Governments. This estimate overlaps estimates in other parts of Agenda
21. Actual costs and financial terms, including any that are
non-concessional, will depend upon, inter alia, the specific strategies and
programmes Governments decide upon for implementation.
(b) Capacity-building
3.12. National capacity-building for implementation of the above
activities is crucial and should be given high priority. It is
particularly important to focus capacity-building at the local community
level in order to support a community-driven approach to sustainability and
to establish and strengthen mechanisms to allow sharing of experience and
knowledge between community groups at national and international levels.
Requirements for such activities are considerable and are related to the
various relevant sectors of Agenda 21 calling for requisite international,
financial and technological support.
END OF CHAPTER 3
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=====================================RRojas Research Unit/1996
