H U M A N R I G H T S D A Y 2 0 0 6
Fact Sheet 3
Eliminating Poverty: Not By Bread Alone
If poverty is about power, then solutions must focus on the empowerment of people themselves,
especially those suffering the greatest discrimination and social exclusion. History is littered
with well-meaning but failed ‘top-down’ solutions that overlook the root causes of poverty as well
as the demands, perspectives and capacities of people themselves to be architects of their own
destiny. Sustainable solutions will often depend on multi-faceted responses, aiming at a just
redistribution of power relations, rather than quick fixes or one-off handouts.
Practically all countries can take immediate measures to fight poverty in all its complexity.
Claiming a lack of resources does not absolve countries of responsibility. Reducing poverty will
often cost money, but not all rights require significant resources for their realization, including
many obligations attached to socio-economic rights. Political will is at least as important.
Ending discrimination, for example, will in many cases remove barriers to labor market participation
and other structural constraints to the fulfillment of human rights. Child mortality provides
another good example. Most child deaths are avoidable, yet mortality rates are high in many
countries because of the indefensible under-use of effective, low-cost, low-technology
interventions, and owing to a failure to address the structural causes of poverty and inequality.
UNDP estimates that about 6 million children’s lives a year could be saved through simple, low-cost
interventions. A number of low-income countries, like Viet Nam and Bangladesh, have taken on some
of the root causes of the problem and registered impressive gains in reducing child mortality.
Tanzania: a human Rights-based approach to improve access to water
In the Kileto District, Tanzania, WaterAid has been implementing a project to improve water
access for residents. By integrating human rights principles into the programming process –
in particular participation, non-discrimination, equality and empowerment – and including these as
explicit programme goals, WaterAid was able to identify the underlying obstacles to equitable
access to water. The participatory approach and analysis revealed that power imbalances, lack of
land rights and exclusion from national policy decisions had resulted in two of the three main
ethnic groups being excluded from access to water. The project was therefore able to work with the
communities to overcome the inter-group conflict.
Source: Overseas Development Institute