One goal on poverty

THEIR experience may in some cases have been vastly different, but their goal was the same to come to a consensus about the means of eradi cating poverty.

Delegates representing non-govem

ment organisations (NGOs) from all 51 Commonwealth countries recently con verged on Wellington to discuss the theme “Paths out of Poverty - the role of NGOs”. Among them were a dozen dele gates from Pacific countries, who attempt ed to come to grips with the question of just what poverty means for a Pacific Islander.

In the face of horror stories from Africa and India, the initial temptation might have been to conclude that relatively well

fed, clothed and housed Pacific islanders had little to complain about.

Take Nigeria for example: its military dic tatorship denies a large

proportion of its popula

tion the most basic needs while itself amassing enormous wealth. The fact that Nigerian dis senters fear for their

physical safety was

underlined by the tearful speech of delegate Glory Kilanko, who voiced her concern about the four government “observers” despatched to the Forum by the Nigerian govern ment.

Delegates were

forcibly reminded of how privileged citizens in democracies can be when

Maori lawyer Moana Jackson welcomed them including among the guests the secretary-general of the Commonwealth, Chief Emela Anyaoku to the land of what he described as “myths, lies and deceit,’ as he catalogued the injustices

heaped upon his people.

Former Labour Government minister and Mayor of Wellington Fran Wilde later pointed out that the fact Jackson was free to air his grievances was proof that New Zealand was not as he portrayed it.

Pacific delegates had their own perspective on poverty to take to this, the second NGO Commonwealth Forum, Sponsored by the London-based Commonwealth Foundation, the Forum’s deliberations should be incorporated in the

Big

firms are patenting

drugs

taken from Pacific plants

Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting to be held in Auckland in November.

Abraham Baeanisia of the Solomon Islands Development Trust (SIDT) said what struck him in discussions with other Commonwealth peoples was the extent to which many of them were “landless”.

“That’s not been our experience in the Pacific. We have never been landless. But poverty shows itself in other ways; in edu cation, health, the environment. For exam ple, large scale logging is a path into poverty,’” he said.

Baeanisia singled out education sys tems in the Pacific as being in need of reform.

“We need education which is relevant

to our needs. Only 15 per cent of Solomon Islanders are employed in the paid sector, and although our economic growth rate is increas ing, the rate of those in the paid sector is not,” he said. “The formal system of education needs to be supplement ed by a non-formal option so that young people leam the skills that are required at the village level garden

ing, woodwork,

mechanical skills. SIDT works on strengthening village life, conducting education and disaster workshops and includes a village theatre group to put across messages about nutrition and log

ging. Gabriel Tetiarahi of the Tahitian NGO umbrella group Hiti Tau, agreed that Tahitian poverty was not as dramatic as in Africa.

Nevertheless, there were 25,000 unem ployed, and 30,000 people living in shanty towns around the capital.

“Although we have a relatively low illiteracy rate, we do have a problem of access to the Tahitian language. Around 80 per cent of Tahitians speak the language, but there is little formal training in it,” said Tetiarahi.

Samoan delegate Korofeta To’o com

plained of “bio-piracy”, whereby multi

national drug companies were patenting

drugs taken from Pacific plants, “These drugs are worth millions and

millions of dollars to the companies but there is no return at all to the people of the Pacific who actually own the resources,” he said. Other concerns raised by Pacific delegates included logging, mining in Papua New Guinea, and the dumping of rice and tinned fish which encouraged vil lagers to abandon their traditional, self

reliant lifestyles.

A significant proportion of the confer ence was taken up with discussion of the role of NGOs, often regarded with suspi cion by governments.

The past 20 years has seen an explosion in the growth of NGOs around the world.

In the United Kingdom there are more than 500,000, thousands of those charities with turnover estimated at £l7 billion (SUS 26 billion) a year. Around half of Australia’s welfare services are supplied by not-for profit charitable organisations, with a turnover of $A4.4 billion a year.

With roots that go back to philanthrop ic efforts such as the abolition of slavery or child labour, NGOs are involved in both “care and welfare” work as well as activi ties at the sharp end of political change.

Increasingly donor aid money is being channelled through NGOs. The 1994/95 year saw New Zealand’s aid development programme spending SNZS.9 million (SUS3.9m) on small-scale, community based schemes, mostly in the South Pacific. Around 85 per cent of New Zea land’s Volunteer Service Abroad funding of (SNZI.B million (SUSl.lm) comes from the government’s aid budget, and NGOs received over 60 per cent of the SNZ3 million (SUS2.I) spent on emer gency and disaster relief last year.

As NGOs’ professionalism increases, so has their status. The credibility of UN sponsored talkfests like the Rio summit, the Cairo population conference or the Copenhagen social summit is measured by the inclusion or not of NGOs. Often such conferences will be accompanied by paral lel NGO meetings.

Some Pacific delegates (preferring to remain unnamed) said their governments did not always understand the role of NGOs and sometimes demanded exces sive accountability for funds that were channelled through them from overseas

aid agencies.

Whether the Forum’s communique will now be debated by Commonwealth lead ers at the Auckland CHOGM meeting depends on how much pressure the NGOs apply to their governments to put it on the

agenda. A