Duncan Green, an activist from Oxfam International.....who has been working for them for quite a long time in London. In his opinion, he is in Oxfam to challenge internally. He questions about what progress we have made in eradicating poverty after working such a long time. As he is the research unit head for Oxfam, he did utilized the opportunity to look for the issues behind not doing good in the poverty business. His research from Oxfam working countries and also some non-working countries shows how the power dynamics is controlling poverty.
Recently, I have got the oppotunity to visit a seminar where he presented about the book about his research named 'From Poverty To Power' (visit: www.fp2p.org ). Indeed a strong title with thoughtful twist to re-think about the businesses (I am using business for the activities that we, development agencies, private sector, politicians and government deal with) with poverty. The foreword for the book is written by Dr. Amartya Sen. It was a rare opportunity to meet the author himself, a very good speaker- 'Brian' from ActionAid and Joyce from Results for Africa Institute under a same roof talking from 3 different perspective but also supporting some facts came out of the book.
Followed by the discussion on book, many issues came up during discussion with special focus on Africa. It was interesting to know that how african writers are deprived from publishing books in international platform. A member of the panel claimed in front of the writer if the same book was written by an african, it wouldn't get the same level of exposure. It was also evident from the consensus among the hall full of African (mainly Kenyan) that how they fail to bergain with north. In the hall, I could feel some similarities between Bangladeshi youth and Kenyan youth. From the comment of stuedents, I could understand the similar frustration about polictical system, economic liberty and mindset. The contrast between having the richest continent and being poorest hurts badly. Even to an outsider like me, I get surprised how a normal kenyan survive with the price of commodities! I get surprised looking at road full of lates Mercedes, Range Rover, BMW and other luxerious cars driven by Kenyans and having the 3rd largest slums in the world side-byu-side! Who is controlling the poverty?
Probably to answer above question, the book 'fp2p' tries to make us think. You may want to think again about the MDGs, about the approach of government and development organizations towards povery eradication. Many writers like Mr. Green gets praise and good review every year. But I wonder whether they really are satisfied to see how poorly we have been handling their thoughts!
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