WHY A PRO-POOR FOCUS IS THE PINNACLE OF INEQUALITY ADVOCACY

There are many ways to measure inequality in the developing world but our focus begins with a quick but painless economic and sociology lesson. Economists are prone to abstract concepts and hard to digest ideas, one such one is the Gini coefficient. (Not to be confused with a ‘genie’ of the Aladdin or Disney variety.) The Gini coefficient measures income distribution or wealth in an economy, where 0 reflects perfectly equal distribution and 1 indicates absolute inequality. For example, if a nation had a score of 100, it would mean that all the income in that country belonged to one person.

For the sociology part we introduce the concept of intersectionality. This concept holds that when different forms of oppression meet in one group of society or in an individual they do not act independently but instead form an intersection of multiple forms of inequality. This ‘perfect storm’ of inequalities is not easily tackled on its own, as effects of each dimension can be compounded when they occur simultaneously. A simple illustration of income inequality meets intersectionality in the developing world could be found in a poor, disabled, widow who is also landless and has no access to water. How do you begin to tackle the structural deficiencies in her society? We believe a pro-poor focus to policy-making is the optimal approach.

Why it matters

 There are many cracks at which inequality seeps its way into the fractured societies. However, income inequality can cut through a swath of dimensions of inequality including sex, race and ethnicity. While much of the high profile social angst about income inequality has been in the developed West from the Occupy Wall Street protests to the almost annual protests at G7 (G8) meetings, income inequality is also an issue in the developing world. In some countries in sub-Saharan Africa the beginnings of a middle-class that does not fit the $1-a-day typecast is emerging and questions arise of not only of how to protect such growth but also how to do so without harming the vulnerable sections of society. Bearing in mind that the marginalized may not have the social capital to speak for themselves, one way is to ensure that there is a vibrant and diverse civil society that steps into the gap and speaks up for those at the bottom of the inequality scale.

An example of this approach is the work of the Zambia Governance Foundation, which is a not-for-profit organisation that has a mission to strengthen the role of civil society in ‘pro-poor policy engagement’ in Zambia. They do this by not only giving grants to civil society organizations(CSOs) but also by providing capacity development, tools and support mechanisms to their grant partners. ZGF’s approach is novel not only in its unapologetic focus on supporting activities that will directly impact policies in Zambia –CSO’s applying for grants must be able to show policy impact, but also in their collaborative relationship with grantees. The organisation supports a range of CSO’s from women’s advocacy, environmental and mental health concerns. In essence ZGF is an ‘NGO for NGO’s’. This form of support is welcome in a country where, according to the World Bank, 60% of the population lives below the national poverty line and the Gini coefficient is 57.5. Having a pro-poor focus to policy-making is, in effect, a direct response to the income inequality in Zambia. By ensuring that policies do not omit the most marginalized we can promote a more inclusive society and reduce inequality in all its forms.

Innovation for development: BRCK

A few months ago I had the opportunity to participate in a cultural exchange program that gave high school students in Berlin the chance practice their English while learning about the United Nation's Millennium Development Goals and life in South America, Asia and Africa. We huddled in groups and the young minds came up with all sorts of ways to achieve the eight goals set out by the United Nations. Their ideas ranged from MOOC’s crowd-funding and genetically modified mosquitoes - let it not be said that the Twitter-generation is intrinsically plugged in to innovative solutions. However, one theme kept on re-occurring;  how we would overcome the lack of a reliable electricity supply in a way that was not cost-prohibitive.

We discussed generators and even found a report from eNA on some young Nigerian students who created a generator that ran on urine. While novel, we need something that was sturdy, portable, and had a simple user-friendly design, the availability of urine notwithstanding. If only we had come across the crowd-funded BRCK internet generator from Ushahidi, a Nairobi based outfit.

The idea of BRCK is simple, to mate a modem with a battery to create a gadget that allows up to twenty devices to be connected to its hotspot while providing 8hours of battery power with a 16GB of battery power. As the blurb on Kickstarter attests, ‘(it’s) is like a backup generator for the internet’. The idea is so sweetly simple and innovative; it is exactly what ICT4D should look like if it had a physical embodiment.  The creators acknowledge that the connectivity solutions in emerging economies leave much to be desired. Furthermore developers and entrepreneurs should not necessarily try to meet the best practices of New York or London but create their own practices that fit with the infrastructure available in developing countries. We cannot wait for a fiber optic grid to reach remote villages but we can utilize our knowledge of how information technology already functions in our limited resource settings and make the next technical leap.

The story of BRCK itself is empowering from the female face of the start-up Juliana Riotch a Kenyan native to the crowd-funding was it is what social enterprise or social innovation can be if it escaped theory and the future-speak rhetoric. BRCK is what disruptive technology should look like for the developing world. With an idea so unique a commercially attractive it fits the products chosen motto “if it works in Africa, it will work anywhere.”