Big news today. Philip Alston, the UN Special Rapporteur on Poverty and Human Rights, has just released his final report. It is a withering indictment of the "progress" narrative, and of the poverty line on which it is built. chrgj.org/wp-content/upl…
The "self-congratulatory" narrative promoted by Steven Pinker, Martin Wolf, Banerjee/Duflo and the World Bank is wrong, Alston argues. It relies on a poverty line that "is not based on any direct assessment of the cost of
essential needs."
essential needs."
"The IPL should not be treated as the basis on which to determine whether we are eradicating poverty, or as the benchmark for SDG1. The line is so low and arbitrary as to guarantee a positive result and to enable the UN, WB, and many commentators to proclaim a Pyrrhic victory."
Contrary to the dominant narrative, more empirically meaningful poverty lines "show only a modest decline in rate and a nearly stagnant headcount. The number living under a $5.50 line held almost steady between 1990 and
2015, declining from 3.5 to 3.4 billion."
2015, declining from 3.5 to 3.4 billion."
The argument that growth and pro-market policies automatically benefit the poor is "at odds with the evidence," Alston writes. Why? B/c growth benefits the rich. Between 1980 and 2016, the richest 1% captured 27% of total income growth, and in 2017 captured 82% of new wealth.
The only way to end poverty, Alston argues, is to distribute income and wealth more fairly. Move beyond aid and focus on debt cancellation, tax justice, universal social services. "Poverty is a political choice and will be with us until we see it as a matter of social justice."
Also note that Alston critiques the "green growth" narrative that's embedded in the SDGs: "the SDG growth targets are almost impossible to achieve without far exceeding the Paris Agreement’s inadequate limit of 2°C of global warming by 2100."
For those who are interested in this last point, here is the underlying citation: onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.100…
