Content uploaded by Joy Muller
Author content
All content in this area was uploaded by Joy Muller on Aug 19, 2015
Content may be subject to copyright.
How poverty can lead to vulnerabilities and what CSOs can contribute to reduce vulnerabilities for
poverty reduction at local communities
Joy Muller Page 1
How poverty can lead to vulnerabilities and what CSOs can contribute to
reduce vulnerabilities for poverty reduction at local communities
1. Introduction
2. Poverty, its meaning and causes
3. Vulnerabilities, its meaning and causes, and linkage to poverty
4. Why a bottom-up approach for resilience building is crucial for vulnerability
and poverty reduction
5. What CSOs can contribute for poverty reduction to reach to local
communities, in particular in fragile states
6. Closing remarks
How poverty can lead to vulnerabilities and what CSOs can contribute to reduce vulnerabilities for
poverty reduction at local communities
Joy Muller Page 2
How poverty can lead to vulnerabilities and what CSOs can contribute to
reduce vulnerabilities for poverty reduction at local communities
1. Introduction
The end of 2015 marks the end of the era of the Millennium Development Goals
(MDGs) (UNDP, n.d.), and opens the one of the Sustainable Development Goals
(SDGs) (UN, n.d.). The MDGs were developed after the United Nations Millennium
Declaration (UN, 2000) adopted in 2000 by Heads of Government and have become
a set of common global goals for development, through: reducing poverty and
hunger, and addressing health challenges, gender inequality, lack of education,
poverty eradication, lack of access to clean water and appropriate sanitation,
environment degradation, and promoting effective partnerships and cooperation.
Progress has been made in achieving these ambitious goals, though unevenly in
different countries and regions and for each goal. Many research projects have been
carried out and a great number of analyses published in this regard. This paper, with
a focus on poverty as a key challenge to development, deliberates over poverty’s
linkage with vulnerabilities at the community level, and looks into how a bottom-up
approach for development can contribute to building resilience, and then reducing
vulnerabilities and poverty. It then examines, with an example, ways that
community-based civil society organisations (CSOs) can contribute to lift people out
of extreme poverty, and deliberates over challenges to engage local actors and
make international aid more effective for development of fragile states.
2. Poverty, its definitions and causes
Since Seebohm Rowntree’s publication in 1901 of his survey (Rowntree, 1901) into
the living condition of the poor in York, poverty has become a focus for numerous
studies and analysis, in particular in social science. However, there is no generally
agreed definition of poverty. Various definitions have been given to capture different
dimensions of poverty. For instance:
How poverty can lead to vulnerabilities and what CSOs can contribute to reduce vulnerabilities for
poverty reduction at local communities
Joy Muller Page 3
Absolute and relative poverty: While absolute poverty uses a minimum level as
a poverty line to indicate an acceptable living condition; relative poverty refers
to condition below the average living standards in a given society, at a given
time, which can vary from country to country and from time to time (Garroway,
and de Laiglesia, 2012).
Objective and subjective perspectives of poverty: Normative judgements on
poverty are used as criteria to define objective poverty; while people and
individual’s preferences are used as reference to define subjective poverty
(Philip and Rayhan, 2004).
Physiological and sociological deprivations: Physiological deprivation is a
concept which uses the non-fulfilment of basic material or biological needs,
including inadequate nutrition, health, education and shelter, as well as income-
poverty, to define poverty; whereas poverty from a perspective of sociological
deprivation widens the concept of deprivation and includes risk and
vulnerability, as well as causes rooted in the structural inequities and inherent
disadvantages, which also cause capability deprivation and multi-dimensional
view of deprivation. From these two perspectives, people’s incapacity of
meeting their basic needs and lack of capability to confront underlying
conditions of poverty can generate different vulnerabilities (World Bank, 2000).
For simplicity, this paper shall focus on this approach to explore the linkage
between poverty and vulnerabilities.
Causes of poverty vary depending on the context and related processes. Among
others, Philip and Rayhan regard warfare, agriculture cycles and natural disasters,
corruption and social inequality, as well as pervasive illiteracy and the spread of
diseases as causes of the wide prevalence of poverty (Philip and Rayhan, 2004).
The first two causes – armed conflicts and natural disasters – can be major factors
for physiological deprivation in least developed countries. The other two causes –
social inequity and corruption, as well as high rate of illiteracy and wide spread of
diseases – are closely linking to sociological deprivation.
How poverty can lead to vulnerabilities and what CSOs can contribute to reduce vulnerabilities for
poverty reduction at local communities
Joy Muller Page 4
Armed conflicts: Peace and security are foundations for human development
(UN, 2012). Warfare and armed conflicts damage involved countries. Its
negative effects in addition to human insecurity, such as increasing food and
livelihoods insecurity, collapsing public service systems, mass population
movement and refugee etc., can extend to neighbouring countries and reverse
the development of the region. According to the 2014 Human Development
Report (UNDP, 2014), in the bottom tier of the list of countries in the Human
Development Index many are either emerging from or still in long periods of
armed conflict.
Natural disasters: Disasters caused by natural hazards – droughts, flooding,
hurricanes, and earthquakes – can wipe out development gains and have
significant negative impacts on households living in subsistence production or
with very limited resources, and without any means for their protection against
disasters. A disaster can destroy their entire livelihoods. For example, for poor
family farmers, when disasters occur in the time before harvest, it can put these
households’ survival in question, in particular those without adequate capacity
to face the consequences and overcome the accompanied challenges.
Corruption and social inequity: A country with extensive corruption is often
poor, as corruption weakens its public administration and as a result its delivery
of basic services to people (Chetwynd et al., 2003). In such a country a wide
gap can be found between the haves and have-nots, and this social inequity
can invite corruption, for instance, as low-rank officials can be part have-nots
and tend to depend on corruption – bribery, extortion and theft – for their
survival individually and carrier promotion. It then infects the public system
from bottom-up and paralyses public institutions. The have-nots – the poor –
having less alternatives are more exposed to exploitation for meeting their
basic needs, i.e. security, health and social care etc.
Pervasive illiteracy and wide spread of diseases: The level of literacy is a
determinant of the level of health in a population. Illiteracy prevents people
from understanding and using information in ways promoting and maintaining
How poverty can lead to vulnerabilities and what CSOs can contribute to reduce vulnerabilities for
poverty reduction at local communities
Joy Muller Page 5
good health. An illiterate adult, when living in poor conditions without
appropriate understanding of healthy lifestyle, can be prone to diseases, in
particular communicable diseases – HIV and AIDs, malaria, cholera etc. – and
can lose good health which is his or her only productive asset and become
even poorer. The recent Ebola proliferation in three countries of West Africa –
Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone – shows the linkage between illiteracy and
spread of diseases, as the illiteracy rates in West Africa countries are the
highest in Africa (The African Economist, 2013). Poor adult literacy rate in the
region has become a challenge for health workers to run public health
information campaigns to stop the spread of Ebola (Belluz, 2014).
3. Vulnerability, its definitions and causes, and linkage to poverty
Poverty can lead to vulnerability. While all people can be vulnerable, some people
are more vulnerable than others, and this is most often the case of the poor, as they
have less choices and capabilities. When people live in deprivation, they are more
vulnerable to certain circumstances and their exposure to risks is higher. When risks
are unmanageable, the situation can trap the most vulnerable in poverty. Amartya
Sen (1999) highlighted “… the challenge of development includes not only the
elimination of persistent and endemic deprivation, but also the removal of
vulnerability to sudden and severe destitution” (as cited in Dutta et al., 2010, p. 1).
Although vulnerability is most often associated with poverty, “vulnerability is not the
same as poverty. It means not lack or want, but defencelessness, insecurity, and
exposure to risk, shocks and stress” (Chambers, 2006, p. 33). With this definition,
vulnerability therefore can be caused by internal and external factors: internal factors
mean the defenceless of people and their limited capabilities to protect themselves
facing vulnerability created by external factors, such as risk, shocks and stress
imposed on them and their households.
At the community level, the causes of poverty and vulnerability are, therefore, quite
similar. The external factors of vulnerability are not too different from the first two
poverty causes – armed conflicts and natural disasters – that lead to physiological
How poverty can lead to vulnerabilities and what CSOs can contribute to reduce vulnerabilities for
poverty reduction at local communities
Joy Muller Page 6
deprivation; while the internal factors generating vulnerabilities are with close linkage
to the other two poverty causes – corruption and social inequity, and illiteracy and
spread of diseases – leading to sociological deprivation.
The recent Human Development Report (UNDP, 2014) describes the linkage in the
following way:
“… The poor are inherently vulnerable because they lack sufficient core
capabilities to exercise their full agency. They suffer from many deprivations.
They not only lack adequate material assets, they tend to have poor education
and to suffer deficiencies in other areas. Equally, their access to justice systems
may be constrained. They tend to be intrinsically vulnerable.” (UNDP, 2014, p.
19)
It is clear that poverty can make people vulnerable, due to lack of capabilities and an
appropriate environment for them to make critical choices such as health, education,
security and to ensure their material resources to meet a minimum living condition.
However, being poor does not necessarily mean being vulnerable in proportion and
in all aspects. Both are context specific and multidimensional and once linked to
each other in the living condition of individual, household and community, they can
reinforce (or reduce the effect of) each other. For example, a community can be
poor, but if it is composed of neighbourhoods with people who can count on and help
each other, it is less vulnerable. Such is the experience of the International
Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) working through its
member National Societies and their volunteers with people at local communities.
The IFRC, as an organisation working at the community level, similarly, sees that
vulnerability varies in its forms, as “people differ in their exposure to risk as a result
of their social group, gender, ethnic or other identity, age and other factors. … To
determine people’s vulnerability, two questions need to be asked: 1) to what threat or
hazard are they vulnerable? 2) what makes them vulnerable to that threat or hazard?
(IFRC, n.d.)”. It sees that to address vulnerability, effort must be made to reduce the
impact of the identified hazards, build capacities, and tackle the root causes of
vulnerability, including poverty. Though vulnerability can be reduced through
How poverty can lead to vulnerabilities and what CSOs can contribute to reduce vulnerabilities for
poverty reduction at local communities
Joy Muller Page 7
interventions at different levels, to make a direct impact and improve people’s lives,
building safer and resilient communities is one effective way forward, as suggested
by the IFRC.
4. Why a bottom-up approach for resilience building is crucial for vulnerability
and poverty reduction
As poverty can lead to vulnerability, efforts invested in poverty reduction addressing
physiological deprivation can make people and their communities less vulnerable.
Activities for this purpose must be people centred, so resilience can be built at
individual, household and community levels and as a result local forms of social
capital can take shape. To do so, investment is required with a bottom-up approach,
and then the outcome can become the other arm of government’s effort in poverty
reduction which is most often with a top-down approach to address sociological
deprivation. The complementarity of a bottom-up approach is of particular
importance in fragile states where states fail “to provide basic services to poor
people because they are unwilling or unable to do so” (OECD, 2007).
A bottom-up approach can invite local ownership for activities to be carried out
locally. This ownership can be determinant for successful implementation – such is
a lesson learnt from MDGs’ implementation: When MDGs involve local adaptation
and ownerships, evidence shows that the effort made has yielded high impact.
Where there is no or little evidence of MDG ownership, the impact is low (Sumner
and Tiwari, 2009).
With this understanding, some donor governments when partnering with least
development country governments use both top-down and bottom-up approaches.
For example, the policy framework of the Japan International Cooperation Agency
(JICA): “JICA intends to support both a top-down approach to develop the capacity
of central and local governments to protect people against threats and risks, and a
bottom-up approach to support people and local communities in acquiring capacities
for solving problems on their own, and thus to improve their standard of living” (JICA,
n.d.).
How poverty can lead to vulnerabilities and what CSOs can contribute to reduce vulnerabilities for
poverty reduction at local communities
Joy Muller Page 8
5. What CSOs/CBOs can contribute for poverty reduction to reach to local
communities, in particular in fragile states
Globally the world achieved the first MDG in 2010 by halving the poverty rate.
However, according to the World Bank’s estimation, there will be still 1 billion people
living in extreme poverty in 2015, even if the current rate of progress continues. (The
World Bank, n.d.).
According to the Human Development Index, there are more than forty States listed
as low human development countries (UNDP, 2014, p.p. 162-163). Knowing that
fragility and conflict can be poverty traps, comparing the list with the OECD’s list of
fragile states (OECD, 2014, p. 83), the overlap is with no surprise.
According to Oxfam’s estimation, “by 2015, half the world’s poor will live in fragile
states” (Oxfam, 2013, p.1). There is therefore an urgent need for support to reach to
these countries, and as states fail – either due to lack of capacity or will, to provide
the necessary as such to their citizens – civil society’s engagement to deliver
services and public goods to people becomes indispensable.
In addition, the necessity of using a bottom-up approach for poverty reduction to be
realised at the local level will require an intermediary to keep the linkage between
people and States. Community-based CSOs, which “have a presence in public life,
expressing the interests and values of their members or others, based on ethical,
cultural, political, scientific, religious or philanthropic considerations” (World Bank,
2013), can therefore have an important role to play.
The role of CSOs in development has been gaining recognition. For instance, in
Busan Partnership Agreement for Effective Development Cooperation – the outcome
of the 4th High-level Forum for Aid Effectiveness endorsed by more than 160 States
and 50 international organisations – clearly states the CSO’s role “in shaping
development policies and partnerships, and in overseeing their implementation” in
How poverty can lead to vulnerabilities and what CSOs can contribute to reduce vulnerabilities for
poverty reduction at local communities
Joy Muller Page 9
addition to the services that they provide in complementary to those provided by
States (OECD, 2011).
For example, the IFRC’s member National Societies function as civil society at
national level. In addition, as they are created by governments by an act of
parliament or governmental decree, they play an auxiliary role, defined legally, to
their public authorities in humanitarian field (IFRC, 2011a). This specific and
distinctive partnership between a state and its National Society gives the latter a
unique position for its service delivery to people. Therefore, one of the key working
areas of the IFRC is to build the capacity of its member National Societies so Red
Cross Red Crescent can develop and maintain basic services to vulnerable people.
In doing so, National Societies are in the driving seat. They lead and own related
programs, from conceiving plans, testing, refining to implementing them at scale of
their own visions for how their National Societies can develop towards being more
relevant and sustainable organisations. For instance:
Following a civil war (1993-2005) Burundi is one of the world’s poorest countries.
Services around the country were very limited or non-existent. In 2005, the BRCS
had only four employees at national level. The Burundi Red Cross Society’s (BRCS)
with its own vision, supported by the IFRC, started in 2007 its investment in building
local capacity in the branches, which is a long-term program and its implementation
was with strong local ownership at different levels. In 2011, after four years of
technical and financial support from the IFRC, the BRCS employed about 200
people and mobilised over 300’000 volunteers on a weekly basis working from within
communities in self-led and self-resourced Red Cross units. The vast majority of the
volunteers are themselves vulnerable. They identify and deliver services to their
most vulnerable neighbours using their strength, and the resources and skills
available within communities (IFRC, 2011b).
The existence of grassroots volunteer’ structures is playing an important role in
bringing together Hutus and Tutsis to work together, strengthening the country’s
resilience to a return to civil war. This increased resilience is also reflected in the
fact that the first response to disasters such as mudslides and hunger comes from
How poverty can lead to vulnerabilities and what CSOs can contribute to reduce vulnerabilities for
poverty reduction at local communities
Joy Muller Page 10
communities themselves, which are then supported by the national organisation and
international aid if required. This existing system makes international aid more
effective (IFRC, 2011b).
A lesson learnt from this example is that, even in a fragile and chronically poor
environment, communities can organise themselves to improve their collective and
individual situations, and that the Red Cross – also CSOs – can provide a neutral
environment with the power to bringing post-conflict communities together for
development (IFRC, 2011b).
Having said so, working with civil society organisations (CSOs) in fragile states and
encouraging local ownerships for development is not all that simple. While the
unstable operation environment of fragile states can be demanding for CSOs, there
are also challenges vis a vis CSOs themselves in and donors’ support to these
states: 1) who are the CSOs in country, 2) what are the schemes to provide support
to CSOs, and 3) how to make international aid to effectively support CSOs’ work
(Smits and Wright, 2012).
The CSOs participated in the 1st Global Assembly of the Open Forum in Istanbul in
2010 adopted the Istanbul Principles and made their commitments for development
effectiveness (Open Forum, 2010). The CSO’s role is also recognised in the
outcome of the 4th High-level Forum for Aid Effectiveness. In fragile states, local
government must engage international aid agencies and CSOs to establish a true
partnership and create “country-led and country-owned transitions out of fragility” as
committed for the implementation of the “New Deal” (International Dialogue on
Peacebuilding and Statebuilding, 2011). As the New Deal’s trial implementation
period (2012-2015) will end in 2015, its outcome will be useful reference for effective
development cooperation in fragile states in the post-MDGs era.
6. Closing remarks
Poverty is one of the contributors to making people vulnerable to adverse
circumstances. Their vulnerabilities, if not reduced in different dimensions – for
How poverty can lead to vulnerabilities and what CSOs can contribute to reduce vulnerabilities for
poverty reduction at local communities
Joy Muller Page 11
instance through reduction of the poor’s exposure to various risks and building of
their capacity and resilience at the community level – then in turn tend to trap the
most vulnerable in ever-worsening poverty circumstances. For poverty reduction,
much more effort must be invested at the community level to engage people. CSOs,
including National Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, can play a
complementary role to public authorities and bridge people and their government for
reducing vulnerabilities. This function combined with a bottom-up approach is vital in
fragile states for service delivery to reach to people in need. Donors and aid-
recipient countries must turn their rhetorical commitments into effective cooperation
and partner with people, with support from CSOs, for sustainable development.
How poverty can lead to vulnerabilities and what CSOs can contribute to reduce vulnerabilities for
poverty reduction at local communities
Joy Muller Page 12
Bibliography
Belluz, J. (2014). 13 things you need to know about Ebola. [Online]. Available at:
http://www.vox.com/cards/ebola-facts-you-need-to-know/this-ebola-outbreak-
started-in-the-rainforest-in-west-africa-and-its [Accessed 31 December 2014].
Chambers, R. (2006). Vulnerability, Coping and Policy (Editorial Introduction), IDS
Bulletin, Volume 37 No. 4, September 2006. Institute of Development Studies.
Chetwynd, E., Chetwynd, F., and Spector, B., (2003). Corruption and Poverty: A
Review of Recent Literature. Management Systems International. [Online].
Available at: http://www.eldis.org/vfile/upload/1/document/0708/DOC14285.pdf
[Accessed 18 December 2014].
Dutta, I., Foster, J., and Mishra, A. (2010). On Measuring Vulnerability to Poverty.
Bath Economics Research Papers. No. 03/10. University of Bath.
International Dialogue on Peacebuilding and Statebuilding. (2011). A New Deal for
Engagement in Fragile States. [Online]. Available at:
http://www.newdeal4peace.org/wp-content/themes/newdeal/docs/new-deal-for-
engagement-in-fragile-states-en.pdf [Accessed: 3 December 2014].
IFRC. (2011a). Furthering the auxiliary: Partnership for stronger National Societies
and volunteering development. Resolution 31IC/11/R4 of the 31st International
Conference of the Red Cross Red Crescent. [Online]. Available at:
http://www.ifrc.org/docs/IDRL/-%20To%20add/IC31-
R4_Auxiliary_Role_NS_EN.pdf [Accessed 18 December 2014].
IFRC. (2011b). Evaluation report of the project: Building sustainable local capacity in
the branches of the Burundi Red Cross Society. IFRC.
IFRC. (n.d.). What is vulnerability? Available at: http://www.ifrc.org/en/what-we-
do/disaster-management/about-disasters/what-is-a-disaster/what-is-vulnerability/
[accessed 18 December 2014].
JICA (n.d.). JICAʼs Approach to the Millennium Development Goals. [Online].
Available at:
http://www.jica.go.jp/english/publications/brochures/c8h0vm000000k9k0-
att/millennium_01.pdf [Accessed 17 December 2014].
How poverty can lead to vulnerabilities and what CSOs can contribute to reduce vulnerabilities for
poverty reduction at local communities
Joy Muller Page 13
OECD. (2007). DAC Guidelines and Reference Series Applying Strategic
Environmental Assessment: Good Practice Guidance for Development
Cooperation, OECD, Paris.
OECD. (2011). Busan Partnership for Effective Development Co-operation. [Online].
Available at: http://www.oecd.org/dac/effectiveness/49650173.pdf [Accessed 18
December 2014].
OECD. (2014). Fragile States 2014: Domestic Revenue Mobilisation in Fragile
States. OECD, Paris.
Garroway, C., and de Laiglesia, J. R. (2012). Working Paper No. 314 on the
Relevance of Relative Poverty for Developing Countries. OECD Development
Centre.
Open Forum. (2010). Istanbul CSO Development Effectiveness Principles. Open
Forum for CSO Development Effectiveness. September 29, 2010, Istanbul,
Turkey. [Online]. Available at: http://cso-
effectiveness.org/IMG/pdf/final_istanbul_cso_development_effectiveness_principl
es_footnote_december_2010-2.pdf [Accessed 17 December 2014].
Oxfam. (2013). Civil Society in Fragile and Conflict-affected States. Oxfam. [Online].
Available at: http://www.oxfam.org/sites/www.oxfam.org/files/hpn-civil-society-
fragile-states-260713-en.pdf [Accessed 3 December 2014].
Philip, D. and Rayhan I. (2004). Vulnerability and Poverty: What are the causes and
how are they related? Term paper for Interdisciplinary Course, International
Doctoral Studies, Program at ZEF, Bonn. [Online]. Available at:
http://www.zef.de/fileadmin/downloads/forum/docprog/Termpapers/2004_3a_Phili
p_Rayan.pdf. [Accessed 2 December 2014].
Rowntree, B. S. (1901). Poverty, A Study of Town Life. Centennial edition. Bristol:
The Policy Press, 2000.
Smits, R. and Wright, D. (2012). Engagement with Non-state Actors in Fragile
States. Conflict research Unit, the Clingendael Institute, Netherlands Institute of
International Relations. The Hague, December 2012.
Sumner, A. and Tiwari, M. (2009). After 2015: What are the Ingredients of an ‘MDG-
Plus’ Agenda for Poverty Reduction? Journal of International Development,
Volume 21, Issue 6, pp. 834-843, August 2009. [Online]. Available at:
How poverty can lead to vulnerabilities and what CSOs can contribute to reduce vulnerabilities for
poverty reduction at local communities
Joy Muller Page 14
http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/jid.1621/abstract [Accessed 2 December
2014].
The African Economist. (2013). Editorial: Ranking of African Countries by Literacy
Rate. 6 July 2013. Available at: http://theafricaneconomist.com/ranking-of-african-
countries-by-literacy-rate-zimbabwe-no-1/#.VJKmlSuG-z4 [Accessed 16
December 2014].
UN. (2000). United Nations Millennium Declaration. Resolution adopted by the
General Assembly (A/55/L.2). [Online]. Available at:
http://www.un.org/millennium/declaration/ares552e.htm [Accessed 1 December
2014].
UN. (2012). UN System Task Team on the Post-2015 UN Development Agenda:
Peace and Security. Thematic Think Piece. [Online]. Available at:
http://hdr.undp.org/sites/default/files/human_security_guidance_note_r-nhdrs.pdf.
[Accessed 17 December 2014].
UN. (n.d.) Sustainable development goals. [Online]. Available at:
http://sustainabledevelopment.un.org/?menu=1300 [Accessed 1 December 2014]
UNDP. (2014). Human Development Report 2014: Sustaining Human Progress.
United Nations Development Programme.
UNDP. (n.d.) MDG Strategies. [Online]. Available at:
http://www.undp.org/content/undp/en/home/ourwork/povertyreduction/focus_areas
/focus_mdg_strategies.html [Accessed 1 December 2014].
World Bank. (2001). World Development Report 2000/2001: Attacking Poverty. New
York: Oxford University Press.
World Bank (n.d.). Poverty Overview. [Online]. Available at:
http://www.worldbank.org/en/topic/poverty/overview [Accessed 3 December 2014]
World Bank. (2013). Defining civil society. The World Bank. [Online]. Available at:
http://web.worldbank.org/WBSITE/EXTERNAL/TOPICS/CSO/0,,contentMDK:2010
1499~menuPK:244752~pagePK:220503~piPK:220476~theSitePK:228717,00.htm
l [Accessed 2 December 2014].
