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Poverty in Plenty

© Kate Evans

Traditionally assessing a country’s place on the development ladder is something we in the industrialised West do to countries “over there”, to have the spotlight turned on the UK is a sobering, and crucial, exercise. And that is exactly the aim of the new Poverty in Plenty. A Human Development Report for the UK (edited by Jane Seymour for United Nations Environment and Development UK committee (UNED-UK). London: Earthscan 2000. ISBN: 1-85383-707-5).

The United Nations Development Programme publishes a world-wide Human Development Report (HDR) yearly and a number of countries in eastern Europe, Africa and Asia have produced their own HDRs. Poverty in Plenty is the first, however, to focus on a so-called developed country. It is the work of the UNED-UK which was set up in the wake of the Earth Summit of 1992.

It is about sustainable development, thus bringing together two issues which are frequently set on separate political agendas - namely poverty and the environment. Recycling, green spaces, safeguarding the environment are often seen as the preserves of the middle classes - who have the time and money to get steamed up about these things. But as the report ably points out, poverty and the environment are inexorably linked.

It is those living in poverty who suffer the most from damage to the ecosystem. Poverty undoubtedly degrades the environment as it does the people who have to live in it, while some efforts to deal with such things as waste just export the problem to someone else’s back yard (someone who usually happens to be poorer).

Poverty in Plenty contributes to the debate over what is poverty. It is clear that we are not just talking about income - individual nor for the country as a whole. The GDP of a country is increased by the spending needed to clear up after major disasters such as oil spills while it reflects not at all unpaid activities which undoubtedly enhance our sense of well being. And it is the quest to discover indicators of the quality of life which is important here.

The report recognises that the developments in how poverty is viewed are useful while adding, “... But the next stage must be to cull the indicators that do not increase our understanding of poverty or help the fight against it. This process must have at its centre those experiencing poverty itself” (p32).

The UK Government has made well publicised commitments to eliminating child poverty. However, “policies are not yet consistently ‘poverty-proofed’, and there are no formal mechanisms for involving people in poverty in developing an anti-poverty strategy” (Poverty in Plenty, p22).

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