Poverty Reduction
A - Overview
There are 1.3 billion people in the world considered to be living in poverty. That is one-fifth of the world’s population, and one-third of the total population of the developing countries.
Poverty reduction is a primary global common objective and advocated in the MDGs. The term “poverty reduction” means not simply increasing income levels but rather creating conditions in which all humans lead healthy and creative lives with sufficient food, shelter, and clothing. It also means that being free from unfair treatment by the government and the community, they can participate in society with freedom, dignity, and self-esteem.
Poverty has many dimensions. It can cause environmental degradation, and a poor environment in turn can aggravate poverty, thus giving rise to a vicious cycle. “DAC Guidelines on Poverty Reduction” published in 2001 defines poverty as the insufficiency in political, socio-cultural, economic, human, and protective capabilities. It is internationally agreed that poverty reduction requires a comprehensive approach that will develop capabilities in these five areas.
It is also important to consider the fact that a lack of capabilities among the poor is not the primary cause of poverty; environments disadvantageous to the poor and social structures, in which vested interests, discrimination, etc., create socially vulnerable people, interactively cause and fix poverty. To reduce poverty, it is important to create opportunities for the poor to demonstrate their potential capabilities by changing the environments that surround them and by breaking the vicious cycle of poverty.
B - Our Efforts
1. Definition of Poverty and the Goals in Support for Poverty Reduction
We define poverty as a condition in which people are deprived of their opportunities to demonstrate potential capabilities required to lead a basic human life and are being left out of society and the development processes. We have two overall goals in its support for poverty reduction: enhancement of the potential capabilities of the poor; and reform of the social structures and institutions involving the poor.
We have also identified the following four strategic development goals aimed at reinforcing people’s political, socio-cultural, economic, human, and protective capabilities (since the measures to reinforce political and socio-cultural capabilities have many aspects in common, they are addressed as a single strategy):
a) Reinforcing the planning, institutional, and implementation framework for poverty reduction (political and socio-cultural capabilities)
b) Maintaining and generating the incomes of the poor (economic capability)
c) Securing minimum living standards for the poor (human capability)
d) Reducing external threats to the poor and strengthening their capability to withstand shock (protective capability).
The structures and other factors leading to poverty and the actual conditions in which the poor live are varied and complex, differing from country to country and from region to region. We consequently formulate our poverty-reduction support policies on a community-by-community and region-by-region basis. We are also addressing the issue by taking full advantage of the unique features of each aid scheme and by combining various individual projects in ways that give rise to synergy.
2. Target Levels of Poverty Reduction Assistance and Multi-layer Cooperation Approach
We provide poverty reduction support at three levels: 1) policy and system support at a national level (macro level), 2) support through local communities (mezzo level), and 3) direct aid to the poor (micro level). Through these channels, we effectively carry out assistance for capability enhancement of the poor, as well as for improving social structures, policies and systems involving the poor. And at the same time, we intend to strengthen capability of the poor by embracing the three levels: macro, mezzo, and micro.