Pascal 2005

							             Pascal 2005

• The role of education in poverty
  alleviation for sustainable development
                   Poverty
• Income
  – Absolute: less than USD$1 a day
  – Relative: living blow 60% of median for a
    particular society
• Capability
  – Knowledge & skills to act independently
• Participatory
  – Participation in social life and decision
    making
        Consequential poverty

• Result of deliberate human and political
  interventions on the natural or social
  environment
  –   Exploitation of labour
  –   War
  –   Environmental degradation
  –   Discriminatory laws/trade agreements
             Social capital
• Advantages
  – Potential to engage state with community
    for high levels of social participation in
    decision making (bridging networks)
  – Build people’s ability to believe in the
    possibility of change
  – Opportunity for collective agency (shared
    understandings, collective voice)
  – Intangible bonding elements of trust and
    reciprocity – well being and cohesion
              Social capital

• Disadvantages
  – Shifts responsibility from structures and
    systems to the individual or community
  – Convenient argument for the state to do
    less and leave issues to volunteers
  – Danger that it is a normalising goal for
    inclusion (excludes those who do not
    conform)
                   Education
• To re/produce             • For empowerment
  poverty                     – Literacy second model
  – Literacy without          – Education for critical
    context                     thinking
  – Banking education         – Focus on
  – Emphasis on skills          understanding issues
    and individualism           of inequality
  – Cost restrictions         – Free education
  – Irrelevant curriculum     – Learner centred
  – Basic education only        curriculum
                              – Lifelong education
    Education for social capital

• Building capacity to challenge
  inequalities
• Through informal and non formal routes
• Pro-poor participatory strategies
• Raise awareness of rights,
  responsibilities and potential for change
• Livelihoods approach
                Examples

• EXPRO – Ethiopia
  – Combine vocational skills and literacy
    training in consultation with many
    stakeholders and linked to credit resources
• Permaculture
  – Environmental awareness combined with
    small scale farming, as a collective
    approach to living in harmony with the
    planet
               Examples 2

• Micro credit forums
  – Raise awareness of women’s rights and
    limitations of credit systems
  – Develop women’s cooperatives for income
    generation
• Combine with political will
  – Debt cancellation, fair trade, increased aid,
    land ownership, health care etc
               Summary
• Social capital can be an empowering
  resource if linked to educational
  strategies for awareness raising and
  empowerment
• Education can build collective capacity
  for knowledge, skills, understanding
  and psychological growth
• Must be sensitive to context and must
  be accompanied by political support