Building Assets to Reduce Poverty and Injustice - Ford Foundation

Overcoming Barriers To Asset BuildingI have only one request.I do not ask for moneyAlthough I have need of it,I do not ask for meat…I have only one request,And all I ask isThat you removeThe road blockFrom my path.Okot p’Bitek“Song of an African Woman”Inequalities in the distribution of all types of assets are found in societies worldwide.While governments and multilateral agencies have long tracked income inequalitywithin and among nations, weak accounting systems and elusive data oftenconfound measurement on a global scale of even conventional assets, such as savingsand equity. Nonetheless, the fact that approximately 25 percent of the world’s peoplereceive 75 percent x of the world’s income strongly suggests the precarious state ofthe assets base of the poor. In the United States, 10 percent of families control 90percent of financial wealth. xi It is estimated that without public sector safety nets,the assets of low-income households would cushion only three months’ hardshipcaused by sudden unemployment, a medical emergency, or other crisis. xii Of theworld’s 6 billion people, 2.8 billion, almost half, live on less than $2 a day. xiii Formuch of the world’s population, short-term crises and social disruptions, in theabsence of assets, imperil people’s very survival.When it comes to natural resources, the historic pattern worldwide is one ofincreasing corporate ownership and decreasing local community control.Residents of chronically poor areas are becoming more socially isolated; they havefew connections to mainstream society and little power to engage in decisionmaking.Low-income people, especially women, are disproportionately burdenedby reproductive health problems. The HIV epidemic increasingly reflects globalinequities in wealth, knowledge, and access to health care. In sum, the ‘haves’ areincreasing their control over assets while the ‘have-nots’ are fallingfurther behind.The pattern of asset distribution reflects historical and contemporary public policydecision-making and longstanding cultural traditions. Today’s inequities are theresult of restrictive laws and barriers to education and services that exclude women,racial and ethnic minorities, and low-income people from creating, inheriting,purchasing, and in other ways building assets. An asset building approach seeks tochange the ways assets are developed, distributed, and passed from generation togeneration. This means confronting historic and contemporary forces of social,class, and caste exclusion, including racism, sexism, homophobia, and other formsof discrimination.