12.07.2015 Views

From Poverty to Power Green, Oxfam 2008 - weman

From Poverty to Power Green, Oxfam 2008 - weman

From Poverty to Power Green, Oxfam 2008 - weman

SHOW MORE
SHOW LESS

You also want an ePaper? Increase the reach of your titles

YUMPU automatically turns print PDFs into web optimized ePapers that Google loves.

SUSTAINABLE MARKETSIn using markets <strong>to</strong> tackle poverty and inequality, the priority is first<strong>to</strong> select the right <strong>to</strong>ol, then start building. Up until now, the <strong>to</strong>ol ofchoice for understanding and managing markets, a very crude versionof neoclassical economics, has not been up <strong>to</strong> the job, offering only avery approximate understanding of the role of markets in humandevelopment. Partly as a result, a period of unprecedented economicgrowth has excluded large portions of humanity from its benefits,generating a world of burgeoning inequalities and stubborn andextreme poverty.The urgency of finding a better <strong>to</strong>olkit springs not just from moraloutrage at a system that squanders the chance <strong>to</strong> end so much needlesssuffering, but from the evidence that climate change and otherenvironmental constraints may be changing the kind of growth that ispossible, if the planet’s ecosystem is <strong>to</strong> remain inhabitable by 6.5 billionpeople (and rising). The challenge now is <strong>to</strong> move from ‘dirty growth’<strong>to</strong> ‘smart growth’, guided by a new economics for the twenty-firstcentury that explicitly seeks the elusive goal of human well-being. Wemust seek both quantity and quality of growth, if the planet, alongwith its inhabitants, is <strong>to</strong> survive.Many men and women living in poverty experience markets as avolatile and uncontrollable force that dictates the terms of their lives.By organising, citizens can gain some degree of influence and powerover the market. When farmers can s<strong>to</strong>re grain and sell it in the lean195

Hooray! Your file is uploaded and ready to be published.

Saved successfully!

Ooh no, something went wrong!