From Poverty to Power Green, Oxfam 2008 - weman

FROM POVERTY TO POWERMajor changes (both good and bad) that would normally take decadesto happen may occur in weeks or months. Should humanitarian anddevelopment practitioners respond differently to promote widersystemic change, embrace new approaches to old problems, orencourage shifts in positions and alliances of political actors andmovements for change?Clearly there is a need to re-evaluate the division between a‘humanitarian’ approach to shocks (governed by the strictly neutralimperative to save lives) and the ‘development’ approach to peacetime(driven by the often political support for social change), appreciatinghow the seeds of vulnerability to shocks are sown through bad peacetimedevelopment models, and the role of shocks in triggeringlong-term change.BUILDING REAL SECURITYAll of us, but particularly people living in poverty, experience abewildering and ever-changing world of risk and vulnerability. Newthreats such as climate change or HIV join ancestral fears of illness,hunger, poverty, and violence. Still other threats will doubtless appearin coming decades. In this complex and uncertain scene, ‘security’ isabout much more than the absence of war or terrorism. In the lives ofvulnerable individuals and communities, security covers a great spanof daily anxiety and risk.Given the high price of inaction on climate change, violence,hunger, and disease, a combination of public pressure and far-sightedleadership is urgently needed, in both North and South. Vulnerablepeople must be equipped to cope with risk, by strengthening theirown capabilities and by building the state’s capacity to provide supportand protection.The concept of human security offers an invaluable compass inthis task, as well as the seed for a new model of development. At anational level, governments need to understand security as an essentialaspect of development that guarantees human dignity. Easing humansuffering by addressing the causes of vulnerability and anxiety shouldbe central to economic and social policy making. The growth monomaniaof recent decades is self-defeating (it has not delivered better288