From Poverty to Power Green, Oxfam 2008 - weman

FROM POVERTY TO POWEREven where public services exist, they often fail to address thediverse needs of women, poor, elderly, and disabled people, people livingwith HIV or AIDS, or from particular ethnic or religious groups.This may be due in part to the fact that government officials areoverwhelmingly male, relatively well-off, able-bodied, and from anethnic majority – which highlights the importance of involving arepresentative range of citizens in shaping policies and in deliveringservices.Health is discussed in Part 4, while this section explores education,water and sanitation, and fertility control, as well as the roles of citizensand states in providing essential services.EDUCATIONEducation is crucial in breaking the cycle of poverty. It is a right initself, and it equips individuals to lead full lives, understand the world,and ultimately gain the self-confidence to make themselves heard.Good-quality education is emancipatory, a path to greater freedomand choice, and opens the door to improved health, earning opportunities,and material well-being. On average, each additional year offormal schooling increases a worker’s wages by 5–10 per cent, and theskills gained can transform the quality of life for generations tocome. 30Over the past ten years, Brazil has managed to reduce its historicallyextreme inequality to its lowest level in 30 years, in large part byproviding education to poor people, along with social protectionschemes. 31 Schooling is the single most powerful way to break thetransmission of deprivation from one generation to the next. Whensuch services are paid for by progressive taxation, the impact in reducinginequality is all the greater.Conversely, the absence of education perpetuates inequalities.Children are less likely to receive an education if they are girls, live inrural areas, or are poor. When all three sources of exclusion coincide,the results can be startling. In Guinea, a boy living in an urban area,with an educated mother and belonging to the wealthiest quintile,is 126 times more likely to attend school than a rural girl from thepoorest quintile with an uneducated mother. 3242