Download the file - United Nations Rule of Law

Good initiatives have been undertaken by ILO,the World Bank, USAID, among other organisations,to provide the poor and the disadvantagedwith the legal and institutional environment andthe rule of law in order that they might betterdevelop their capacity to use their own talents,energy and initiative for accessing livelihoodresources, and assets to generate efficient andproductive enterprises. The ultimate goal is toguarantee sustainable livelihoods for all — alongthe continuum from the informal to the formaleconomy. The approach: reorienting gender-baseddevelopment strategies to eradicate poverty. Thisrequires 1) a better understanding of the informalbusinesses and enterprises within the context ofthe formal and informal continuum, and 2) an integrativestrategy to design a system of businessrights that provides solutions to the lack of socialprotection, lack of representation and voice,and leads to more efficient economic functioning,greater trust and reduction in conflict, andimproved institutions with dynamic benefits forequitable investment and growth.This chapter on Business Rights presentsevidence to demonstrate that the inequality ofbusiness opportunities available to the poor isuneconomical and detrimental to sustainabledevelopment and poverty reduction. It will alsoprovide policy and rule of law implications emergingfrom removal of bureaucratic and administrativeinefficiencies in the life cycle of businessesand the study of market failures, particularly atthe local levels, while building upon the broadconcept of levelling the playing field — politicallyand economically — in the domestic and globalarenas.Why Business Rights? And why now?We live in world of increasing inequities. Therichest two percent of adults own more than 50percent of global assets. The poorest half of thepopulation holds only one percent of wealth. 8Unprecedented affluence co-exists with astonishingdeprivation, persistence of poverty and unmetbasic needs, violation of fundamental politicalfreedoms, and neglect or even absence of lawfulprivileges that uphold basic civil liberties for asignificant proportion of the population. Nearly40 percent of the world’s 6.5 billion peoplelive in poverty of which, a sixth live in extremepoverty. 9 The number of people living in extremepoverty in Africa has nearly doubled from 164million in 1981 to 316 million in 2001. Even forthe rest of the world, extreme poverty today hasincreased by nearly three percent from 1981. 10While the deprivations indicated above are morecommon in the less wealthy countries, they existin, one form or another, in rich countries too. 11Work, being central to our lives, is a basic requirementto enriching human well-being and thequality of life in general. Work empowers peopleto enhance their ability to attain and sustainlivelihoods, while it is largely left to business tocreate savings, investment and innovation thatcontribute to livelihoods and to employmentgeneration. 12 Persistent poverty may be blamedon both public policy failure and market failure.Interestingly, the two are related in that prevalentpolicies and resulting systems of governancestructure and legal rights have largely served tocharacterise the function of the economy, marketsand businesses, and to define what they cando and what they are allowed to do. Therefore,an integral constituent of poverty reduction musthave to do with empowering the working poor toaccess opportunities that could be created byreducing economic, legal and social inequalities.Businesses, generally speaking, constitute theprivate sector; they are usually led private individuals,communities and corporations. In many203