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Key Text Social Exclusion and the MDGs: The Challenge of ‘Durable Inequalities’ in the Asian Context

Author: N Kabeer
Date: 2006
Size: 30 pages (214 KB)

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Summary

Economic growth in Asia has been rapid, but inequality is a major factor curtailing the impact of growth on poverty reduction. Which groups have not taken advantage of this growth? What are the obstacles preventing them from accessing new opportunities? This paper, prepared for the Asia 2015 conference, tackles these questions. It argues that understanding the social dimensions of inequality provides a new lens through which to view chronic disadvantage.

Investigations into the persistence of poverty have highlighted forms of disadvantage that are not fully captured by economic approaches. These revolve around social identity and the cultural devaluation of people based on who they are perceived to be. Social exclusion reflects the multiple and overlapping nature of disadvantages faced by certain groups or categories, giving rise to a horizontal, group-based model of inequality. Socially excluded groups are concentrated in the poorest groups in society, both in terms of income poverty and health and education. The intersection of gender discrimination and economic deprivation mean that women are particularly disadvantaged.

Clusters of disadvantages mean poverty persists over the lifetime of individuals, and even over generations. There are several, interacting mechanisms that drive social exclusion:

Cultural devaluation: These processes draw on beliefs and stereotypes to disparage disadvantaged groups and justify the denial of full rights to them. This affects the sense of self-worth of these groups, and undermines their productivity.
The economic dynamics of exclusion are mediated by processes of cultural devaluation. For example, excluded groups may be culturally assigned the worst paid and most demeaning jobs.
The hereditary association between excluded status and ascribed occupation can transmit poverty across generations, as can lack of occupational mobility.
Economic vulnerability may be exacerbated by biased provision of services to areas with a high proportion of excluded groups, and direct provider discrimination also plays a role.
Political marginalisation and lack of voice is a key dimension of social exclusion. Excluded groups are often particularly powerless minorities and political parties have little incentive to take their concerns into account.

There are a range of policy implications of this: (i) The challenge of combining universal approaches with targeting of specific elements of policy (ii) The inadequacy of policies which target individuals or households to tackle what is essentially a group problem (iii) The need to go beyond ‘ameliorative’ policies to ‘transformative’ ones and (iv) The need for collaboration by different institutional actors. The following policy lessons are highlighted:

Much discrimination revolves around cultural representations of excluded groups, and efforts should be made to change public perceptions.
Economic opportunities should be equalised. Public policy should promote accumulation of assets by excluded people, which may include land reform. The physical isolation of poor people makes provision of infrastructure a priority.
Excluded groups find it difficult to access fair credit, and group approaches to microcredit can be successful in reaching the poorest. Labour is the most abundant asset of the poor, and investments in capabilities through health and education are important.
Social protection measures can be helpful to excluded groups, but should take account of the specific risks they face. The potential rests on careful design of programmes to prevent leakage and high administration costs.
Group-based identity affects the composition of political power, and affirmative action can promote greater proportionality in public institutions. Decentralisation can bring decision making closer to excluded groups, if it is accompanied by efforts to democratise local government.
The use of rights-based approaches underlines the importance of multi-actor, multi-pronged approaches in addressing social exclusion.

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Source: Kabeer, N., 2006 ‘Social Exclusion and the MDGs: The Challenge of ‘Durable Inequalities’ in the Asian Context’, Paper presented at Asia 2015 conference, March 2006, Overseas Development Institute, Brighton