'Making poverty history' and 'an end to poverty' are mantras that have been part of public conversation for the last five years. They have galvanised activists across the world, from Norway to Australia. Although 'making poverty history' may be a little tired now as a slogan, it still has pulling power.
Recently, under the 'make poverty history' banner, a group of young Australians launched a 'roadtrip' to Canberra to advocate that Australia raise its foreign aid commitment to 0.7 per cent of GDP. And although the white 'make poverty history' arm bands weren't as ubiquitous as they were in 2005, strong feeling about taking action to alleviate poverty certainly survives. The recent Canadian G8 meeting sparked new protests at the failure of rich countries to honour the promises they made five years ago at Gleneagles to increase aid by up to $50 billion by 2010.
Yet these latest protests, ritualistic at G8 meetings, point not only to the failures of the G8 governments, but also to the limitations of those mantras, 'make poverty history' and 'an end to poverty'. Much of the anger and debate that accompanies G8 meetings focuses on numbers. The monetary pledges made by governments are either met or broken, and the public responds accordingly. So the movement to 'end poverty' is tied to the numbers that emerge from each international summit. Progress is measured by the amount of money pledged and ultimately spent on aid and development.
In the cacophony of pledges and broken promises, one question is not clearly answered: what does an 'end to poverty' actually mean? Is it in fact a question of arriving at a world where everyone lives above some pre-determined 'poverty-line'?
The language of 'ending poverty' focuses on economic improvement. And that is where aid comes in. Aid seeks to rectify an imbalance of the basic goods which people need in order to live and to realise opportunities to do what they like with their lives.
But, as the economist and philosopher Amartya Sen has argued, primary goods don't necessarily translate into substantive freedoms. Poverty is not a one dimensional affliction.Communities enduring poverty are almost always torn by multiple afflictions, for example, ethnic or class discrimination or corruption. A person in a poor community may not simply suffer from a lack of primary goods (food, shelter, healthcare), but also from various forms of discrimination or poor access to institutional protection.