08 March 2006
Infrastructure must work for the poor, Sen says
Nobel Laureate Professor Amartya Sen emphasized the links between infrastructure and poverty in his keynote address at the launch of ‘Making Infrastructure Work for the Poor’, a new report by UNDP and the Government of Japan.
The absence of infrastructure has a pervasive influence on poverty, but is by no means a free-standing factor in keeping poor people poor, said Professor Amartya Sen, the 1998 Nobel Laureate in Economics, at the launch on Wednesday of a new report completed under the Government of Japan and United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) initiative ‘Making Infrastructure Work for the Poor’.
“Pay specific attention to the critically important connections that have been pulled together in this report,” Sen advised.
The study, a joint publication of UNDP and the Government of Japan including Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA), which also acted as the coordinating unit, focuses on local infrastructure-development projects in Bangladesh, Senegal, Thailand and Zambia, and the broader lessons to be learned from their experiences. It points to the inter-relationships between infrastructure, human security, governance, and the reduction of poverty--connections that were a recurring theme for Sen and other panelists.
“Infrastructure builds connectivity,” said Selim Jahan, Acting Director of the Poverty Group for UNDP’s Bureau for Policy Development. “Better governance makes infrastructure more efficient. And infrastructure makes governance easier.”
According to Sen, poverty can be caused by the lack of basic infrastructure to attend school, access health care, or to sell goods at the market. “Low income is not a free-standing predicament,” he stressed.
“An exclusively income-centered view of poverty cannot but miss many important features in the causation of deprivation. Poverty can be seen as deprivation of a person’s effective freedom to live the way he or she has reason to want to live,” he said.
'‘Making Infrastructure Work for the Poor’ draws three main conclusions: that small-scale, community-based infrastructure has significant, direct impact on various aspects of human poverty and security; that local communities feel a greater sense of ownership of these small projects; and that small-scale projects and large-scale national or cross-border infrastructure development are mutually reinforcing.
Panelists agreed that small-scale local infrastructure projects can exert influence far beyond the margins of a feeder road or bridge. “Local lessons become part and parcel of the whole national system that is evolving,” said Kadmiel Wekwete, Director of the United Nations Capital Development Fund’s Local Development Unit. “Infrastructure supports people’s daily lives.
It also facilitates and promotes regional and international cooperation,” said H.E. Kenzo Oshima, Permanent Representative of Japan to the UN.
The role of infrastructure in gender equality was another recurring theme. “[The report] brings out the connection between small-scale infrastructure, on the one hand, and gender equity and women’s empowerment, on the other,” said Sen. “There are gender dimensions to the location and the design of infrastructure,” added Jahan.
UNDP’s Assistant Administrator and Director of the Bureau for Development Policy Mr. Shoji Nishimoto noted that ‘Making Infrastructure Work for the Poor’ represented a new chapter in a productive history of Japan-UNDP collaboration.
The initiative, which set out to demonstrate how good governance and improved infrastructure help reduce poverty and enhance human security, was originally agreed to at a Japan-UNDP high-level consultation in 2003, when the role of infrastructure in combating poverty was under review by the international community.
In the same year, the World Bank, Asia Development Bank (ADB) and Japan Bank of International Cooperation (JBIC) launched their collaborative projects on large-scale infrastructure and its effect on economic growth and poverty, specifically in eastern Asian countries. It also coincided with OECD/DAC discussions focusing on sharpening the impact of bilateral aid agencies' efforts.
Speakers unanimously praised the report and welcomed its contribution. “Infrastructure is reaching the forefront of the policy agenda,” said Luis Guasch, the World Bank’s Senior Adviser on Infrastructure and Private Sector Development.
“There are excellent grounds for determination and resolution. We have something to celebrate here,” Sen concluded.
Related files
Synthesis report.pdf [View] [Save]
amartya_sen_speech.pdf [View] [Save]
Amartya Sen Speech Transcript
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