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REPORT
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In the framework of the 'Management
of Social Transformations' (MOST) programme of UNESCO, the National
Commission of Costa Rica for UNESCO, the Netherlands National
Commission for UNESCO, the Facultad Latinoamericana de Ciencias
Sociales (FLACSO) (Costa Rica) and the University of Utrecht (Netherlands)
with the assistance of the Ministry of Foreign Relations and Culture
and the Office of Dona Josette Althmann Figueres, the First Lady
of Costa Rica, organized a conference entitled 'Poverty and Social
Exclusion' in San José, Costa Rica, from 28 to 30 January
1997.
This Conference brought together
fourteen Latin American experts on poverty. It was also attended
by a representative from the Council for the Development of Social
Science Research in Africa (CODESRIA), who presented a paper,
and by four well-known European researchers in this area. The
quality of the conference papers and the subsequent discussions
was very high.
The First Lady of Costa Rica, Dona
Altmann de Figueres, opened the Conference and a keynote speech
was given by the second Vice-President of Costa Rica, who presented
the country's national programme against poverty.
Apart from the experts who presented
papers, the Conference was attended by 40 to 50 representatives
from governmental and non-governmental organizations in Costa
Rica and Central America who participated actively in the discussions.
Representatives of CEPAL, the World Bank, UNICEF and UNESCO also
attended the Conference.
The Conference had good publicity
coverage from the Costa Rican press and television as well as
by the Dutch Radio Nederland.
The Conference has resulted in a
document which contains conclusions and recommendations of an
innovative character. One of the important conclusions is that
economic affluence resulting from neo-liberalistic politics on
the macrolevel, not only in Latin America but also in Europe,
no longer trickles down, as it did in earlier decades, to the
wider population but remains in the hands of a very few. In fact,
in Latin America, poverty increased from 30% in the 1980s to about
60% in recent years. In Europe, the number of poor people has
presently risen to 50 million. For Africa, it was again obvious
that the situation remains problematic and that the change of
regime in South Africa does not stimulate economic development
of the surrounding countries at the present time. Today's world
is confronted with poverty as a major social problem. It was
argued that in this perspective the existing paradigms are exhausted
on the level of theory and research as well as on that of policy-making
and practices. What is needed is a new interdiscipliary paradigm.
Therefore, the final document of the Conference proposes a programme
of futher research within the framework of the MOST programme,
it recommends the creation of a network of researchers and policy-makers
in the area of poverty studies and it proposes to create a databank
on policy studies, practical projects, research groups and best
practices.
Other recommendations, which were
discussed but were not included in the document because it was
decided to focus on the MOST programme, were:
1. the development of an early warning
system with respect to the risk of countries and/or social classes
being stricken by poverty, with the help of indicators, not of
poverty as such, as this is already well covered, but of trends
which may lead to poverty;
2. the development of a programme
for the preservation of the 'social heritage' of mankind, that
is to say of present and past examples of good practice;
3. the establishment of a UNESCO
Chair, linked with a UNESCO Unitwin network on social transformations
and process of inclusion and exclusion in Costa Rica, i.e. at
FLACSO.
The results of the Conference will
be presented by the Dutch representative at the meeting of the
MOST Intergovernmental Council in June 1997 and the Netherlands
and Costa Rica will together present the results of the Conference
at the Twenty-ninth session of the UNESCO General Conference in
October/November 1997.
The Conference papers will be published
in Spanish and made available at the UNESCO General Conference
and a state of the art overview of the issue will be presented
as a MOST policy paper.
As a follow-up to this meeting an
international conference on poverty will be organized by the Netherlands
National Commission in September 1997. A further publication
with a selection of contributions to both conferences will be published
on the Internet via the MOST Clearing House and in book format.
Lieteke van Vucht Tijssen
Paul de Guchteneire
Rafael Menjívar Larín Pobreza, Exclusión y Política Social edited by Rafael Menjívar Larín, Dirk Kruijt, Lieteke van Vucht Tijssen, 1997 (Spanish) |
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