A view from this little row in the Lord’s vineyard

By Anita and Michael Dohn, August 30, 2007 [Diocese of Southern Ohio] At the 2000 Millennium Summit, 189 heads of state and government signed the Millennium Declaration that included the Millennium Development Goals. As missionaries in health ministries, those goals touch our daily work. Our understanding of these goals is rooted in our understanding of the structure of poverty.

The Structure of Poverty

Poverty is not just about money. Economic aspects are important, but health and education may be more important. The three elements work together synergistically. Health and education (in particular, literacy) are the foundation on which people can provide for their economic well-being. The absence of any of the three can lead to impoverishment.

The relationships between health and poverty have been extensively studied. Health and poverty have a circular cause and effect relationship. Poor health can cause poverty; poverty can cause poor health. Education depends upon the available educational systems and opportunities. Similarly, income production will depend upon the availability of commercial or other income generating possibilities.

Because of these inter-relationships, microeconomic development organizations have regularly explored the addition of health and literacy programs with varied experiences and success. However, a simple example illustrates an important point regarding microeconomic development programs. If a poor woman is able to increase her family’s income through participation in a microloan or other microeconomic program, her family will benefit from the increased income and may be able to move out of a level of extreme poverty. However, if her children grow up unhealthy and without an education, they will be no better off than their mother was before she participated in the microeconomic program. Her children will lack the building blocks provided by education and health; the cycle of poverty will continue.

The Millennium Development Goals

There are eight overall Millennium Development Goals. Given the structure of poverty, long-term success related to Goal 1 (“Eradicate extreme poverty and hunger”) depends upon Goals 2, 4, 5, 6 and 7 that are directly related to improving health and education (1).
Empowering women (Goal 3) fights poverty. Microeconomic development programs produce social transformations and local political re-alignments that tend to empower women.

Since their publication, the Millennium Development Goals have been evaluated and critiqued. Criticisms have included that they are “top-down” goals originating with the United Nations rather than arising from the realities in the villages and poor neighborhoods that are the targets for poverty eradication. Political instability and corruption are obstacles to attaining the goals. The absence of a reliable economic infrastructure (banks, rule of law, enforceable contracts, etc.) in many developing countries is a major barrier to achieving the goals. Development strategy (for instance, too narrow a focus on a particular disease) may also lead to poor results.

One common feature of the criticisms is that they tend to look at the “macro” scale (that is, the political or economic system of a country or region). However, in developing countries, most economic activity (up to 75% of all economic activity) is within the “informal” or “micro” economy. The informal economy is variously defined as transactions that are not covered by taxes, do not involve financial institutions, etc. – in other words, small cash and barter businesses that operate independently of the official tax, legal, and financial systems. This is the “microeconomic” world.

The same inter-relationships that apply to development on the macro level are probably important on the micro level. However, development of the micro level may not depend directly on whether or not the macro institutions function well. Recent modifications to the Millennium Development Goals are oriented toward encouraging more local community development.

Working on the community level is the preferred development model. Community development may be the only alternative when the appropriate institutions are absent or do not work on the macro level. Much of what we know concerning effective community development has come through the work of cross-cultural Christian missionaries and development workers over the past 60 years. In great part, this is because missionaries generally have excellent community relationships and very few economic resources; this situation encourages solutions to problems that are local and sustainable.

The current Millennium Development Goals are very similar to the international development goals of the 1990’s and the 1980’s and the 1970’s and so on. However, one of the most encouraging aspects of the current Millennium Development Goals is that a broad representation of non-governmental organizations (NGO’s) have embraced them at a time when globalization has made progress in global development possible. While the United Nations is obligated to work through existing government structures, NGO’s (such as the Episcopal Church and the Anglican Communion) are free to develop alliances that work and by-pass much of the political corruption and the other impediments to development. NGO’s are numerous and estimated to control greater resources for development than government budgets around the world.

The Millennium Declaration in 2000 stated that the objective was to "free our fellow men, women and children from the abject and dehumanizing conditions of extreme poverty, to which more than a billion of them are currently subjected." From our perspective in this little row in the Lord’s vineyard, that objective fits nicely with our Baptismal vow to seek and serve Christ in all persons.

For a list of the reference materials used by the Dohns to develop this article, go to www.episcopal-dso.org, WebBonus.

-- Drs. Anita and Michael Dohn are SAMS missionaries from Southern Ohio working with Iglesia Episcopal Dominicana in the Dominican Republic.

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