Confront Rustic Poverty Through Fairtrade

EconomicAs the whole world continues to reel under recession, world leaders, politicians, businessmen, academicians, economic experts and civil society heads will once again assemble in Davos at the World Economic Forum to talk over the way forward.

The hopeful news is that the prominence of WEF this year is on reorganizing business models, financial conceptions and risk management, revamping operations, processes and systems, and rebuilding people faith in the administrators and the novel systems.

At a time when the majority of national economic systems and business houses are fighting to beat the effects of the economic slump, it is vital to rethink plans to redesign policies with the intention to reconstruct the lives of the people who were worst affected by recession.

Hit by the rising food costs, the troubles of around 1.4 billion people living below the poverty level, earning $2 per day, has declined because of the financial tantrum.

Estimates by investigators specified that the economic crisis has added 53 million people to the 2009 count of the number of people living below $1.25. And based on growth estimations for the existing year, this number is likely to go up by an additional 73 million people living under $1.25 a day and 91 million more under $2 a day.

The rise in food costs together with the recession has upturned the accomplishments of poverty alleviation programmes in various developing nations in Africa and Asia.

While the surge in food prices constrained the budgets of growing nations, the economic crisis has nearly crippled the capability of various developing countries to deliver on their growth promises. Accordingly, the world's poor have been affected not only by financial deficiency but also social and resource poverty.

Growth has become the major victim of the economic crisis. It has disadvantaged millions of people of social resources that could have altered their lives. Communities in Asia and Africa will now have to forgo access to social security, health, education, markets, credits and other facilities for a much longer period than anticipated.

There is a need to build up and execute plans in order to deal with social poverty, which can go a long way in relieving the social as well as economic conditions of the poor, a vast majority of whom live in the rustic regions. For sustainable development we need to form infrastructure to aid the poor reach the market with their produce, provide them with education, health and credit facilities.

A WTO study in 2000 stated that trade alone may not be sufficient to eliminate poverty, but it is required if poor people are to have any hope of a bright future.

The farming society in the developing nations that feeds the world deserves special treatment and back up from the global market. Fair trade along with free trade can make a big difference to the lives of millions of agriculturists and wage workers in Africa, Asia and Latin America.

Bettered market chance for the small scale farm segment will assist agriculturists to contribute to their own growth, particularly in reducing financial and social poverty.

In its report "Business as Usual is Not an Option," the International Assessment of Agricultural Knowledge, Science and Technology for Development (IAASTD) suggested that alternative trading channels should be encouraged, trade barriers for goods in which developing nations have a comparative benefit should be eradicated, and deeper preferential access to markets should be provided to least developed countries.

The IAASTD held the view that backing the growth of certified organic agriculture and fair trade to provide alternative trading channels to typical commodity markets can help amend the social and environmental performance of farming, and offer more prosperous and stable returns to agriculturists and agricultural workers.

Indeed, there is plus point in IAASTD's suggestions, and researches carried out by different universities have amply presented the positive impact of fair trade on the lives of poor agriculturists.

Policymakers and economists should concentrate on developing a trading system based on the rules of Fairtrade, which defends the farmers against huge price fluctuations and offers them with a social premium to attain their development aspirations.

The private segment has already taken a lead in backing Fairtrade. Big brands such as Starbucks and Cadbury have committed themselves to Fairtrade.