Virtual Round Table: Poverty Reduction Network

TACKLING SOCIAL EXCLUSION

 

DURATION: GUEST MODERATORS:
18 April –
June 2006		 Dorothy Rosenberg, Policy Adviser, MDGs & Civil Society, UNDP, Bureau of Development Policy, Poverty Group, Email: dorothy.rosenberg@undp.org

Cindy Berman, Social Development Adviser, Policy Division, DFID, Email: c-berman@dfid.gov.uk

DISCUSSION CONTEXT | PURPOSE | DISCUSSION QUESTIONS | RESOURCE PERSONS | BACKGROUND READINGS

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Final Summary

DISCUSSION CONTEXT:
In September 2005 Poverty Reduction Network (PRN) Members selected ‘Social Inclusion: Strategies for targeting excluded groups’ as one of their top two priorities areas for discussion. This virtual round table is designed to bring together a variety of organizations, experts and practitioners working to confront social exclusion in developing countries. Round Table resource persons (listed below) will contribute their perspectives and experiences in the context of particular discussion questions. Members of the network, as always, are encouraged to share their own experiences and suggestions.

PURPOSE:
There are groups of people in all societies who are systematically disadvantaged because they are discriminated against. They are more likely to be denied access to income, assets and services. These persons suffer from social exclusion. Poverty reduction policies often fail to reach socially excluded groups unless they are specifically designed to do so. Rather than discuss individually socially excluded groups (such as the disabled, indigenous groups, women, ethnic minorities etc.) this discussion will focus on the challenges posed by social exclusion in the context of poverty reduction and the most effective strategies governments, civil society and donors can use to tackle these challenges.

The discussion will begin with arguments about why social exclusion matters for poverty reduction. The goal of the initial section is to agree on a working concept of social exclusion and articulate the case for prioritizing social exclusion as an approach for reducing poverty. The second part of the discussion will aim to share experiences with policies and programmes intended to confront social exclusion. Such efforts are divided into legal and regulatory frameworks, social protection, and improving access to high-quality services. The third section will focus specifically on the role of civil society in addressing social exclusion and the final section will focus on the additional challenges of addressing social exclusion in a post-conflict context.

DISCUSSION QUESTIONS:

1. Social exclusion: Why does it matter? (2 week discussion)

  1. What do we mean by social exclusion? What are the different ways that certain groups of society are excluded?
  2. What are the costs of not confronting social exclusion? How does social exclusion make it harder to reach the Millennium Development Goals? What is the link between social exclusion and conflict?
  3. Why and when does social exclusion matter? Given resource constraints, how do we judge when social exclusion should be addressed (e.g. by the scale of the problem or it’s impact or type etc.)?

2. What can public policy do to reduce social exclusion? What are the roles of various players? (3 week discussion)

  1. What types of legal and regulatory frameworks promote social inclusion (e.g. banning discrimination, affirmative action etc)?
    1. What efforts have been made in your country? How effective have they been?
    2. What has been or might be the role of the UN(DP)? What have been the roles of other players, government, civil society, the private sector?
    3. How useful has been or might be a human rights-based approach to poverty reduction in tackling social exclusion?
  2. How can social protection policies help reduce the social exclusion of particular groups? What strategies have been effective?
    1. How can we define ‘social protection’?
      -Do you agree with definitions of social protection that emphasize social assistance to the ‘critically poor’ and ‘social insurance’ against risk for everyone else (e.g. weather shocks undermining harvests)?
      -Do you find the definition used in the UN report on the World Social Situation and the ILO helpful: “the set of public measures that a society provides for its members to protect them against economic and social distress that would be caused by the absence or a substantial reduction of income from work as a result of various contingencies (sickness, maternity, employment injury, unemployment, invalidity, old age, and death of the breadwinner); the provision of health care; and, the provision of benefits for families with children.”
    2. Are cash transfers an effective means of addressing extreme poverty? What are the lessons learned thus far? What guidelines can be suggested for determining appropriate degree of targeting and/or conditionality?
    3. How affordable are social protection initiatives for LDCs?
  3. What methods have been employed to improve access to high-quality services (e.g. health care, education etc) and the labour market for excluded groups?
    1. How effective have related efforts in your country been?
    2. What has been or might be the role of the UN(DP)? What have been the roles of other players, government, civil society, the private sector?
    3. What are the costs and benefits of the various strategies?

3. What can civil society do to reduce social exclusion? (1 week discussion)

  1. What has been the role of civil society organizations visa via socially excluded groups in your country?
  2. What role has there been for the media in promoting or reducing social exclusion?
  3. Has civil society always been a part of the solution? Have CSO efforts led to backlash? Are there CSOs who may not actually represent who they claim?
  4. What is the role of the UN(DP) and/or donors in supporting civil society?

4. Addressing social exclusion in a post-conflict context (1 week discussion)

  1. What are the particular challenges of pursuing social inclusion in a post-conflict and crisis context?
  2. What are remaining gaps in translating social inclusion principles and policies at the programming level in crisis countries?
  3. What are specific entry points and strategies for UN/NDP to address social inclusion in countries emerging from crisis?


ROUND TABLE RESOURCE PERSONS:

SELECTED BACKGROUND READINGS: