Various country reports have shown that far from being victims of poverty, the poor have shown extraordinary resilience in coping with adverse circumstances. Their efforts could be enhanced if vibrant and effective democracies and strong CSOs take up pro-poor policies aiming at poverty alleviation and sustainable development. This would in turn, enable people to have a voice, to campaign, to assert and to fight for their rights. This would enable them to graduate from coping strategies to enabling strategies.
There is a consensus that poverty alleviation should be tackled by mobilizing and organizing the poor through self help organizations. For this, the participatory decentralized rural development policy is the appropriate development strategy. Building institutional capacity including implementation mechanisms and structures are very important. Similarly, greater devolution - of resources and functions - is crucial for poverty reduction and sustainable development. However, government alone cannot achieve this. There is a need to mobilize NGOs, the private sector and other members of civil society. Each country can develop implementation mechanisms and procedures for operationalizing this. NGOs, self help organizations, representatives of target groups and other stakeholders can participate in the development process. This would help ensure transparency and accountability.
An enabling environment at local, national and international levels can help facilitate popular participation as agents of change. Core elements of this strategy include agrarian reform, credit for all, employment generation, education and awareness raising, people's participation, self-reliance and political commitment for decentralized rural development, provision of social services and safety nets. The development record shows that CSOs and SHOs tend to be effective in a genuine democratic milieu, and the presence of active and dynamic CSOs, SHOs and a well-informed citizenry ensures responsible, transparent, efficient and good governance.
