Poverty and Lombard St

Recent media coverage highlighting the bleak conditions under which some residents of Lombard Street are living has triggered, yet again, discussions on the high level of material and social deprivation endured by these residents while living in the capital city, and the challenges associated with achieving the goal of poverty alleviation generally.

A team from the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) which visited Guyana last month expressing shock at the extent of the manifestations of poverty on Lombard Street in the city, merely emphasised what we already know: that many of our citizens, in the city, its environs, and also in the rural countryside, are living in wretched conditions below the poverty line by any definition.

Poverty, measured by international standards, is the condition of struggling to live on US$1 per day or less. This sum of US$1 is considered the poverty line and there are an estimated 1.4 billion people worldwide who fall below this bracket according to World Bank statistics. Given the lack of reliable data in Guyana we are unsure as to the actual poverty figures in this country, but past reported statistics suggested that moderate poverty was around 36 percent while extreme poverty was estimated at around 19 percent.

While the Government of Guyana through its Minister of Social Protection, Volda Lawrence, has since pledged to address the issues affecting the community, subsequent reports out of the area revealed that residents were coolly dismissive of this pledge of assistance, reacting nonchalantly to the news of government coming to their aid.

One reason for this is apparent lack of faith in the government’s promise probably lies in the fact that economic growth and increased government spending over the years have not resulted in any qualitative improvement in the lives of the Lombard Street poor, or in the lives of other persons residing in our depressed communities. Clearly, the redistribution of income and the sharing of wealth creation in the economy – two of the foundational tenets of economic policy and strategy – have not proven effective in reaching the very poor under successive governments over the years.

While the IACHR has called upon the State to adopt urgent steps to improve the socioeconomic condition of the Lombard Street residents, it is also important that an examination is made of the role the private sector is playing in this regard, particularly those businesses operating in proximity to the residents. How

are the businesses interacting with the community in their pursuit of profits? Are they fulfilling their corporate social responsibility?

Indeed, many businesses globally and even locally are increasingly recognising the contributions they must make to ensure that they are good corporate citizens and give back to the communities in which they operate. This responsibility to the community does not change even in times of economic downturn, if anything it becomes greater, and corporations who don’t fulfil their Corporate Social Responsibility have no excuse. A business cannot seek an existence completely aloof of the community within which it conducts its business.

There’s a contrasting narrative in many of our struggling communities in the capital city, on the one hand there are big businesses thriving seemingly oblivious to the economic hardship that surrounds them, and on the other, there is real poverty visible within these business districts, particularly in South Georgetown where the Lombard Street residents fall.

Corporate social responsibility initiatives such as the Tiger Bay Project, which is supported by several businesses, have positively changed the lives of many people in northern Georgetown, especially its youth population. This particular project opens a door into the classroom for many residents in the community and offers sessions in information technology, developing better reading skills, homework assistance, and moral development among other subject areas.

Without question government, must provide an enabling environment for businesses to grow by strengthening governance and improving the investment climate. This will, of course, require more than the platitudes emanating thus far from the ruling coalition on its commitment to good governance.

We are now 17 months into the coalition government’s rule and this country’s poor continue to cry out for more equitable policies, programmes and services. Ironically, many of the initiatives pursued by the government and the city council administration appear to negatively impact the “small man” and this will inevitably have an unfavourable trickle down to the poor and abject poor.

It is time that the government craft a sustainable strategy for poverty reduction and to work with the private sector to see the creation of new jobs targeting youth. The private sector as the engine of growth must also utilise available labour in the communities in which they operate, and be good corporate citizens in providing visible and lasting interventions in the community.

For its part, government must craft a fiscal policy that more effectively directs spending into the communities that are in dire need of upliftment in their social infrastructure as well as their roads, drainage, and supply of potable water. Education is key and the poor can usually hardly afford the cost of sending their children to school. Poorly educated children usually find integration into lawful society very difficult and become the real victims of the scourge of criminality, falling prey to the lure of a fast dollar and becoming entrapped in criminal activity at a very young age.

Maybe the government can, as a first move, make an urgent, visible and meaningful intervention into the lives of the Lombard Street poor that will come as a most welcome surprise to the residents and instil a degree of hope among citizens everywhere in the country.