As every year, at the beginning of February, a questionnaire is sent out by the Forum, on behalf of the International Committee October 17, concerning the choice of theme for the International Day for the Eradication of Poverty. This February 2024 was the opportunity to choose an umbrella theme for a 2-year cycle, covering the period 2024-2025.
The questionnaire was sent out to just over 500 correspondents, and we received no fewer than 189 contributions, both individual and collective, making a total of 214 individuals who took part in this year’s consultation.
Two major themes were proposed by the ATD Fourth World Movement in connection with our friends and partners at the UN in New York:
- Theme 1: Overcoming social and institutional maltreatment;
- Theme 2: Empowering futures for every child, every family and everyone left behind.
This synthesis of all the responses received to the consultation aims to give as faithfully as possible the landscape of ideas and arguments, that of the pieces of life that have been shared with us in the course of the contributions. We have sought to highlight the key ideas and the strong words that illustrate them.
What many of the responses to the consultation show is that these two proposed themes are complementary. They link the struggle of people living in extreme poverty to regain their self-confidence and regain the power to influence their lives (emancipation) to the work of challenging society, institutions and people who are not living in extreme poverty, so that everyone takes responsibility in this common struggle to put an end to violence.
For contributions relating to the first theme, this document goes back to the definitions of institutional maltreatment on the one hand, and social maltreatment on the other, as they appear in the international research conducted by ATD Fourth World with Oxford University on The Hidden Dimensions of Poverty.
According to the answers we received, we can show that maltreatment often grows out of mutual misunderstandings and prejudices about people living in extreme poverty. These preconceptions create mistrust and fear among the users who are furthest from the public services or institutions that are supposed to support them.
The maltreatment of institutions
On the issue of institutional maltreatment, some contributors raised the question of the accessibility of public services, the language used by the administration, which is often difficult to understand. Also, with the development of automation and artificial intelligence, a new risk of exclusion is emerging.
Others still, wanted to talk about school violence. School often produces exclusion.
“Children from families living in poverty are often misdirected towards exclusion teaching.”
Arnaud, Belgium
With regard to access to healthcare, several contributions point to the lack of prevention and information, and the deterioration of health services where they exist.
“Access to healthcare services is essential for the eradication of poverty, but millions of people around the world do not have access to basic healthcare due to factors such as the cost of healthcare, geographical remoteness and inadequate healthcare infrastructure.”
Sulosh, South Africa
Another broad category of responses concerns family separation. Extreme poverty prevents those living in poverty from living as a family.
“Family separation is at the root of the upsurge in the number of the poorest people in some countries. In the Democratic Republic of Congo, for example, family separation is one of the reasons why so many children live on the streets, exposing them to extreme poverty in the future.”
Édouard, Democratic Republic of the Congo
Finally, the last category of responses concerning institutional maltreatment calls into question assistance, deemed counter-productive. When it is not designed and built with the people directly concerned, the aid put in place by governments or development programmes often proves ineffective or counter-productive, sometimes producing more harm than good.
“The government sets up aid programmes with budgets to help families and individuals in precarious situations, but the criteria for accessing them are completely out of touch with reality and sometimes discriminatory.”
Patricia, Mauritius
Maltreatment of society
The second aspect of maltreatment, that of society, prompted reactions about harassment, particularly at school. Other contributions pointed to a lack of role models of diversity, which means that some children can’t imagine themselves in certain professions.
An extremely salient point in the contributions, in relation to social matreatment, is the price of shame and humiliation. Perhaps one of the greatest acts of violence that society inflicts on people living in extreme poverty is to make them take responsibility for what they experience. What is the price of so much shame passed down from generation to generation?
Another idea raised in the context of social matreatment was the weight of prejudices. The media and society blame the poor for their situation. Things won’t change until people’s perceptions of poverty change.
Another sentiment expressed in the contributions is that the exclusion and rejection of whole sections of society continue to hold back millions of people around the world.
Finally, the last big idea taken up from the synthesis, in relation to social maltreatment, was labour exploitation. The lack of employment opportunities and decent work is a major factor in poverty.
Focus on legal existence
One point of emphasis in this year’s synthesis was the right to legal existence, in other words, both the question of the registration of every child at birth and the issue of domiciliation, i.e. the right to have a stable address (which is often essential if one’s identity is to be legally recognised). The contributions revealed the dramatic consequences of its absence, whatever the causes. It creates children, then adults, whose rights are violated because they do not exist in the eyes of the State.
“[…] Many children, and even adults, do not have birth certificates, and the majority lack certain services such as school enrolment, national identity procedures, visas, etc. […]”
Bob, Central African Republic
What does maltreatment reveal?
Some of the contributions highlighted how institutional violence and societal violence relate to each other and how one makes the other possible.
In a section we have entitled “Maltreatment and social inequalities”, we take up some of the contributions that highlight the fact that maltreatment (particularly institutional maltreatment) can maintain and reinforce social inequalities.
The following sections emphasize on the one hand, the fact that the issue of maltreatment highlights a wider dynamic that affects society as a whole, and on the other hand, the need to understand and name what you are experiencing. The people affected by this maltreatment need to put words to what they are experiencing. Putting words on the evils to take the necessary distance and be able to act.
The final section of the synthesis on social and institutional maltreatment focuses on the cycle of violence. Everything is linked: social maltreatment enables and produces institutional violence against people living in extreme poverty. These different forms of violence intersect, amplifying exclusion and suffering.
We also need to understand the experiences of people living in extreme poverty who are exposed to other forms of discrimination (such as racism, sexism, homophobia and transphobia, to give just a few examples). How, in the lives of these people, these different forms of oppression relate to and interact with each other.
Acting today for justice
After the previous section, which focused more on reflection, we wanted to highlight the contributions that stressed the urgent need to act, and to act now!
“We’re tired of all this poverty, especially here in the United States, we should talk less and act more.
Kim and Babette, United States
When are things going to change?”
Getting together to emancipate
People who resist poverty on a daily basis need to find safe, free and recognised spaces where they can speak up, share their intelligence and participate in the decisions that affect them. This requires fulfilling a number of conditions expressed in some of the contributions, including taking time, a lot of time.
Rather than seeing those who resist extreme poverty as people to be supported, let’s see them as a form of accomplished humanity that holds the necessary knowledge to build a fairer society.
One of the paths to emancipation lies in meeting others. Daring to meet people who are not like us. Let’s give a voice to the people concerned and ensure that ears are there to hear them, that politicians, civil servants and citizens are there to listen to them and to set out with them.
Transforming society
If we want to collectively rise to the challenge of putting an end to extreme poverty and (re)creating a society that guarantees everyone the conditions to live and flourish, we must think and build together the conditions for everyone’s participation.
By rebuilding trust and creating the conditions for everyone to participate, we can learn together to speak out, giving priority to those directly affected by the experience of extreme poverty.
The battle to end extreme poverty is a complex one. It’s a long-term battle that requires us to pool our efforts, share our experiences and celebrate our successes. We need to federate our struggles, build bridges between our collectives and associations, network and create fighting alliances.
Merging of knowledge everywhere, merging of knowledge all the time!
People experiencing poverty are sounding the alarm. Through their life experiences and the knowledge they draw from them, people living in extreme poverty have an intimate knowledge of injustice and oppression. Wherever they live, from the poorest neighbourhoods to the most deprived areas, people living in extreme poverty carry a message for the world: without justice, no peace!
“A family united for the future of children in a world without violence, free from armed groups and wars of aggression.”
Benjamin, Democratic Republic of the Congo
Those who want to take part in this fight must seek ways to enter into dialogue with new ways of thinking, starting with those of the people who are the first to be affected. To act collectively on the world (even on a small scale), we need to decode reality, and to do that, we need tools, reading grids. How can we ensure that the ‘glasses’ we wear to read reality are the right ones and that they don’t leave part of reality in the dark? That they don’t abandon some of the people concerned to silence? It is by weaving the threads of many thoughts – thoughts that do not start from the same place in society –, by the merging of knowledge. So, merging everywhere, merging all the time!
As a novelty for 2024: The videoconference exchanges
For the first time this year, remote meetings were held after this first synthesis of the responses received to the online questionnaire. These exchanges brought together a total of 22 people from 9 different nationalities during four meetings.
These four meetings took place in three languages: two in French on March 27th and April 1st, and two other meetings on the same day, March 29th (one in English, directly followed by one in Spanish). They lasted two hours each.
These dialogues were designed to give the outline of this synthesis (the main key-ideas supported by some strong words) to those who participated in the consultation and to give others the opportunity to join in this step.
The purpose of these exchanges was also to verify the analyses advanced in this synthesis and to ensure the validity and consistency of the dialogue between the responses. We wanted these times to allow those present to react, to deepen or clarify certain ideas, to reformulate them. To highlight points of agreement or, on the contrary, disagreement, to bring out questions and courses of action. Finally, one of the objectives of these meetings was to give us the momentum to set out together towards the International Day for the Eradication of Poverty.
From several hours of exchanges, we chose to retain in this synthesis some ideas that seem to us to extend, complete or deepen those that were already in the answers received in the questionnaire.
In conclusion, we would like to extend our warmest thanks to everyone
who contributed to this consultation, and wish you a pleasant reading!