| Conclusions on Poverty
Definition
* Multidimensional issue
* Financial – language – cultural – social restrictions
Children should not be labelled as ‘in poverty’: barrier: us and them; kind of racism
Addressing self exclusion
Problem of material poverty will hardly be resolved. But children should be given opportunities to develop intellectually and spiritually, to be aware of their equality, have self-esteem, family, school, community should start from early childhood and maintain it to help a person leave “poor” category.
Protection/participation
By supporting control over lives with minimum protection but self empowerment and help to avoid dependency.
Equity/equality/social inclusion (avoiding stigmatisation): targeted universal responses
Social justice!
Rights
Equity benefits: ALL (also spirit level)
Access to leisure activities: girls and boys
Privatisation excludes a lot of people
Lone parents (mostly women) need for focused support
Policy commitment
Poverty can be eradicated
Can be solved by political will/courage and party-commitment to children’s rights, to adequate nourishment, shelter, health, education.
Govermental policy is main determinant of poverty (Innocenti report card 7)
Need to educate/inform wider voting public of need to eliminate poverty
Economic argument: sustainability?
Sustainable development: economic, environmental but also social sustainable society.
Inarguable that investing in children is economic sense: it saves downstream costs to healthy, welfare, justice, remedial education: BIG MILLIONS
700% return on early years investment
Barry Percy-Smith, University of the West of England UK
Jan Van Gils: wording (European Network Child Friendly Cities) |
