Local communities in a big, tough world

The “Engaging Communities” conference worked through a wide variety of themes including sustainable natural resource management (and water management), education, law, science, health and safety, housing and homelessness, culturally diverse communities and governance. Discussions focused on the engagement of communities through ICT (information and communication technologies), science, rural and agricultural development and of reaching target groups like youth, children and families, women, seniors, Indigenous people and people with disabilities.

The UN Poverty-Environment Nexus Project, like the Burmese example cited by Mr Khan, involves direct help to poor communities in ten countries to eradicate poverty and at the same time, to rejuvenate sustainability. It also encourages information-sharing and prompts institutions to improve their capacity to eradicate poverty. The other countries are Cambodia, Laos, Thailand and Vietnam in South-East Asia; and in Central Asia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyztan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan.

In contrast, Mr Khan commented phenomenal changes were taking place in South America. He said it was heartening to see the upsurge recently in citizen assertion, as in Brazil. Many South American countries were seeing radical political transformation and through democracy they were breaking away from old elitist cliques who used to rule and exploit the poor. He said Brazil’s Lula, who came from a poor background and had been a trade unionist, was working within a democratic framework from a participatory ideology, not an authoritarian one, and was trying to deepen democracy in that country. He had reached out to the poor people and was encouraging them to be involved in budgeting and planning.

Mr Khan said participative democracy these days often became corrupted by the underplay of money but, as in the case of the Incas who had been neglected for 500 years, native peoples were now asserting themselves and dictating terms to the central government.

People were realising their power and their numbers and challenging the state. They were not waiting for the United Nations or anyone else to empower them, he said. It was a very interesting phenomenon.

Two streams of community action and their attempts, hopefully, to move forward. The UN may require reform but it can boast a remarkable list of achievements so far and there are still abundant issues and communities out there that need its expertise and help. Not all undeveloped communities have yet found their own motivating upsurge.