International Seminar on the 30 anniversary of the
adoption of the UN Declaration on the right to development
Best practices for realization of the right to
development and experience sharing
Carlos Aquino*
It is stated in the United Nations Declaration on the Right to Development, adopted by the General Assembly in its Resolution 41/128 of 4 December 1986, in its article 8, paragraph 1 the following: “States should undertake, at the national level, all necessary measures for the realization of the right to development and shall ensure, inter alia, equality of opportunity for all in their access to basic resources, education, health services, food, housing, employment and the fair distribution of income. Effective measures should be undertaken to ensure that women have an active role in the development process. Appropriate economic and social reforms should be carried out with a view to eradicating all social injustices.”[1]
Besides this, the United Nations established the Millennium Development Goals to be achieved by the year 2015 that considered among the 8 goals these: eradicate extreme poverty and hunger, achieve universal primary education, promote gender equality and empower women, reduce child mortality[2]. Again in January this year the United Nations established the Sustainable Development Goals to be achieved by the year 2030 that considered among the 17 goals to be achieved these: No poverty, Zero hunger, Good health and well-being, quality education, gender equality, decent work and economic growth, reduced inequalities[3].
In that regard states should develop policies that can
provide the basic resources mentioned in the first paragraph and that are also
the objectives of the United Nations Development Goals. In this report a
presentation will be made of the policies that my country, Peru, is undertaking
regarding the best practices for the realization of the right to development
and how this experience can be shared to other countries. Also references will
be made to some policies that China undertook and has been regarded a success
in the achievement of some basic resources mentioned above.
1.
Peru
record on economic growth
From the last decade Peru is considered one of the
fastest growing economies in Latin America. As can be seen in the Graph 1 Peru
average growth in the last decade was nearly 5%, and in this year 2016 for
example it could growth around 3.7% (or 4% according to recent government
statistics) while the average for Latin America will be of -0.6% as seen in Table
1.
Peru economic growth is due to two factors: first,
strong demand for its natural resources, as it is a country endowed with plenty
of mineral resources (copper, iron ore, gold, silver, lead, fishery products,
natural gas and oil), and in the last years exports of its agro industrial
goods (grapes, asparagus, avocado, paprika, cacao, mangos, etc.) has also
increased; and second, there has been a strong growth in investment, government
and private (foreign and national), in the provision of infrastructure and
investment in mining projects and others.
Graph 1: Peru GDP annual average variations in % and
in billion dollars
Source: Proinversion: Presentation “Why invest in
Peru?”
Table 1: Some economic statistics for countries in the
western hemisphere
Source: IMF: “World Economic Outlook”, October 2016, page 3
Thanks to the strong economic growth achieved in the
last 15 years, from the year 2000 onwards, poverty rate in Peru has decreased
from a rate of 50% in the year 2000 to 22% in the year 2015.
Poverty reduction has been achieved thanks to the
increase in the overall economic growth, that has allowed an increase in the
average GDP per capita, from a low of around 4,000 dollars in the year 2000 to
nearly 12,000 dollars in the year 2015 (in a purchasing power parity basis, as seen
in Graph 2), and to some specific social policies that will be detailed below.
Graph 2: Real GDP growth for Peru and some Latin
American countries
Source: Proinversion:
Presentation “Why invest in Peru?”
The sure and
fastest way to achieve for example poverty reduction and to provide basic
resources like education, health services, food, housing, employment, is for
the overall economy to grow. In this regard probably China is the best example
of a country that has been able to grow very fast and made possible a fast
reduction of its poverty rate. According to a report by the United Nations
published in the year 2012 titled “Report submitted by the Special Rapporteur
on the right to food, Olivier De Schutter” of a Mission to China (conducted
from December 15 to 22, 2010), in page 2 it is stated “Domestic food
availability has increased from 1,500 calories per capita per day at the start
of the 1960s to 3,000 calories per capita per day in 2000. With a population of
1.3 billion and a surface of arable land of 121.7 million hectares, China has
21 per cent of the world’s population, 8.5 per cent of the world’s total arable
land and 6.5 per cent of the world’s water reserves”[4].
That has allowed, as the same report states in page 4 that “the absolute number
of poor fell from 652 million to 135 million between 1981 and 2004”.
What is
more impressive is that China economic growth has been persistent since it
launched its economic reforms at the end of 1978. From 1979 to 2011 China grew
by a yearly average of 10%, from the year 2012 it has been growing at an
average of 7%. That is what a country needs, a stable economic growth. China
can teach a lesson to other countries of how to achieve that, by way of promoting
a export-oriented economy that employs the abundant labor force, a policy to
promote increase in production and productivity in the rural areas by for
example establishing a “guaranteed minimum procurement price system for the
main grain sorts and agricultural input subsidies, facilitating the flow of
resources from industry to agriculture” and in this way improve the lot of
farmers, as the report mentioned above states.
In the
case of Peru its economy is still dependent on the external demand for its
natural resources and as prices of many of those products has decreased from
2012 its impact was felt in the slowdown of its economic growth. Even so Peru
did not suffer as much as other countries because it does not depend in a few primary
goods but has a diversified export basket, and also its export markets are
diversified. But Peru economic structure is still underdeveloped and this need
to change to guarantee a sustainable economic growth, as in China. Also still
there is no consistent policy to improve the lot of farmers, and even if on one
hand the agricultural sector in the Coastal area has been modernized becoming
the responsible for the boom in agro industrial exports mentioned above, on the
other hand the agricultural sector in the Andean region and the Amazons lacks
for example modern machinery, inputs, and for the farmers access to markets is
difficult for the no availability of roads.
Another
question that Peru has to solve is how to be able to give more value added to
the natural resources that it has. For this what is needed are, among other
things, the provision of skilled labor so manufacturing facilities can be set
up, and the physical infrastructure (seaports, airports, railways and highways)
so goods and people can move easily. Provision of information and technology
for achieving international competitiveness also will be needed. On these
things China experience offer a very interesting example of how to achieve
that, experience that can be followed.
Even so,
the reduction in the poverty rate in Peru has been achieved also by the
implementation of some social policies that can be seen as best practices for
the realization for the right to development. Poverty cannot be eliminated by only
economic growth, some public policies should be in place. We outline below what
were those policies Peru adopted.
2.
Peru
social policies for reducing poverty
Peru
adopted some social policies for reducing poverty and for ensuring access to basic resources, education, health services, food, housing,
employment and the fair distribution of income. As has been said only overall
economic growth is not enough, because there are some people that cannot immediately
benefit from the fruit of economic growth, either because they lack certain
abilities or skills to participate for example in the market labor, or because
they live in areas of difficult access or have some disabilities or are
handicapped.
The range of
social policies adopted by Peru tried to focalize in the groups in need. We
mention below some of these.
a.
Health. Peru public health system suffers from
insufficient funding and many people are left with no possibility to access
good health services if they cannot pay for a private hospital. In order to
tackle this issue in 2009 “two public health insurance schemes were
established—in addition to public hospitals— to alleviate costs to
beneficiaries. The first of them, EsSalud, has a contributory nature and is
mandatory for all formal workers, while the second one, SIS (Sistema Integral
de Salud in Spanish), is geared towards the poor and vulnerable population and
is, therefore, free of charge”[5].
Even so it is
estimated that still 30% of people are not covered by any health insurance. So
there is a need to expand the health public system. In this regard in the last
years governments have been trying to increase the share of public health
expenditure relative to the country GDP, and this has slightly increased from
around 4.4% in 1995 to around 5% in 2012[6].
It should be
mentioned also one scheme implemented by Lima city council to make easier the
access to a public hospital. The problem with public hospitals is that to get
attention an appointment is needed beforehand and this can take a long time. So
the Lima city council created the so called “Hospitales de Solidaridad” (Solidarity
hospital) which charge an amount of 10 soles (3 US dollars) but the attention
is immediate. These hospitals have allowed many people to get fast attention.
The experience has been imitated by other city councils.
b.
Social Security. Peru presents some challenges in its social
security policy because if on the one hand the working age population is
increasing and at the same time this is accompanied by a smaller child
population, creating a demographic dividend, on the other hand the increase of
the elderly population in the next decade would create a situation where the
social protection network could be financially threatened if the current child
population is not large enough to replace the working age population in the
near future[7].
Peru has mainly two social security schemes with
mandatory enrollment and contribution requirement for formal workers: the one
financed by the pay as you go method, that is, contributors would finance
payments for those beneficiaries who had already retired, counting on the
guarantee of receiving fixed pension once they themselves retire, which would
be financed by contributions from the working-age population of the following
generation[8];
and the other one is the individual capitalization system, where people will
deposit a part of their salary or income in a personal account and when they
retire will receive what they have saved in it.
The problem with those systems is that first, not all
people are enrolled in them, as not everyone have an employment in the formal
system; and second, the pensions people receive when they retire are not enough
(unless for persons of higher income).
So for many people who are not employed in the
formal sector, or for those whose earnings are so low they cannot save enough
money when they retire, the government created in 2011 a scheme called Pension
65. This scheme gives people older than 65 year old and living in extreme
poverty a bimonthly stipend of 250 soles (around 75 US dollars). It is
estimated that a little more than half a million people (534,000) are
beneficiaries of this program now[9].
c.
Education: To encourage children to attend school and to
provide them with enough food so they can properly learn, a school feeding
program is in existence, called Qali Warma. It gives every child in public
schools at the primary level food rations. In the year 2016 it will attend 3,610,919
students in 61,552 schools[10].
Qali Warma, a Quechua word meaning vigorous
boy/girl, was created at the end of 2012 to replace the Programa Nacional de
Apoyo Alimentario (PRONAA), which itself was created in the year 1992, and
gives children in extreme poverty two food rations, breakfast and lunch, and
for the other children only breakfast.
d.
Conditional cash transfers: In the year 2005 Peru government implemented a new program that would
give families living in extreme poverty a periodic amount of cash subject to
the compliance of certain objectives by the families. This program is called “Programa
Juntos”, and by the end of 2015 there were 814,533 households mainly in rural
areas, and the program benefits children up to the age of 19 or until they
finish the secondary schools, and also to pregnant women.
Families are given a monthly transfer of 100 soles
(around 30 dollars) but have to comply certain conditionalities[11]:
-
“Families with pregnant and lactating mothers:
Mothers must obtain pre- and post- natal care. The focus
is to provide adequate vaccination to the mothers, such as tetanus and
anti-parasitic shots, as well as health supplements such as folic acid and
iron.
-
Families with children below the age of five: To
avoid malnutrition, children are made to undergo frequent nutritional and
health check-ups which guarantee a complete round of vaccinations, iron supplements,
vitamin A and parasitic control. These checkups also involve the periodic
monitoring of children’s height and body weight.
-
Families with children between the ages of six and 14,
but with incomplete basic schooling: Children in these households are required
to attend school for at least 85 per cent of the school year. Given that
children belonging to this age group have a higher probability of being
involved in child labor due to their poor domestic circumstances, the goal is
to provide families with sufficient money so as to allow children to go to school
instead of working.”
3.
Conclusions
As can be seen from Peru experience, to help reduce
poverty some specific policies has to be adopted. These target vulnerable
groups such as older persons with no pension system with the program Pension
65, children in extreme poverty with the school feeding program, the
conditional cash transfer for families living in extreme poverty with the
Programa Juntos.
Perhaps the program of conditional cash transfer
“Programa Juntos”, that is said to be one of the most successful public
policies implemented by Peru, can serve as example of best practice for the
realization of the right to development and its experience can be shared with
other countries..
As has been said economic growth alone will not
eliminate poverty or provide the basic resources. Some specific social policies
are needed. Perhaps even China, that has achieved a remarkable economic growth
in the last 37 years since it began economic reforms in 1979, could learn from
other countries experiences with some public policies, as the ones adopted by
Peru.
*Professor,
San Marcos National University, Faculty of Economics, Lima, Peru
[1] UN Declaration on the Right to Development
[2] We can end poverty, Millennium
development Goals and beyond 2015: http://www.un.org/millenniumgoals/
[3]
United Nations Sustainable Development Goals, 17
Goals to transform our world: http://www.un.org/sustainabledevelopment/blog/2015/12/sustainable-development-goals-kick-off-with-start-of-new-year/
[4]
See “Report submitted by the Special Rapporteur on the right to food,
Olivier De Schutter, Addendum, Preliminary note on the mission to China (15-23
December 2010) https://documents-dds-ny.un.org/doc/UNDOC/GEN/G11/108/43/PDF/G1110843.pdf?OpenElement
[5] Several authors, ”Overview of
Chilean and Peruvian social policies: impressions from a study tour”,
International Policy Center, Working Paper No. 148, September 2016, page 5: http://www.ipc-undp.org/pub/eng/WP148_Overview_of_Chilean_and_Peruvian_social_policies.pdf
[6] As cited in page 4 of the study ”Overview
of Chilean and Peruvian social policies: impressions from a study tour”,
International Policy Center, Working Paper No. 148, September 2016
[7] See page 9 of the study above
mentioned.
[8] See page 11 of the study above
mentioned.
[9] See “El Comercio“ newspaper, october 28, 2016: “Pensión 65: bienestar pero no más salud”,
[11]
See page 25 of the study ”Overview of Chilean and Peruvian social
policies: impressions from a study tour”, International Policy Center, Working
Paper No. 148, September 2016 http://www.ipc-undp.org/pub/eng/WP148_Overview_of_Chilean_and_Peruvian_social_policies.pdf
