Targeting corruption vital in alleviating poverty: UNDP

The Jakarta Post ,  Jakarta   |  Fri, 06/13/2008 10:03 AM  |  Business

Alleviating poverty in its broadest sense is the core task of the United Nations Development Program (UNDP), but what does this agency have to do with the rule of law and combating corruption?

Quite a lot, as shown in two separate reports launched by the UNDP early this month.

One of the reports, on the legal empowerment of the poor, was issued at UN headquarters in New York early last week. The other, on tackling corruption, was launched here Thursday at a seminar opened by President Susilo Bambang Yudhyono.

The first report reveals large amounts of statistical evidence of grave injustices in developing countries which, it states, are one of the main reasons why four billion people remain trapped in poverty.

Traditional approaches to development and standard economic theory assume that contracts and property rights are in place, and what transpires in the informal economy is scarcely taken into account, the report says.

Put another way, most development initiatives tend to focus on the official economy, the formal legal system and institutions at national rather than local levels.

"However, most poor people do not live under the shelter of the law's protection and the opportunities it affords, but far from it," the report, titled Making the law work for every one, points out.

The 110-page report was compiled by a commission of 30 experts, former ministers and heads of state, including former NZ prime minister Mike Moore, former Mexican president Ernesto Zedillo and former U.S. treasury secretary Lawrence Summers. This commission was co-chaired by former U.S. secretary of state Madeleine K. Albright and Hernando de Soto, president of the Institute for Liberty and Democracy.

Many people find the houses they live in, the land they till and the business they start up are not protected by legally enforceable property rights. Because they are outside the rule of law, the vast majority of poor people are obliged to work in the informal (underground) economy, which is less productive than the formal, legal part of the economy.

Aside from property rights, there are three other pillars of legal empowerment of the poor cited in the report: access to justice and the rule of law, labor rights and business rights.

The report, which took almost three years to complete, argues it is often not the absence or acute lack of assets or lack of work that trap people in poverty, but the fact that the assets and work are insecure, unprotected and far less productive than they should be.

The UNDP Asia-Pacific Human Development Report 2008, titled Tackling Corruption, Transforming Lives, concludes that corruption undermines human development and efforts at poverty alleviation by diverting goods and services targeted for the poor to well-off and well-connected households who can bribe officials.

The action-oriented report examines a spectrum of corruption in the Asia-Pacific region and recommends a seven-point action plan, including concerted international efforts to implement the United Nations Convention Against Corruption, setting benchmarks for the quality of institutions, strengthening civil services, promoting codes of conduct in the private sector, establishing the right to information and supporting citizen action.

However, the UNDP also recommends that police, social services and natural resources be targeted as top priorities for anti-corruption campaigns.

The report finds corruption in natural resources can reach a grand scale as companies bribe officials or lawmakers to shape laws, regulations or policies to their advantage.

An example of this was the recent arrest in Jakarta by the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) of a member of the House of Representatives and a regional official for their alleged involvement in the conversion of forested land to a commercial zoning on Bintan island.

The UNDP also calls for the decontamination of the justice system (including police, public prosecutors and judges), pointing out that unless this "is clean and fair, countries are unlikely to be able to uproot corruption from other sectors".

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