Human Rights and Poverty Seminar
“until economic and social rights
are given the same recognition as political and civil rights,
it will be very difficult to overcome poverty”
“extreme poverty is the most serious form of human rights violation today”
Seth Oteng, Youth Bridge Foundation, Ghana
BACKGROUND
On 10th December 2008, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) turned 60 and this landmark anniversary was celebrated under the theme "Human Rights to Freedom and Poverty: Dignity and Justice for All.” A new year has dawned on us with poverty still hovering around us. Addressing poverty from a Human Rights perspective must be sustained.
Poverty is a denial of human rights. Every woman, man, youth and child has the human right to a standard of living adequate for health and well-being, to food, education, clothing, housing, medical care and social services. These fundamental human rights are defined in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, International Covenants and other widely adhered to international human rights treaties and Declarations: powerful tools that can empower efforts for social and economic justice worldwide.
To all intents and purposes, Human Rights refer to rights that are inherent to the person and belong equally to all human beings. Their realization has to be carried out as a participatory, accountable and transparent process, implying equality in decision-making.
Arguably, the principles of equality and non-discrimination address one of the root causes of poverty. Whilst poverty strategies have always targeted individuals and groups that are socially excluded, marginalized, vulnerable and disadvantaged, the human rights-based approach to poverty reduction espouses the principles of universality and indivisibility, empowerment and transparency, accountability and participation. It addresses the multi-dimensional nature of poverty beyond the lack of income.
Impressive reports of Ghana’s STAND UP TAKE ACTION Campaign 2008 showed over 65 percent of the 1,675,346 mobilized campaigners representing the youth. Evidently, the youth demonstrated commitment to championing the campaign against poverty. There is, thus, the need to empower the youth to meaningfully champion the campaign against poverty at all level of social lives. The call to integrate human rights in poverty reduction strategies is more urgent today than ever.
USAID’s observation that “whilst Ghana’s youth represent an enormous resource, they are rarely considered as important agents of social and economic transformation” (USAID/Ghana, 2006) need be reversed if meaningful change and impact are to be made in Anti-Poverty campaign and attainment of the MDGs by 2015.
In the wake of the foregoing, it is imperative that people, especially the youth join together at community levels to gain a better understanding of the meaning of human rights in their daily lives and advocate for a new paradigm in the fight against poverty. Unequivocally, extreme poverty and gender disparity in access to education, to the disadvantage of female, are both violations of human rights.
Appreciating the valuable but enormity of the task ahead, Youth Bridge Foundation seeks the collaboration, financial and logistical support of Organizations committed to REALIZING RIGHTS to organise a youth-focused Seminar themed "Human Rights to Freedom and Poverty: Dignity and Justice for All” in Tamale for the youth drawn from the three northern regions of Ghana: Upper East, Upper West and Northern Regions.
2.0 LOCATION AND CONTEXT
The focus of the planned seminar for the youth drawn from the three northern regions of Ghana and brought closer to them in Tamale was primarily driven by the unique dynamics that their location offers.
There are three regions in the north of Ghana: upper east, upper west and northern regions. These three regions are in the Guinea Sudan and Sahel climate zones with population of approximately 2.4million and the youth constituting about 64 percent. The area has a mean annual rainfall values ranging from 600-1,100 mm. Long periods of droughts are followed by episodic torrential rains which sometimes result in floods in some areas. As a result, surface water collection has failed to mitigate the problem of adequate production since apart from the high rate of evaporation; it is exposed to all sorts of pollution and infestation. Irrigation which could have been a great source to livelihood activities has not seen the interest of successive governments, thus living the people with no other option of making income after the single maxima rain fall normally registered from May to September.
Peasant farming is therefore the main occupation and livelihood activities for the inhabitants of the North. Incidentally, Food crop farmers are among the very poor in the country. The crops they grow are maize, yam, millet, cassava, Soya bean, rice. Other livelihood activities include fetching of firewood, Shea nut picking and butter extraction, charcoal burning, and the rearing of animals such as sheep, goats and cattle. They also take care of birds like the hen and guinea fowls in very small numbers.
Both men and women are engaged in farming activities which hither to was the preserve of men. It is still important to note that the population group that is the engine to these farming activities is the Youth.
The nature of their occupation, (peasant farming) degenerated by unfavorable weather conditions and the fast depleting soil’s fertility, makes them unable to produce enough for their families throughout the year. By the fourth month after harvesting (March/April), more than two thirds of households begin to eat for just once or at best twice a day. Poverty has therefore raised its ugly heard all over the north making it the most poverty stricken areas among the 10 regions of Ghana.
Undeniably, poverty has deprived the people of the North of several opportunities to a LIFE OF DIGNITY. Education has been far lagging behind that of the southern Ghana by over 5 decades. Access and enrollment in education has progressively witnessed high percentile drops at Secondary and tertiary levels. In Ghana Statistical Service’s Core Welfare Indicators Questionnaire Survey of 2003 for example, access to secondary education was recorded at 7.9 percent in the Upper East Region as against 63.4 and 56.1 percentage in Greater Accra and Ashanti Regions respectively.
Though Education is said to be “FREE” it has not been easy to access by the northerners even within their own territories let alone in tertiary institutions elsewhere (outside the north) due to several factors including facility fee payments, books, accommodation, etc.
Relying mainly on the human resource of the youth and children as farm hands or shepherds for livelihood, parents traditionally are confronted with the challenge of enrolling their wards in schools as a difficult option. School drop-out rates are consequently high at the northern regions of Ghana and inevitably street hawking and arms-begging by strong youth have gradually become common. Regrettably, farms culturally handed down to the youth yield just a little: thus accounting for their involvement in other unfruitful augments, petty fights, political disturbances, tools for chieftaincy disturbances and sometimes high street rubbery and home wrecking. Often, the very few young men and women who are able to find their way into institutions do that on their own with no or very little assistance from their parents or the government.
Furtherance to the foregoing, the northern regions are characterized by a young population age structure with 46.2 per cent under 15 years of age posing intractable challenges in the provision of social and community facilities, in addition to basic needs for younger people, particularly in view of the poor resources of the region.
While government strategy papers suggests a decline in poverty overall, poverty has a firm grip on the north. The disparity has widened the income gap between people in the south, where there are two growing seasons, and those in the drought-prone northern plains.
The cycle of poverty evident in the three northern regions over decades calls for a more proactive effort at stopping it from a human rights perspective.
3.0 AIMS AND OBJECTIVES
The primary aim of the planned Youth Human Rights and Poverty Seminar themed “Human Rights to Freedom and Poverty: Dignity and Justice for All” is:
- To help participating youth gain a better understanding of the meaning of human rights in their daily lives
- To build their capacity to advocate for a new paradigm in the fight against poverty: that extreme poverty is a violation of human rights
- Identify and commission anti-poverty Ambassadors who would stimulate dialogue at all social levels on human rights issues among their peers and families by advocating and emphasizing the role they can play in the campaign against poverty
- To introduce participants to the principle of self supply: to stress on what the poor and youth can do themselves in order to bring about a positive change within their own lives and their set up and not so much of what others should do.
Specifically, the program will seek to achieve the following objectives:
Advocacy
- To help the youth realize their basic human rights, potentials and responsibilities in eradicating poverty.
- Campaign for a new paradigm shift to poverty eradication and promotion of social and economic equality through human rights.
- Encourage all actors to adopt a human rights-based approach in tailoring and customizing the MDG targets to the local context.
- Espouse the notion of participation at the centre of a human rights-based approach to poverty reduction. That the poor be considered as the principal actors of development and no longer be seen as passive recipients; they are strategic partners rather than target groups.
Capacity Building
- Empower the youth and civil society organizations to meaningfully champion campaigns towards attainment of the MDGs, Anti-Poverty and Inequality.
- Build youth awareness and knowledge to better engage meaningfully with local governments in addressing poverty.
- Build youth competency to meaningfully “STAND UP AGAINST POVERTY” at family levels and community levels.
- To equip participants within the context of Training of Trainers (ToT) as Peer Educators.
4.0 TARGET
Primary Target
Youth aged 18 to 35 years (Youth Network Platforms and Community-Leaders)
Secondary Target:
