Gobierno de Reconciliación y Unidad Nacional
Unida Nicaragua Triunfa
VIRTUAL HIGH-LEVEL MEETING ON POVERTY ERADICATION "TRENDS, OPTIONS AND STRATEGIES IN GLOBAL POVERTY ERADICATION"
UNITED NATIONS, 30 JUNE 2020
PANEL 4: SHARE INTERNATIONAL BEST PRACTICES IN POVERTY ERADICATION
Dr. Paul Oquist K.
Minister-Private Secretary
for National Policies
Presidency of the Republic of Nicaragua
Thank you Mr. President
of the General Assembly:
Markets concentrate wealth and distribution requires State action. Laissez faire or Neo-Liberal policies that abhor redistributon lead to concentration of wealth in the top 1% of the population. Every century economists warn that overconcentration leads to crisis. Politicians and statesmen tend to take action after the crisis, not before.
After the Long Depression that ended in 1890 concentration was addressed though anti-monopoly legislation. (Oil, steel, and railways, controlled by the most powerful groups in the U.S).
After the Financial Crisis of 1907 the Progressive Income Tax was introduced, and in the midst of the Great Depression that began in 1929 social security insurance was organized, with employer and employee paymall actions. All of these measures represent significant redistribution).
After the Financial Crisis 2007-2009 and the Great Recession that followed, no redistibution was undertaken. Dodd-Frank and Basel 3 are worried about Banks, not poor people.
The Great Confinement multitrillion dollar policy response to COVID-19 led to Jeff Besos of Amazon’s wealth increasing by US$29 billion in 4 months, while in the same period 47 million U.S. workers filed for unemployment insurance. Where will this process leave poverty an inequality? Especially with artificial intelligence and losing jobs losses on the way. The Great Depression 2020 will be the greatest poverty and inequality creator of our lifetime. Serious redistributive measures are required.
At the international level, two measures can be taken immediately. One would be to Secretary General Antonio Guterrez pressuring coercitive, unilateral measure countries to immediately cease and desist from their illegal actions. They are self-appointed viglantees that operate in violation of international law, deeping poverty, inequality, and pandemias, the latter constituting a crime against humanity, according to literal k of the official definition.
The second measure is developing countries debt relief. It is better for everyone that debt be condoned all at once as part of the solution, avoiding a prolonged default-by-default public debt crisis as part of the problem.
The example of Nicaragua is didactic also.
When Presidente Comandante Daniel Ortega Saavedra took over the presidency, on January 10th 2007, Nicaragua had 48.3% of its population in poverty reducing to 24.9% nine years and extreme poverty 17.2% to 6.9%.
This ocurred due to redistibutive policy, capitalization of the poor, and investment in public goods, especially infraestructura, facilitating the inclusion of historically excluded groups.
The first redistributive measure applied by the Government of National Unity and Reconciliation (GRUN), was the restitution of the constitutional rights to universal and free health and education, which were curtailed during the 16 years of neoliberal governments (1990-2006), representing savings of US$845 a year for a family of 5 compared to the cost recovery applied by previous governments. Public transportation subsidies represent an annual savings of another U$$580 for a family of five.
Capitalization of the poor includes the programs Zero Hunger that has made farmers of rural women; Zero Usury which is microcredit at 5% per annum; and the demarcation and titling of more than 37,000 km.2 of ancestral land for indigenous and afrodescendent communities.
I will finish with two examples and a conclusion
With regard to infrastructure, electricity has increased from 54% of households in 2007 to 97% in 2020, a powerful poverty reduction mesure.
With regard to inclusion, the Davos Economic Forum had Nicaragua 90th in the World in 2007 in the Gender Gap Index, while Nicaragua rose to 5th place in the world in 2019.
The conclusion is that the Nicaraguan driving force includes social support, organization, and organizational capacity (One million plus volunteers, mostly women and youth), constitutive policy and firm political will.