Rethinking Poverty :
Towards a National Plan For Social Inclusion of Families in-need
Najat Al-Abdulla the head of social security and family development in the Ministry of Social Affairs had a press conference few days back announcing the study of a new law of social security to be discussed at the council of ministers . [1] This is a great opportunity for policy makers to shift the paradigm of thinking from the concept of satisfying the basic needs of families in-need to the concept of social inclusion .
Poverty is the dirt we hide under the rug in the GCC countries . This way of thinking was a big obstacle hindering even the thinking of defining what is poverty in the GCC or defining a line or a threshold of poverty in these affluent economies. Although defining this threshold does not necessarily indicate the presence of poverty but rather give us an objective measuring tool . The definition of poverty in development and economic literature came a long way during the last half a century from defining poverty as the inadequacy of income to satisfy basic needs to the incapability to lead a valuable , accepted and respected life , in one’s own society, or defined as the material ,social and cultural exclusion from the rest of the society . ( see the EU definition 1984)
By studying the law of social security in Qatar ,we not only see the absence of the social inclusion principle from the law, but unfortunately , the definition of families in-need and the determination of social support has no relevance what so ever ,to the least accepted measure which is the cost of the basic needs basket of commodities .
In the mid nineties, I chaired a newly established committee on women’s issues called The Women Consultative Committee in the Ministry of Awqaf & Islamic Affairs under the benevolent minister Ahmed bin Ghrab Al-Marry. Committee members were mainly women of high education and prospects. One important subject we propose to study was , families and women in distressed economic situations; how can we shed light on this stratum of our society and find ways to keep our society clean of any human misery. We needed first to define what is poverty in Qatar? We had some trouble with one committee member who was representing the Social Affairs Department, which was at the time within the Awqaf Ministry . She claimed from the outset that this group of society is well supported and we do not need to worry about them. Law no. 9 of 1963 regulated the social support allowances for families that have no access to regular income defined as “families in-need”. The amount of these allowances in 1995 were no way near the average consumption bundle in Qatar based on the mere observations of committee members. Poverty threshold in Qatar was not yet demarked by any study. That made the concept of people falling beneath this threshold in Qatar ,to a great degree, a matter of value judgment.
In the mid nineties we were around half a century late in tackling this social problem than the rest of the developed world .
Let us start first from the beginning , the cost of the basic bundle of commodities . Family Expenditure Surveys are the starting point for defining the basic needs in any society. Such surveys establishes first the basic consumption bundle for households in a particular economy. The commodities that should be included in this bundle, should cover first food and shelter ( housing ) , which are the basic commodities at the top of the human needs scale ( Maslow ) . Then comes a basket of commodities that are required to sustain family living in a particular economy . The selection of other commodities depends largely on the stage of development of that economy. For instance in any developed country, summer vacations, would be a definite commodity in this bundle. A vacation is seen as an important recreation element and sustainability for a family of two bread winners (the husband and the wife) after a long year of waged employment. The cultural factors also play a role in the type of commodities included, for example, the Qatari culture regards having the ability to offer, a guest "karama" or "diafa" , a matter of honor. The price of a goat or a sheep to offer such “karama” represents 50% of the maximum social support allowance of families "in-need". Special events such as the Eids and Ramadan bring other expenses .
Also ,people’s preferences change over time, which creates the need for new commodities that automatically should be brought to the bundle. Although education and health services are provided free in Qatar, however there are goods that are consumed complementing the free education & health services, and these are purchased directly from the market. The supply bottlenecks in the health sector crowed many Qataris out to seek this service from other cheaper countries and families do spend on other items related to schooling? . Moreover, changes in technology create new needs, for example laptops are necessary instruments in learning nowadays.
If the Household Expenditure Surveys were not done frequently , we will not be able to estimate the threshold of basic needs and we will not be able to update this threshold with rising inflation on one hand and the family changing needs over time on the other.
In 1995 a new law of social support no.38, replaced law no. 9 of 1963 . This new law almost doubled social allowances .We do not know the mechanism by which the Social Affairs Department did decide the amount of social support allowance in 1963 or 1995 ,there was no demarcation of the subsistence standard of living or the minimum standard below which no one should ever fall . The 1963 support level could have reflected real social support more adequately than the 1995 support level . The standard of living and the basic consumption bundle were simple in the overall economy during the sixties and the support amount was close to the 1960’s needs . Overtime the overall standard of living and the economic growth overgrow the support level exponentially .
In richer countries with, breaking the neck speed of economic growth rates , as one writer mentioned lately , the basic needs thresholds must be high and rapidly changing . For example in a neighboring country the poverty threshold is around 20 thousand QAR for a family of two parents and five kids. The poverty threshold should be determined on an annual basis to take into account the changing prices, especially of food and housing. For example the basic needs threshold must have been higher in 2007 and 2008 due to soaring food and housing prices. During those two years there were many cases presented in the local newspapers where some individuals and families had to live in tents instead of paying the high rents at the time.
Another 100% increase in social support took place by the government in 2006 as inflation momentum was starting to escalate. The 100% increase was the crudest way to give this group immediate benefits? . But the absolute value of the maximum support bracket after the 2006 upward shift, was a bit over two thousand QAR . Doubling or tripling what was already low is somewhat counterproductive . It gave the false impression that the problem had then been solved. So the change of law in 1995 and the administrative measure taken in 2006 , both lacked any proper measurement of basic needs in Qatar.
The active lady ,Najat Al-Abdulla had been conducting interviews in local news papers in the period between 2008 and 2011. She repeatedly announced the numbers of Qatari people that are "in-need" based on 1995 law definition . These figures represent those families and individuals who come forward to receive the benefits and exclude the group which is called “Mutaafefa “ or those who refrain from doing so and depend on traditional and informal within - families handouts ,due to negative social stigma correlated with the term “Families in need “. The absolute number of those officially "in need" has increased in Qatar as per Mr.s Najat announcements from 9800 cases in 2008 to 11334 cases in September 2010. [2] If we assume that the size of the Qatari population is 250 thousands , we can say that the extent of poverty ( as defined in 1995) is 4.5% of the total Qatari population. We need to note that this percentage reflect only those who ask for the help of social support department .The maximum social assistance benefit is 2500 QAR, the minimum is around 500 QAR. If we take the maximum on a yearly basis , it will be around 30,000 QAR. If we compare this figure to the published per capita income according to a report issued by the research institute of the Credit Suisse Bank, which is equal to $109,000 in year 2010 or 399,000 QAR [3] , then the per capita income in Qatar would be equivalent to 13 folds the lowest income strata as defined in 1995 . Any new definition will change these estimates dramatically .
Dr. Rabiah Al-Kawari is an outspoken Qatari writer who tackled many serious social concerns . He was the first to bring this problem to the local media last April . He suggested that anyone who lives on an income under 10,000 QAR would be actually living beneath the poverty threshold in Qatar . [4] We acknowledge and respect his ethical stand , but we do need to look at the problem away from an arbitrary figure to one that is based on a multidimensional life quality and wellbeing criteria .
In 2003-2004 I was a volunteering advisor in the Supreme Council of Family Affairs. I convinced one of our best young economists Mrs. Noora Al Muriakhi to leave Qatar university and join the family council in an effort to strengthen the research component of council activities. We thought of two important topics related to families to start with, one was Qatari family in debt as there was the wide spread notion that sever cases of debt was caused by conspicuous consumption within Qatari families in debt, the only way to verify fact from myth was to subject it to scientific research , based on real numbers and data. The second study was determining the poverty threshold in Qatar. For such study to be of any credibility, there must be recent data from family expenditure surveys where the Development Planning Secretariat had to play a role in defining and updating this measure at least every few years. Although the website of the family council shows a growing trend of social and economic research, I could not see any published research on defining the poverty threshold in either the family council’s website or the website of the General Secretariat of Development Planning. The research project on defining the poverty threshold that the Family Council had started many years back in collaboration with the Development Planning Secretariat , need to be updated and adjust to inflation rate and changing family needs before any new social support policy. Most importantly we need not only to assess poverty from the average consumption indicator but go further ,several steps , to accommodate the social inclusion principle which I will come to shortly . Not doing so , will make the new law lagging the Humane Development goals of the New Millennium and the Qatar Future Vision objectives .
Peter Townsend in 1979 defined poverty extending the concept of basic needs to a wider set of needs in the UK as follows:“ Individuals, families and groups in the population can be said to be in poverty when they lack the resources to obtain the type of diet, participate in the activities and have the living conditions and amenities which are customary, or at least widely encouraged, or approved, in the societies to which they belong. If their resources are seriously below those commanded by the average individual or family that they are in fact excluded from ordinary living patterns, customs and activities “ [5]
The work of Amartya Sen , the Indian economist who was awarded the Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences in 1998, emphasized the significance of social choice approach or as he denoted as , capabilities , to define poverty instead of the income and the living standard approach. He believes that income and living standard are only instruments , a mean to an end , for the type of life one is able to lead but it does not indicate the degree of denial of choices and opportunities .
To formulate any new policy of social security , we should surpass the principle of limited cash handouts in the older version of social support laws to the whole set of opportunities and services the family can choose from. I think the new law should hold some features as :
- Fixing and building the asset base for the families in-need and not exclusively deals with merely income handout which is usually spent on immediate and current consumption . Fixing the asset base requires transferring income generating instruments . This is not new to this region as we have seen cases where incapability is lifted up by granting equities and shares in listed public companies or transferring other forms of assets as “once and for ever “ solution of such persistent social failure .
- Training and preparation for employment is a helping factor but most importantly gainful employment . There is a need create the type of jobs that return a real wage income that would push this income strata to the equivalency of the average personal income .
- The law should provide for periodic adjustment to prices and changes in commodities overtime. Statement of the absolute cash values within the Law would not give the flexibility to change such transfer without going through the whole legislative cycle again .
These are few suggestions but ,I am sure that legislators and social workers in Qatar could add more to perfect the new social security law to improve life quality and wellbeing families in need ,only if they are ready to shift gears from cash handouts principle to the social inclusion principle .