The Challenges of Inclusive Development
In books, inclusive development is easy and much more attainable with minimal if any effort. However in reality the challenges of enhancing inclusive development are many and sometimes — with donor funding — not pursued with the consistency and in-depth attention and detail such agendas should get!
A household struggling to put food on the table, not sure of water to drink (let’s leave the discussion for clean water aside), sleeping primarily for all intent and purposes out in the open (with roofs that leak beyond measure), with a sizeable but very exhausted piece of land, with kids they can hardly get to school (and for those that do, they are like rain in the desert — in school for very few days and mostly at home as they cannot meet the basic requirements of school fees, books etc to stay in school): Inclusion seizes to be an option — but an urgent necessity.
Seeing such households, who rarely have enough to eat (quantity wise — since quality shall never be met), tilling a small tiny piece of land that may never yield anything with the erratic rains, poor seed quality and scanty access to agronomic practices. Sadly, the little that get’s harvested is bought off at prices that are not worth mentioning.
Subsisting on government rations would be an option, but accessing the food, walking for miles to get to the dispatch point is a mirage. Politicians don’t see such households as being worth their time — after all, votes are already cast!
Then those privileged will years later castigate the prostitute, seek to burn the thug — but we as a people in real sense are pushing people to corners they cannot wriggle out of. The man of the house is perpetually drunk — his troubles are too many to stay sober. The lady of the house is perpetually gossiping and castigating the husband — she has too much trouble to stay silent — her problems may suffocate her. The children learn to fend for themselves, mostly illegally, cyclic poverty.
Ultimately, we have to rise above partisan and boardroom goals, and strategies how such voiceless households can be brought to the fore-front of development.
Strengthening access to enhanced productivity and inclusive markets alone cannot help. The mental blockage and acceptance of inter-generational poverty is possibly where we may need to start as we seek to support such households to progressively commence the journey of halting the free-fall into abject poverty, and finally an upward trajectory to health creation…
Kenya finds itself, and many other African societies increasingly classified as progressively developing nations. But the sad reality, is a silent majority is perpetually sliding down the path of abject poverty — for now, this may be a Kenyan problem. But in the long-term, we may end up exporting professional thieves and social delinquents. If the certain families and communities can practice and pass down business acumen — so can houses that have been poor since the geographical space called Kenya existed, also perfect theft et al…
Access to basic services, is a must and support to county governments to enhance meaningful access is one agenda that we all must remain committed, engaged and support for a better tomorrow…
