Devolution of power alone is not enough for people's empowerment. Their vote once in five years does not guarantee their empowerment. "Citizens have power to vote and elect but they have no power to check corrupt officials, sack corrupt politicians and challenge unjust decisions of people in public offices".
This was the gist of the seminar on "Devolution of Power and Poverty Alleviation; The Missing Link", conducted by Pakistan Institute of Development Economics (PIDE), the other day.
There is only one mechanism, 'organisation of the people,' for their own development. Community organisations provide continuity of people's power in time and space over discretionary power of elite, said Fayyaz Baqir, a social activist.
Baqir, the main speaker is currently a Senior Advisor on Civil Society with UN Resident co-ordinator in Pakistan and has worked for more than 15 years in the environment and sustainable development, local governance and decentralisation. The paper is the part of series of PIDE to give impetus to development discourse and stimulate intellectual thought.
Expressing his views, he said devolution of power couldn't achieve empowerment of ordinary people because it does not have any mechanism to sub-ordinate the power of representatives to the power of electorate.
The people do not need power, which can only be exercised once in five years against the abuse and injustice meted out to them on day-to-day basis. They do not need power, which cannot bring the skeletons closets of public officials for public scrutiny. According to him there is no mechanism which could ensure the exercise of power by people over their so-called representatives - army, NGOs, politicians, bureaucrats, mullahs, etc, other than organisation of the people for their development, which could provide them power and justice.
He said that as the government has failed to serve the low-income areas, whereas the informal and non-government sector has very successfully provided these services to residents of these areas on user fee basis. The new paradigm promotes for working within the system and living within the means and stresses for human and social capital rather than physical capital, he added.
Explaining the role of community, he talked on the sociology, economy and technology of the low-income settlements, he said that poor are willing to pay for the benefits received and they are conscious to pay for the services. He claimed that poor have to pay more for the services, as they being not resourceful, have to pay underhand to buy same benefits on high price. However, when the poor pay for the services to the local representatives, they make them accountable, which make the delivery process more transparent and rewarding, he added.
The communities when working together keep the cost within their means. They devise their own ways and get together in community organisation to create economies of scale - and reduce administrative costs. They, being, financially not strong, work incrementally to develop their facilities. The elimination of middleman also gives them economic advantage, he maintained.
Talking on representation and participation of communities, Baqir said, low economy settlements select a community officer, who does not give rise to any rival grouping as is usually observed in the case of electoral process, where most of the community jobs remain unfinished due to tussle and biased approach of the opponents.
The pooling of resources and ideas by the community leads to economies of scale. The participatory working eliminates corruption and wastage, which makes the project feasible and most economical. The system remains simple and efficient without kickbacks, he added.
There is another positive aspect of the local community officials, he said. They approach the community themselves and people have not to visit them, but in the case of government, people have to approach the government departments.
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