Press Guide
Democracy and Poverty: A Missing Link?

Democracy Forum 2000

1. Introduction

2. The Issues

3. Objectives

4. Forum Speakers

5. Statistics

6. Agenda

7. Press Briefing

8. Location

9. Contacts

Introduction:

One of International IDEA’s main objectives is to act as a meeting point where academics, policy-makers and practitioners can exchange ideas on the major challenges confronting those working in the field of democracy promotion. To this end the Institute organizes an annual conference - the Democracy Forum - that examines a major issue in detail and formulates strategies for addressing it in practice.

The focus of the Democracy Forum 2000 is the link between poverty eradication and democracy promotion. Organized in collaboration with the World Bank and United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), the Forum will aim to formulate practical methods of linking democracy promotion with the alleviation of poverty in a mutually reinforcing manner.

The Issues:

In preparation for the Democracy Forum 2000, regional workshops were held in South Asia, Sub-Saharan Africa, the former Soviet Union and Latin America. A set of key issues was identified by a range of local practitioners, advocates and representatives of the donor community. These issues are developed in detail in regional workshop reports presented at the Democracy Forum.

Democracy, as a poverty alleviation method, has a poor performance record in the deliverance of rights and resources to a majority of people in developing countries;

Across all regions, elections have not fulfilled the expectations placed upon them for promoting accountable governance;

Donors have displayed a tendency to develop field programmes that are not always in harmony with country-specific conditions and needs;

Corruption is a widespread problem across all regions;

Political parties and civil society actors lack adequate financial and technical support; and

The non-governmental sector has, in some regions, become a business in itself.

Objectives:

Although almost all governments and institutions addressing the issues of democracy and poverty increasingly recognize democracy support and poverty reduction as two of the key development priorities of the 21st century, as yet little is done to link the two issues in practice. Instead of focusing on a general discussion of democracy support and poverty reduction commitments, the Democracy Forum 2000 will address a number of more specific objectives:

• Bringing together different regional approaches to the Forum theme with a view to investigating common issues - and differences - among them
• Sharing field experiences and lessons learned from poverty alleviation and democracy assistance programmes
• Formulating concrete ways in which democracy assistance and poverty alleviation projects could work in tandem.

Some of the Forum Speakers Include:

• H. E. Mr. Cassam Uteem, G.C.S.K, President of the Republic of Mauritius
• H.E. Mr. Osvaldo Hurtado, former President of Ecuador
• H.E. Ms. Otilia Lux de Coti, Minister of Culture, Guatemala
• Prof. Muhammad Yunus, Managing Director of the Grameen Bank, Bangladesh
• Dr. Deepa Narayan, Team Leader, Voices of the Poor - Focus on Governance Project, World Bank
• Ms. Eimi Watanabe, Assistant Administrator and Director of the Bureau for Development Policy, UNDP

Some Statistics:

On the spread of democracy . . .

. . . in 1900, when monarchies and empires predominated, there were no states which could be judged as electoral democracies by the standard of universal suffrage for multiparty elections. (Freedom House, 2000)

. . . the proportion of countries with some form of democratic government rose from 28% in 1974 to 62% in 2000. (Freedom House, 1998 & 2000)

. . . today, electoral democracies now represent 120 of the 192 existing countries and constitute 58% of the world’s population. (Freedom House, 2000)

On electoral participation . . .

. . . voter turnout across the globe rose steadily between 1945 and 1990 - increasing from 61% in the 1940’s to 68% in the 1980’s - but since 1990 the average has dipped back to 64%. (International IDEA, Voter Turnout from 1945 to 1997: A Global Report on Political Participation, 1997)

. . . high voter turnout is not solely the property of “established democracies” of the West. Of the top 10 countries in the 1990’s only three were Western European democracies with the other seven countries representing nearly all the other regions of the world. (International IDEA, Voter Turnout from 1945 to 1997, 1997)

. . . Malta, the Seychelles and Uruguay recorded the world’s highest voter turnout in the 1990’s with over 96% of their eligible population voting. (International IDEA, Voter Turnout from 1945 to 1997, 1997)

On the spread of poverty . . .

. . . 32 percent of the population in the developing world live below $1 a day. (World Bank, World Development Index, 1998)

. . . the worldwide total of people living on less than $1 per day has increased from 1.2 billion in 1987 to 1.5 billion people today and, if current economic and population trends persist at the alarming rate of poverty expanding at a rate of 25 million people per year, this figure will reach 1.9 billion people by 2015. (World Bank, WDI, 1998)

. . . during the 1990’s, the number of poor in the former Soviet Union and Eastern Europe increased by 150 million - more than the total combined populations of France, the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, Denmark, Finland, Norway and Sweden. (UNDP, Regional Bureau for Europe and the CIS, 1998)

On the distribution of wealth . . .

. . . the share in global income of the richest fifth of the world’s people is 74 times that of the poorest fifth. (UNDP, Human Development Report, 1999)

. . . the assets of the 200 richest people in the world are more than the combined income of 41% of the world’s population. (Forbes Magazine, 1998)

. . . world income inequalities have been rising steadily for nearly two centuries. This is demonstrated in an analysis of the long-term trends in world income distributions between countries, which shows that the gap between the richest and poorest country was about 3 : 1 in 1820, 7 : 1 in 1870, 11 : 1 in 1913, 35 : 1 in 1950, 44 : 1 in 1973, 72 : 1 in 1992 - and is still rising today. (UNDP, HDR, 1999)

Agenda:

Forum Sessions for Thursday, 8 June 2000:

Opening Session Following an introduction and welcome by the Secretary General of International IDEA, Mr. Bengt Säve-Söderbergh, Keynote speeches will be delivered by a distinguished panel.

Press Briefing 10:30 - 11:00 Rosenbad on 8 June 2000

Session # 2 - Review of Donor Efforts to Promote Democracy and Alleviate Poverty

This session will address the challenges and issues of donors in their efforts to increase democratic awareness and to reduce poverty on a wide variety of fronts.

Session # 3 - Accountable Governance and Poverty Alleviation

The objective of this session is to link poverty alleviation to accountable governance. Poverty reduction is dependent on the government’s assumption of its essential role of being responsive and accountable in ensuring equal rights to everyone and allowing all citizens to influence public policy.

Session # 4 - The Role of Rights in Poverty Alleviation

This session aims to illustrate and outline how equal rights should provide better opportunities for the poor. Evidence presented in the session will show that it is not enough that people have rights but these rights have to be enforced. In order to maintain democratic political habits and rights, empowerment of the poor, women and minorities is key.

Forum Sessions for Friday, 9 June 2000:

Session # 5 - Participation as a Tool to Alleviate Poverty

This session aims to present experiences and lessons learned from programs with a participatory focus - whether centered on democracy promotion or poverty alleviation - and outline concrete ways forward.

Session # 6 - Looking Ahead

Simultaneous workshops will address the differing interests and viewpoints of governments, multilateral, bilateral and civil society actors leading, to the elaboration of recommendations based both on their own experience and previous discussions at the Forum.

Session # 7 - Looking Ahead: Reports from the Workshops

This session will begin with reports from the workshops. The aim is to arrive at concrete recommendations on policy, resource allocation and implementation.

Location:

The Democracy Forum 2000 will take place at Rosenbad, entrance Drottninggatan 1.

A Press Secretariat will be open from 09.00 on 8 June.

On 9 June, workshops will be held in the afternoon at Strömsborg, International IDEA's headquarters, and at the Sheraton Hotel.

Additional Information:

The following additional information is available on our website or upon request from the Institute:

Voices of the Poor - Can Anyone Hear Us? (World Bank);

Reports from the regional preparatory workshops; and Information about International IDEA.

For Further Information Contact:

International IDEA, Strömsborg, S-103 34 Stockholm, Sweden

Monika Ericson or  Jimm Lerch

m.ericson@idea.int Tel: 46-8-698 37 44 

j.learch@idea.int Tel: +46-8-698 3741

Switchboard: +46-8-698 37 00, Fax: +46-8-20 24 22

Mark Salter, Senior Information Officer
m.salter@idea.int 
Tel: +46-8-698 3714

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