The fable of the three little pigs and the wolf is one of the most famous stories on which generations grew up. Yet this fable starts from the premise that everyone starts from the same starting positions and that the only thing that matters is how diligent you are to make a safe haven from the “beasts” that come from the forest.

Let us now try to tell an alternative version of this story, which corresponds much better with the modern society in which we live. One pig lived somewhere in the rich north and was rich enough to be able to procure bricks, concrete and all the accompanying equipment to build a house that would protect him from external threats. Another pig lived somewhere on the global semi-periphery, due to the impossibility of procuring all the necessary materials, pig had to use cheaper materials, so he built a weaker house. The third pig, born in the poverty of the global south, could not even make a solid house, because he had to make bricks all day long, which will be delivered to the first richest pig.

When a wolf appeared and started blowing like a typhoon or hurricane, which is happening more and more often due to climate change, the result was as follows. The first pig suffered only material damage and had to replace a couple of tiles, the second pig had to renovate almost the entire house, while the third pig was left with nothing, the fields from which it was fed remained flooded. Although the piglets wanted to help each other, the state in which the first pig lived forbade entry, the second and third piglets because one had colorful hooves and the other was too hairy.

That the previous story is not the fruit of pure fiction is shown by the data on the number of victims in natural disasters. A report entitled "Poverty and Death: Disasters and Mortality 1996-2015", published by the Center for Disaster Epidemiology Research with the support of the UN Office for Disaster Risk Reduction, states that deaths from natural disasters are much higher in the poor than in rich countries. As many as 46.6% of the total number or 627,232 deaths in the period 1996-2015 occurred in low-income countries, while 9.3% or 124.706 deaths were recorded in high-income countries, while the rest went to middle-low and medium-high-income countries.

The same report shows that the average death rate per natural disaster per 100,000 inhabitants is around 60 in poor countries, while in rich countries the number is much lower and is only around 10. These figures unequivocally show a close correlation between the poverty rate and the number of deaths due to natural disasters. And the number of disasters is constantly growing, so in the period 1976-1996, 3,017 were recorded, while the number more than doubled in the next twenty years and amounted to 6,392. Due to the accelerated climate change, the number of natural disasters is expected to continue to increase, as shown by 2020, which is one of the most active when it comes to hurricane strikes in the Atlantic.

Poverty, misery and sustainable development goals

Ending poverty everywhere and in all its forms - a long-standing dream of all progressive people, has been woven into various UN strategies, plans and programs since the very beginning of this international organization. A world without poverty is the first among the equal goals of sustainable development. Progress in achieving this goal is monitored through seven sub-goals and fourteen indicators. Unfortunately, there are only partial data for Serbia and only a few indicators are monitored.

The international poverty line is earnings of 1.25 US dollars on a daily basis. According to this definition of poverty, the number of the poorest seems to be slowly declining. The UN Secretary-General's report states that since 2010 the percentage of the poor has fallen from 15.7% to 10% in 2015, the pace of extreme poverty reduction has slowed further, with the current rate of 8.2 percent in 2019. But the pandemic COVID-19 reverses the trend of poverty reduction. According to the latest estimates, the global extreme poverty rate in the world is predicted to be 8.4 to 8.8 percent in 2020, which is close to the level in 2017. Accordingly, it is estimated that 40 to 60 million people will be pushed back into extreme poverty.

According to the data of the Republic Bureau of Statistics, the poverty risk rate in Serbia in 2018 was at a similar level as in 2013, and according to it, about 24.5 percent of the total population was at risk of poverty. While in the same period the number of social protection beneficiaries increased from 8.9% of the total population to 10%. The increase in the number of beneficiaries was not accompanied by a percentage increase in the budget for social protection, so the percentage allocated for social protection has decreased since 2015, when it amounted to 36.5% to 34.1%.

Almost everywhere in the world, particularly vulnerable and vulnerable groups are hit by poverty. Young people, women, minorities, the elderly, etc. Vulnerable groups are also much more often affected by natural disasters because they live in difficult economic conditions, often without ownership of land or means of production. In Serbia, women make up 59% of farm members but are legally registered as farm managers in only 15.3% of cases, making them more economically vulnerable and exposed to poverty.

When it comes to poverty, it should be taken into account that the limit of 1.25 dollars a day is often quite arbitrary and that in many countries that amount of money is not enough to keep you above the limits of misery. Also, poverty in its occurrence does not exist as one absolutely measurable category. That is why it is necessary to separate the topics of misery (absolute poverty) and relative poverty. Poverty or absolute poverty is often defined as a condition in which people lack the means to meet their basic life needs, and it is measurable through the provision of resources based on human reproduction (food, water, home, footwear, clothing ...).

Relative poverty is not so easy to measure because it does not exist in itself as an absolute category but exists only through comparison with others. It often represents the inability of some individuals or groups to perform social roles, participate in relationships, and follow the customs and lifestyles of a community or society. If we follow the Gini coefficient that measures inequality in a society, we can see that since the 80s of the twentieth century there has been an increase in inequality almost everywhere, so that today social differences are much greater than during the so-called welfare states.

Sustainable Development Goal 1 - A world without poverty

The Sustainable Development Goal 1 states that it is necessary to: ensure significant mobilization of resources from various sources, inter alia through increased development cooperation, in order to provide adequate and predictable resources for developing countries, especially the least developed countries, to implement programs and policies to end all forms of poverty, and to ensure by 2030 that all men and women, especially the poor and vulnerable, have equal rights to economic resources, as well as access to basic services, land ownership and management, and other forms of property, heritage, natural resources, relevant new technologies and financial services, including microfinance.

All of this should lead to building the resilience of the poor and marginalized by 2030 and reducing their exposure and vulnerability to extreme climate events, as well as other economic, social and environmental shocks and disasters. Still, the question remains how to reduce poverty if we know that the rich become even richer and the poor even poorer, where 1% of the richest control 44.8% of the world's wealth, while many people still live in misery and starvation.

Let's go back to the fable about three little pigs from the beginning of the text, in the original story of a pig with a brick house, at the end receives its brothers to get away from the wolf together. In our alternative version, we see that there are enough resources so that no pig lives in misery and that everyone has good houses, but that requires solidarity as in the original fable, and a much fairer distribution of resources that is not based on exploitation and colonialism.

 

Predrag Momčilović

Photo source: Belgrad Open School