“ To put into practice a harmonious distribution of opportunities in all fields of human activity requires a specific partnership – one that the poorest have taken the lead in creating. As we stand at the threshold of a new millennium, may this partnership inspire a world-wide undertaking that harnesses resources and inventiveness across all nations, in order to build a culture for overcoming human poverty. ”

“ The quest of the poorest for economic autonomy and personal and social identity The right to work is a profound aspiration of those who are excluded from employment. As the poorest constantly express it, work not only makes it possible to secure resources but also to obtain recognition of one’s dignity, particularly in the eyes of one’s children. What is commonly called the informal labour market is based largely on the fierce desire of the poorest to work at all costs. They accept any job or themselves create opportunities in order to survive. ”

“ Cultural participation is one way out of this injustice, if it is conceived as a process of mutual sharing. A very poor man in Senegal saw it this way: "Culture is realising that the greatest thing in one’s life is knowledge. That is what culture means, especially for the poor. All this is summed up in one of our African proverbs: ’The remedy for humanity is humanity.’ Culture is knowing about one’s past and present; it is the quest to penetrate the future for the good of humankind." ”

“ Deep poverty separates people from things that are vital to them because they provide their hands, their eyes, their tongues, and their hearts with habits – habits that open them up to a culture of the hands, the heart and the mind, and that enable them to build relations with others. Such constant, intense deprivation prevents people in the long run from thinking like everyone else. ”

“ How can those who are busy with both economic and socio-cultural activities be enabled to make free time in either of these fields in order to involve in them those who are excluded? In today’s working life, possibilities of sabbatical time, of leaves of absence devoted to freely chosen retraining, or to voluntary work, have become more and more familiar and practised. They claim and obtain, quite rightly, time that is not for more advanced training strictly in their own field of work but for a significant broadening of their more general cultural education. ”

“ Deep poverty too often excludes people from any hope of unleashing their own creativity. Making sure that the very poor have the means to express themselves creatively opens the path to undiscovered treasures of potential that can greatly enrich all humankind. ”

“ The double exclusion of so many of our fellow human beings – from decent work and from other forms of human fulfilment and participation in society – continues to jeopardise social integration and unravel the social fabric. Redefining human development is imperative. ”

“ Inversely, chronic unemployment reduces their resources and hampers their possibilities of participating in social and cultural life. This constitutes a waste of human resources and a hindrance to social integration.
One of the lessons learned from the poorest is that every human being strives to be useful to his or her family and community. This sheds new light on the following question: How can each person be given opportunities, throughout his or her life, to make use of times for training and for creative and useful work in all the fields in which humankind must progress? ”

“ But partnership for what purpose? Those living in extreme poverty show how they are prevented from assuming their responsibilities, "exercising their rights and utilising their resources." [1] Lack of decent housing can lead to poor health, which in turn prevents people from staying in a job; illiteracy and lack of access to culture act as barriers to vocational training and participation in the community; being unemployed lessens the chances of gaining access to decent housing. ”

“ As early as the 1980s, Joseph Wresinski envisioned the three-fold challenge of universal access to work and livelihood, of re-valuation of unemployment time and of an equitable distribution of time and activities. His vision had already anticipated the prospect of work in the future, taking into consideration the consequences on the labour force of rapid technological changes. Today, analysts and policy-makers foresee a slowing down of job creation that will not be stemmed by higher economic growth ”

“ The UNDP Poverty Report 1998 states that "despite its undoubted successes, microfinance is not a magic wand for poverty reduction. The poor have long been used to taking out small loans for consumption – to tide them over a drop in income, or until a crop has been harvested (...) . Supplying credit for emergencies offers some security, but it is more difficult for microcredit schemes to help poor people start significant new income-generating activities." ”

“ The fact is that exclusion from employment deprive the poorest of the unemployed of the resources and possibilities to participate in the activities of civil society. Similarly the most exploited and underpaid workers, although they may hold a job, hardly have any resources and opportunities for living a satisfying life and for exercising their right to participate in society. ”

“ Issues such as employment, job creation and training cannot be addressed independently of all other aspects of human development. Work and training should encompass education, access to cultural and creative activities, family life, one’s place in society and community life, spiritual life, and meaningful participation in public and political life. ”

“ Development of the informal economic sector In developing countries, the majority of the poorest people earn their living by conducting various activities in the informal sector. Salaried work represents only about ten percent of the total labour force. Informal work is also very present in economies in transition, and even in certain industrialised countries, it remains an important resource for the survival of some of the worst off.
Unemployment, underemployment and inadequate employment are situations common to low-skilled workers of the informal sector. ”

“ More people everywhere are finding it necessary or desirable to combine several work activities, to move in and out of employment, to indulge in their work-based enthusiasms, and to define themselves in ways not easily captured by statistics. ”

“ This initial thrust by Joseph Wresinski – to give art and creativity full-fledged status among more traditional forms of anti-poverty actions – continues to find resonance today in many parts of the world where people share this ambitious vision for building bridges from one person to another. For example, in Cuzco, Peru, ATD Fourth World has in recent years invited artists, both renowned and less known, to join poor families in contributing works of art and mounting an exhibition of oil paintings on the theme of extreme poverty. ”

“ As a basis for action toward full employment, the Programme of Action of the Copenhagen Summit Declaration stressed that "productive work and employment are central elements of development as well as decisive elements of human identity." It also affirmed that "adequately and appropriately remunerated employment is an effective method of combating poverty and promoting social integration." ”

“ The quantity of employment cannot be divorced from its quality. (...) Decent work means productive work in which rights are protected, which generates an adequate income, with adequate social protection. It also means sufficient work in the sense that all should have full access to income-earning opportunities" [12]
Meanwhile, from the standpoint of people living in extreme poverty, ensuring respect for the right to work must be accompanied by promoting the realisation of their rights to social and cultural participation. ”

“ Adults, themselves from very disadvantaged backgrounds, have dedicated their time and energy to seeking out very excluded people and helping them break free. Toward that aim, they spend their free time receiving training and building their capacities. In this process, they become partners with others from different walks of life. The commitments of the latter take another form. They devote their skills and part of their time to projects carried out in partnership with the poorest at a grass-roots level or to consciousness-raising within their milieu. ”

“ One of the most unbearable injustices in all the above mechanisms is that, in return for social welfare, human beings are tossed between busy work – sometimes as meaningless as moving piles of rocks back and forth from one side of a park to another – and periods of forced inactivity.
Economic solidarity Economic solidarity comprises not-for-profit enterprises set up to offer employment and work experience to the most marginalised people. ”

“ Welfare-to-work programmes and various «integration schemes» In many industrialised countries, [2] the current thought is that all medically fit people must do some work in compensation for any welfare benefits they get. There is a positive aspect in the intention to avoid dependence and the conviction that the poor have something to contribute. The pitfall of these "workfare" programs, however, is that the jobs assigned as a condition of receiving any social benefits rarely lead to permanent employment. ”

“ Participation in some form of productive employment without enjoying a level of subsistence and protection according to standards within society is typically the situation of the "working poor" in the United States and of workers hired under "integration schemes" designed for the unemployed in some European countries. ”

“ Microcredit does not by itself respond to the needs and possibilities of the poorest – they cannot afford the risk of being indebted, or they cannot repay the loans because of unforeseen circumstances and emergencies.
If microcredit alone is not a sufficient solution, this is not to say that it does not offer real opportunities for people in vulnerable situations. In fact, some micro-finance institutions are linked to capacity-building and literacy training; others offer retail outlet facilities for the products of their clients. ”

“ Furthermore, when people in workfare programs are working side-by-side with regular employees, doing the same work, they usually do not receive the same pay, and they are often treated in a manner so demeaning that it undermines any hope of integrating them into the workplace. In other cases, beneficiaries are trapped because the little income resulting from workfare programmes is deducted from the benefits they usually receive. ”

“ Redefining human development therefore implies seeking a balanced distribution between time spent at work and time invested in different fields of one’s life – personal and family life; educational, cultural and creative activity; working life, comprising formal or informal work; social activity; community life ”

“ Furthermore, in the experience of ATD Fourth World, very often it is art that acts as a safeguard to prevent partnership from sliding toward paternalism. When the very poor have the possibility of expressing both the depths of their suffering and the hopes embedded in their imagination, their relationship to people of other backgrounds changes. The age-old barriers between milieus can begin to blur. ”

“ Evidence of this social and political participation is found in the way that the poorest and their organisations have mobilised around the International Day for the Eradication of Poverty, October 17, an officially recognised United Nations day. In many places throughout the world, they symbolically choose the 17th of every month to organize their gatherings. These are opportunities for people of diverse backgrounds to come together, meet, build friendship across social barriers, and renew a common commitment to overcoming poverty and social exclusion. ”

“ Social welfare Income redistribution through social welfare policies or social safety nets continues to be considered the typical way of attempting to establish social justice in a market economy. Increasing pressure is put on welfare benefits, however, both by the need to reduce public expenditure, and by the realisation that financial assistance is often not enough to enable people to contribute to the economy. ”

“ In Peru, a man walked kilometres only to find a temporary job so far away that he could not return home for two weeks because his daily earnings did not suffice for even one bus ride. "I put all my time and energy in that job, and still I cannot afford even my children’s school supplies. That is the most unbearable thing for me." Fathers endure very hard work for a pittance, or accept being paid in kind, in order to bring home something for the family. Mothers look everywhere for some way to feed their children. ”

“ The present situation of the labour market is also characterised by a separate, secondary employment sector totally segregated from mainstream employment. People are recruited for short periods, and often put in stop-gap, dead-end activities. Their wages are below the standard minimum salary and they are not entitled to a regular worker status. ”