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Aid programmes often target the 'poor' or the 'under resourced' because of the belief that such people find it hard to cope in their societies.
However it has long been recognised that many people who are thought to be 'poor' lead happy and fulfilled lives. They can do so because their perceived needs are met by the support they receive from those around them.
The complex system of societal and social support based on reciprocity of obligations and mutual support is often referred to as the Moral Economy.
This set of mutual obligations depends entirely on the members of the society respecting the obligations and inherent rules. Should the obligations or behaviour not be up to expectations, then support is withheld.
This system is hugely important for people in very poor societies, where fulfilment of obligations not only grants access to rights, support and opportunity, but also endows people with the identity of the group.
However, even if people struggle to maintain their obligations, ordinary human interactions often get in the way of their success. As discussed in the page on 'The Poor-Poor Divide in Northern Nigeria', a wide variety of factors (disputes, jealousy, sexual affairs, inheritance, fear, alcoholism, addiction, family history, competition) can lead to a particular individual being unsupported in the family or in the society.
The importance of understanding this network of support is primarily that the majority of people, even in very poor societies, manage quite successfully without additional support because of the support provided by the moral economy. So programmes that claim success in improving the lot of people who are in this situation are merely providing an additional boost to people who indeed may benefit but whose needs are not nearly as great as those who miss out on the support provided by the moral economy.
To improve the impact of programmes would require an analysis of those who fail to be supported by the moral economy. If they did this then the impact they would have on the statistics used to measure success (e.g. child mortality) would be far more significant.
The easiest way of doing this would be to orient all community-based workers to the problem, ensure that they seek out those who are not supported within the existing frameworks and then to see what can be done to provide that extra support in conjunction with community leaders.
Tony Klouda