Poverty, projects, public policies

Abstract

This study presents some results of a qualitative research carried out in eleven different rural areas of Hungary. The topic of the research was how and to what extent different projects targeted at the alleviation of Roma and non-Roma poverty and social exclusion meet their objectives. The most important projects implemented in the disadvantaged areas and communities under study have been financed by the European Union.

We can easily identify the interrelated, mutually enhancing factors sustaining poverty: long-term unemployment, low education, low and uncertain incomes of families. Deep poverty, especially child poverty, concentrates in disadvantaged, peripheral areas, thus social and territorial exclusion correlate.

There are some lessons which can be drawn from the local experience of implementing projects aiming at alleviating poverty. The main question is, whether the positive changes, results and effects induced by the projects in question can be sustained after their closure. There is a broad consensus that the complex problem of deep-rooted self-reproducing poverty cannot be solved within the framework of short-time projects. It is not only about the frequent lack of synergy of different projects and programmes, but rather about the relationship between projects and public policies which explicitly or implicitly influence poverty and the poor, strengthening or even weakening the institutions and structures of social inclusion in the society.

In the rural areas under study, the general experience our interviewees shared with us has been the growing risk of poverty and exclusion, the deepening of poverty, trends fuelling exclusionary discourses about the (Roma) poor, weakening solidarity and the decreasing integrating force of local societies. Local experience is in accordance with recent European reports which highlight the worsening position of Hungary regarding poverty, social exclusion and social justice. These trends can also be interpreted as the negative impact of the crisis. Not questioning the relevance of that interpretation, we argue in this study, in accordance with other recent researches, that it has been the exclusionary social policy reforms which themselves contribute to the deepening of poverty and social exclusion in the Hungarian society. To provide only a few examples, the new constitution reduced the right for social security, and the government has cut the length and the level of unemployment benefits, the amount of social assistance and the public workers’ wages radically. The new unemployment benefit system curbed the social right of the unemployed and replaced activation policies with a compulsory public works programme.

The public works programme is applied by the government as the virtually universal means of combating unemployment and poverty. However, empirical research highlights that it barely meets its objectives. The programme does not provide (re)entry into the first labour market; in addition, it significantly weakens the ties of the public workers to the world of the informal labour market. The amount of wages offered for public work is higher than that of the social welfare, and can temporarily increase the incomes of poor families, but it is not enough to help them out of poverty. Beyond that, the public works programme strengthens the dependency of the poor on the local authorities. The public works programme does not offer a way out for the poor, but is not more than a trap.