Three principles of human security to guide
social development: Ref: United Nation International Year of the Family 1994,
Occasional Papers Series, Families: Agents and Beneficiaries of Socio-economic
Development, No 16, 1995
Three
intersecting concepts of justice: intergenerational equity, gender equity and
social equity are used in the present paper to develop a framework concerned
with the key principles underlying human security.
Intergenerational equity
The concept of
intergenerational equity highlights the cross-generational flows of material,
emotional and cultural resources generated by families and by their work of
care and nurture in all its dimensions; for children, young people and other
family members made vulnerable by age, disability or severe illness. This contribution,
in the so-called private domain, is of such magnitude that it demands not only
reciprocal public responses in recognition of it, but also a fundamental
reconceptualization of family policies not as social expenditure but social
investment. Such policies would include family payments, health and welfare
services for women and children, recognition in the workplace of the family
responsibilities of employees and the expansion of adequately remunerated
employment for both men and women. The consequences of such a reframing would
see good family policy not as a drain on national budgets, but as social
investment and a key element of economic and social development. As such, the
three false and misleading dichotomies of : (a) the public and private spheres
of life and their social contribution; (b) independent labour force activity
and the dependency of family- based carers; and (c) economic policy and
family/social policy must be abandoned and replaced by the recognition that family-centred
policies are central to social and economic development.
It is the very
recognition of the material and symbolic value of the intergenerational work of
families, and their production of public goods that calls forth and legitimates
a public policy response in both national and international programmes of
action and social development.
Gender equity
In recent
decades, theories and practices of economic development have been challenged
for failing to serve women, especially poor women, and in so doing, missing
vital opportunities to invest fully and equitably in social development and the
well-being of all members of the population, particularly children.
The principle of
gender equity is therefore intrinsic to the rationale of placing families at
the heart of social development. Women are the major producers of the
family-based services of care and nurture as well as the contributors to all
aspects of the formal and informal sectors of the economy. Ignoring the role of
families is to obscure the work largely carried out by women in their kinship
and local networks and therefore to miss a fundamental human investment
opportunity.
Social equity
The third of the
intersecting concepts is social equity, which calls for the redistribution of
income and resources to those families whose experience of inequality is
greatest, and carries with it the most damaging consequences for the life
chances and opportunities of their children. These include families who are
unemployed, who have low incomes, who are headed by women, who are migrants and
refugees, who have been displaced by war and civil strife, or those families,
particularly indigenous families, who experience the deeply entrenched
disadvantages of discrimination.
At a systemic
level, social equity calls for measures that empower families as full
participants in the processes of economic and social life. Fundamental to such
empowerment are forms of social protection that would entrench the right to
employment and the right to an adequate income during periods of unemployment,
under-employment or withdrawal from the work force to fulfil family caring
responsibilities. The other major foundation of social protection for families
is access to secure and affordable housing. Paying proper attention to social
equity would also prompt action regarding economic policy to stimulate job
creation and growth, to establish measures to ensure that low-income families
do not bear the costs of industrial restructuring, to support women seeking to
participate in employment if that is their choice, and to address
gender-related wage differentials.
A more socially
just distribution of resources to families, and in particular to families who
are disadvantaged by social and economic processes, will only occur if strong
and sustained investment is made in the provision of employment, education and
training; affordable housing; redistributive family income support; good and
sufficient health and welfare services for families, women and children; and
services for care of the disabled and the elderly. When such investment is made
as the key input to social, economic and family development, families and their
individual members are enabled to be full participants in the life of
employment, community, politics and civil society.
The exclusion of
families from traditional economic development paradigms reveals the
limitations of ignoring a whole sphere of production. If there is no
recognition, or insufficient recognition of the contribution made by families
to social and economic development, then there are no institutional responses
that might begin to redress those inequalities in the course of life (differing
levels of economic welfare at different stages of the family life cycle), and
vertical inequalities ( inequalities of income and wealth between families).
The interactive nature of the principles of intergenerational equity, gender
equity and social equity thus dissolves the distinction, indeed the dichotomy
of private and public spheres of activity and responsibility, signaling that
the two are intrinsically interdependent.
SERFAC is holding a Rally
on Sunday, 17th November, 2013 at Marina Beach from 3:00 pm to 6:00 pm onward.
This Rally is to Revitalize Children's Right- on behalf of National Children's
Day (14th Nov'2013). We would like to invite you and your children to take part
in this Rally Procession. For details and more information please feel free to
call 044-64625913, 044-65150118, 044-65150117. Thanks!
