From Polarization to Participation - HKCSSwebcontent.hkcss.org.hk/pra/cb4_events/MHConf_PolarPart... · 2012-02-17 · 1 From Polarization to Participation Combating Poverty in an

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From Polarization to Participation

Combating Poverty in an Affluent City

Ms Christine Fang, Chief Executive

Ms Mariana Chan, Chief Officer

The Hong Kong Council of Social Service

Dec. 14, 2006

5th International Conference on Social Work in Health and Mental Health

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Poverty and Health

Poverty puts the mental health of individuals, families and community at stake…..

As a mother said:

“as we do not have money, we have to save money in every aspect, it affects our social life…we eat less, go out less, as we can’t pay for the fees, we have to cut our children’s extra-curricular activities…”

As an elderly person said:

“I have ill health, can’t walk much, so I do not come out for the whole week. I do not have other relatives, if I was sick, no one cares for me….. I feel lonely and helpless…..”

Source: Research Report on “Voices of the Poor: Participating Poverty Assessments” 2005, HKCSS

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Hong Kong Case Study:

Community Engagement as a tool for Policy Advocacy in the Fight Against Poverty

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The Poverty Situation

Hong Kong - an Affluent and Advanced Society

We ranked 1st out of 157 countries for 11 years in

“Index of Economic Freedom” (2006)

We ranked 2nd out of 61 economies in

“World Competitiveness Yearbook 2006” (2006)

We ranked 3rd amongst the Asian countries in

“Worldwide Quality of Life Index” (2005)

However, behind the prosperity……………..

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Presentation Outline

In the past decade, there was a community engagement process to fight poverty. The presentation will focus on:

1. Magnitude of the Poverty problem

2. Community Engagement:

• awareness and consensus building

• participation

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Increasing income disparity Monthly Household Income by Decile Groups of Domestic Households

10.1%17.1%44,65040,56034,6419th

+ 12.7%+ 15.1%80,00070,98061,68010th

(highest)

7.9%17.7%32,56030,17525,6338th

7.9%18.9%25,70523,82920,0467th

3.7%19.8%20,50019,77316,4996th

2.3%17.0%16,50016,12313,7755th

2.6%14.2%13,00012,67511,1024th

-1.4%9.6%10,00010,1409,2523rd

-10.0%13.1%6,7507,4996,6312nd

-2.1%-1.4%2,9773,0423,0841st

decile (lowest)

1996-

2001

1991-

1996

200119961991

• The monthly household

income of the highest

decile increased for

29.7% in a decade

• By contrast, the figures

of 1st lowest decile

dropped 3.5%

•It shows a trend of

income disparity in HK

Reference: Population census and by-census, Census and Statistics Department, HKSARG

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Disparity among districts

24600 24500

12900 12000

15700

0

5000

10000

15000

20000

25000

HKD

Wanchai Central and

Western

Kwun Tong Sham Shui

Po

Overall

Median monthly household income by district, 2005

• Wanchai had the highest

median monthly household

income among the 18

districts in Hong Kong, while

Sham Shui Po ranked the

lowest

•The median monthly

household income of Sham

Shui Po (HKD 12,000) was

less than half of the figure of

Wanchai (HKD 24,600)in

2005

• It shows income

differences among

districts

Reference：The Commission on Poverty, paper 14/2006

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Disparity in different target groups

257,00031.5%

No. of peopled aged 65+ in low-income households and the Poverty

Rate of Elders

644,30017.6%

No. of women in low-income households and the Poverty Rate of

Women

114,90025.8%

No. of youth aged 15-19 in low-income households and the Poverty

Rate of Youth

252,60024.9%

No. of children aged 0-14 in low-income households and the Poverty

Rate of Children

1,218,60017.7%

No. of persons in low-income households and the Overall Poverty Rate

Number and Proportion of people living in low-income households, 2005

Reference: General Household Survey, Census an Statistics Department, HKSARG

• Definition of low-income households = those with a monthly household income less than or equal to half of the median income of corresponding household size

• Median Monthly Household Income of 2005 was: 1 person: $6,000; 2 persons: $12,000, 3 persons: $16,000; 4 persons: $19,600

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Disparity in different target groups – single parent family

19.1%

41.7%

20.4%

0.0%

10.0%

20.0%

30.0%

40.0%

50.0%

%

dual parent family single parent family overall

Parent's poverty rate, 2005

• Obviously, the parent’s

poverty rate of single parent

family was far higher than

the figure of dual parent

family

• The overall parent’s

poverty rate was only half

of the figure of single parent

family

Reference: General Household Survey, Census an Statistics Department, HKSARG

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We hence observe the various aspects of poverty in Hong Kong:

• Polarization of income

• Disparity among districts

• Disparity in different target groups, such as single parent families; youth, women and elderly

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Combating Poverty – Community

Engagement

ExclusionAwareness &

consensus

building

Participation

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Community Engagement – Awareness

and consensus Building

Awareness and consensus building via

•Releasing statistics / information by publications and websites etc.

•Seminars / conferences

• Poverty visits

13Fact sheets on HK poverty

NGOs made use of their webpages

to share the poverty situation and

data, e.g.:

- Oxfam Hong Kong

- Society for Community

Organization

- The Hong Kong Council of Social

Service

Community Engagement –Awareness

and Consensus Building

1) Releasing of statistics to make known the poverty situation

Examples:

14

1996 Summit on Poverty and Social

Development2004 Poverty Summit



2) Seminars / Conferences

Examples:

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3) Poverty visits



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• In early 2000s, there was a growing public concern on

the poverty problem. Towards 2003, 2004, there

started to have gradual community consensus on the

need to face poverty

• By 2005, Government set up the Commission on

Poverty and started working on the poverty problem

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Despite the general consensus to fight poverty, there are still misunderstandings and

misconceptions of this problem and heplessness in response

In comparing with other underdeveloped

regions, poverty problem in Hong Kong is

just a minor one

Poverty is an individual’s problem

(laziness)

The alleviation of poverty is a

responsibility of the Government and

welfare organizations

Financial and material support is the

traditional way to help the poor

Perception – understanding of

the causes and nature of

today’s poverty and its impact

on those in poverty

Participation – cross-sectoral

efforts in combating poverty

Community Engagement - Participation

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1) Perception of poverty

NGOs and Government (CoP) made use of various means to enhance and deepen public

understanding of poverty, such as:

Research

and

Indicators

BGCA: Children’s Perspective

on Poverty

Shum Shui Po District Council:

Poverty Problem and Poverty

Alleviation Strategies in Shum

Sui Po

SoCO: A Study of the

Livelihood of Children Living in

Poverty

Commission on Poverty, HKSAR:

Indicators of Poverty

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1) Perception of poverty

Websites

Oxfam: HK Poverty Web

http://hkpoverty.oxfam.org.hk

HKCSS: Poverty Information Web

http://www.poverty.org.hk

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2) Participation in poverty alleviation - support from professional and business sectors

Cross-sectoral efforts are mobilized and synergized to fight against poverty

More than donation and volunteer work….

Examples:

• “Growing partners” project co-organized by HKU and

BGCA to match mentors from business and professional

sectors with mentees from disadvantaged families.

• “Caring company” scheme was launched in 2002 to provide a

bridging function between the NGOs and business, professional

sector to foster effective and mutually beneficial partnership

relationships.

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2) Participation in poverty alleviation - involvement of stakeholders

Examples

Forum for Stakeholders

“Multi-stakeholders’ forum” of “End Child

Poverty Project”, a cross-sectoral initiative to

understand, analyze and combat child poverty

problem in HK

http://www.hkcss.org.hk/pra/ecp/index.htm

Voices of the Poor

Study on “Voices of the Poor: Participatory Poverty Assessments”

Poverty Visits

- Meeting the low income groups

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2) Participation in poverty alleviation - politicians and local organizations

• In the 2003 District Council Election, 279 out of 400 elected (70%) pledged to fight poverty

in their districts. By 2005, 9 out of 18 District Councils set up groups to work on poverty in

their districts

• In 2004 Legislative Council Election, 37 out of 60 elected (62%) Legislative Councilors

pledged to work on poverty alleviation

District-based project on poverty alleviation

Example:

Concern group of poverty of Shum Shui Po District Council was set up to study and

analyze the poverty problem and implement anti-poverty projects in the district.

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Community Engagement

Objective 4: To Mobilize All Relevant Bodies

• Participation and Self-Expression of People suffering Exclusion.• Mainstream the fight against exclusion at national, regional and local

level.

• Promote Dialogue and Partnership among social partners, NGOs andservice providers; faster social responsibility of Business and active engagement of all citizens.

Source: Joint report on social exclusion 2004, European Commission

European Commission: The Nice European Council had defined in Dec. 2000

a common set of four objectives to fight poverty and social exclusion

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With all these efforts in the past decade, we observe

• A better public understanding of the nature and magnitude of poverty problem in

Hong Kong

• Greater commitment of business and professional sector in poverty alleviation,

mobilizing more human and financial resources to combat poverty

• More innovative ideas initiated by NGOs and other sectors

A good start and valuable experiences to strive for a harmonious society…while

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still needs, especially,

•Greater commitment from government and community to end

poverty: setting of targets and formulating effective strategies

• More effort in mobilizing stakeholders including those in poverty e.g.

platform for stakeholders to speak up and share strategies for

combating poverty

• Greater effort in job creation especially for those marginalized in

the labour market e.g. to have an employment policy

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Thank you

Documents

From Polarization to Participation - HKCSSwebcontent.hkcss.org.hk/pra/cb4_events/MHConf_PolarPart... · 2012-02-17 · 1 From Polarization to Participation Combating Poverty in an