Dignity Centered Solutions to Poverty Means Dignity for All

Esther Duflo and Abhijit V. Banerjee, winners of the 2019 Nobel Prize in Economics, have researched an approach to overcoming poverty based on compassion, respect, and dignity. That approach may sound familiar to those who know ATD (All Together in Dignity) Fourth World Movement. In fact, Dr. Duflo and Dr. Banerjee were impacted by meeting with ATD Fourth World members with experiences of extreme poverty, learning directly from them what is needed to overcome poverty. They wrote about this experience in a Time magazine article, “We Can Help Poor People by Treating Them With Respect.” The Time article reflects on what the couple learned from this approach: “While [people in poverty] may have problems, they are not the problem. They are entitled to be seen for who they are and to not be defined by the difficulties besieging them.” From this lesson, Dr. Duflo and Dr. Banerjee have called for a global shift in attitude and thinking: dignity should be at the center of every social policy and program. This would lead to a very different set of answers to poverty than most implemented today.

Last month the United Nations addressed the urgency of finding concrete and adequate answers to global homelessness. At the same time, just a few blocks from UN Headquarters, the New York City subway authority removed the backs off benches as an effort to stop homeless people from sleeping there. This policy does not resolve the complex problem of people sleeping in subway stations; it just removes people. By doing so, it adds suffering, pain, and a clear sign of exclusion - literally, “we don’t have your back!” - to homeless people. It also deprives commuters from having a back on the benches they sit on. Such a decision shows that poor anti-poverty policies not only harm people, they are most often implemented at a loss to all of us. But it doesn’t have to be like that.

A dignity centered response to this situation would rely on using the Merging of Knowledge methodology, developed by ATD Fourth World to create conditions so people from different walks of life can think and act together to address poverty. In this instance, conditions would have been put in place to gather the main stakeholders – people experiencing homelessness, commuters, subway authority and city staff – to discuss the issue with shared power in the decision making. No doubt it would have led to finding real, concrete and holistic solutions that would have benefited all.

As you read more about our project with The New School in New York, the resolution adopted by the State House of Representatives in Massachusetts, and a story of multicultural connections through our shared humanity at Story Garden, you’ll see how ATD Fourth World is invested in making the Merging of Knowledge approach, enrooted in the dignity of all people, known as a tool to overcome poverty. Please reach out if you think it could be beneficial where you are!

Dignity centered projects teach us: when I undermine your dignity, I also undermine my own. When I respect your dignity, I enhance mine. Dignity is either a lose-lose or win-win partnership. With that, we have our compass to move forward, all together in dignity.