Poverty is not always due to lack of ability, sometimes it is due to lack of access to opportunities

On the occasion of World Poverty Eradication Day, the founder of IFA emphasizes that many people are exposed to poverty despite having skills and abilities, due to limited access to capital, market and economic opportunities. According to him, support according to people's needs and creating the possibility of economic independence, along with essential services and the cooperation of specialized institutions, can help to improve the quality of life.

Sara Shahrokhi, the founder of Ifa NGO: Poverty is not always a situation that people have lived with from the beginning. Sometimes, a chronic illness, accident, disability, war or loss of job can expose a family that previously enjoyed relative stability to poverty.

An individual's treatment may be covered, but the family has lost their savings and assets to go through it. In such a situation, solving the initial problem does not necessarily mean the end of economic vulnerability.

On the other hand, poverty is not always due to lack of skills or abilities. Many people have knowledge, experience and work motivation, but due to being far from economic opportunities, capital or market, they cannot take advantage of their capacities. Sometimes the issue is not disability, but inequality in access to opportunities.

Years ago, while volunteering with a charity, I saw first-hand how much life support, including essential items packages, can help families through difficult times. In revisiting some families receiving these supports, I saw that their livelihood problems continued.

This experience created a question for me that later played a role in the formation of Ifa. When a person has the ability to work and earn money, how can we provide an opportunity to use his abilities and achieve financial independence in addition to meeting his daily needs?

Emergency aid, medical services and livelihood support are each necessary and valuable in their place. But along with the number of people covered and the volume of services provided, we must also pay attention to their long-term results.

Has people's quality of life improved? Do they have more livelihood security? Has the possibility of choice and participation in the decisions that shape their future increased?

The answer is not the same for everyone. For someone who has the ability and desire for economic activity, access to capital and the market can be a way to rely on his income. Another person may need ongoing treatment, care, or social support. Priorities should be determined with the participation of the people themselves.

Fortunately, many non-governmental organizations operate in Iran with different specializations and there are valuable experiences of cooperation between them. Perhaps one of the opportunities before us is to strengthen these connections and create clearer paths for specialized referrals and follow-up of results so that the services of different organizations can complement each other.

In IFA, we have also tried to make sustainability a part of the economic support process. In the 1404 survey, 93% of the surveyed businesses were still active after two years of operation. Periodic follow-up helps to identify problems and help to solve them. Of course, keeping the business active alone does not indicate an exit from poverty. For this reason, we are designing mechanisms to measure the effects of support on people's livelihood and quality of life more accurately and continuously.

Reducing poverty is a collective task and requires the policy and action of public trustees, the participation of economic activists and the capacity of social institutions. In the meantime, cooperation between non-governmental organizations with different expertise can help support continuity and improve results.

On the International Day for the Eradication of Poverty, I would like to express my gratitude to all NGOs, social organizations and volunteers who are working in Iran and the world to reduce poverty and preserve human dignity, and I congratulate them on this day.

I hope that by learning from each other's experience and expanding cooperation, we can contribute to the sustainability of results and the improvement of people's quality of life more than in the past.