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July 25, 2004

Consumer rights and the fight against poverty

Julian Edwards

Consumer rights are a fundamental part of the fight to eradicate global poverty. Surprised? Your thoughts may have been turning to getting value for money when buying a vacuum cleaner or obtaining a refund on a faulty toaster.

For much of the world's population, such concerns are very distant. But poor people have consumer rights too -- above all, to be consumers of the basic services which support dignity and independence, and to a healthy sustainable environment.

Consumerism maybe a Western phenomenon, but consumption is a global necessity. Consumers international, with a membership of over 250 organisations in 115 countries, strives to put consumer rights and social justice at the centre of the international development agenda.

A growing movement
The fight for consumer rights dates back to the turn of the 19th century with the formation of the Consumer League of New York. The group sought to direct the purchasing power of the working class towards companies that respected labour rights, decent working conditions, a fair wage and no child labour.

From its inception, the consumer movement has been immersed in the struggle for civic, social and political. From its inception, then, the consumer movement has been immersed in the struggle for civic, social and political rights.

The consumer movement grew across the US throughout the first half of the 20th century, before establishing itself in postwar Europe, a major base of action and support ever since.

Following the establishment in 1960 of the International Organisation of Consumers Unions (IOCU) -- known today as Consumers International (CI) -- the movement extended into Asia, Latin America, and Africa in the 1970s and 1980s and throughout the former Soviet Union in the 1990s. Inevitably, the global character of today's consumer movement has recast the agenda. Most of the CI's member organisations are from the developing world, reflecting the geographical spread of the 6 billion consumers they represent. It is now their needs and their struggle that takes centre stage.

Grim figures
How can people in the developing world be classified as consumers when 1.3 billion of them subsist on less than a dollar a day? The answer lies at the heart of the consumer movement's fight against poverty.

The statistics : 160 million children worldwide suffer from malnutrition; 680 million people have no access to basic health care; 1.1 billion people lack an adequate supply of safe water, while 2.4 billion people lack access to sanitation; over 2 billion people have no access to electricity.

These grim figures are not only a cause are effect of poverty. They are symptomatic of an inability among the world's poor to exercise the most basic consumption right : access to the essentials of everyday life.

Access to the means to meet basic needs is the first of the Eight Consumer Rights which, reflecting the UN Guidelines on Consumer Protection, form the basis of policy for consumer organisations. Such access is a precursor to the abolition of poverty and the driving force behind many of the global and regional campaigns pursued by Consumers International.

Water and sanitation : Multi-stakeholder approaches
Every year on 15 March, consumer organisations around the world celebrate World Consumer Rights Day with protests, awareness campaigns and public forums. The theme in 2004 is the right to safe water and proper sanitation.

As the figures show, one in six of the world's population do not have access to adequate water, and two-fifths lack sanitation. Yet the views of these people are largely ignored in national and international policy decisions about water access, ownership, cost and environmental impact.
Consumers International's approach is to push for a
multi-stakeholder decision-making process that allows those whose lives are most affected to have an equal say. A set of 10 consumer principles provides a framework for results which serve the whole community.
CI attempts to influence policies that are all too often dictated by free market fundamentalism.

At the international level, the contribution of CI to the Global Water Scoping Process -- a working group of public and private providers, labour organisations, government bodies and NGOs set up to assess the impact of private participation in water supply -- has helped keep the concerns of the poor on the water agenda.

The position of CI is further evident in the organisation's campaigns to regulate GMOs, eradicate agricultural dumping, encourage corporate social responsibility, and ensure fairness within international trade agreements.

Listening to the consumer
The water example embodies the vital role of consumer organisation in the fight to eradicate poverty. In advocating the rights of the consumer, CI attempts to influence economic, political and social policies that are all too often dictated by free market fundamentalism. Consumer groups recognise the benefits that market economies can provide. Indeed, market economies are now the accepted norm for economic management. But most debate about poverty, development and the benefits of trade focuses on production -- the supply side of the market equation. In reality, markets cannot be effective without a well organised demand side.

This requires the empowerment of consumers with information, legal protection and necessary regulation (especially of essential services) to balance the interests of the providers of goods and services. It market economics and the processes of globalisation are ever to realise the widespread human benefits so regularly claimed for them, demand-side considerations must carry the same weight as supply.

The consumer movement's role is to ensure that this happens.

Julian Edwards is Director-General of Consumers International in London.