Systems

Abstract

A book about research has to tell us something new. Newness implies information, and information is empowering. Surprise value is what helps to calibrate the value of research on poverty, and make it anti-poverty. Antipoverty research reviewed in this volume surprises by revealing what we did not know about ourselves. Information systems are a prime example. Information is the unlikely, like a z in a crossword. Systems can be categorized into archetypes. The Information systems archetype of Escalation is applied to the institution of dual salaries, which are found in all sectors around the world. The surprise value in this process is that it predicts a “double de-motivation,” namely that both lower and higher remunerated groups, and individuals, will lose their motivation to work. The under-remunerated will disengage from the job and from supporting their international colleagues in culture shock. The latter will develop an inflated sense of their own inputs, and lower their effort as a result. The longer term outcome will be a loss of local capacity, reduced capabilities, and poverty exacerbation. Reliance on overseas workers will grow, introducing a new systems archetype, shifting the burden. Net, dual salaries are pro-poverty and not anti-poverty. The good news, however, is that revealing systems dynamics like these can help reverse the cycle, creating virtuous circles wherein work justice pays it forward. An example from anti-poverty work is that some major NGOs are reforming their salary structures partly as a result of impact from the research. Research advocacy will help such processes accelerate.

Knowledge is power. Information is liberating. Education is the premise of progress, in every society, in every family.

Kofi Annan.

The concept of capability presumes that individuals are well enough endowed that they have the freedom to choose an appropriate non-poor functioning.

Thorbecke (2007, p. 5).