GUJARAT NATIONAL LAW UNIVERSITY

B.A.LL.B- VIITH SEMESTER

SUBJECT: ENVIRONMENT LAW

“CONTINUOUS EVALUATION PROJECT”

TOPIC: RESEARCH PROJECT ON SUSTAINABLE GOAL1- CASE STUDY OF

BHUTAN AND GUINEA

(GROUP-1)

SUBMITTED BY: ADARSH KASHYAP (19A009)

SUBMITTED TO: DR. SAIRA GORI

(Assistant Professor of Law)
 BHUTAN

ABSTRACT

Despite the historical economic expansion and significant development initiatives, a quarter
of the population still lives below the poverty line in rural areas. In addition to money
poverty, significant qualitative and quantitative gaps exist between rural and urban areas
regarding access to social services, necessities, and employment possibilities.” This is true
even though Bhutan's overall quality of life has significantly improved. Different surveys and
studies have shown significant differences between rural and urban areas on many
socioeconomic indices, including income levels. This report points out the analysis of the
Bhutan initiative to reduce poverty and the data of the same.

INTRODUCTION

The wealth gap is widening, and women bear a disproportionate part of the cost of poverty
due to recent global economic crises. They gradually acquired concepts and practices for
long-term development. Poverty reduction has been the primary development goal since the
Ninth FYP. “By the end of the plan period, the number of persons living in poverty should
have decreased from 23.1% at the beginning to 15% or less.” This is one of the goals of the
Tenth FYP1, which strengthens the battle against poverty. “The main ideas and components
of sustainable development, with poverty reduction as the overriding goal, were included in
the preparatory guidelines for the tenth FYP.” To enhance the capacity for mainstreaming
poverty (ECP) in development policies and initiatives, a Reference Group has been
established. ECP mainstreaming standards were developed by this committee and later
appeared in the guidelines for the Eleventh FYP.

The National Information Bureau (NSB), formerly the “Central Statistical Organization,”
conducts socioeconomic surveys and research and generates statistics for different
government organizations. Its outputs include demographic statistics, population assessments,
living standards surveys, yearly national accounts reports, and national statistical yearbooks.
The NSB is working with famous economists to develop tools for green accounting and
valuing environmental products and services in the national economy.2”

1
Tenth Five Year Plan 2008-2013, Volume 1: Main Document, Gross National Happiness Commission, Royal
Government
2
Bhutan: Multidimensional Poverty Index. National Statistical Bureau, RGoB, and Oxford Poverty Human
The Secretariat of the GNH Commission created the Local Development Planning Manual.
The GNH criteria, which include advancing marginalized groups and reducing poverty, can
be used to prioritize development activities. The current system for allocating resources for
local development funds gives a weighted average of “70% to population size, 25% to
poverty incidence, and 5% to a territorial extent.”3

PRACTICE ADOPTED BY BHUTAN TO REDUCE POVERTY

1. Globalizing Happiness for a Sustainable World

The Bhutanese principle of maximizing Gross National Happiness is the overarching”

principle that directs the country's long-term growth. The Bhutan Vision 2020 paper states
that the idea's spirit and aim are to "maximize Bhutanese happiness and to enable people to
realize their full and inherent potential as human beings." Bhutan offered a comprehensive,
equitable, and fair economic growth strategy that prioritized the well-being and happiness of
people, the environment, and both. “Bhutan proposed Resolution 65/309, Happiness: Toward
a Holistic Approach to Development”, “which the United Nations General Assembly
overwhelmingly adopted during its 65th session in July 2011. This resolution contends that a
more comprehensive, equitable, and balanced approach is required to increase sustainability,
alleviate poverty, and improve welfare and happiness.” It further emphasizes that GDP does
not, by definition, reflect joy as a critical human aim or ambition. The resolution accepted by
the UN's 193 members is a positive step forward for development.4

Bhutan and many other countries pursuing sustainable development have high hopes and
expectations that the international community will come together to draw lessons from the
past, build on any advancements made, and return to the sustainable development path they
had previously committed to twenty years ago as a result of this historic first step towards
globalizing GNH.5 “On April 2, 2012, Bhutan held a High-Level Meeting” on Wellbeing and
Happiness: Defining a New Economic Paradigm at the UN headquarters in New York. A
recurrent topic in the talks that took place during the High-Level Meeting, which attracted
more than 800 distinguished people from over the world, was the shared awareness that the
seven development must be holistic and inclusive, anchored in well-being and happiness, and
link all people.6

3
Bhutan Development Update. Recent Trends in Poverty and Shared Prosperity: Progress and Challenges.
4
As indicated in the Annual Report FY 2019-2020, Gross National Happiness Commission, RGoB
5
Rural Economy Advancement Program, Terminal Evaluation Report, 2014, GNH Commission
6
Vulnerability Baseline Assessment for Bhutan, Gross National Happiness Commission, UNDP, 2017
16 of the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) are found to be integrated and covered
by the four main pillars of Gross National Happiness. Bhutan has emphasized three SDGs in
the most recent Five Year Plan, including poverty alleviation, one of the 143 out of the 169
SDG targets determined to be relevant to Bhutan.” The SDGs seek to end poverty and
hunger, provide every child with the chance to live a decent life, foster an environment that
will support business growth, and foster job and economic development within the
parameters given by our planet.7

2. “Rural Economy Advancement Program.”

The “Rural Economy Advancement Programme (REAP I)8” was introduced in the 10th five-
year plan in 17 of the poorest villages comprising 10 Dzongkhags to target extreme poverty
that mainstream development plan programs may not sufficiently address.” For 109 towns
spread over 20 Dzongkhags, REAP II is being prepared to acknowledge the significance and
effectiveness of targeted poverty solutions. The communities themselves created all 109
villages' development plans. The program's guiding principles must ensure a sustainable way
of life long after the project is finished. Therefore, the program's actions will have a long-
term effect on reducing poverty. The critical interventions shall generate cash income,
improve food security, and improve living standards, and the replicable interventions shall be
upscaled in other villages and regions. The main initiatives should increase cash revenue,
food security, raising living standards, and replicability in different communities and areas.

3. Improving Service Delivery and Local Government Institutions

Even when a comprehensive institutional framework for sustainable development has been
established, institutional strengthening will continue to be a process as development
circumstances, and requirements change and new approaches and practices emerge. The
institutional expansion will be pushed on all levels. Since the beginning of the
decentralization movement in 1981, the Royal Government has prioritized building local
government entities. In the new democratic system, provincial government institutions will
take a more prominent role as frontline organizations for sustainable development, allowing
direct community engagement in establishing and managing their own social, economic, and

7
12th FYP, Gross National Happiness Commission, Royal Government of Bhutan
http://www.gnhc.gov.bt/en/wpcontent/uploads/2017/05/Finalized-Guideline.pdf
8
Strategic Framework for Rural Economy Advancement Program (REAP), 2014, Research and Evaluation
Division, Gross
environmental well-being. A robust local governance structure is also necessary for the
government's sustainable development policies and initiatives to directly benefit the local
communities, especially the impoverished and vulnerable populations, and to have a
substantial impact. The Royal Government9 will give local government institutional
improvement top priority. Programs to improve local governance capabilities and integrate
local government institutions' environmental, climate change, and poverty concerns are
currently underway with support from several bilateral and multilateral donor organizations.

Moreover, many actions are being carried out throughout the current FYP period to develop
local administrations' institutional and systemic capacities. The Community Contract
Protocol, the Annual Capital Grants System, “the G2C (Government-to-Citizens) program”,
the Local Development Planning Manual, and the Responsibilities Framework between
Central and Local Governments are just a few examples. These efforts will be maintained and
covered by the eleventh FYP.

DATA ANALYSIS

Despite HDI advances, significant growth in GDP, and a drop in the number of people living
below the poverty line from prior years, the country still has a substantial degree of poverty
(“31.7 percent in 2003 and 36.3 percent in 2000). According to a 2007 assessment, 23.2% of
the country's population was poor (Nu. 1,047 per month”). However, there aren't many
individuals living in extreme poverty, demonstrating that poverty isn't widespread. The
retention of huge spatial disparities is a critical concern in poverty. The world's poorest
people live in the five poorest dzongkhags, where poverty rates are twice as high as the
national average. Poverty is more prevalent in the eastern, southern, and central areas than in
the western regions. Furthermore, income poverty is far more widespread in rural areas,
where “30.9% of the population” lives in poverty, compared to urban areas, where just 1.7%
of individuals do. The food poverty threshold is reached when 5.9 percent of Bhutanese
people consume less food than is required for survival (2,124 kilocalories per day). Food
poverty, like economic poverty, is substantially higher in rural regions than in urban areas, at
8% against 0.16%. It is physically and financially challenging to eliminate poverty in rural
areas with widely distributed and isolated inhabitants. According to the Poverty Analysis
Report 2007, homes headed by women have a poverty rate of just 4.8 as opposed to
households headed by men, which have a poverty rate of 17.9.
9
Fiscal Decentralization in Bhutan, 2017, Department of Local Governance, Ministry of Home and Cultural
Affairs, Royal
The proportion of people living below the national poverty line has fallen from 12% in 2012
to 8.219 as of 201710. In addition, Multidimensional Poverty decreased from 12.7 to 5.8
percent between 2012 and 2017. The government's long-term strategic orientation of
eliminating poverty, which was the primary objective of the “10th FYP (2008-2013) and the
11th FYP11”, is demonstrated by this development (2013-2018). To accomplish this, a
complete mapping of the Gewog level data on poverty was done in 2010 to determine the
prevalence of poverty by area and household. Throughout the 10th FYP, poverty
(multidimensional and transportation cost index) was considered a crucial RAF criterion, and
the RAF was kept in place with some changes during the 11th FYP. Additional initiatives to
end severe poverty in 2014 include rolling out the “Rural Economy Advancement Program
(REAP)” and the “Targeted Household Poverty Program (THPP).” Over 26% of all resources
were allocated to the social sectors of agriculture, health, and education in the 11th FYP,
significantly improving people's life expectancy, mortality rates, literacy rates, and food
security. The government created a collateral-free microlending program at 4% for informal
economic operations in rural regions through Bhutan Development Bank Ltd. and Rural
Enterprise Development Corporation Ltd. At the same time, widespread availability of
essential services like better access to drinking water (99.5%) and enhanced sanitary facilities
(92 percent). Even though poverty rates are much lower in urban areas, urbanization has
created several vulnerabilities that, if left unaddressed, might undermine efforts to end

10
Bhutan Poverty Analysis Report, 2017, National Statistics Bureau of Bhutan, Royal Government of Bhutan
11
Eleventh Five Year Plab Volume 1: Main Document, 2013-2018 “Self reliance and Inclusive Green Socio-
Economic
poverty by 2030. For instance, over 10%37 people in Thimphu city reside in unofficial
settlements that lack access to necessities.

Further investigation is needed to determine how urbanization affects poverty in Bhutan to

comprehend the advantages and difficulties better. With a focus on accelerating the reduction
of child poverty and mitigating and adapting to the effects of climate change, attention must
be paid to addressing geographic disparities, closing the poverty gap through increasingly
targeted interventions, and providing last-mile services to the most vulnerable groups and the
poorest members of society in both urban and rural areas. More de-identified data will be
necessary for better targeting. To attain these last-mile development goals, the 12th FYP,
"Just, Harmonious and Sustainable Society through Enhanced Decentralization," strives to
increase implementation efficiency through coordination, consolidation, and collaboration.

CONCLUSION

Bhutan is making good progress on all SDGs. “The income and multidimensional poverty
rates have fallen to 8.2 and 5.2%, respectively.” Bhutan has highlighted three medium-term
objectives, including "Goal 1: Ending poverty in all its manifestations everywhere,"
emphasizing the RGoB's sustained commitment to eradicating poverty and the change away
from tackling economic poverty and toward addressing social protection and vulnerable
populations. Because Bhutan has just recently begun to execute the ambitious 2030 Agenda,
“the Royal Government of Bhutan has opted to participate in the VNR at the 2018 HLPF as
part of our commitment to engage in the global process of exchanging knowledge,
experiences, and best practices.” Bhutan anticipates that the HLPF platform will play a key
role in creating an efficient system for advancing our shared objective of overcoming the
structural issues the 2030 Agenda presents as well as goal-specific obstacles.

GUINEA

ABSTRACT
Poverty is prevalent and growing, impacting almost 60% of the population in 2014. In the
2015 Human Development Index, Guinea was rated 182 out of 188 countries (HDI).
Economic progress has been too slow and irregular to contribute to poverty reduction
regularly. Commodity price volatility and healthcare shocks threaten the economy (for
example, the Ebola epidemic). Low levels of investment, poor infrastructure, insufficient
financial intermediation, and inclusivity stymie rapid growth. A significant human capital
deficit, limited access to input and output markets, low agricultural productivity (the poor's
principal source of income), and limited job opportunities in non-agricultural sectors reduce
income. Furthermore, unplanned and quick expansion has resulted in a chaotic urban
environment, exacerbated by urban youth unemployment and rural exodus.

Introduction

Nzérékoré has the highest poverty rate in Guinea, at 67%, followed by Labé (65%) and
Kankan (60%). (49 percent). The poor are concentrated in Nzérékoré, which has over one
million poor people, followed by Kankan and Kindia, which each has over 850,000
impoverished people”. Furthermore, poverty is not distributed evenly among these areas.
Instead, it differs based on the socioeconomic and demographic features of the country's 33
prefectures and 342 communes. Poverty maps developed using data from the 2014 population
census show pockets of poverty all around the country. GDP per capita in 2015 was $531,
compared to the regional average of $1,571 for Sub-Saharan Africa. Using the official
poverty level, 55.2 percent of the population was poor, similar to the figure in 2002. Poverty
is prevalent and chronic, affecting four out of every ten people. Poverty has climbed to 57.7
percent, according to population census figures from 2014. The Ebola outbreak in 2014-2015
most likely aggravated it. The Ebola outbreak reduced urban employment, with the urban
unemployment rate surpassing 17%, while rural incomes plummeted drastically, particularly
for women. In reality, as in Liberia and Sierra Leone, many households cited Ebola as the
reason for their children's absence from school. Poverty is higher in rural regions (65%),
which has remained steady. However, urban poverty recently rose from 31% in 2002 to 36%
in 2012, possibly due to rural-to-urban migration. When the head of the home acquires some
higher education, deprivation reduces. Approximately 60% of families with no education are
destitute, roughly three times the proportion of households with higher education heads.
Wage income accounts for a small portion of their income, implying that impoverished
families rely on self-employment and informal jobs.12
12
World Bank. Évaluation de la situation du genre en Guinée, Version finale 1, Octobre 2016.
Data Analysis

Only 42% of Guinea's rural population has access to potable water, compared to more than
85% in Conakry, according to the 2013 Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper (PRSP.III).
Furthermore, “just 31% of the population lived in houses with improved sanitation (15
percent in rural areas and 65 percent in urban areas).” Moreover, the inaccessibility of
drinking water disproportionately impacts women's workloads. Poverty is prevalent and
growing, affecting almost 60% of the population in 2014. In the 2015 Human Development
Index, Guinea was rated 182 out of 188 nations. With only 2.6 years of schooling, the
average life expectancy at birth was 59.2 years. Access to essential services is restricted, with
just a tiny fraction of the population having access to electricity (28%), improved sanitation
(20%), and improved water sources (77 percent)”. “Guinea was ranked 140th out of 140
countries in the 2015-2016 Global Competitiveness Report, with huge disparities and
declining trends in the quality of public and commercial institutions, infrastructure
(transportation, power, and telecommunications), health, education, and financial market
development. Between 1998 and 2016, per capita growth was 0.6 percent on average.
Agriculture contributes significantly to economic growth and employment creation.
However, its output is dismal. Money poverty was predicted to reach 55% in the 2000s”.
Poverty grew in all areas between 2007 and 2012, except Kankan and, to a smaller extent,
Kindia.13

Poverty is ingrained and persistent. According to the Bank's research, poverty remained
stable at roughly 55% between 2002 and 2012, after a minor reduction in 2007. Based on the
2014 Census, simulations predict that poverty would rise to over 58 percent in 2014, with
greater poverty in both urban and rural areas.14 Indeed, a post-Ebola survey done in
September 2015, based on a mobile phone poll of 2,467 homes, revealed that poverty had
worsened. This rise in the 2010s corresponds to the evolution of growth rates and the societal
losses caused by the Ebola outbreak. 15

13
ANASA, Rapport final de l’étude approfondie sur le profil des producteurs ayant reçu l’appui du
Gouvernement en intrants et
14
The survey-to-survey imputation methods are used to correct the bias related to the non-comparability issue
between the 2002
15
World Bank Group, “Country Partnership Strategy for Guinea, for the period FY2014-17,” Report No 76230-
GN,
“Sources: Basic Comprehensive Survey to Evaluate Poverty (EIBEP) 2002–2003; Poverty
Assessment Survey (ELEP) 2007 and 2012; 1996 and 2014 census records; and authors’
calculations.”

In addition to having the highest incidence of poverty (65%), Nzérékoré looks to have the
most significant number of poor people, with over 1 million impoverished individuals,
followed by Kankan and Kindia, each with over 850,000 wretched people. Even though most
of the poor live in rural regions, there are regional disparities in urban-rural inequality. Lower
Guinea appears to have significantly lower multidimensional poverty than the other three
zones, where the poverty headcount surpasses 70%16, and the Multidimensional Poverty
Index (MPI) is more significant than 46%. Middle Guinea, on the other hand, looks to be the
poorest natural region, with over 80% of the population multidimensionally impoverished
and an MPI of about 56%.

The regional gap study of multidimensional poverty indicates that the poorest regions are in
Middle Guinea, Upper Guinea, and Forest Guinea — even though the MPI measures poverty
more severely in Middle Guinea (Labé and Mamou) and a piece of Upper Guinea (Faranah).
These findings imply that a more detailed geographical investigation might better capture
regional disparities and livelihood zone dynamics. Poverty appears more prevalent in the
country's northwest, notably in the Labé, Boké, and Faranah regions. There are more pockets
of poverty in the country's southeast, particularly in the western part of the Nzérékoré district
and the extreme south of Faranah.17

16
http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/833761468257936671/pdf/
762300CAS0P115000OUO0900Box379823B0.pdf
17
"Guinea – Country report," joint-study of UCLG and OECD, October 2016. Retrieved from:
http://www.oecd.org/regional/regional-policy/profile-Guinea.pdf
MEASURE BY GUNIEA GOVERNMENT TO REDUCE POVERTY

1. PRSP (Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper)

In terms of political and democratic governance, the objectives are as follows: to strengthen
republican institutions; (ii) to promote human rights; (iii) to preserve and consolidate stability
and security; (iv) to promote civil society capabilities, including those of the media; (v) to
encourage dialogue, enhance political party capacities, and establish standards to govern the
electoral process; and (vi) to promote gender equity. To boost the poverty reduction (PRSP)
process, it was believed necessary first to construct a national planning system based on
future trend research, medium and long-term guidelines, and a multi-year public spending
program. To support and strengthen the PRSP process, the government should take the
following steps: establish a poverty observatory; continue and expand the MTEF approach
for the various sectors; develop a set of medium and long-term guidelines and sectoral policy
formulation and evaluation capabilities, and implement a national planning system as a
framework for development policies. To allow the CNC to encourage communication
services focused on development and poverty reduction, the following steps should be
considered: - Increase the CNC's technological ability to carry out its tasks of monitoring and
control over public and private media; - Provide the organization with the financial resources
it needs to carry out its activities. Poverty aggravation has contributed to insecurity and
exclusion for many Guinean people and households in recent years. Given the growing
insecurity—as seen by the relationship between poverty and governance—Guinea must
continue to take aggressive actions to ensure the peace and security of its residents and their
property. Thus, the target is one police officer for every 778 residents by 2010 rather than one
for every 2,450 residents in 2007. This would increase the number of cops from 3,933 in
2007 to 12,638 in 2010.

2. Promoting Health and education sector

The government intends to spend heavily on infrastructure, health, and education to unleash
the creative and entrepreneurial capabilities of the people of Guinea and battle poverty.
According to the current national long-term strategy, Terra Ranka, the country should be "on
its way to developing a wealthy and inclusive society that fosters growing living standards for
everyone based on the sustainable development of the country's unique land and marine
biodiversity" by 2025. Despite the challenges of accomplishing this aim, there are new
solutions that provide the country a chance to overcome underdevelopment. The next
generation of the “UNSDCF (2022-2026)” represents one such shift. 18

The government is willing to invest more money in educational efforts for children, such as
social protection programs and the training of more reproductive health care professionals.
These will help to reduce multifaceted poverty, provide children with nutritional meals, and
raise the chance of regular school attendance. The Cooperation Framework fosters genuine
and meaningful contact between the government and the people. The development
community assists in utilizing the country's resources for growth that addresses poverty and
inequality while leaving no one behind. During this period, help in reducing vulnerability and
ending poverty will concentrate on developing systems and processes to identify the poor and
vulnerable and provide sustainable means of subsistence. Beneficiaries will mostly be rural
girls and women, individuals with disabilities, refugees, and those who have been forcibly
displaced and lack access to critical social services. Increased growth, inclusivity, and
stability will help eliminate poverty and vulnerability, which may be achieved through
economic diversification. Using the principles of inclusion and participation, the UNSDCF
will address multidimensional poverty, inequality, sociocultural stigma, and discrimination,
which are the significant causes of exclusion and vulnerability in the country. Guinea-

18
Source: World Bank (study on the incidence of public spending on health
progress’s commitment to the SDGs must be weighed against the country's acknowledged
vulnerabilities, constraints, and measures to address specific development challenges.19

Together with its development partners, the government has prioritized economic growth and
the fight against poverty and inequality in its long-term development plans. Consequently,
progress in pursuing national development also contributes to the advancement of some
SDGs because the government's development goals correspond with the SDGs.

Conclusion

According to long-term growth model estimations, “Guinea requires higher levels of public
investment and total factor productivity to achieve higher growth and poverty reduction.
Poverty patterns appear to have deteriorated in tandem with the evolution of the key
macroeconomic indicators since 2002. For example, after a reasonably favorable early phase,
the real GDP per capita growth rate from 2003 to 2007 was relatively moderate, ranging
between 0.8 and 0.8%.20 Governance problems explain why development has halted and
poverty rates have not improved in recent decades. Indeed, this primary impediment has had
a domino effect, preventing the country from achieving sustained economic growth and
poverty reduction.21 Despite government investments in infrastructure, schools, and clinics,
the overall impact has been little. Governance challenges linked to budget planning and
establishing poverty reduction objectives are partially to blame for public investment's lack of
effect. The country has emphasized SDG1's primary aims with a significant emphasis on
development. On the other side, the number of people living in poverty has risen. Improving
the government's ability to implement anti-poverty policies and activities is crucial for
combating all types of poverty.

19
Source: Direction Nationale de la Statistique (National Statistics Office): EIBEP Survey
20
World Bank (2016), Republic of Guinea: Socioeconomic Impact of Ebola using Mobile Phone, Report No
ACS18659, May
21
From 2010–2015. the average execution rates were 42.7 percent and 51 percent, respectively, for externally
and domestically financed public investments. The top two execution rates for domestically financed public
investment occurred in 2013 (77.6) percent