SPARK IGNITE: Development as a Human Right
by Adams Sinarinzi
Three years ago David had never stepped in his home country. Born and raised in a refugee camp in bordering Rwanda, David is one of the many young people returning to their country after many years of exile caused by the civil war in Burundi. Though young and very ambitious, all these years David would never openly talk of his dreams of growing, of owning a business, of earning a better life, of being independent and have his own family. Once he returned to his home country just as it had been in exile, he was given a small kit of tools and would receive food for a while. Having no family left in this new country, he was offered a shelter (very modest – was staying in a tent the first year).
But what about his dream of a better future?
Yes our young Returnee (as they are called) was entitled to his basic rights of not being left alone with absolutely no protection and no food. But what about his future in this country where he has absolutely no resources? What about his right to development?
Since 1977, by means of the UN declaration of the Right to Development, every human person is entitled to have equal opportunities and favorable conditions are supposed to be created for anyone’s enjoyment of his or her economic and social rights. This right imposes obligations both on individual states – to ensure equal and adequate access to essential resources – and on the international community – to promote fair development policies and effective international cooperation.
But how do go about it. In the last decades a lot of new tools have been coming up as means to alleviate poverty and ensure economic development of the people. Burundi, now a post conflict country is seeing the emergence of organisations that are going from a humanitarian approach to a development approach to the assistance they offer.
Aside from organisations like Food for the Hungry, we we now see organisations such as SPARK, that target young ambitious people and empower them to lead their post-conflict societies to prosperity. Young people like David are given opportunities to invest in their future and be able to openly talk of their dreams for a better future for themselves.
And of course this is not specific to Africa, as the US celebrated the fiftieth year of the King’s I Have a Dream speech, it has been reminded that the thousands that marched on Washington were seeking jobs as well as justice, not just the absence of oppression but the presence of economic opportunity. For what does it profit a man, Dr. King would ask, to sit at an integrated lunch counter if he can’t afford the meal?
The idea that one’s liberty is linked to one’s livelihood, that the pursuit of happiness requires the dignity of work, the skills to find work, decent pay, some measure of material security, the right to development.
*Adams Sinarinzi is a Programme Officer in the SPARK Burundi Office
