El positivismo jurídico de Hans Kelsen

Very few studies have examined poverty in Khartoum, Most of the studies that have been undertaken were intended to provide baseline information data on the situation of residents in poor urban settlements and identify their specific needs (IRC & WID 2001, PDS 2000, Abusin 2002, UN-SUDAN 2003). Two studies have emerged as being a very useful contribution to understanding poverty in Khartoum: Abusin (2005) and El- Batthani et al. (1998). They both investigated the rapid growth of concentrated areas of

poverty and the deterioration of social conditions since the 1970s and showed that the ‘extremely poor’ in Greater Khartoum are concentrated in the notorious slums or

Ashwaees as well as in those neighbourhoods that recently graduated from Ashwaees to

formal settlements (Abusin 2004, 2005, El-Batthani et al. 1998). They argue that while

‘extreme poverty’ is concentrated in those areas, ‘poverty’ is indeed widespread in

Both studies see poverty in Khartoum not only through the spatial cleavages between people within different residential areas but essentially as a product of political marginalization and exclusion of the urban population (El-Batthani et al. 1998: 7,

Abusin 2005: 1-2). They have linked poverty directly to the processes by which resources are allocated and these processes have afforded some access to the formal sector (land and activities), while confining others to the informal. For both authors, the basic characteristics that accompany being poor in Khartoum are identified as follows: having a low-paid job or being unemployed, a lack of tenure security, bad housing conditions, limited and poor-quality water and food, and limited access to education and health facilities.

Using participatory methods, El-Batthani et al. (1998) identified the combined effect

of underlying-structural causes of urban poverty and extreme poverty to be historical underdevelopment, imbalances and crisis; growing inequalities and differentiation; and prolonged conflict and war. Their analysis comes basically from a neo-Marxist perspective, meaning that the direct causes of poverty in Khartoum are believed to be created by the de-coupling between industry and urban growth, and proletarianization without the transformation of the peasantry. However, in the context of Sudan’s structural adjustment, civil strife, a shrinking urban labour market and a constant flow of migration and displacement are added to the ‘traditional’ process. All of these factors are seen to have resulted in four distinct categories of urban poor with different experience and strategies. These include first of all the ‘traditional urban poor’ who are

found among unemployed, informal-sector workers and unskilled labourers; to which are added less traditional categories such as ‘displaced persons’ who took refuge in Khartoum from the mid-1980s onwards; ‘new urban poor’ or those former government officials who, due to economic liberalization and adjustment policies, were pushed into poverty. The last new category comprises poor urban women, particularly those heading households (El-Batthani et al. 1998: 22-23). The basic criteria that differentiate these

categories from each other are their survival strategies and, more particularly, the way they manage their economic and social resources, which have been affected by govern- ment policies The main argument is that all these categories were not able ‘to manage during time of crisis, conflict and transition from state-led to market-oriented economy’ (Ibid.).

Amid extreme restriction of freedom of expression, the study provides a courageous account of the way government policies have contributed to poverty creation by promoting certain production and distribution patterns. However, the study has at least two drawbacks. The first relates to the grouping of the urban poor into four distinct categories. Although these categories are broad enough to include a significant proportion of the urban poor, they exclude some groups who became poor or extremely poor during the same period, such as all the small-business owners and some larger business owners, who became poor as a result of the disintegration of the industrial sector. The second drawback is that the study concentrates on poverty as a discrete phenomenon but did not cater for its continuous dimensions. Such a perspective focuses more on a person’s position and inherent vulnerability and how this leads to material deprivation.

On the other hand, Abusin (2005) looked at the declining government role in urban poor communities and the expansion of the role of non-state providers in Khartoum. He argues that poor governance and the state’s inability to provide public goods, such as infrastructure and basic services, have undermined people’s livelihood strategies, thus

exacerbating negative demographic and socio-economic outcomes. This has been made worse because poverty has led to the erosion of familial and traditional networks of support among the poor. He further points out that NGO interventions have contributed significantly to the survival of the urban poor. Abusin (2005: 3-46), compares poverty across sub-groups and time, highlighting factors such as whether people have access to state or NGO-subsidized services, the costs of goods within their community, their membership in marginalized groups as determined by relations of power at different levels and their status within their household with regard to power and responsibility, as crucial determinants of poverty or well-being. His notion of poverty is, therefore, more likely to include all those who are actually poor. Such analysis is believed to have succeeded in generating a more dynamic understanding of poverty in the city.

This present study will conceptualize poverty as a complex and multi-dimensional phenomena which results from pervasive processes, attitudes and institutionalized power structures that lead to the exclusion of some groups. It will be argued that breaking this cycle depends on the poor themselves, according to their various identi- ties. Given their personal, social and environmental constraints, empowerment becomes an important tool in enabling the poor to overcome their exclusion.