Agents of Change - Amartya Sen's Five Freedoms

Commented by Amartya Sen, Agents of Change: Amartya Sen's Five Freedoms presents five communities fighting and organising against the constraints they face and for a better life. Each of the five cases illustrates one of Sen's five fundamental freedoms: Political Freedom; Economic Facilities; Transparency Guarantees; Social Opportunities and Protective Security.

 

In Fortaleza, Brazil, a community set up a local bank to ascertain their economic freedom, and to help women out of prostitution; in Orangi and Faisalabad, Pakistan, low income dwellers get together to build their sewerage system, improving their social freedom and condition of life and lowering the infant mortality rate from 13% to 3,7% in the process. In Kingston, Jamaica, a dialogue between the police and the people from the inner city is promoted to improve transparency and to fight the local endemic violence. In Manila, Philippines, people have to protect themselves from natural disasters and evictions and In Haryana, India, women are getting involved in local politics and struggle to have their voices heard and their political freedom expanded.

 

The second film consists of an interview with Amartya Sen, recorded at Trinity College, Cambridge, on the 23rd August 2002. It is conducted by Romi Khosla and directed by Janet Boston.

 

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Television Trust for the Environment - TVE International:

Television Trust for the Environment is a non-profit organisation founded in 1984 by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) and Carlton (formerly Central TV) in order to promote global public awareness of sustainable development through television and other audio-visual media.

TVE's editorial boundaries are broadly set out in Agenda 21 the blueprint for sustainable development in the 21st century agreed by the world's government at the 1992 United Nations Earth Summit. In addition TVE places special emphasis on meeting the needs of TV and other av producers, civil society organisations and film distributors in the South and the economies in transition.

Since 1984 TVE's editorially independent output has been cross-thematic with priority given to voicing the needs of the poor and to ensuring gender balance in both subject matter and production processes, support for good governance and the improved management of natural resources. It has produced and co-produced over 1000 hours of broadcast programming and operates the world's most comprehensive environment and development video library accessible on-line to users throughout the world. TVE's programmes have won over 200 international awards. TVE is registered non-profit with status in Japan, the Netherlands, Sri Lanka, USA and UK; and it has a network of 46 video resource centres (vrc's) which aim to become a self sustaining network.

TVE and the Urban Challenge:
With half of humanity already living in towns and cities urbanisation has been an important theme for Television Trust for the Environment (TVE) for several years; and it has worked closely with DFID, UN-Habitat and the European Commission to cover urban issues since it was first set up. Underpinning much of TVE's recent urban coverage has been the sustainable solutions strand, 'Hands On-Earth Report', which has featured over sixty projects showing ways in which people, communities and companies are coming up with creative ways to tackle urban poverty and address environmental degradation in both the North and South.

The 2002-3 'Hands On' urban focus looks specifically at community challenge funds showing how new schemes are by passing traditional 'aid' methods and reaching poor communities through local government mechanisms to create long term sustainability. 'Funding the Future' which was shown on BBC World TV in August 2002 saw how locally run community funds are making a difference by providing long term affordable credit to the urban poor. Items include:

  • Banking on the Barrio, Brazil: For women and traders finding a way off the streets of Fortaleza is impossible when they have nowhere to live and no family to help. In Fortaleza, Banco des Palmas doesn't discriminate for this bank is run by locals and even has its own credit card. Here, a loan for a room means the chance to break away from middlemen and change their lives.
  • Breaking Even, Zambia: Rehabilitation may be an internationally agreed objective for prisoners but with crimes rates rising world-wide knowing what to do with increasing numbers of people locked up is a global issue. So when DFID's C3 fund was approached for monies which would increase prisoner skills and provide a much-needed local park it seemed a win-win project.
  • New Age, Thailand: As people live longer the need for savings schemes to meet their needs is ever more acute. The 'elderly funds' in Thailand are part of a wider move to provide people with money for schemes which they design and run. In the Southern province of Satun a group of elderly locals have bought a rubber plantation as a communal asset with a revolving fund to loan out interest - a sin in Islam.
  • Youth Rules OK, UK:Minutes from up market Notting Hill (location of Europe's largest carnival) a Youth Parliament meets to discuss how those on other side of W9 live. Determined not to be ignored by local politicians they've told them their needs and are running their own funds.
  • Drain Gang 2, Pakistan: From the squatter districts of Karachi to the backstreets of Faisalabad the world famous Orangi Drain Gang has spread its knowledge of how to manage urban sewage works through the use of a fund and good relationships with the local council.

Coming up in 'Hands On-Ideas to Go' are examples of how city farms are meeting the needs of the urban poor in Ecuador and how micro-entrepreneurs in Uganda are benefiting from new Challenge funds. To find out more on past and present 'Hands On-Earth Report' check out the tve website: www.tve.org

TVE Output for the 2001 City Summit:
In 2001 TVE produced a wide range of urban programmes to coincide with City Summit in New York with its flagship TV series, Earth Report and sister series, Life turning their attention to the problems bought about by rapid urbanisation. Though covering similar issues the approach of the two strands was distinct. Life illustrated the main issues on the City Summit agenda and interviewed the experts; while Earth Report gave people who live in the 'shanty' towns a chance to articulate their main concerns and showed how they are rising to the challenge. For more on each of these outputs go to the TVE website and look up Earth Report - Land Rites and Streetwise-A view from the People; and City-Life. Each series covered inspirational stories in Asia, Africa, Latin America and Europe.

Other TVE - Library Programmes:
Other past programmes which have brought out the urban challenge in relation to people and the environment include:

  • Brave New World - reports from Bolivia, Costa Rica and Nicaragua on steps to build sustainable societies;
  • The Good Society - poor communities around the world give their version of what makes a 'civil society';
  • Battle Of Seattle - the dawn of new people power. How environmentalists helped scupper WTO plans to speed up economic globalisation;
  • Growing Up - Promises to Keep - following the story of six, mainly city, kids born at the time of the 1992 Rio Earth Summit;
  • Coping with Catastrophe - how inexpensive investment could save life during natural disasters;
    Toxic Pizza - how a beleaguered town in the Ukraine is facing up to the contamination of the Soviet Era;
  • White Smoke Rising - how a cement works in Estonia is choking a town with dust and seeing if new foreign owners will stop the pollution and make a profit;

To order any of the programmes please contact: TVE Sales, Prince Albert Road, London NW1 4RZ. Tel: ++ 44 207 586 5526; Fax: ++ 44 207 586 2343; e-mail: sales@tve.org.uk or order on line: www.tve.org