McIntyre, L. & Rondeau, K. (2013). Understanding the aspirations of ultra-poor women in Bangladesh can enhance wellbeing and target development efforts. International Journal of Wellbeing, 3(1), 82-97. doi:10.5502/ijw.v3i1.5 Lynn McIntyre University of Calgary lmcintyr@ucalgary.ca Copyright belongs to the author(s) www.internationaljournalofwellbeing.org 82 ARTICLE Understanding the aspirations of ultra-poor women in Bangladesh can enhance wellbeing and target development efforts Lynn McIntyre · Krista Rondeau Abstract: Much development research is focused on deprivations as well as contextual factors that limit individuals’ freedoms and choices to lead the lives they value; however, less attention is paid to ‚the ends‛ or ‚the good life‛ and how these can inform development efforts. This paper examines the aspirations of 43 ultra-poor female heads of household living in urban and rural Bangladesh within the context of wellbeing, i.e., the lives they value, in order to better understand how they could be assisted through development efforts. All women in our study articulated conceptions of personal wellbeing that were linked to their children and with the aim of conducting themselves as good mothers and honourable women. Physical and emotional hardship and the sacrifice of personal aspirations, happiness, nutrition, and health were required to establish children, who might in turn care for them in their old age; still, achieving these modest goals was difficult and resulted in constant worry or ‚tension.‛ Given the life these women value, social programs and policies that aim to support ultra-poor women who have children must consider how they can provide assistance that will benefit women directly without asking them to withhold assistance from their children. Keywords: wellbeing, well-being, capability approach, Bangladesh, ultra-poor women, whole person development 1. Introduction Human development is defined as ‚an expansion of real freedoms of people to pursue lives that they value and have reason to value‛ (Klugman, 2010, p. 85). Based on Sen’s capability approach (cf. Robeyns, 2005), much development research is focused on deprivations such as lack of income, shelter, health, education, as well as contextual factors that ultimately limit individuals’ freedoms and choices—capabilities—to lead the lives they have reason to value (Camfield, Crivello, & Woodhead, 2009; Clark, 2002; McGregor, 2004). Development theorists such as Nussbaum and Sen, who favour this approach, argue that focusing on capabilities avoids the paternalistic imposition of any particular notion of ‚the good life‛ (Robeyns, 2006, p. 353) and allows for a range of possible ways of living (Robeyns, 2006). Nonetheless, Nussbaum (2000) has called for a consideration of the functioning of each person – ‚the principle of each person as end‛ (p. 56). Indeed, by Sen’s (1999) own assertion, ‚it is the ends that make development important *emphasis added+‛ (p. 3). Thus, research that focuses on the nature of the good life and ends may inform development efforts that aim to improve wellbeing, in particular for the least well-off (Nussbaum, 2000, p. 56). http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/ http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/ http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/ http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/ Understanding the aspirations of ultra-poor women in Bangladesh McIntyre & Rondeau www.internationaljournalofwellbeing.org 83 Values and goals, i.e., aspirations, are a language used to discuss wellbeing, including subjective perspectives and material/objective indicators (Appadurai, 2004; Camfield et al., 2009; White, 2010a) and these terms provide an articulation of what the capability literature refers to as the good life or the ends.1 Wellbeing considers what people have or do not have, what people can do or cannot do, what people think or feel (Wellbeing Research in Developing Countries, n.d.), and ‚it places the person, in their relationships and surroundings, at the centre‛ by considering what people value and aspire to (Camfield et al., 2009, p. 8). Typically, multidimensional wellbeing research, while exploring its objective, subjective, and relationship dimensions, continues to focus primarily on ‚how people think and feel about what they have and do‛ (McGregor, McKay, & Velazco, 2007, pp. 110-111), rather than on the things they aspire to or value (Camfield et al., 2009). For example, Biswas-Diener and Diener (2001) measured the life satisfaction and subjective wellbeing of 84 slum dwellers in Calcutta and found that while participants found some satisfaction with social relationships, overall they were neutral or slightly dissatisfied, which ‚suggests that poverty is a condition to which people do not completely adapt‛ (p. 342). In an attempt to generate a multidimensional understanding of people’s lives that might inform development efforts, international development and poverty researchers have made concerted efforts to include subjective experiences and meanings of wellbeing as aspirational ends (Camfield et al., 2009). Building on a long history of wellbeing research (Camfield et al., 2009), the Economic and Social Research Council Research Group on Wellbeing in Developing Countries (ESRC-WeD) has sought to enhance development efforts through a theoretical and empirical focus on wellbeing that considers both objective and subjective local perspectives of wellbeing that are embedded within the environment in which individuals live (cf. Gough & McGregor, 2007).2 McGregor (2004) argues that alongside deprivations, poor men, women, and children are ‚active agents trying to construct a good life for themselves and others close to them‛ (p. 346), and thus it is important to understand ‚the local vision of what must be done to achieve wellbeing in specific contexts‛ (Gough & McGregor, 2007, p. 15). Thus, classic development initiatives (e.g., education programs, microcredit, etc.) that view ultra-poor women (those living on less than $1.25 USD per day) as natural candidates because they lack income, food security, health, and education (see Alkire, 2010) may fail because they do not account for women’s personal aspirations and conceptualization of wellbeing within the context of their daily lives (Gough, 2004; Ibrahim, 2011; McGregor, 2004). 1.1 Whole person development The women whose experiences form the basis of this research represent a group that is especially vulnerable due to gender inequalities and poverty (Commission on Social Determinants of Health, 2008; Moss, 2002), and therefore feature prominently in international development initiatives, such as the Millennium Development Goals. Nonetheless, they are still not being reached in any significant way by current social programs and policies in Bangladesh (Ahmed, Petzold, Kabir, & Tomson, 2006; Halder & Mosley, 2004; Kabeer, 2004; Matin, Sulaiman, & Rabbani, 2008; Rahman & Hossain, 1995; Walker & Matin, 2006).3 We contend that 1 While it is beyond the scope of this paper to provide a detailed review of capabilities, functionings, aspirations, and wellbeing, this can be found in Ibrahim (2011). 2 Further information on the Wellbeing in Developing Countries Research can be found at http://www.welldev.org.uk/research/research.htm. 3 In fact, the women in our study and local NGO workers were largely unaware of each other, especially in urban settings. Further details can be found in McIntyre, Rondeau, Kirkpatrick, Hatfield, Islam, & Huda (2011). Understanding the aspirations of ultra-poor women in Bangladesh McIntyre & Rondeau www.internationaljournalofwellbeing.org 84 in order to leverage improvements from current development programming and policy and ultimately improve the lives of the women who are the intended recipients, an understanding of the population for whom assistance is sought is vital. Nussbaum (2000) has similarly suggested that consideration of ‚the special problems women face because of sex‛ is required to confront issues of poverty and development (p. 4). Through the capability approach, Sen has challenged development agencies, governments, practitioners, and policymakers to move beyond utilitarian individualism and consider the role of social capital and social infrastructures (e.g., education, transportation, public health) in enabling self-realization (Douglas & Ney, 1998). More recently, the wellbeing literature has called for an extension of the capability approach, i.e., a ‚theory of the person‛ (Douglas & Ney, 1998, p. 79), where people are seen as both ‚social beings‛ and ‚whole persons‛ (Gough & McGregor, 2007, p. 324). Enabling people to achieve wellbeing becomes a key humanitarian ingredient to development by reconciling macro-level development tools and instruments with local understanding of poverty and wellbeing. A discussion of aspirations and wellbeing provides an opportunity to recognize women’s intrinsic value as individuals since: ‚it is through the capacity to aspire that the exercises of voices by the poor will be extended‛ (Appadurai, 2004, p. 83). Further, this discussion can identify key leverage points that can then be used to make small but meaningful adjustments to services, programs, and policies for ultra-poor women. In other words, attending to women as whole persons—as ‚ends in their own right‛ (Nussbaum, 2000, p. 6)—through ‚a strategy that proposes small adjustments to services, programs and policies based on leverage points identified through in-depth narratives