Search results

The term 'structural adjustment' has been associated with rioting as angry and hungry masses protest food price increases due to subsidy cuts or due to other structural adjustment conditions prescribed by the IMF and the World Bank. Structural adjustment, and the neo-liberal paradigm that underlies it, is now the dominant economics paradigm practised by developing countries. The main purpose of the book is to rely on evidence and to go beyond rhetoric, ideology and anecdotes in assessing structural adjustment in Pakistan and the developing world more generally to examine how reform can be combined with pragmatism and social justice.

Abstract. Disasters are frequent, ongoing and very likely to increase in the future with global climate change. Significant investments in hazard mitigation, policies and emergency management have so far failed to stop disasters. Their recurrences suggest that either there are some gaps in the current response or a different perspective is needed on the way hazards have been dealt with to date. This paper views disasters through the lens of hazardscape, which shows the context of both hazard occurrence and response. It finds that one major cause of response failure is inadequate consideration of the local hazardscape in planning. It notes that although globalization of hazard response practices is progressive, it has been less successful in dealing with local variations in vulnerability. This paper presents the conceptual framework of hazardscape, and illustrates various shortcomings of the current responses in relation to the local hazardscapes where they are adopted. It recommends a holistic approach that considers various aspect of the hazardscape in order to plan a response strategy.

This article demonstrates two main points. First, local bodies elections are not a simple straightforward exercise in devolving power to the grass roots level for the better delivery of services via participation and self-management. To be really effective, such an exercise would entail, at a minimum, assets redistribution, civil service, electoral and judicial reform to ensure human security. Second, it would be preferable to devolve accountability and financial and administrative authority to the lowest tier at which a particular service is delivered. An indicative model for such devolution of authority is presented using the case of Pakistan. (DSE/DÜI)

THE COMBINED STRENGTH OF ALL WORLD, NATIONAL, AND LOCAL NON-GOVERNMENTAL HUMANITARIAN ORGANIZATIONS IS NOT ENOUGH TO OVERCOME THE GLOBAL ECONOMIC AND POLITICAL FORCES CAUSING UNDERDEVELOPMENT. BUT N.G.O.'S ENJOY A FREEDOM TO MANEUVER NOT SHARED BY MOST U.N., MULTILATERAL, OR UNILATERAL AGENCIES. THIS GIVES THEM THE OPPORTUNITY TO HAVE AN IMPACT OUT OF PROPORTION TO THEIR LIMITED RESOURCES.

It is sometimes said that "national planning will simply have
no meaning if it completely ignores the economic disparities between the
two wings and fails to evolve a sensible pattern of regional planning"2.
The lack of much essential data on a regional basis, however, renders
any precise estimate of the relative growth rates almost impossible.
Data either are not available or are inadequate on such important
variables as production, income, consumption and trade, so that even a
correct evaluation of past development efforts is not possible. The
implications of such a situation for future planning are not difficult
to understand. In this article an attempt is made to estimate the
absorption of specified commodities in East and West Pakistan
separately3. This will indicate the pattern of consumption and also give
a rough idea about the growth rate of the two wings. With this purpose
in view, quantity indices of absorption are prepared for each wing
separately, taking data on availability of goods and prices from the
Institute's monograph on Inflation. The quantity indi¬ces, however, are
not of course strictly comparable with national income estimates because
of the difference in coverage of the two series. National income data
include government, services, trade, etc., while the quantity indices
cover only specified goods available for each region.

Processes for assessing the age of young unaccompanied migrants have been roundly critiqued, with new concerns in the UK being raised about the increasing use of 'scientific' approaches. In this article, we suggest that, taking everything into account, analyses do not go far enough, arguing that technical questions of how 'best' to assess age or the new incursion of biometric measurements can obscure the political question of what work age does in hostile border regimes. As a result, the underpinning logics of age assessment – an essentialisation of age, 'race' and borders – are not only left in place but further augmented. We demonstrate, through a careful curation of assessment reports (that operate through the assertion of truth claims about the body, childhood and time) how such reports draw on and reproduce multiple and intersecting racist imaginaries as they are synthesised with developmental logics around childhood. Age, we argue, is being weaponised in the service of post-racial fantasies in liberal democracies, rising ethnonationalism and state retrenchment from social support.

Jurisdictional ownership of all natural resources, including wetlands and river channels, belongs to the state in Bangladesh, and access to and control over wetland resource are determined by the existing top-down, command-and-control, bureaucratic management regimes. Grounded solely in the economic aspects of natural resources, the wetland management objective of the government focuses on rent-seeking to maximize revenues and other economic benefits. At the operational level, this approach presumes bounded and closed economic and social systems and an equilibrial environment. The purpose of this research was to investigate options for institutionalizing participation of stakeholders in wetland (haor) resource management. It was intended to seek alternatives to the state-governed management approach (SMA) and find a means of governance that would encompass multi-stakeholders in the management of natural resources. The specific objectives of this research were to: i) Examine the state-governed management approach and the relationship between formal and informal institutions concerned with access and control over wetland (haor) resources; ii) Analyze, as an alternative to SMA, the processes and structures of stakeholders' participation and deliberations in decision-making; and iii) Examine the potential for multi-stakeholder governance in wetland resource management. This research selected three development initiatives in Hakaluki haor (major wetland of Bangladesh) for assessment. A set of PRA methods, which included baseline surveys, focus group discussions, key informant interviews, semi-structured interviews, individual discussion meetings, addah (informal chatting with friends and fellows), and workshops, was used during the research to attain the objective of the study. The research findings have revealed that the community-based organizations (CBOs) were capable of contributing effectively to the community-based or co-management approach in wetland resource management. Establishing a multi-level stakeholder ...