Suchergebnisse

In Pakistan agriculture land accounts for a large portion of total wealth and the distribution of this land effects household welfare and agriculture efficiency. Evidence shows that in developing countries, land inequality is detrimental to overall efficiency due to incomplete markets and therefore results in welfare losses to those with little or no land as there are several benefits associated with access to land [Vollrath (2007)]. Agriculture plays a pivotal role in the economy of Pakistan which contribute 22.4 percent to Gross Domestic Product, 43.05 percent of labour force engaged in agriculture sector and 67 percent of population reside in rural areas out of which 30 percent of people living below the official poverty line. As the climate of Pakistan is arid to semi arid, its 80 percent agriculture is irrigated. Pakistan has one of the largest irrigation system in the world based on Indus basin irrigation system which plays an important role in the development of agriculture and the nature of distribution of irrigation water across farm size groups determines to a significant extent the nature of distribution of agriculture income.

Gender refers to the set of arrangements by which a society transforms biological sexuality into products of human activity and in which these transformed needs are satisfied, whereas gender relations are the ways in which a culture or society defines rights, responsibilities and the identities of men and women in relation to one another. Gender relations are complex, dynamic and socially embedded having many interlocked dimensions.

The issue of governance has gained importance over the last two decades and became a key component of policies for economic development. Good governance acts as a positive force to influence economic growth. A growing amount of available evidence suggests that lack of quality governance hinders growth and investment, and aggravates poverty and inequality. In fact, governance problem foil every effort to improve infrastructure, attract investment, and raise educational standard. As the developing countries are characterised by weak institutions, low growth, poverty and inequality all which translate into low levels of human development. The multiplicative effects of these outcomes result in poverty traps that are extremely difficult to break out. This state of affairs has forced governments to embark on a wide range of reforms in their institutions of governance and economies with the goal of achieving economic growth.

The issue of poverty in Pakistan has its significance for sustainable development. Long run development is not possible without protecting the rights of the vulnerable groups and the participation of the entire population in the development process. A notable development in the last decade in Pakistan's economic scene has been the sharp pick up in the incidence of poverty. It can be attributed to several factor. The real GDP growth fell from 6 percent in the 1980s to 5 percent in the first half of the 1990s and declined further to just over 4 percent in the second half of the decade. The rate of inflation remained in single digits throughout the 1980s but had a rapid increase of 12 percent during the first half of the 1990s. It is significant to note that food prices generally rose more sharply than overall consumer price index. The unemployment rate increased by 2 percent in the 1990s as compared to in the 1980s reflecting the deceleration of labour absorption in the economy in response to the significant decrease in the economic growth during the nineties.

Interest in the dynamics of income and consumption at the household level has increased in the developing countries as measures of living conditions at a point in time are not necessarily a good indicator of its stability over time. For many purposes it is important to adopt a dynamic perspective, distinguishing between extremely, chronically or transitory poor. In Pakistan studies of poverty at a point in time provide very valuable information about its nature, characteristics and distribution. However, given the fluctuations in many dimensions of poverty such as school enrolment, nutritional status and income, these studies are unable to capture the dynamics of this phenomenon, making it impossible to analyse the factors associated with the poverty transition, i.e., movement into and out of poverty.

Poverty is a situation of deprivation, failure to fulfill the minimum basic physical and psychological needs of an individual due to unavailability of sufficient economic resources at its disposal. It is associated to insufficient outcomes with respect to nutrition, health and education, to deficient social relations, to insecurity and to low self-esteem and powerlessness. So poverty can be analysed from monetary and non-monetary indicators of well-being. In Pakistan Poverty have manifold expressions, many dimensions and indeed, many root causes. Given such multidimensionality, it is not difficult to see why poverty cannot be reduced or summarily expressed, in terms of a single quantitative or qualitative indicator alone. Similarly, for alleviating poverty, all routes matter, recognising the heterogeneity of the voices and the perspectives of the poor expressed in economic and non-economic terms. Such a multidimensional approach, moreover, brings into forefront the importance of recognising the causal factors of poverty at the local level and addressing area-specific problems based on perceived needs and demands of the poor. An essential pre-requisite of institutionalising the approach, however, is the existence of decentralised and participatory structure of local governance that can introduce participatory development in which citizen at the grass-root are involved in planning, formulating and implementation of programs for themselves. In Pakistan, a local government system has been installed in the form of "Devolution Plan 2000" after the promulgation of Local Government Ordinance 2001 by all Provinces.....................