'Missing Links in Sustainable Development: South Asian Perspectives' makes a useful reading for students, teachers, researchers, scholars and those who wish to keep themselves abreast of issues pertaining to sustainable development.
Based on 17 chapters, the book is divided into three sub-themes: Gender and Human Security; Economics of Globalisation; and, People's Rights and Livelihoods.
The anthology comes out of Sustainable Development Policy Institute's Ninth Sustainable Development Conference that was held in December 2006. After a year-long publication process during, which the chapters were peer reviewed, the book was launched in December 2007 at SDPI's Tenth Sustainable Development Conference.
The collection provides a broad spectrum on sustainable development with authors sharing their researches in areas ranging from women in human security issues in Pakistan and Bangladesh; gender and economic integration in South Asia; Indian garment sector and its lack of solidarity; to the rights of tribal communities in India; livelihood issues of people in the Northern areas of Pakistan; and looking at the impact of a public-private partnership in the water sector.
As pointed out by SDPI's former Executive Director, Dr Saba Gul Khattak, in her preface, "This anthology aims at identifying the missing links in Sustainable Development for South Asia and proposes fillers for those. Questions addressed in this anthology include why benefits of globalisation have failed to trickle down to the region's vast population and calls for a process of global economic integration that benefits the marginalised.
"... research papers look at the channels that exclude women from access to resources, such as land, decent work, and human security, and how these structures can be changed.
Many sound ideas about tackling deforestation, compliance, sustainability and livelihoods problems in the fisheries sector, the connections between conflict in the public sphere and its intensification in the private sphere, how globalisation can benefit gender equality and women's empowerment in South Asia, the role of trade and aid in peace and progress, are proposed.
Among the prominent Asian authors are names like Walden Bello; Urvashi Batalia; Nazish Brohi; Dawood Mamoon; S. Mansoob Murshed; Ajit Menon and others. Some of the SDPI's own research scholars who have contributed chapters towards this anthology include Abid Qaiyum Suleri; Saba Gul Khattak; Shaheen Rafi Khan; Karin Astrid Siegmann; and Kiran Habib among others.
SOME EXCERPTS:
Women and Human Security in South Asia: The Case of Pakistan and Bangladesh by Saba Gul Khattak and Kiran Habib
"In the case of Pakistan, religious extremism, authoritarian control of military bureaucracy and slow pace of normalisation of relations with India due to the Kashmir conflict are some of the main obstacles in advancing human security and development.
Another factor that is a major hurdle to advancing human security and development in Pakistan is the very nature of the post-colonial state. Big landowners still dominate the political scene of Pakistan.
INTERROGATING PEACE: A PERSPECTIVE FROM THE MARGINS BY URVASHI BATALIA: "This paper asks: what does peace man? More specifically, what does it mean from the perspectives of those who are on the margins of society, who usually have little or not direct investment in war/violent conflict, and who are discriminated against even in what are known as 'normal' times.
Taking examples from South Asia, the paper argues that women-who are the basic subjects of this paper-are not among the primary 'makers' or instigators of war and conflict, although they do figure in large number among their victims, and the activities they conduct during times of violent conflict, are often those very activities that prepare the ground for peace to return."
THE CRISIS OF THE GLOBALIST PROJECT: CIVIL SOCIETY'S ROLE AND RESPONSE BY WALDEN BELLO: "Ten years ago, we were told that state policies no longer matter and that soon, corporations would dwarf states. In fact, states still do matter. The European Union, the United States government, and the Chinese state are today stronger than they were a decade ago as economic actors.
Indeed, over the last ten years interventionist government policies have spelled the difference between development and underdevelopment, prosperity and poverty. Malaysia's imposition of capital controls during the Asian financial crisis in 1997-98 prevented it from unravelling like Thailand or Indonesia.
Trade, Aid and Security: Prospects for Peace and Progress by Oli Brown and Mark Halle "Limited market access, complex regulations and perverse domestic subsidies in the developed world inhibit the efforts of developing countries to diversify their economies.
At the same time, developing countries are being pushed to adopt uncompromising market liberalisation, which can reduce government revenues and undermine livelihoods, serving to increase the prospects for political instability and competition over scarce resources.
This is especially the case in the absence of effective domestic institutions capable of mitigating economic shocks and satisfying competing demands for resources." State of Livelihood Assets in the Earthquake Affected Areas: A Way Forward by Sobia Nazeer Ahmad and Abid Qaiyum Suleri.
"Since the 8 October 2005 earthquake in Pakistan, relief efforts have given way to recovery and rehabilitation initiatives. Numerous non-government organisations are supplementing the government in efforts to revive the economy of those living in the earthquake-affected areas.
Policy-makers are presently focusing on strategies to rebuild livelihoods of vulnerable groups based on their financial losses as a consequence to the earthquake. However, these strategies target rebuilding lost financial assets (for example donating livestock and poultry), rather than ensure sustainability by strengthening capital assets and diverting livelihood dependency on income that is less vulnerable to shocks.
Therefore, there is a danger that interventions may not result in ensuring sustainable livelihoods."Myth or Magic? Assessing the Impact of a Public-Private Partnership in the Water Sector of Pakistan by Peter Lund-Thomsen.
"An increased role for public private partnerships (PPPs) in the developing world was one of the most novel outcomes of the World Summit on Sustainable Development in Johannesburg in 2002. At the same time, the UN Global Compact encourages companies to participate in partnership projects with UN agencies and civil society organisations.
While the number of PPPs and intergovernmental backing for these initiatives are significant, we still need to know more about their effects on workers' conditions, the environment, and public service delivery. This paper makes a contribution to on-going debates about whether, and if so how, we can empirically assess both the potential, limitations, and actual impacts of PPPs in developing countries."
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