Development Challenges Confronting Pakistan


Book Description

The global scholarly community concerned with development and social transformation has identified explicit "structural impediments" that constrain countries’ efforts to alleviate poverty and promote sustainable social development. The UNDP, in launching its Millennium Development Goals, contends that there are practical, proven solutions to breaking out of the poverty traps that entangle poor countries. In Pakistan, there has been limited substantive research conducted to identify the unique blend of structural impediments to development that prevail in the country today. Indeed, Pakistan’s prospects to promote viable, sustainable social development appear bleaker today than a decade ago. Development Challenges Confronting Pakistan seeks to rectify this void by bringing together scholars and practitioners—many of them from Pakistan—to provide a scholarly understanding of the structural impediments, or barriers, that have negative effects on Pakistan’s ability to eliminate poverty, promote social justice and implement policies to promote equity. This book will be an essential tool for analysis, study and practice. Its publication is indeed a major event in South Asian scholarship.







Pakistan's Development Challenges


Book Description

The book explores the development challenges faced by Pakistan in the context of rising problems in the area of federal governance and extra ordinary security issues in the wake of Al-Qaida and Taliban led terrorism and its difficulties with neighboring India.Frequent military coups often supported by the U.S. have played havoc with Pakistan's social fabric and its political development.The book offers detailed analysis of the issues and ventures with solutions and prescriptions.




Dilemmas of Destiny


Book Description

The Essays In This Volume Explore The Various Dimensions Of The Crises Since The Latter Part Of 1993 When The Caretaker Government In Pakistan Was Headed By Mr. Moeen Qureshi.




Making Politics Work for Development


Book Description

Governments fail to provide the public goods needed for development when its leaders knowingly and deliberately ignore sound technical advice or are unable to follow it, despite the best of intentions, because of political constraints. This report focuses on two forces—citizen engagement and transparency—that hold the key to solving government failures by shaping how political markets function. Citizens are not only queueing at voting booths, but are also taking to the streets and using diverse media to pressure, sanction and select the leaders who wield power within government, including by entering as contenders for leadership. This political engagement can function in highly nuanced ways within the same formal institutional context and across the political spectrum, from autocracies to democracies. Unhealthy political engagement, when leaders are selected and sanctioned on the basis of their provision of private benefits rather than public goods, gives rise to government failures. The solutions to these failures lie in fostering healthy political engagement within any institutional context, and not in circumventing or suppressing it. Transparency, which is citizen access to publicly available information about the actions of those in government, and the consequences of these actions, can play a crucial role by nourishing political engagement.




The Reforms


Book Description

Politics in its initial phases was limited to national boundaries of a country. However, with the passage of time, patterns have changed and now we are living in an era where politics has been internationalized. Keeping in view the importance of international politics, the book contains chapters that deal with the issues and challenges our world is faced with. A significant part of the book has been dedicated to political issues faced by my dear homeland, Pakistan.I have made an effort to analyze economic dynamics from various angles and have tried to answer questions like, "Why do we face an economic burden? What are the criteria to improve economic growth and development?" and so on. Moreover, social problems are the main determinants of a nation's destiny, after the economy. Since its foundation, Pakistan has faced many social problems which I have enumerated in the book in a terse yet elaborate manner.Climate change is another of the world's most burning issues of present times. We, undoubtedly, are vulnerable to this phenomenon as it is not limited only to a country a county or a continent; it's affecting the whole world. So, the book also discusses global environment, covering issues related to climate change, pollution. It also provides a framework for our policymakers to carve out a viable, robust strategy to save us from this scourge.As the name of the book 'The Reforms' suggests, I have offered solutions to various problems on the basis of my personal ideas and experiences. I have also proposed some crucial reforms in education and infrastructure, as well as the state structure of Pakistan. I am sure that my readers will be fascinated by analyzing these out of the box solutions.In this world, everyone idealizes someone and it is equally important to express this in front of the world. I added a very informative chapter with the name 'My Favorite'. Being a Muslim, my role model is Prophet Muhammad (S.A.W.), the founder of the world's first constitution, i.e. Charter of Medina. I feel especially blessed that Allah Almighty has given an opportunity to commit my thoughts on the most supreme epitome of every good in the world.




Challenges of Growth and Globalization in the Middle East and North Africa


Book Description

The Middle East and North Africa (MENA) is an economically diverse region. Despite undertaking economic reforms in many countries, and having considerable success in avoiding crises and achieving macroeconomic stability, the region’s economic performance in the past 30 years has been below potential. This paper takes stock of the region’s relatively weak performance, explores the reasons for this out come, and proposes an agenda for urgent reforms.




Shooting for a Century


Book Description

The India-Pakistan rivalry is one of the five percent of international conflicts that has been labeled as intractable. Cohen draws on his varied experiences in South Asia as he develops a comprehensive theory of why the dispute is intractable and suggests ways in which it may be ameliorated.




Foreign Aid Competition in Northeast Asia


Book Description

High levels of economic growth have transformed the countries of Northeast Asia from aid recipients to aid donors. Foreign Aid Competition in Northeast Asia explores this transformation and its implications for economic development paradigms, policies, and practices. By being the first authors to look holistically at the countries in this region, Kim, Potter, and contributors address the dynamics, potential, and tensions of the aid programs of China, Japan, South Korea, and Taiwan. What motivates these northeastern Asian countries to embark on aid programs? Do their policies represent new approaches to foreign aid and poverty alleviation? Does aid from these countries reinforce or disrupt the emerging consensus within the international community on aid policy harmonization and coordination? These are among the questions answered in this edited collection. Students, scholars, and practitioners in international development will find this book to be a valuable reference guide for years to come.




The Long Shadow of Informality


Book Description

A large percentage of workers and firms operate in the informal economy, outside the line of sight of governments in emerging market and developing economies. This may hold back the recovery in these economies from the deep recessions caused by the COVID-19 pandemic--unless governments adopt a broad set of policies to address the challenges of widespread informality. This study is the first comprehensive analysis of the extent of informality and its implications for a durable economic recovery and for long-term development. It finds that pervasive informality is associated with significantly weaker economic outcomes--including lower government resources to combat recessions, lower per capita incomes, greater poverty, less financial development, and weaker investment and productivity.