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This book distinguishes conceptually between indigenous and constructed social capital and the associated spontaneous and induced collective action for rural development and natural resource preservation. While some of the case studies in this book show that induced collective action can lead to cost-effective, community-centric and empirically grounded rural development initiatives, other case studies show that spontaneous collective action, based on indigenous social capital, can result in resource preservation, positive development outcomes, and resistance to the excesses engendered by conventional development. The authors also explore a hybrid form whereby spontaneous collective action is given a more effective and sustainable shape by an outside organization with experience of induced collective action. Exploring alternative community-centric paths to development, especially those attuned with sustainability imperatives, is part of a global search for solutions. While the volume draws on the Pakistani case, the problem with conventional development approaches and the need for complementary alternatives is not unique to only this country; and the volume has broader relevance to students and researchers across the fields of social policy and development.
This book is about the harnessing of social capital, formalized as village or community organizations, to guide and facilitate collective action for attaining poverty alleviation in particular and enhancing community well-being in general.
Thirty percent of foreign development aid is channeled through NGOs or community-based organizations to improve service delivery to the poor, build social capital, and establish democracy in developing nations. However, growing evidence suggests that aid often erodes, rather than promotes, cooperation within developing nations. This book presents a rare, micro level account of the complex decision-making processes that bring individuals together to form collective-action platforms. It then examines why aid often breaks down the very institutions for collective action that it aims to promote. Breakdown in Pakistan identifies concrete measures to check the erosion of cooperation in foreign aid scenarios. Pakistan is one of the largest recipients of international development aid, and therefore the empirical details presented are particularly relevant for policy. The book's argument is equally applicable to a number of other developing countries, and has important implications for recent discussions within the field of economics.
Previously the role of social capital - defined as the institutions and networks of relationships between people, and the associated norms and values - in programs of poverty alleviation and development has risen to considerable prominence. Although development practitioners have long suspected that social capital does affect the efficiency and quality of most development processes, this book provides the rigorous empirical results needed to confirm that impression and translate it into effective and informed policymaking. It is based on a large volume of collected data, relying equally on quantitative and qualitative research methodologies to establish approaches for measuring social capital and its impact. The book documents the pervasive role of social capital in accelerating poverty alleviation and rural development, facilitating the provision of goods and services, and easing political transition and recovery from civil conflicts.
This book documents the findings of a group of case studies on the problems of population growth and environmental degradation in rural areas of Pakistan. Each case study reveals a particular aspect of the general processes at work in different ecological zones: the agricultural lands of the Indus plains, the coastal areas, and the mountainous zone. The studies focused on collective responses to population and environmental problems and on the breakdown of traditional systems of decision making in rural areas. The book introduces the concept of de-responsibilization in contrast to economists' traditional notions of rational behavior. In addition, these case studies illuminate the realities of present-day Pakistan, the state of its population and environment, and its record of development.
Citizens’ aspirations for the future are politically important; they are linked to welfare and whether citizens engage in forward-looking political and economic behavior. How do natural disasters affect aspirations, and can governments’ social protection policies successfully mitigate any damaging effects? If natural disasters threaten aspirations, there is strong policy interest in understanding these threats and what government can do to protect aspirations. This article uses Pakistan’s 2010 floods to identify the effects of a natural disaster on citizens’ aspirations. Aspirations were significantly reduced—especially among the poorest and most vulnerable. However, by exploiting exogenous variation in access to targeted government social protection, the authors show that social protection following natural disasters can significantly reduce their negative aspirational effects. This offers a new understanding of government social protection. It not only raises social welfare in the short term by restoring livelihoods and replacing damaged assets; it also has an enduring effect by raising citizens’ aspirations for the future. The authors show not only that the aspirations of citizens matter for citizens’ behaviors, but also that government policies can effectively protect and increase those aspirations. This implies that the value and efficacy of government disaster relief programs are underestimated when aspirations are not taken into account.
This work details various methods of gauging social capital and provides illustrative case studies from Mali and India. It also offers a measuring instrument, the Social Capital Assessment Tool, that combines quantitative and qualitative approaches.
"This is a book of essays, dedicated to Omar Asghar Khan, based on research conducted between 1999 and 2002 while the author was at the Sustainable Development Policy Institute. Given that a military government had assumed power during this period, it was inevitable that many of the public policy issues addressed are key reforms discussed and instituted by this government. The first section is about land reform that one can refer to as "the mother of all reforms" in the country. This represents a recurring and connecting theme of the book. The second section is on devolution that was the first, most fundamental, and most talked about reform of the military government. Like land reform, but not at the same level, devolution can interface with all other reforms, particularly the key social sector reforms such as that pertaining to education. The author explains how this is the case while the third section is devoted entirely to education. One important way of making a success of rural basic education, the most lagging building block for education improvement in Pakistan, is to involve parents and communities. This participatory model has a broader application to rural development as explained in the context of activating social capital in section four. Activating and formalizing social capital is also central to the concept of sustainable development as explained in section five. Sustainable development and the environment have an interface with trade and this is addressed in section six. Trade and other liberalizations that have part been part of structural adjustment reform policies in Pakistan has undergone, both before and during the military government tenure, and this is the subject of section seven. Finally, some other important policy issues including Islamic finance, NGO registration, child labor, and peace are discussed in section eight."--Dust jacket.
Intensifying water constraints threaten food security and nutrition. Thus, urgent action is needed to make water use in agriculture more sustainable and equitable. Irrigated agriculture remains by far the largest user of freshwater, but scarcity of freshwater is a growing problem owing to increasing demand and competition for freshwater resources. At the same time, rainfed agriculture is facing increasing precipitation variability driven by climate change. These trends will exacerbate disputes among water users and inequality in access to water, especially for small-scale farmers, the rural poor and other vulnerable populations. The State of Food and Agriculture 2020 presents new estimates on the pervasiveness of water scarcity in irrigated agriculture and of water shortages in rainfed agriculture, as well as on the number of people affected. It finds major differences across countries, and also substantial spatial variation within countries. This evidence informs a discussion of how countries may determine appropriate policies and interventions, depending on the nature and magnitude of the problem, but also on other factors such as the type of agricultural production system and countries’ level of development and their political structures. Based on this, the publication provides guidance on how countries can prioritize policies and interventions to overcome water constraints in agriculture, while ensuring efficient, sustainable and equitable access to water.
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