Gender - sensitive Governance

What does it look like and how can we work towards it?

During this February I took an e-learning course; Gender-sensitive Governance: What does it look like and how can we work towards it? It was aimed for towards creating an enabling environment for gender equality and women empowerment. This course was a joint effort of Institute of Development Studies, University of Sussex and Voices for Change supported by BRIDGE and sponsored by UKAID and finally implemented by Gender Hub.

(For certificate please click on the following link)

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B7sEahhHyCvkcHlkWllENDVqOU0/view?usp=sharing

It was a very nice experience as the course was really impressive and designed to impart the concept with very clear understanding. It was designed into four modules with quizzes and audio aided description of complex concepts with the live examples focusing particularly on Nigeria. The main theme of this course was to open new avenues for research on Gender and Governance by answering simple questions like how are we being governed? How women rights and gender equality is being addressed and what are the challenges and opportunities within the entities or organizations to achieve democratization of governance processes? Why it is important to be part of governance? How systematically gender equality is ignored within organizations that ultimately impact the policies at broader umbrella? What should be done and could be done?

By a well elaborated example of Nigeria electoral process the systematic exclusion of women from politics was discussed and also the work of women right activists is sabotaged to self destructive for women through pressure groups or warlords (godfathers) having political interests. After thorough discussion on these issues it was then bridged to social transformation by focusing on the four principles of governance that are; accountability, transparency, responsiveness and inclusiveness. And at the end strategies and measures were proposed to make governance process sensitive to gender issues; gender inclusiveness into decision making process, gender based evaluation, gender policies developed by women and above all overall a gender sensitive organization etc. So overall it was about conceptualizing gender within the governance process within government channels and outside by clearly describing the way gender issue is neglected starting from household to societal and local to global level. 

Social Mobilisation: A key to Sustainable participatory development

Social Mobilisation: A key to Sustainable participatory development

After the WWII, practice of development has been changing based upon the development theories posed over the period of time. European development model, Structural Adjustment Program (SAP), Civil Society led Development interventions, Millennium Development Goals(MDGs) and finally post 2015 development agenda are different approaches and avenues towards development over the time. To travel onto these roads of development many actors have been the key like State, market, Private Sector and NGOs, Ethnic groups, Grass root organizations and individuals.

In Pakistan out of many approaches towards achieving development goals one of them is Social Mobilisation based on the principles of a great German thinker Friedrich Wilhelm Raiffeisen of 19th century and focusing on the actors that are Individuals and Households and their Grass Root Organizations.I have recently been inducted to the National Rural Support Program as intern in Monitoring, Evaluation and Research department and have privileged to observe Social Mobilisation(SM) closely on field and get the concept by desk reviewing of different reports and researches.

The basic concept dates back to 19th century when famine hit the region and poverty paved way for misery, Raiffeisen prescribed the remedy by setting up some principles for the poor farmers that are Organization, Capital generation and Human Skills Development. These principles were the basis for Aga Khan Rural Support Program (AKRSP) in 1980's and the same goes for interventions in Andhra Pradesh in India.

The NRSP is working on the same Principles with a conceptual package advocated by, one of the pioneers of rural support programmes in Pakistan, Shoaib Sultan Khan. That is the Willingness of the people to get organised, Identification and presence of an honest and competent activist  and finally existence of a support mechanism that is being provided by the NRSP. Organization is achieved by 3 tier structure by organizing households into Community Organization(CO) at settlement level, then these COs form a Village Organization (VO) at village level then finally these VOs form a Local Support Organization(LSO) at the Union Council level. All three tiers are managed by office bearers selected by the respective CO / VO / LSO members and these office bearers work on voluntary basis. These organizations identify, analyse and prioritize issues and constraints faced by the community and find out indigenous solution and prepare plans to not only overcome these issues but also carry out development work in their areas. Members of these organizations also practice savings for capital formations and are often aided by micro-finance by the NRSP.

The NRSP’s programme package includes Social Mobilisation, Human Resource Development, Physical Infrastructure and Technology Development, Social Sector Services and Micro-finance and Enterprise Development Programme. During my continuous efforts to understand these fascinating concepts and practices, I got a chance to visit field for the monitoring of a project in Islamabad and Rawalpindi districts.

Although I am very young to this concept and still in the process of learning SM principles and practices, and my views would be premature nonetheless I want to share my experience and observations.

• I think Field staff and social organizers have to be emotionally intelligent to make people learn what social mobilisation is all about. For example in the field I observed that in some community organizations the activists and CO members were only asking for different interventions that in their view should be carried out by NRSP and the Social organizer was not able to respond to their expectations. I think the with better training and experience these type of situations can be handled in a much better way, by making the community realize that the development work is a joint effort, communities have to take some initiatives and work with other organizations. Therefore I think SOs could be imparted with Emotional and Situational Intelligence training to bring the fruits of SM to people in a better way rather to make them skeptic of what is being done.
• There are very basic quantitative requirements for monitoring of Social Mobilisation. The tool that we used for monitoring, was designed in a way that it captured same type of information from all Community Institutions, irrespective of their maturity level. I suggest that all community institutions should be first categorized in four types i.e., nascent or newly formed, at least one year old but with limited interventions, and third type is of more than two years age with significant intervention level, there is also a fourth category of those COs which are dormant i.e., were formed and worked for some time but then stopped working for any reason. And then these different type of institutions would be treated and evaluated by different monitoring or evaluation criteria interventions using both or a mix of qualitative methods. 
• Monitoring teams are often dependent on the field staff whose work is being monitored that could cause the problem in validation of data because it happened during my exposure that certain detours, cancellations of meetings and some other incidents of same kind were observed. That can easily be overcome by active, prompt and responsive monitoring. Induction of Geographic Information System can also help to a great extent to simplify and organizing the whole development operations of the NRSP into real time. GIS in development sector has numerous applications. Or there can be other methods or processes adopted to enable the monitoring teams to work more independently.
• One of the issues was the language. Although terminology is very simple but that can confuse the local settlements as it happened almost on every 3rd occasion that respondent was confused into the terms and someone had to explain. For example illiterate members or women often got confused by the terms CO, VO and LSO, although they were able to distinguish these terms in their own language i.e., mohallay ki tanzeem (CO), gaaoon ki tanzeem (village organization) etc. This issue can be addressed by letting the communities to define terminology indigenously without compromising the driving principle of social mobilisation so that they understand the working package without getting confused. It is important to mention that this issue comes up only when the staff is not sensitized or does not respect the local circumstances.
• At some stances, communities were looking for projects only and not thinking of long term development through these community platforms. That is acceptable due to the fact that some of these organizations are very young and are not mature yet. But this issue need to be addressed at the initial stages of social mobilization where SOs need to introduce the program for long term development objectives and not for a short term gain of achieving targets of a project. The SOs need to explain the basic principles of social organization, why it is needed and how it works, otherwise this could lead to organization, capital formation and human skill development but no long term transformation.

These issues are very basics and probably with the maturity of SM would fade away automatically. The bridge that is being developed by the linking the lowest tier of Government that is Union Council level to deep down at the household level by the NRSP based upon the Raiffeisen principles. I think this could be the approach that would turn over the development triggering in reverse as in past development approaches have traveled from North to South.

  

ECONOMICS, WORLD TRADE ORGANISATION and GLOBALIZATION

Emergence of GATT

After 2^nd world war industrialized countries shift towards protectionism.With the emergence of concerns and In order to decrease trade barriers and liberalize trade, a conference was held in Geneva in 1947. 23 participants Nations agreed to extend trade concessions; First step taken was the signing of General Agreement on Tariff and Trade or (GATT). This is an agreement to reduce tariffs and other barriers, not an organization. Member increased up to 132 till 1994

Since its inceptions, several rounds of negotiations held among member nations to reduce tariffs and non-tariffs barriers.

Kennedy Round of Trade Negotiation 1964-67

Tokyo Round of 1973-79

Uruguay Round from 1986-94

GATT was transformed into World Trade Organization on Jan 1^st 1995

WTO is a watch dog of international trade, GATT was merely a legal arrangement among member nations to liberalize and deregulate trade, WTO, on the other hand, is an international organization having headquarter in Geneva (Switzerland).Currently WTO has 150 member countries and WTO examine the trade regime of members, administrate the new global trade rules, helps the member nations in solving the trading disputes through its Dispute Settlement Court. 28 agreements are administrated through various councils and committees.Its management consultant for world trade helps in promoting environment friendly trade.

Pakistan is a member of WTO since 1995.World Bank has estimated that the liberalization of trade will add 275 billion dollars annually to world income, obviously Pakistan will also get its share from the trade gain, The partial phasing out of MFA(multi fiber agreement) by 2006 has greatly helped in increasing the exports of textile and clothing and other items which has gone up to 18 billion dollars in 2006-07.Pakistan has gaining from exports of agricultural products like rice, fruits and vegetables.For increasing exports Pakistan is also following the standards set by WTO for exports like quality control, trademarks etc.

A number of international institutions established in the wake of World War II—including the World Bank, International Monetary Fund (IMF), and General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT), succeeded in 1995 by the World Trade Organization (WTO)—have played an important role in promoting free trade in place of protectionism. Liberalization started before World War II but has accelerated considerably since the mid-1980s, driven by two main factors. One involves technological advances that have lowered the costs of transportation, communication, and computation to the extent that it is often economically feasible for a firm to locate different phases of production in different countries, The other factor has to do with the increasing liberalization of trade and capital markets: more and more governments are refusing to protect their economies from foreign competition or influence through import tariffs and non tariff barriers such as import quotas, export restraints, and legal prohibitions. For participating countries the main benefits of unrestricted foreign trade Globalization and International Trade stem from the increased access of their producers to larger, international markets. For a national economy that access means an opportunity to benefit from the international division of labor, on the one hand, and the need to face stronger competition in world markets, on the other. Domestic producers produce more efficiently due to their international specialization and the pressure that comes from foreign competition, and consumers enjoy a wider variety of domestic and imported goods at lower prices. In addition, an actively trading country benefits from the new technologies that “spill over” to it from its trading partners, such as through the knowledge embedded in imported production equipment. These technological spillovers are particularly important for developing countries because they give them a chance to catch up more quickly with the developed countries in terms of productivity. Former centrally planned economies, which missed out on many of the benefits of global trade because of their politically imposed isolation from market economies, today aspire to tap into these benefits by reintegrating with the global trading system.

       It is widely asserted that we live in an era in which the greater part of the social life is determined by global processes, in which national cultures, national economies and national boarders are dissolving. Central to the perception is the notion of a rapid and recent process of economic globalization. Since the collapse of the communism, the triumph of the capitalism and the revolution in neo-liberal ideas and technology the economic globalization has entered into new sphere of life.Globalization connected the global economy together.  Since the markets are all globally connected together when one market falls, the world’s economy collapses. Economic globalization gives governments of developing nations an access to foreign lending. When these funds are used on Infrastructure including roads, health care, education, and social services, the standard of living in the country increased. If this money does not allocated in developmental projects then also becomes the cause of the disparity.After global economy rose, corporations started to produce more and more, because people started to ask for more. However, in order to produce the most in the shorted amount of time, the factories would have to break the environmental regulations and, of course, care less for the workers. Globalization brought up the global economy and made the corporations have to do things that are immoral and unethical. Most importantly, it is hard to find someone to be responsible for the consequences, because the globe is connected together and “everyone” should be blamed for the consequences. The influx of foreign companies into developing countries increases employment for the competitive workers especially for skilled workers. But the arrival of the foreign companies are also big cause of unemployment for the indigenous due to their hard criteria of recruitment and the people from the developing countries usually do not very well skilled.Global companies, Intergovernmental Organization such as UN and International Economic Organization such as WTO are the main forces which drive developing countries according to their interests. So, in this way the role of state can be challenged. Some scholars predict the “end” of national state power. Some argue that the state may only adjust to globalization, without having an active role in it. Some believe that the state will disappear like Michael Sandel; Charles Maynes and Zygmunt Bauman

The facts of practice show that the role of the state is increasing in all aspects of social life, including economics. Economic globalization does not remove the necessity for functioning of the state. Radicals (supporter of great social or political change) point of view say all effects of globalization are positive only: there are no negative effects. The so-called negative effects are the consequences of loss of employment in inefficient, noncompetitive industries, loss of monopoly power of local industries/ businessmen and traders to exploit consumers by charging them the prices higher than imported goods and by supplying low quality products as compared to internationally available quality. The most positive effects of globalization are elimination of local monopolies, elimination of inefficiency, and access to opportunities available all over the globe for every citizen of different countries and awareness of citizens that they are not destined to be oppressed by the local political parties and rulers. But these are also the negative effects, not on the society of the common citizens, but on local monopolists, inefficient local producers, idiotic and corrupt politicians and lazy, shirker section of the workers.

Although there are some negative impacts; however, the positive impacts could overcome those negative impacts and make the world a better place. Globalization is sometimes opportunity and sometime it is a challenge. So, we need to think and act smartly to cope with challenges and to gain maximum out of globalization.

Legal Framework for Managing Land Acquisition, Resettlement and Rehabilitation (MLARR)

Land Acquisition, Resettlement and Rehabilitation 

Recently i have an opportunity to work in National Engineering Service Pakistan (NESPAK) as internee in the Environment and Resettlement section, Geo Technical & Geo Environment Division. By this opportunity I have come to know the Resettlement and rehabilitation techniques used where land acquisition for development projects is required through eminent domain. This technique is widely used by the development experts and donor agencies, particularly World bank makes it compulsion for development projects that required acquisition of land .

if a nation has to be well off by economic development then it should have to develop physical infrastructures including transport, power and energy, water supply and sanitation, solid waste, urban renewal, health, education, irrigation and flood control, mining operations, forestry development and parks, conservation sites. All these projects cause resettlement of people, economic assets, physical relocation, socioeconomic effects,so if this resettlement is not properly implemented then it will cause severe impacts on the affected persons.
To acquire land and implement development projects along with resettlement, require some legal framework. In Pakistan land is acquired through a law, LAND ACQUISITION ACT 1894 , and other requirements are set by the funding agencies like World Bank, Asian Development Bank and International Finance Corporation.

Following legal framework provides basis for the resettlement and rehabilitation of affected persons during development projects.  

1.      Land Acquisition Act 1894

2.      World Bank Operational Policy 4.12

3.      World Bank Operational Policy 4.10

4.      Safeguard Policy Statement 2009, Asian Development Bank

These documents provided a comprehensive approach to policy framework required for land acquisition and resettlement.

Land Acquisition Act 1894

This law allows Government to acquire land for public purpose by the Government /government agency after paying compensation in lieu of losses incurred by land owners due to surrendering of land to Government or its agency.

World Bank Operational Policy 4.12 (Involuntary Resettlement)

Involuntary resettlement under development projects, if unmitigated give rise to severe economic, social and environmental risks. So this policy includes the safeguards to address and mitigate these impoverishment risks.

World Bank Operational Policy 4.10 (Indigenous people)

This policy is for poverty reduction and sustainable development of indigenous people and to avoid potentially adverse effects and to minimize, mitigate or compensate if unavoidable for indigenous people to refrain from adverse effects.

Safeguard Policy Statement 2009, Asian Development Bank

The operational policies of the ADB include three safeguard policies

1.      Involuntary resettlement policy (1995)

2.      Environmental policy (2002)

3.      Policy on indigenous people (1998)

Objectives of Safeguard Policy Statement are following

§  .      Avoid adverse impacts of projects on the environment and affected people, where possible

§ .       Minimize, mitigate and/or compensate for adverse project impacts on the environment and affected people when avoidance is not possible

§ .       Help borrower/client to strengthen their safeguard systems and develop the capacity to manage environmental and social risks

S  So for the better outcome of development projects, the socioeconomic cost of development has to be mitigated through the above mentioned legal framework.

development scenario after elections

What will be the scenario of development after 2013 elections???????????

Most probable aspects of international interests are may be as pro-West and pro-Arab policies prevail in center as PML-N leader Muhammad Nawaz Sharif has special liking by Arab and Western powers so the national policies will favor the American and western interests. This would result to the safe passage to America to flee from Afghanistan via Pakistan. Drone attacks will not stop so there will be more chances of army insurgencies into tribal areas as drone attacks will urge tribes to rebellion. This issue has already sensitize tribes by the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf  by long march in support of  tribal areas.

Due to western policies there will be more funds and financial aids and debts from International Monitory Fund and World Bank etc. so our economic policies will be govern by IMF and World bank,this will hamper our economic development as we have seen in the history that whenever policies of west were implemented ignoring the indigenous scenario, it prove havoc that can be seen in case of Structural Adjustment Program. On the other hand there will be a mild temporary economic growth results from the Arab and western investment  as central govt. (PML-N) has a history of good relationship with Arab Investors and the other factor is that there will be a boost to construction industry as construction industry is a special field of interest for PML-N govt. so result will be the temporary betterment of economic conditions on one hand while clench to this betterment on the other hand as western policies will lead to shut down of many Important development projects like Pak-Iran gas pipeline project and proper working of Gwadar port.

Another important sight of this new govt. would be the relations with army as mr.Nawaz sharif has a history of clash with army and in his recent interview to an Indian television he put his anger out for army, and there is also a policy clash between Nawaz sharif and army to west as former is pro-west while from 2005 the arm has a policy shift from pro-west to pro-national. So in this situation it would may result into deadlock and if this would happen then democracy would be crashed down. More army is still on western border and in my views this situation prevails and central govt. will be in favour of more insurgencies to tribal areas.

Our international relations will be better with India, USA, UK, and Afghanistan as it seems to be necessary for Pakistan to have good relations in order to provide safe passage to America. While considering china it is difficult to predict as Nawaz Sharif spoke against the Gwadar handover to china, which displeased the Chinese. The other side of the picture is that America will like to hamper this relationship to damage the Chinese strategic interests in Pakistan which is the first pearl in the string of pearls. While relations with India would be better and there may be a chance of trade bloc between SAARC countries,if this bloc would be made then there would be better chances for economic growth.

While considering education these elections have cleared the picture that PML-N govt. is elected by the majority of illiterate class and literate majority had vote for other options, so in this scenario how it is possible for a govt. to decrease that class which has chosen them so long term and sustainable achievement in education is out of focus. Contrarily some show off projects like laptop or Danish school will be the main focus. Another chance is that there may be a chance for higher education to be slightly better off as some scholarships and internships may be awarded to higher education students. But sustainable education policies and development to boost literacy rate and capabilities of students is seem difficult task for govt. as there are more crises to be settled down.

So overall this govt. has a lot of challenges like terrorism, energy crises, relations with neighboring countries, education condition, law in order situation, social development, and above all economic development. In the beginning it will start to better off but 2014 is the year of American flee from Afghanistan so this year will be the real test for the govt. as America would like to control govt. and run it by her own terms to flee safely, so she will try to burden Pakistan on so many fronts that it will be unavoidable for Pakistan to release American pressure and avoid American dictations, which will be the push back to prosperity.