News Day 4 Home Introduction Aims & Objectives Organizing Committees Programme of Conference     Day 1     Day 2     Day 3 Registration 22nd AGM News     Day 1     Day 2     Day 3     Day 4 Abstracts Messages Accommodation Partners and Sponsors 22nd Annual Conference     Background     Picture gallery Previous Conferences     21st AGM news     20th AGM papers     19th AGM papers     18th AGM papers Contact Us     Today i.e. 22nd December, 2006 was the last day of the Pakistan Society of Development Economists Meeting. On the last day there were 2 sessions. In the morning session The Round Table discussion was on “Decentralization and Devolution”.In the afternoon session the invited panel discussion was on “State and Economy”.  In the Round Table discussion Mian Amir Mahmood, District Nazim, Lahore chaired the session. The first Panelist Takashi Kuraski, Professor, Institute of Economic Research, Tokyo presented on “Community and Economic Development in Pakistan: The Case of Citizen Community Boards in Hafizabad and Japanese Perspective”. Speaking on the occasion Mian Amir Mahmood, City Nazim Lahore said that two main hurdles in power devolution are illiteracy and cumbersome beaucratic procedure. He further said that the paper on Devolution of power are of keen interest to him because he appreciated the PSDE on holding conference on very important issue like Governance and specially Devolution of Power. He also emphasized on holding the conference on working of the government. He also appreciated the PSDE on holding conference on very important issues like Governance and specially Devolution of Power. Earlier the first Panelist Mr. Takashi Kurosaki, Institute of Economic Research Hitotsubashi University Tokyo, Japan while presenting his paper on “Community and Economic Development in Pakistan: The Case of Citizen Community Boards in Hafizabad and Japanese Perspectives” said that the rules within the citizen community board and type of leadership are factors for the successful development activities. He suggested that more suitable planning, implementation and monitoring is imperative to pro-poor components with active participation. He emphasized need of paying the attention to heterogeneity of local people, civil society, institutions and local elite in mobilizing people to participate in community building. The second Panelist Regina Birner, IFPRI, and Sarfraz Khan Qureshi, Chief Executive, Innovative Development Strategies (IDS) made presentation on “Voice and Votes: Does Decentralization Work for the Poor”. She said that voting is only one mechanism by which decentralization can lead to better service provision. But there is a need to study voting in the context of other measures that improve the ability of citizens to demand better services, such as social audits. Moreover, the capacity and incentives of decentralized government agencies to improve public service provision with a poverty and gender-focus need to be studied in this context as well. The author suggested that the future research may focus on explaining differences in the performance of local governments taking these factors into account. Analyzing different demand-side and supply-side measures in an integrated context will hopefully help policy-makers and stakeholders to better understand “what works where and why” in improving local governance. The third Panelists Ali Cheema and Shandana Khan Mohand make presentation on “The Political Economic of Devolved Provision: Equity-based Targeting or Elite Capture – Case Evidence from 2 Pakistani Unions”. In author’s view Pakistan’s recent local government reforms, which have increased the mandates and funds at the union level, are resulting in targeting biases in favour of nazim villages and patron-client factions organized by village influentials. On the positive side, previously underprovided villages have received provision. However, on the negative side, these targeting biases have reinforced the tendency towards spatial and social inequality of provision between villages and social group. The finding of the study suggested that it is important to re-evaluate the role of the union as an electoral and planning unit. The union as it is currently structured, as a multi-village electoral ward, may not give adequate representation to all villages within the council nor may it give a weight to villages in the planning process. If equity is to be protected then adequate representation of villages and from within villages is essential into the councils well into the planning process. Without this existing domain of factional patron-client politics and its consequent inequalities will continue to thrive. The fourth Panelists Dr Akmal Hussain and Savail Hussain presented on Devolution for Empowering the Poor: Institutions, Norms and Power” . The author said that their analyzes reflects that during the various regimes in the post independence period, economic policy was designed to enable the elite to use state resources for building a domain of dependency amongst various social strata. Over the last four decades, the patron-client model of governance has led to the emergence of an economic structure which restricts poverty reduction for given GDP growth rates and also constrains the growth potential of the economy from being realized. The fifth Panelist Dr Akmal Hussain presented his paper on “Participatory Development Praxis: A Case Study from Pakistan’s Punjab”. He presented the conclusions from his case study based on a survey. The study was based on the eight regions of Punjab. Dr Akmal Hussain tried to study the both the dimensions i.e. “Quantitative and qualitative aspects in the eight region of Punjab region. .Dr Akmal Hussain explained that this experiment has developed into a successful model in whicdh the study attempted to analyseand the dimensions such as community organization, improvement in income, skills, systematic provision o technical support at the village level and a change in social consciousness. According to author there was a tentative beginning of social change in the life of rural poor in the Punjab. He also found that this change has effected the cultural traditions structure of power and particular economy at the local level. In the afternoon session the Invited Panel Discussion was on “State and the Economy in Pakistan: Where Have we Come From? Where Do We Go” Mr Pervaiz Hassan Chairman working Group on External Sector Ministry of Finance presented the study. The session was chaired by Salman Shah Advisor to Prime Minister on Finance. Speaking on the occasion Salman Shah Advisor to Prime Minister said that the Pakistan economy holds a lot of potential. At least 54 percent of the population is under 19 years of age. This youth would constitute a large market when it enters into the labour and other markets. He emphasized that Pakistan must utilize this potential. Infrastructure needs to be developed enormously to serve the upcoming growth in markets. Further he stressed that we need enlightened regulation that encourages competition and let the markets work while fulfilling its role of the watchdog. Earlier Pervez Hassan Chairman working Group on External Sector Ministry of Finance presented his paper on “State and Pakistan Economy: Where we Come From? Where Do We Go”. He gave a brief history of Economic Performance and Policies Conducted since emergence of Pakistan as independent state in 1948. He discussed successes and policy failures. He also described the successes of policy pursued by this government and identified the areas which requires special attention He discussed how international economic thinking about the role of state has evolved during last half century and stressed the importance of political leadership providing a vision. He said that there is no denial to face that a strong and stable state is essential for private sector to prosper and achievement of equal-able high growth role. He said that government role in policy making, public investment and provision of basic services is inevitable. One of the approaches to poverty alleviation that has been demonstrated in South Asia, is empowerment of the poor at the local level on the basis of participatory development. This is a process, which involves the participation of the poor at the village level to build their human, natural and economic resource base for breaking out of the poverty nexus. Our analysis of the differing incentives and constrai9nts operating on the provincial bureaucracy and local government show that the latter are more likely to pursue pro-growth and pro poor policies. At the same time, elected local governments face a set of incentives that induce them to be relatively less corrupt and seek relatively greater social welfare. This is because elected governments are impelled by the imperative of elect ability and proximity to their electorate. In terms of incentives and constraints these are more stringent than the service rules operating on the provincial bureaucracy. However, the necessary condition for the results indicated above is the availability of a set of complementary inputs: adequate authority and resources to the local governments. These could be provided within an internationalized relationship between organizations of the poor and local government. Such a local governance structure could enable the poor to participate in the process of resource allocation and resource use at the local leve, even though there is very limited space for empowerment at the national level where the power structure is still dominated by traditional elites practicing power within the patron-client model. The sixth Panelist Akmal Hussain presented on “Participatory Development Praxis: A Case Study from Pakistan’s Punjab” said that his study looked into qualitative and quantitative aspects. The study tried to analyze community organization, improvement in incomes, skills, systematic provision of technical support at the village level, and a change in social consciousness. We may be witnessing the tentative beginning of social change in the lives of the rural poor in the Punjab: A change that is rooted in the universal humanity of their cultural tradition, as much as in the structures of power and economy at the local level.