”Poverty and Human
Development in South Asia – Challenges before the State, Market
and Civil Society in the post-modern Era”
Thursday 8 July 2004,
19.30 – 22.00. Venue:
Stora Salen, Academic Society Building, Sandgatan 2, Lund
Chairperson, convenor:
Alia Ahmad, Lund University
Speakers:
Prof. Ghanshyam Shah, JNU, New Delhi
Prof. Zulfiqar Bhutta, Aga Khan University,
Karachi
Dr. Meera Nanda, Hartford, Connecticut
The session was introduced by the chairperson. Thereafter three
short presentations by the invited speakers followed, about 20-30
minutes each. After that an open discussion.
The session was tape-recorded, and will soon be published on this
page.
Introduction by Alia Ahmad:
South Asia is a heterogeneous region in terms of its
politics, economy, culture and society. However, there is one thing
in common that is the high incidence of poverty and low level of
human development (except Sri Lanka). The region houses more than
half of the World’s poor population - roughly 1/3 of the people
still go hungry every day, adult illiteracy, especially among women,
is very high, a large proportion of the population lack access to
safe drinking water and sanitation, and the full prevention of a
number of serious infectious diseases has not been achieved.
In the past one or two decades most countries in the region have
experienced modest economic growth that is partly due to macroeconomic
reforms affecting different sectors like agriculture, industry,
infrastructure and services. At an aggregate level, economic growth
is associated with a reduction of poverty in headcount measure.
However, the pace of poverty reduction has been slow and uneven
mainly because of inequality in opportunities and voice.
In the era of neo-liberalism and globalisation the region is facing
a great challenge – achieving economic growth, equitable distribution
of its benefits and fighting poverty in its many dimensions. We
need to address some crucial questions: is globalisation a Pandora´s
Box? Alternately, can its processes be harnessed to the benefit
of the poor? In that case what role should the state and the civil
society play along with market institutions?
More specifically one has to address specific questions such as:
• Who are the poor? What are their specific characteristics?
• Why do they fail to participate in the growth process?
• How to target them in policies and programmes?
• What kind of institutions, policies, and programmes are
needed to enable the poor to take part in the globalisation process?
We have made substantial progress in research with respect to
the concept of poverty, indicators of poverty, trends in poverty
indicators and the impact of different interventions.
This body of research indicates that the poor are denied not only
market opportunities for income and employment but also the access
to social services in health and education. Inequality in the access
to health and education has serious implications for income-related
poverty.
In recent years, while health and education has received considerable
attention from researchers, policymakers and donors, there is a
need for focusing on institutions in service delivery. In the era
of reforms towards more involvement of the private sector consisting
of profit-motivated institutions and NGOs, the role of the state
and the civil society has to be reconsidered.
We have gathered here as academics from different disciplines -
medicine, public health, educational sciences, gender studies and
the social sciences. This is a rare opportunity. I hope that the
lectures of our distinguished speakers and the following discussion
will contribute to an increased understanding of the problem of
poverty and inequality in South Asia in a rapidly changing world.
SASNET - Swedish South Asian Studies Network/Lund
University
Address: Scheelevägen 15 D, SE-223 63 Lund, Sweden
Phone: +46 46 222 73 40
Webmaster: Lars Eklund
Last updated
2005-03-02
