Pro-Poor Growth and Governance in South Asia: Decentralization and Participatory Development

This important volume advocates a pro-poor growth strategy where the poor also participate directly as subjects in development. The contributors maintain that a critical element in this process is social mobilization where organizations of the poor work in partnership with a restructured state and a socially responsible private sector. They see a new political space for this in the current attempts at decentralization which are also aimed at developing power to the people. To illustrate these possibilities, the volume presents six case studies from India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Nepal and Bangladesh. Together they show how new social movements and organizations of the poor are converging with efforts to decentralize and to share power at the local level. This volume breaks new ground by investigating in depth the three important agendas of governance, decentralization/devolution, and poverty eradication, and by highlighting how they can be coordinated to fashion a genuinely pro-poor macro—micro development strategy.

Table of Contents:
Foreword - Gowher Rizvi I. THE SETTING AND CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORK The Conceptual Framework - Ponna Wignaraja II. SIX ILLUSTRATIVE CASE PROFILES Decentralization without Mobilisation in Kerala - Madhu Subramanian Urban Local Government and Private Sector Partnership in Gujarat - Amitabh Kundu and Debolina Kundu Karachi: Filling the Space in Local Governance with Self-Reliant Development - Arif Hasan and Salim Aleemuddin Innovative Practice amidst Positive Potential for Paradigm Shift: The Case of Sri Lanka - Susil Sirivardana Women-led Pro-Poor Growth with Supportive Decentralization in Nepal - Srikrishna Upadhyay and Govinda Koirala Decentralisation and Pro-Poor Growth Strategies in Bangladesh: Ready for Convergence - Shaikh Maqsood Ali III. LESSONS FOR MACRO-MICRO POLICY Lessons for Macro/Micro Policy - Akmal Hussain, Susil Sirivardana and Ponna Wignaraja Index

About the Author :
Ponna Wignaraja Chairman, South Asian Perspectives Network Association (SAPNA), Colombo. He served as Vice Chairman of the SAARC Independent South Asian Commission on Poverty Alleviation (1992). During a career with the UN system of over four decades, Dr Wignaraja has held numerous advisory roles in the World Bank, IMF, the UN University, UNESCO, UNICEF, IFAD and UNRISD. He has pioneered development banking and poverty focussed institutions at national and local levels, both internationally and in South Asia. A prolific author, Dr Wignaraja has published more than eight books so far, including Women, Poverty and Resources; Participatory Development: Learning from South Asia (co-author); New Social Movements in the South (ed.); and Pro-poor Growth and Governance in South Asia (ed.). He is currently also involved in issues relating to conflict management transformation and negotiations for peace in several South Asian countries. In 1993, he was awarded the highest civilian honour for national service in Sri Lanka—Deshamanya. Susil Sirivardana is the Chairman, Participatory Institute of Development Alternatives and Associate Coordinator, South Asian Perspectives Network Association, Colombo. He was a member of the Sri Lankan Administrative Service for over two decades where his contribution to two outstanding participatory development programmes—the Janasaviya National Poverty Alleviation Programme and the Million Houses Programme—is widely recognized. He also served as an advisor to the 1992 SAARC Poverty Commission. Susil Sirivardana has written extensively on housing and poverty alleviation and his co-edited publications include Readings on Pro-poor Planning through Social Mobilization in South Asia, Vol.I and Pro-poor Growth and Governance in South Asia. Currently he is also working on issues of conflict resolution and negotiation in Sri Lanka.