Posted by Mariam on
Thu, 05/06/2008
When the South Asia Development Marketplace for innovative ideas to tackle stigma and discrimination relating to HIV/AIDS was launched in November 2007 by the HIV/AIDS Group in the South Asia Region of the World Bank and its partners, civil society groups across South Asia sent in almost a thousand proposals.
People fear HIV/AIDS because of the association with sex, drugs, illness, and death. In South Asia, the epidemic is driven largely by high risk practices – buying and selling sex, injecting drugs, and unprotected sex among men having sex with men. This compounds the fear and stigma around HIV/AIDS, as sex workers, injecting drug users, and men having sex with men are already stigmatized.
Not only in South Asia, but around the globe, efforts to prevent new HIV infections and allowing people with HIV/AIDS to live without the burden of social exclusion are severely hampered by the persistence of stigma. One study in India shows that 36% percent of students, faculty and technical staff of the public health services felt it would be better if HIV-positive individuals killed themselves and believed that infected people deserved their fate; 34% would not associate with people with AIDS; 42% believed that those with HIV should be quarantined; and, 31% favored barring infected students from college classes (Ambati, Ambati & Rao, 1997).
Posted by Shekhar on
Mon, 02/06/2008
Governance for All sounds a lot like Education for All. That's the global movement, led by UNESCO, that aims to meet the learning needs of all children, youth and adults by 2015. But this time it's the World Bank, and our own Dani Kaufmann, launching a new blog on governance. A great idea.
Writes Kaufmann in his inaugural post, "The governance puzzle is far from solved; many questions are waiting to be answered. Others are subject to ongoing debate...We still need to learn how governance matters more in particular countries or institutions, or whether it only matters in the longer term. Whether it influences other major determinants of development. Which concrete factors and measures account for improved governance and corruption control. Which practical measures work better than others. Why some countries and institutions have improved, others deteriorated, and others just stagnated. For instance, is developing stronger institutions to put some checks and balances on the executive more important than adopting anticorruption decrees and laws?...These questions are but a few of those researchers and practitioners are currently grappling with in many corners of the globe. They deserve to be shared and debated more widely." I could not agree more. We wish the blog luck and many good posts.
Posted by Forhad on
Thu, 29/05/2008
Contributed by Forhad Shilpi and Uwe Deichmann
Will investments in agricultural technology by themselves be sufficient to ensure long-term productivity growth in the farm sector and, more importantly, for rural poverty reduction? As rapidly rising food prices threaten food security and the poverty gains made by developing countries, many have blamed declining funding for agricultural technology development for this state of affairs (for example, the New York Times).
This question is highly relevant for South Asia. Shanta Devarajan has commented on the recent rice export ban by India and its implication for its neighbor, Bangladesh, which has become a net rice importer this year due to floods and cyclone impacts. But Bangladesh also provides evidence that agricultural technology by itself is unlikely to lead to adequate growth in agricultural output if factors such as physical and economic geography and infrastructure needs are not considered.
Posted by Shanta on
Fri, 11/04/2008
First the good news. The Indian government has agreed to sell the originally-agreed 400,000 tons of non-basmati rice to the Government of Bangladesh at a price of $430 per ton. On March 30th, the Government of Bangladesh’s Purchase Committee approved the Indian offer of procuring the 400,000 tons of rice at $430 per ton by ship. The estimated time for the rice to reach Chittagong port is 75 days.
Now the rest. India still has an export ban on non-basmati rice. So do Vietnam, Cambodia, and Egypt. Argentina has a ban on beef exports. The Economist has criticized these policies from the viewpoint that they are self-defeating: “they de-motivate farmers, push them into growing the wrong crops and jeopardize their future access to markets.” A recent BBC report had farmers in Rajasthan complaining about the export bans. And the benefits of export bans don’t necessarily go to poor people, because the domestic price is lower for everybody. So export bans not only hurt your neighbors (or more generally global trade), but also your own people.
What can we do? Arvind Subramanian suggests that we need a multilateral agreement not to impose export bans, along the lines of the WTO.
Posted by Shanta on
Wed, 19/03/2008
Rising--and even accelerating--world food prices are causing serious problems to South Asia’s net food importers such as Bangladesh. To make matters worse, the country lost about 2 million metric tons of rice (7.3 percent of domestic production) in the twin floods of July-August and cyclone of November. To make up for the shortfall, Bangladesh is importing rice from its immediate neighbors. However, one of its neighbors, India, has chosen to impose either a ban on rice exports or to raise the export price above the contracted price. Every time this happens, the price of rice in Dhaka spikes (see graph). While this shows that economics works, it is troubling that a large country like India, which has a greater ability to absorb food price shocks, is imposing costs on its poorer and smaller neighbor to the east.
Posted by Maitreyi on
Fri, 07/03/2008
 Shanta has been writing about Bangladesh and its paradoxes. I guess you can’t call this a paradox, yet it blows me away how despite its so-called governance failures, alleged increase in conservatism and its low per capita income, Bangladesh is far from the “basket case” Kissinger infamously predicted. We have just completed a report to be launched in Dhaka on March 13th on gender and social transformation in Bangladesh which Aniqah Khan named “Whispers to Voices”.
Once the favorite citation for neo-Malthusians predicting a demographic catastrophe, Bangladesh actually halved its fertility rates between 1971 and 2004. Today, girls’ secondary school attendance exceeds that of boys. The gender gap in infant mortality has been closed. In each of these areas, India and Pakistan pale in comparison, as they do in the area of sanitation, immunization and diarrhea control. The micro-credit revolution continues to boost women’s solidarity groups and earning potential. And vast numbers of young women leave their villages to work in garment factories in a culture where ostensibly purdah had kept them from moving out of the house.
Posted by Praful on
Tue, 04/03/2008
 Four hundred million people--if it were a country, it would be the third largest in the world--rely on the Ganges River and its tributaries for their livelihood. Six thousand rivers provide a perennial source of irrigation and power to one of the world’s most densely populated and poorest areas. The Himalayas, “the water tower of the Ganges,” provide 45 percent of the annual flow. These facts represent the potential payoffs to the populations of Bangladesh, India and Nepal as well as the threat that climate change poses to poor and already vulnerable people of these countries.
Posted by Shanta on
Wed, 13/02/2008
In discussing how to end poverty in South Asia, we often get so caught up in the statistics and policy discussions that we forget that we are talking about the lives of real people. But a magnificent photography exhibit by my colleague Michael Foley displayed in the hall outside my office, serves as a constant reminder of whom we are working for.
Posted by Shanta on
Mon, 04/02/2008
 How is the quest to end poverty in South Asia going? Parts of the subcontinent, such as the Maldives, the Western Province of Sri Lanka or some Indian states have already “eliminated” abject poverty (in the sense of having poverty rates below 10 percent). Other parts of South Asia such as Afghanistan or northern Sri Lanka are so mired in violent and escalating conflict that ending poverty seems a remote dream; providing basic security seems much more important.
The reality is that South Asia is a heterogeneous region. The per capita income of the richest part is ten times that of the poorest part (see Table). Sustained economic growth and increasing globalization is propelling several Indian states, Bhutan, Maldives, and parts of Sri Lanka into middle-income environments.
Posted by Shanta on
Fri, 01/02/2008
Baburam Bhattarai and I are very different. He studied Marxist analysis at Jawarhalal Nehru University; I studied neoclassical economics at the University of California at Berkeley. He founded Nepal’s United People’s Front and went underground during the Maoist rebellion; I taught at Harvard and now work at the World Bank. He has a picture of Che Guevara on his car’s gas cap; mine has the logo of my daughter’s soccer team.
Nevertheless, based on our speeches and writings as well as an afternoon together in Kathmandu recently, we found much common ground. We are both concerned about the high and rising inequality in South Asia in general, and Nepal in particular. We agreed that among the causes of this inequality are: (i) slow growth in agriculture; and (ii) lack of employment growth, especially in manufactured exports. I then pushed the envelope a bit by suggesting that the reasons for both (i) and (ii) were government policies which, although introduced with the best of intentions, are backfiring and hurting the poor. For instance, in Sri Lanka, government policy forces farmers to grow rice, a highly vulnerable and not very profitable crop. And the lack of manufactured-export-led employment growth in South Asia in general is associated with extremely restrictive labor regulations in the subcontinent.
Posted by Shanta on
Wed, 30/01/2008
South Asian countries have been experiencing macroeconomic problems during the past year: inflation in Sri Lanka is over 17 percent, in Bangladesh 11 percent; Pakistan’s current account deficit is at 5 percent of GDP; the Maldives’ fiscal deficit is likely to be about 12 percent of GDP; and the Indian economy showed signs of overheating in mid-2007, with inflation rising above 6 percent. Although the rate has come down since then, capital flows remain buoyant, posing challenges for macroeconomic management. India’s trade deficit is forecast to be 8 percent of GDP.
Meanwhile, the sub-prime mortgage crisis in the U.S. is threatening to lead to a global credit crunch and a recession in the country. Will these global developments exacerbate South Asia’s macroeconomic problems and reduce its chances of ending poverty in a generation?
The short answer is “No.”
Posted by Praful on
Wed, 16/01/2008
Thursday, December 13 was a clear crisp day as I flew from Dhaka to Kalapara, a little town in southern Bangladesh, the upazilla (sub-district) headquarters of Patuakhali district, the region that had been battered by cyclone ‘Sidr’ the night of November 15. Seeing firsthand the devastation caused by Cyclone Sidr was shocking.
 At Alipara, about five miles further downstream from Kalapara and reached by boat, a motley crowd had gathered on an earthen embankment which had been breached. A chest-high surge of water swept through the gap washing away their assets – houses, livestock, crops and all. The villagers now survive on relief provided by various agencies.
Some of the storm survivors recounted that the Thursday night four weeks ago was possibly the worst day of their lives. “I have lost everything – my house and all that I had, my crops, my stored food-grains, and now I wait for help to rebuild my life”, said a 70 year-old man.
Taking off from Kalapara in a Bangladesh Air Force helicopter, we flew low over the cyclone-affected region. For almost an hour, over Kuakata, a tourist town on the Bay of Bengal, along the coastline, and over the affected areas of Patharghata, Southkhali, Sarankhola, Morelganj and the Sundarbans mangrove forest, a World Heritage site, we viewed the widespread destruction. It was a sad picture of huge swathes of land with destroyed standing crops, with virtually nothing left on the ground for thousands of acres. I have never seen such widespread destruction.
Posted by Shanta on
Thu, 10/01/2008
My colleague Apurva Sanghi organized a fascinating discussion on the implications of climate change for the world's poor. The keynote speaker, Rob Mendelsohn of Yale University highlighted the fact that the biggest effects of climate change will be felt in the "low latitude" regions where most of the world's poor live (see picture). Inasmuch as these people are already very vulnerable to shocks, the case for adaptation policies is that much stronger. But the other side of this finding, that the effect on rich countries will be milder, raises the question of whether these countries will engage in mitigation policies. One of the discussants, Homi Kharas (an old friend and former colleague), pointed out that a successful mitigation program will require rich countries to keep their side of the bargain, especially if they want the fast-growing poor countries (such as China and India) to curtail their carbon emissions. But these same rich countries appear not to be keeping their promise made in 2002 to double foreign aid by 2010 (last year the total amount of official development assistance fell in nominal terms). If you add the fact that agriculture in northern countries may actually benefit from low levels of climate change, the political impetus for mitigation may be quite limited.
Posted by Shanta on
Tue, 08/01/2008
While we received several, mostly supportive, comments on the post on "The World Bank and poverty reduction in South Asia", one of them hoisted me on my own petard:
Why do you guys give loans when you know the policies [pursued] by these governments are - by your own assertions -...simply wrong? why do you go about subsidising wrong policies, by...financing over-staffed, over-spending, governments? especially budget support?
The comment highlights an important aspect of foreign aid in the current era. Traditionally, foreign aid was aimed at correcting market failures--building public goods, such as bridges (like the Jamuna Bridge in Bangladesh pictured on the left) and dams, or subsidizing goods with positive externalities, such as primary education or immunization.
There was an alignment between the wishes of government and those of the aid donors: both wanted to correct market failures.
Posted by Shanta on
Mon, 31/12/2007
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Mariam Claeson
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