As the year comes to a close, and everybody has their "top ten" lists, I thought I'd share my ten most important events affecting poverty reduction in South Asia. Readers are invited to provide their own lists, or suggest changes to my list.
1. January 11th: New caretaker government appointed in Bangladesh. Introduces signficant reforms in governance and economic policy.
2. March: King Jigme Khesar Namgayal Wangchuck of Bhutan, who took over in December 2006, pledges a peaceful transition to a parliamentary democracy.
3. April: India unilaterally offers duty-free access to Nepal, Bhutan and Bangladesh.
4. April: Popular protests to Pakistan President Musharraf's dismissal of the Supreme Court Chief Justice leads to the latter's reinstatement.
5. May: Mayawati elected Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh in a coalition with Brahmins and Moslems (the same coalition as that of the old Congress Party, except with a Dalit on top)
6. July-August: Floods affect Nepal, northern India and Bangladesh, killing 2000 people.
7. November: Cyclone Sidr kills over 3,000 people in Bangladesh. Government response avoids many more deaths.
8. November: Reaction to President Musharraf's declaration of emergency rule contributes to Benazir Bhutto and Nawaz Sharif returning to the country, and Ms. Bhutto contesting the election. December: Ms. Bhutto dies in a shooting and suicide bomb incident following an election rally.
9. December: Nepal's political parties including the Maoists make progress towards a constituent assembly, calling for, among other things, a federal system of government.
10. All year: Sri Lankan conflict escalates, along with accusations of human-rights violations. Inflation hits 20 percent.
I will be taking a break until the New Year. This blog will resume on January 7, 2008. Wish you the best of the season.
Top ten events of 2007Mon, 31/12/2007Comments |
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Mariam Claeson
Tue, 01/08/2008 - 06:28 The fourth event in the Top Ten list needs a factual update. The former Chief Justice of Pakistan, Mr. Iftikhar Choudhary, was reinstated, but has been again removed from office. The President, feeling unsecure from the judiciary, sent him home along with some other judges after promulgation of a state of emergency. Thus, Mr. Choudhary is no more the Chief Justice. I would also like to add that the guest blogger should give a brief account of his own thoughts about the impact of these events on poverty reduction. How, for example, the reinstatement of Chief Justice is perceived to be important for poverty reduction in Pakistan.
Fri, 01/11/2008 - 01:47 It was not the resinstatement of the Chief Justice that was important for poverty reduction; it was the popular protests which, for the first time, included middle-class people, including many women. The fact that these people are exercising their "voice" is important because it is voices like these that can help politicians adopt pro-poor policies.
Mon, 01/07/2008 - 02:15 It appears just because you were in a hurry to go on year end holiday you write some non-sense with a title "Ten Issue's affecting Pooverty Reduction..." One of the important component affecting the Pooverty Reduction in India is World Banks loot in terms of its interest and servicing cost on the Loan in gives to Govt. If on takes the amount every year India pays as Interest, servicing cost and bribe to these johnies (WB Officials and thier middlemen) that itself would reduce every year a states pooverty totally. Thus in less then 10 year India would be completely free from poverty hang-ups and bondage of WB. Thanks
Fri, 01/04/2008 - 02:20 1. Stalled or slow peace process in Nepal 2. Increased ethnic and caste violence in Nepal 3. Inflation on the rise throughout South Asia especially for food and petrol.
Thu, 01/03/2008 - 22:39 No country can achieve social equality when a minority who consider themselves elite educate their children in a language other than people's language. The rush for English medium education is a huge factor in social and economic inequality, and politicians and the media are not facing up to it because those people put their own children in private English-medium schools, while there is little care that the government schools are failing so badly- traditional caste has been largely replaced by language caste. All developed countries use the people's languages at all levels including basic college/university instruction- see the examples of Korean, Japanese, Chinese, 25 European languages, etc. in contrast to Philippines, African countries etc where a "foreign" language is used for most education. This will NEVER lead to civilizational creativity involving the mass of population. Would Bank should put resources into State governments to give incentives that all schools will teach in the people's or state language, give dis-incentives to private English-medium schools, encourage colleges/universities to use the state languages (except at higher levels), and provide incentives for research, book writing, and publicity in the people's languages. This growing caste divide in South Asia MUST be stopped if poverty and depressed class status are to be tackled. Clarence Maloney, long-time consultant and resident in South Asia