Lahore School of Economics (Centre for Research) International Conference on Globalization and Governance
April 23, 2007
Lahore School of Economics (Centre of Research) held the First International Conference on Globalization and Governance on April 21, 2007 in their Main Campus at Burki Road. Dr. Zahid Shariff from Evergreen College, Washington State, USA was the chief guest and Dr. Shahid Amjad Chaudhry, the Rector Lahore School was the chairman of the Conference. The main objective of the Conference was to highlight the problems faced by Pakistan arising from Globalization after 2005 and Devolution after Local Government Ordinance 2001.
Three main sessions on Poverty, Governance, and Education were held.
Dr. Salman Ahmad compared various social indicators in different towns of Lahore and showed that poverty levels were highest in Ravi Town while inequalities were highest in Nishtar Town. Net primary enrolment rate for Lahore district was only 62%. According to MDG, it should be 80% in 2003. Mr. Hassan from BZU, Multan analyzed the relationship between poverty and education. He showed a significant negative relationship between literacy and poverty. Mr. Kalim Hyder has compared seven towns of Lahore on the basis of Income Inequality measures, gender inequality, and has prepared a composite social index for ranking these towns. The results showed that Nishter Town is the least socially developed town.
Dr. Qadeer from Queen’s University, Canada emphasized conflict in urbanized society of Pakistan. First, the non-material norms are lagging behind material culture. Second, Private interest overshadow public interest. Third, the living culture is in conflict with imagined culture. Dr. Riaz Hassan from Flinders University, Australia has related religion with governance in different Muslim countries. He has given results of a survey conducted in seven Muslim countries. The empirical evidence indicates that the trust placed in religious institutions and their public influence is greater in Islamic countries like Iran than in Turkey. Dr. Imran Sharif Chaudhry from BZU, Multan explained the factor affecting good governance in Pakistan depends on democracy, literacy, and peace. Dr. Muneer Ahmad assessed the impact of devolution of power on the socio-economic development in rural areas. He concludes that devolution has not led the emergence of local leadership. This is due to inefficient behaviour of the local leaders rather than insufficient funds. Dr. Rafiq Khan has calculated the environmental benefits and costs to rickshaw drivers and comes out with different ratios in different scenarios.
Dr. Anis Alam discussed the importance of Universities in historical perspective and proved that Universities unite the traditional functions associated with the advancement and transmission of knowledge, research, innovation, teaching and training, continuing education and international cooperation. Dr. Mazhar analyzed the data for Lahore collected by Punjab Bureau of Statistics to explain the determinants like family size, dwelling ownership of primary education enrolment.
A Comparative Analysis of Social Indicators of Towns of Lahore
Dr. Salman Ahmad
The city of Lahore is considered to be the most developed district of Punjab. This paper is the first attempt towards analyzing the extent of social development of the towns in Lahore1. Measurement of the incidence of poverty in seven towns is the main focus of this study. In addition, it further explores the status of social development of towns by analyzing the indicators of education, health, and public health sector. Results indicate that the poverty incidence in Ravi, Gunj Baksh, Cantt Area, and Aziz Bhatti town is above the 15% threshold. Severity of poverty is the highest in Nishter and Allama Iqbal towns. Position regarding the gender inequality and public health seems reasonable whereas the indicators pertaining to education and health sector reveal some alarming facts.
Representation, Participation, Empowerment: Assessment of Devolution in Union Council, Bhangali
Dr. Muneer Ahmad
This paper attempts to assess the impact of devolution of power on the social and economic development in rural areas. For this purpose a case study is presented that pertains to the rural Union Council of Bhangali. The process of governance has been scrutinized in this study. Unfortunately, the UC leadership does not seem to have a very favorable influence on the social development of this area. This is primarily owing to the inefficient behavior of the local leaders, rather than the insufficiency of funds. Hence, devolution has not led to the emergence of a proactive leadership in the local community.
This paper attempts to assess the impact of devolution of power on the social and economic development in rural areas. For this purpose a case study is presented that pertains to the rural Union Council of Bhangali. The process of governance has been scrutinized in this study. Unfortunately, the UC leadership does not seem to have a very favorable influence on the social development of this area. This is primarily owing to the inefficient behavior of the local leaders, rather than the insufficiency of funds. Hence, devolution has not led to the emergence of a proactive leadership in the local community.Benefit-Cost Analysis Of Banning Two-Stroke Engine Rickshaws In Lahore, Pakistan
M. Rafiq Khan
The work presented in this article constitutes the first phase of the plan proposed in our paper presented in the 22nd PIDE Conference 2006, recently held in Lahore. The major objective of this work is monetization of the costs and benefits (tangible as well as intangible) to sort out whether the ban on two-stroke auto-rickshaws has been economically justified. In addition, an attempt is made to develop and standardize a method for the determination and evaluation of the benefits of reducing concentrations of air pollutants. The methodology used is based on “Willingness to Pay” and “Cost of Illness” techniques. The costs and benefits are compared, and benefit to cost ratios have been calculated, under different scenarios.
Determinants of Enrollment in Primary Education (A Case Study of district Lahore)
Dr. Mazhar-ul-Haq Baloch
This study is an attempt to analyze the primary school enrollment status in the city of Lahore; and provide estimates regarding the impact of household’s quantitative characteristics on enrollment decision. Primary data is collected from 3320 households where 2520 households belonged to the urban areas and 800 households belonged to the rural areas. Computations are carried out using both OLS and Logit models. The factors contributing positively and significantly to net enrollment of children at primary school level are found to be family size, dwelling ownership, expenses on education, literacy ratio and dependency ratio. It is also established that access to school is not a very significant factor towards inhibiting school attendance. Some of the results, with respect to the contribution of family size and dependency ratio to enrollment, are contradictory to the prior determined thoughts. Briefly, it can be concluded that despite the positive effect of some of the characteristics of individuals and households on gross as well as net enrollment, there are various more strong qualitative factors across the socio-economic spectrum that have differential impacts on school enrollment. Consequently, legislative measures need to be implemented to make primary education compulsory, in order to motivate all the children of respective age to complete primary school education.
Higher Education in the Age of Neo-Liberalism
Dr. Anis Alam
In modern times it is primarily the universities that unite the traditional functions associated with the advancement and transmission of knowledge, research, innovation, teaching and training, and continuing education and international cooperation.
Poverty, Income Distribution and Social Development in Lahore
Syed Kalim Hyder Bukhari and Usman Sikander
In this paper we present a comparative analysis of poverty and income inequality prevalent in the seven towns of Lahore. Further, an analysis of the gender inequality and overall social development by considering education, health, and labor market conditions is presented. For a deeper insight, we have computed the statistics of income distribution such as poverty, Herfindahl Index, Gini Coefficient, ratio of share of income of bottom 20% to top 20% and SEN index in this study. Finally, composite index of social development is estimated and on the basis of this, index ranking of each town is outlined. Nishter Town is the least socially developed town where as Aziz Bhatti, Shalimar, and Allama Iqbal towns are less socially developed as compared to Ravi, Cantt and Gunj Buksh towns.
Labels: Globalization and Governance, Research
posted by S A J Shirazi @ 4/23/2007 08:00:00 AM,
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