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This paper offers an assessment of the mainstreaming of fisheries in national development plans and Poverty Reduction Strategy Papers within the Asia-Pacific region. Fisheries and aquaculture in the region make a significant contribution to world fisheries production. Importantly, those directly involved in the sector are predominantly small-scale artisanal producers, a group traditionally regarded as extremely vulnerable in poverty terms. Therefore, mainstreaming - integrating a sector into every stage of the national policy process - may have important welfare implications for those drawing livelihoods from the industry. This paper examines the significance of fisheries and aquaculture to developing Asia-Pacific economies, and evaluates the extent to which the sector has been mainstreamed in national development and poverty reduction strategies using a content analysis framework. We conclude that the representation of fisheries issues, the recognition of sectoral poverty, policy responses, and stakeholder representation, is typically greater than in other fish producing regions, and there are many examples of best practice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The term "sustainable development" refers to the developmental activity undertaken to achieve the present generation needs without compromising with the needs of up-coming generation. Sustainable development ensures the well-being of individual by integrating social development, economic growth, and environmental conservation and protection. The over population, wide spread inequality, acute poverty, a great shortage of safe drinking water, limitless consumption of energy, endless deforestation is the great challenges before the idea of sustainable development. The present paper is an evidence based paper based on the secondary data collected from research journals, books, magazines and concerned websites. The aim of the paper is to focus on the strategies for sustainable development and the social work approach for achieving the sustainable development in the present and the future society. Through devising the strategies for sustainable development this paper tries to build an interrelationship between the present and the future generation, to attain the sustainable development following probable strategies can be useful-giving importance to input efficient technology, using environmental friendly source of energy, promoting more and more renewable source of energy, developing organic farming, promoting waste recycling, more than all this taking an pledge of conserving the natural resources for the younger generations of tomorrow's world. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The spike in global food prices in 2007–08 not only led to riots on several continents; it also reawakened fears about the world's future ability to feed itself, as growing populations place greater demands on agricultural systems operating in increasingly difficult environmental and climatic conditions. With more than half the world's people and high levels of inequality, Asia lies at the centre of the global food-security challenge of the twenty-first century. The region – especially China and India – is drawing on world stocks and importing more staples, as its own farms strain to meet the growing middle classes’ desire for more meat and processed foods. Meanwhile, the smallholder farmers who supply 80% of the continent's food confront continued poverty, as they struggle to raise output in the face of creeping environmental degradation, looming water shortages and the unpredictable effects of climate change. As thisAdelphishows, there are no simple solutions. Today, rice is exported while some households still go hungry, unrest grows as land is appropriated for biofuels or industry, and nations compete over waters and fishing rights. Only integrated policies that take into account the complex socio-economic and political aspects of food security have any chance of succeeding. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Southeast Asia is a development success story. By 2025, it is forecast that extreme poverty in the region will have been ‘eradicated’. Does this mean that the challenges so evident in the 1960s when the countries of the region began to pursue development have been met, and the objectives achieved? The paper makes a case for thinking afresh about development and the poverty project, recognising that development is never neatly achieved but, rather, re‐worked, re‐engineered and re‐imagined over time. This is done through identifying different categories of ‘poor’, each produced through different poverty‐making processes, measured and viewed in different ways, and their poverty addressed using different approaches and policies. With specific reference to the cases of Laos and Thailand, and drawing on longitudinal research in the latter country, it is argued that while economic growth does trickle down, it trickles down in quite discrete and often contingent ways. Furthermore, there is always development work to be done, because development creates its own work. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Burma's first well known welfare plan was entitled Pyidawtha or Happy Land, and it was launched in 1952. In vernacular terms, the literal meaning of Pyidawtha is 'Prosperous Royal Country'. The government's attempt to sustain tradition and culture and to instil modern aspirations in its citizens was reflected in its choice of the word Pyidawtha. The Plan failed and its implications still overshadow the development framework of Burma. This paper discusses how the country's major decisions, including whether or not to join the Commonwealth, have been influenced by language; how the term and concept of 'development' were conceived; how the Burmese translation was coined to attract public support; and how the detailed planning was presented to the masses by the government. The paper also discusses the concerns and anxieties of the democratic government led by U Nu in introducing Burma's first major development plan to a war-torn and bitterly divided country, and why it eventually failed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

It is well known that whilst wetlands deliver a wide range of services vital for human well-being, they are being rapidly degraded and lost. Losses tend to be higher where human populations are increasing most and demands for economic development are greatest. Multidisciplinary management approaches that integrate conservation and development objectives in wetlands are therefore urgently requested for by the Ramsar Convention on Wetlands. This paper describes the evaluation of 10 wetland management case studies from Asia, Africa and South America that adopted such an integrated approach. The evaluation assessed the outcomes of these integrated initiatives to identify conditions and processes for linking conservation and poverty reduction objectives in wetlands. The findings are also compared with other assessments of integrated approaches, particularly in terms of their effectiveness in optimizing conservation and poverty reduction outcomes. The results from our studies suggest an ongoing evolution of such integrated interventions, which also implies cycles of learning from past mistakes. Overall, our results highlight the significant variation between wetlands in types and quantities of services they provide and emphasize the need to view many ecological issues as social challenges for equitable solutions to both wetlands and people. The analysis further shows that the positive on-ground results owe much to the interdisciplinary problem analysis, whereby interventions can move from treating symptoms to addressing root causes. while no blueprint emerged on how to successfully integrate conservation and poverty reduction in wetlands, important lessons for future interventions were drawn. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Livestock play a key role in the lives of poor, rural people in developing countries, providing a major proportion of their cash income, capital assets, draught power, fuel and fertilizer. Rapid growth in demand for meat and dairy products in Asia presents both opportunities and challenges for livestock development and poverty alleviation. This paper explores the potential of livestock intensification to benefit the livelihoods of upland households and meet market demand in the Lao Peoples' Democratic Republic (Lao PDR), a South East Asian country undergoing significant economic change. A review of the livestock sector in Asia shows increasing demand for live animals and meat in neigh- bouring Vietnam, Thailand and China. Lao PDR is well positioned to capitalize on the growing Asian livestock sector, however the extent livestock production in Lao PDR can reduce poverty, meet growing domestic meat demand and lift livestock exports is problematic. Findings from research in two upland northern provinces demonstrate how the introduction of forages for livestock has revolutionized the lives of some farmers and villages, but concludes that strategies are still needed to engage poorer households. The impacts of changing domestic and export markets are less certain, and are discussed within the context of environmental and public health, cultural traditions, economic development and sustainable livelihoods. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Summary Rural financial markets have grown rapidly in Asian emerging market economies, thus contributing to economic development and the reduction of poverty. At the same time, however, the level of indebtedness of rural households has increased, making households more vulnerable to shocks. One of the reasons for rising household debt is the ease of borrowing simultaneously from a growing number of lending institutions. This paper addresses two major questions. First, does borrowing from multiple sources increase rural households’ risk of over-indebtedness? Second, do over-indebted rural households refinance their outstanding loans through multiple borrowing, running the risk of becoming trapped in a debt cycle? Employing a dynamic random effects bivariate probit model for a unique set of longitudinal household panel data from Northeast Thailand, this study examines the bidirectional relationship between over-indebtedness and multiple borrowing to determine to what extent rural households become trapped in debt cycles. On the one hand, the results indicate that households in Northeast Thailand take on multiple loans, which further increases their risk of becoming over-indebted. On the other hand, our model results do not confirm the widespread notion that over-indebted rural households use multiple loans to refinance unpayable debts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Summary: This paper estimates trends in absolute poverty in urban China using the Chinese Household Income Project surveys. Poverty incidence curves are plotted, showing lower poverty in 2002 than in 1988 irrespective of the poverty line chosen. Incomes of the poorest fell during 1988–95, contributing to a rise in inequality. However, inequality has been fairly constant thereafter. Models of the determination of income and poverty reveal widening differentials by education, sex, and Communist Party membership. Income from government anti-poverty programs has little impact on poverty, which has fallen almost entirely due to overall economic growth rather than redistribution. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

This article examines the relationship between infrastructure, economic growth and poverty reduction in Asia. It identifies the policies required to stimulate the necessary investment and ensure it is employed in the most effective ways to help reduce poverty. The importance of physical infrastructure in fostering economic growth and poverty reduction is widely recognised. However, current provision is uneven both between and within countries and falls well below the levels needed to meet projected demand It is shown that particular benefits accrue to specific investments; for example, investment in education and roads will have most impact on reducing poverty in rural areas. The article puts the case For increases in both public and private investment in infrastructure in Asia in order to meet demand. Reforms will also be necessary in a range of areas including the rationalisation of subsidies, regulatory independence, reducing corruption and involving poor people in decision making about infrastructure. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Rapid population ageing and economic transformation in Asia underline the policy challenges associated with ensuring income security in old age. This article examines the potential role of social pensions in securing old-age income security in Asia. It assesses the main policy trade-offs associated with adopting alternative social pension designs, especially around two critical policy points: the comparative advantages of social assistance and social pensions; and the integration of non-contributory transfers within advanced contributory pension schemes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Building on the recent literature on finance, growth and hunger, we have examined the experience of Asian countries over the period 1960-2010 by dynamic and static panel data models. We have found evidence favouring a positive role of finance-defined as private credit by banks-on growth of GDP and agricultural value added. Private credit as well as loans from the World Bank significantly reduces undernourishment, whereas remittances and loans from microfinance institutions appear to have a negative impact on poverty. Our empirical evidence shows that growth performance was significantly lower during the recent global financial crisis than non-crisis periods, although the severity is much smaller during the recent financial crisis than Asian financial crisis. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: This paper is a summary and update, where feasible, of the United Nations first-ever report on The State of Asian Cities 2010/11. With 42% of its population in cities in 2010, Asia is urbanising rapidly; its cities are highly productive and generate an estimated 80% of the region’s GDP. Despite the sustained economic growth of Asian economies in the recent decades, urban poverty, inequality, slums, poor urban environmental quality and liveablity, worsening disaster risks and effects of climate change pose major development challenges. While decentralization has helped widen the scope of urban governance, greater attention is needed to enhancing transparency and accountability in decision-making, planning and governance of smaller cities and towns, infrastructure investments, and city-to-city learning. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Aquaculture is equated with the reduction of poverty by intergovernmental agencies such as the FAO, which advocate the promotion of small-scale aquaculture through project-based interventions. There is a lack of convincing empirical evidence to support the efficacy of this type of intervention, however. Meanwhile, commercial cultured freshwater fish production has increased hugely throughout Asia, despite limited direct donor or government support. Its impact with respect to poverty also remains ambiguous, however. This article critically evaluates the developmental impacts of both immanent and interventionist forms of aquaculture and advances finely nuanced interpretations of both. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

How does economic liberalization — or a country’s integration into the global economy — affect its economic performance and the distribution of wealth? There have been heated debates on positive and negative sides of globalization. This article seeks to fill the existing gap in the study of globalization and its socio-economic outcomes by focusing on the mediating effect of political corruption in countries from Asia and Eastern Europe. The authors suggest that, in countries with high levels of corruption, extensive economic liberalization brings faster economic growth. However, the economic growth does not improve the corrupt countries’ distributive justice, increasing poverty and leaving the level of inequality intact after the economic development. On the other hand, economic liberalization in less corrupt countries neither generates fast economic growth, nor significantly improves the countries’ poverty and inequality. The empirical result implies that neoliberal economic reform per se does not have direct impact on a country’s distributive justice. This article studies 40 developing countries from Asia and Eastern Europe. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This article assesses the prospects of achieving the Millennium Development Goal of halving income poverty in Asia, and identifies policy priorities. The main findings are: (1) in East Asia, the actual growth rate exceeds that required to achieve this goal, while in South Asia, it falls short of the required rate; (2) the required rates of agricultural growth are, however, higher than the actual in both East Asia and South Asia; (3) moderate growth and reduction of income inequality will have a substantial poverty reduction impact; and, finally, (4) even modest improvements in institutional quality will reduce poverty substantially through higher incomes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Within current poverty reduction programmes, focus on the social-welfare millennium development goals is widening to embrace a concern with infrastructural investment, particularly for remote areas. The previously popular assumption that rural disadvantage can be remedied by road-building is resurfacing. Using survey data from Ethiopia, Zambia and Vietnam, this article explores how effective such investment is in addressing mobility and social-service accessibility in rural areas. The findings indicate that, in extremely remote areas, road improvements may catalyse the expansion of social-service provision, as evidenced in Ethiopia. However, given the poor's relative lack of motor vehicles and ability to pay for public transport, they are, by no means, a sufficient condition for enhancing the mobility of the rural poor. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Governance offers an opportunity to address existing and emerging challenges on growth and poverty reduction in Asia Examining a variety of Asian strategies for improving governance and the effectiveness of state institutions, this article identifies important lessons for the Asian region and beyond. Governance is likely to be central in the next phase of Asia's growth and poverty reduction, and gaining a better understanding of poor people's governance priorities, such as better service delivery (particularly in health and education) and access to justice, is necessary. There is no single model of governance associated with positive growth and poverty reduction outcomes in Asia to date. Changes in the nature of governance in successful Asian countries over the last two decades have been driven by a range of factors including: domestic economic reform, increased integration with the global economy, citizen-led demands for better governance and influence of aid donors. Of the governance initiatives introduced by Asian governments, decentralisation and service delivery reforms have the greatest potential to contribute to poverty reduction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Asia has witnessed an unprecedented period of growth and poverty reduction over the past decade, By 2015 absolute poverty in Asia could be halved and eradicated altogether a decade later But while there are strong prospects for continued progress these are by no means assured. Asian countries face a number of challenges -- the potential for Financial instability, environmental degradation, rising inequality, inadequate infrastructure and energy supplies as well as global threats -- all of which could throw growth and poverty reduction off-track Much depends on how the costs and benefits of growth are distributed and how far the growth process creates opportunities for poor people to participate in economic activity, Rapid urbanisation and migration are raising new challenges For policy makers. Growth alone cannot eradicate poverty without public action by governments in the region to tackle problems of exclusion, marginalisation and the threat of rising inequality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Growth alone does not guarantee sustained poverty reduction, and it may also create threats to social cohesion that in turn can undermine growth. While development thinking remains dominated by a ‘growth-first’ paradigm, Asian experience helps to moderate this view, illustrating the important role of government policy in creating pro-poor growth, providing public goods and social protection mechanisms, and creating the institutional conditions for more inclusive and equitable development. This article examines the structural transformations which accompany growth, and their implications for appropriate policies to progress towards the MDGs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This overview introduces the articles in this theme issue of DPR. Their focus is on how growth can be sustained in the face of a number of challenges, and how it can be made more poverty-reducing. The context against which these issues are examined is dynamic, with rapid change in rural-urban balance, shifts in patterns of regional and global trade and questions about whether existing modes of energy use and environmental management are sustainable. Whether and how new partnerships can be forged - including partnerships between Asian countries and donors - and how they might accelerate poverty reduction in this changing context is a central concern. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines a number of policy challenges and dilemmas arising from the pattern of growth and poverty reduction in Asia, central to which is the fact that growth and poverty reduction have been more rapid in Asia than in any other region in the last decade, and yet Asia still contains the majority of the world's poor. The article examines the record of achievement, possible future trends including emerging patterns of inequality, and likely future priorities for poverty-reduction policies. It assesses the role of official development assistance and suggests how it may evolve in future, in part linked with responses to a number of challenges shared between Asian and OECD countries, including energy supply, environmental issues including climate change, and financial stability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The extent of poverty reduction in Asia by 2015 will depend upon two linked issues: sustaining the current rates of economic growth and avoiding increases in income inequality. Rapid growth over the past 15 years has itself created three challenges for its continuation: inadequate infrastructure; energy shortages and insecurity; and depletion of natural resources and environmental degradation. The ways in which these problems are addressed will have impacts not only on growth but also on inequality, requiring policy interventions at multiple levels, having implications for governance at multiple levels, and involving the development of new partnerships within the region and beyond. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]