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Rising inequalities in income and access to employment and social services in Asia are casting a shadow over its unprecedented economic boom, and governments and the private sector need to work together to make the benefits of growth more inclusive, says a new book from the Asian Development Bank (ADB).

Poverty, Inequality and Inclusive Growth in Asia: Measurement, Policy Issues, and Country Studies, edited by Juzhong Zhuang, Assistant Chief Economist in ADB’s Economics and Research Department, examines the growing discrepancies in wealth and persistent gaps in access to social services that have emerged during Asia’s extraordinary economic expansion in recent decades, and lays out policy options to address inequities and support inclusive growth.

Over the past 20 years, the region’s per capita gross domestic product has expanded almost three-fold, with the percentage of people living in extreme poverty ($1.25 a day or less) nearly halved. At the same time Asia is still home to two-thirds of the world’s poorest people, while in a large part little progress has been made on key social indicators, such as child and maternal mortality rates. Despite market liberalization and globalization creating new wealth and economic opportunities, inequalities in both income and non-income indicators have widened in many countries, particularly between large urban centers and the countryside.

“Developing Asia’s stellar growth rates have masked rising inequality, leading to two faces of Asia – one shining and the other suffering,” said Mr. Zhuang. “Merging them will be a development challenge for many years to come. Inclusive growth with its focus on creating economic opportunity and ensuring equal access will play a pivotal role in narrowing the gap.”

The book – which draws on research papers carried out by ADB economists and their collaborators – looks at recent trends of income and non-income inequality and poverty in the region; discusses the underlying driving forces; examines the concept of inclusive growth; and provides in-depth analysis of key policy pillars of an inclusive growth strategy, including employment, access to public services, social protection, and governance and institutions. The book also includes six country studies presenting detailed information on growth, poverty, and inequality dynamics in the People’s Republic of China (PRC), Nepal, the Philippines, Thailand, and Viet Nam.

It says an effective inclusive growth strategy needs to focus on high growth to create productive jobs, social inclusion to ensure equal access to opportunities, and social safety nets to mitigate risks and cushion the most vulnerable groups. To do this, governments should address existing policy, governance and institutional weaknesses, promote social inclusion, and invest in, and improve access to, basic services.

“Fighting poverty and inequality by focusing public policy on improving delivery of basic health care and education services, especially to the disadvantaged, strengthening social protections and significantly increasing the productive employment opportunities of a wide population should be a minimum agenda to which developing Asia’s policy makers must commit,” said Mr. Zhuang.

The book notes that many economies in the region, including India and PRC, recognize the potentially negative social, economic, and political consequences of increasing inequality in access to economic opportunity, and are now embracing inclusive growth as the central element of their development plans.

Conflicting behaviour of glaciers, such as retreating, advancing, and even surging, within small distances poses difficult questions for scientists.

Scientists agreed to improve collaboration on scientific and technical research on the impacts of climate change on the cryosphere of the Indus basin covering the four Hindu Kush-Himalayan countries of Pakistan, Afghanistan, India, and China  at a recent workshop on ‘Climate and environmental change impacts on the cryosphere of the Indus basin and its implications for future water scenarios’. It is expected that this approach will facilitate sharing of experiences to create an environment of ownership of scientific work among regional government institutions engaged in sustainable water resource management in the Indus basin.  The workshop was organised by the International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development (ICIMOD) in Kathmandu, Nepal from 2-4 July 2010.

At the workshop, delegates identified key gaps in knowledge about the Indus basin. Conflicting behaviour of glaciers, such as retreating, advancing, and even surging, within small distances poses difficult questions for scientists.  Lack of observation at high altitude, where most of the mass accumulation takes place, creates a hurdle to our understanding of the impact of climate change on glaciers and meltwater generation. Some revealing results were presented at the workshop, such as the extent of the impact of black carbon on accelerating the melting of snow and ice, which could locally surpass the effect of greenhouse gases (GHG).

The ‘Indus River Basin Programme’ will  facilitate  research,  collection and analysis  of scientific and socioeconomic trends, as well as strengthening current research and proposing new research and development interventions and approaches. The programme will provide a platform for sharing the knowledge gained as well as state-of-the-art approaches and interventions planned for future work on climate and environmental change and water resource management in the Indus River Basin.

The Director General of ICIMOD, Dr. Andreas Schild said that the Indus Basin was important because of its extreme sensitivity to climate and environmental changes and because of the huge size of the population dependent on the water generated from the highlands.

The keynote address was given by Professor Matthias Winiger, Vice Chancellor, University of Bonn, Germany. Professor Winiger illustrated the key facets of water balance in the Indus Basin and the importance of understanding and managing its water resources. Professor Winiger also emphasised the need for clarity about changes taking place and the importance of improved and representative data based on long-term monitoring to mimic the system, glacial mass balance measurements, and climate-change scenarios.  He called for an Indus Basin Decade and proposed 10-point suggestions of future undertakings in the basin. Professor Winiger stated that ICIMOD could play a lead role in this.

Regional representatives at policy- and decision-making levels also recognise the need to improve the monitoring of snow, ice and water resources in the HKH in order to provide valid and useful information as a basis for their work.

The Indus River Basin is important economically. The basin has 6 main rivers originating from glaciers in the Western Himalayas, the Karakoram, and the Hindu Kush which are sources of irrigation for over 16 million hectares (ha) of agricultural land and provide hydropower to Pakistan, India, and Afghanistan. Glacial fluctuations and changes in precipitation patterns are expected to alter the hydrology of the river basin, hence jeopardising hydropower generation and agricultural production and consequently altering people’s livelihoods.

International network of education activists announces united protests for autumn 2010. Students from around the world will stage actions on June 16 against the increasing privatisation of public education and as part of the “Day of United Symbolic Actions”.

October/November 2009 saw massive protests internationally against the increasing privatisation of public education and the problems that come with it, as well as for free and emancipatory education freely accessible to all like never before!

The past few months were used to strengthen the network between education activists worldwide and awareness was spread that each group will be more successful uniting in struggle globally. After all problems are to a great extend identical.

The “International Student Movement” is an independent platform making use of various tools the internet offers to enable an extensive flow of information and general communication between activists in Australia, Nepal, the U.S.A., Puerto Rico, the United Kingdom and anywhere else in the world.

Hundreds of people concerned with education from many different regions of the world came together at the Ruhr-University in Bochum (Germany) for the “European Education Congress” at the end of May 2010 to exchange visions and tighten relations across the borders. The congress once again clearly showed that the increasing costs for individuals to access education, budget cuts in public spending on education, an increasing influence of business interests through especially set up boards and a constant de-democratisation of educational institutions – just to name a few – are far from being local or national issues, but are indeed problems people everywhere are facing. As Mutiara Ika a student activist in Indonesia puts it: “This struggle simply knows no borders!” and continuing “free and emancipatory education is simply a pre-condition for any society deeming itself to be democratic!”

Therefore education activist groups decided to increasingly act together in their protests in the future. As a first step some of them decided to declare June 16^th a “Day of United Symbolic Actions”.

On that day groups in various locations worldwide will publicly announce the up-coming “Global Wave of Action for Education”, which is currently being co-ordinated and expected to kick-off with a huge day of action across the U.S.A. on October 7^th and continuing with occupations in Italy and across Europe. At some stage groups in Africa, Asia and elsewhere will join as well.

Developing Asian economies need to make growth more inclusive and sustainable with less income inequality and environmental degradation, says a forthcoming book by the Asian Development Bank (ADB) and the Asian Development Bank Institute (ADBI).

The book, Rebalancing for Sustainable Growth: Asia’s Postcrisis Challenge, argues that Asian economies export-led growth model, which was so spectacularly successful in Asia in earlier decades, has significant limits. Asia now needs to rebalance growth by adopting policies to promote a greater reliance on domestic and regional demand. Balanced growth, the book says, means growth that is consistent with smaller global imbalances and is less dependent on exports, as well as growth that is inclusive and environmentally sustainable.

“Although Asian economies have begun to recover from the global financial crisis, the longer-term implications of the crisis for Asia are perhaps even greater than the short-term ones,” said ADB Vice-President Laurence Greenwood, who introduced the book at ADB’s 43rd Annual Meeting in Tashkent. “The period of rapid Asian export growth was, at least in its later stages, accompanied by a sharp worsening of global payments imbalances, which contributed to the global financial crisis. Asia’s future growth path needs to avoid such large and risky imbalances.”

Mr. Greenwood said that the aftermath of the global financial crisis provides an opportunity to correct distortions and develop policy measures to support more balanced and sustainable growth.

Some of the book’s key recommendations to achieve these goals include:

• Establish an effective framework for monetary, macroprudential, fiscal, and exchange rate policies
• Deepen social protection to support social resilience
• Increase infrastructure investment to create a “seamless Asia”
• Enhance productivity in the services sector
• Establish a region-wide free trade agreement to encourage intraregional trade and investment
• Promote a shift to a low-carbon society and support green growth, and
• Deepen and integrate the financial markets to facilitate the recycling of Asia’s high savings for investment within the region.

“This new development paradigm for Asia could enable the region to not only remain the world’s factory of manufactured products but also become a more important source of global demand,” said Masahiro Kawai, Dean of ADBI. “A stronger, balanced, and more resilient economy, with multiple sources of growth, is a foundation for a prosperous Asia and at the same time provides benefits to the global economy.”

Tokyo-based ADBI, which is a subsidiary of Asian Development Bank, was established in 1997 to help build up knowledge on poverty reduction and actions needed to support long-term growth in developing economies in Asia and the Pacific.

We will learn from each other, draw on each other’s strengths and explore new models of housing, living and working for mankind in the new century

Chinese President Hu Jintao today voiced confidence of Shanghai hosting an “unforgettable” World Expo, which he said would bridge China and the world.

“I am confident that, with concerted efforts, people around the world will witness a successful, splendid and unforgettable World Expo. In the past eight years, China has mobilized resources throughout the country and pooled the wisdom of the world. As the first registered World Expo hosted by a developing country, the Shanghai Expo will be “an opportunity for China and also for the world,” said the President.

“At this Expo, China will present to the world a country with 5,000-year history, which is enjoying fast development and changes through reform and opening-up” he added- “The Expo will serve as a bridge for China to learn the good experience of other countries and engage in exchanges and cooperation with the rest of the world. It is a grand event to showcase the best achievements of human civilization. It is also a great occasion for people from around the world to share joy and friendship. It will offer a platform for all countries and regions to fully exhibit their achievements in urban civilization, share best practices and spread advanced ideas on urban development.”

A record number of 189 nations and 57 international organizations participate in the Expo in Shanghai, China’s business hub.

In next six months, 70 million visitors are estimated to tour the Expo venues.

“We will learn from each other, draw on each other’s strengths and explore new models of housing, living and working for mankind in the new century. The country would remain committed to the path of peaceful development and a win-win strategy of opening up, he said.