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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.

World We Want Poverty Rally June 2010, New York

Activists Demand `The World We Want’

 Hundreds of Prominent and grassroots anti-poverty campaigners from Africa, Asia, Australia, Europe, Latin America and North America marched to Dag Hammarskjöld Plaza outside the United Nations today to demand urgent and concrete actions to reach and exceed the Millennium Development Goals.

The activists are in New York to participate in ground-breaking hearings at the United Nations, where for the first time civil society, private sector and government delegates are meeting together on the floor of the General Assembly. The interactive meetings are being held ahead of a high-profile summit at the UN in September, where global leaders are expected to take measures to accelerate progress towards the Millennium Development Goals.

“Governments seem to be suffering from a collective infliction – memory loss,” says Lysa John, Campaign Director of the Global Call to Action Against Poverty (GCAP). “They agreed on a framework and concrete targets to dramatically reduce extreme poverty by 2015. But with less than five years to go, we are way off track. We urgently need legally binding mechanisms to ensure that governments keep their promises alongside a global breakthrough plan to end extreme poverty.”

Ms. John joined international campaigners outside the UN in signing a giant letter of demands, addressed to the U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon. The letter, which was also signed by more than 120 civil society groups across the globe, calls for greater accountability, measures to increase gender equality and reduce social exclusion and concrete urgent steps to achieve MDG8, a global partnership for development focused on justice, sustainability and fair trade.

Anti-poverty campaigners are also demanding an increased focus on social exclusion and discrimination as well as legally binding accountability mechanisms.

“We are calling for the World We Want 2015 because we are not happy with the World we live in today,” says Gemma Adaba of the International Trade Union Confederation, “a world where children are denied the opportunity to go to school and neoliberal polices dictate that education is a service that must be paid for. The World We Want is a world where there is education for all, health, water, decent work, universal social protection floor and dignity for all.”

“We need Governments to be accountable to the citizens of the world and fulfill the internationally agreed commitments they have made,” adds Mr. Irungu Houghton, Oxfam’s Pan-African policy advisor. “Poverty has reached emergency proportions. Urgent action is needed. We cannot afford a business-as-usual approach.”

Leaders from 189 countries signed The Millennium Declaration in 2000, setting out eight clear cut time-bound commitments to end poverty. While some progress and significant achievements have been made, the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) are not on track to be achieved by the 2015 deadline, due in part to the feminization of poverty, the ever more apparent affects of climate change and the global financial and food crises. In 2009 alone, an estimated 90 million people – mostly women and girls – were pushed into poverty.

Bonn Climate Change Talks -May, June 2010

Thank you chair for giving us the floor, My name is Hansha. I will be 65 years old in 2050.

Article 6 and the New Delhi Work Programme are among the most promising commitments you have taken under the frame of the UNFCCC. Education, awareness raising and public participation are the three pillars that will enable all of us to develop and put into practice the shared vision we have been speaking about for so long.

18 years have passed since Rio and political leaders are still confronted in their constituencies with skepticism and lack of basic understanding on climate change. This situation contributes to reduce popular support for more ambitious policies.

As article 6 workshops demonstrate, Young people are already potent agents for change. We will keep rising up ourselves, and we invite you to join us on this path.

With Education, Public Awareness and Public Participation as its main three pillars, the review of the New Delhi Work Programme provides a unique chance to build a bridge between actions by governmental and citizens.

We call all governments without delay to:

• Adopt a systematic approach to education on climate change in integrating this issue through all elements and at all level of formal national curricula.
• Parties must recognise the role of NGOs and youth organisations as key providers of non-formal and peer education. And, considering their different capacities, provide financial support to enhance the initiatives of civil society across borders.
• In parallel to education, public awareness raising should be considered a priority and all forms of communication involved in fostering a broader understanding of the social implications of climate change.
• Finally, Public Participation is a key to good governance and to political support for actions at all level of decisions making.

We call you to relish the potential of our generations and enable all stakeholders to address this issue.

Investing in education and young people today is investing in the future. And unlike some of your other investments, we can promise you high returns.