A Capability centred approach to environmental sustainability: Is productive employment the missing link between micro-and macro polices?

The emphasis on growth has led to an under-emphasis of the micro-impacts of macro-economic policies. Whether growth reduces income-poverty is crucially dependent on its impact on employment. This paper addresses the question: what kind of productive employment can an economy generate that fulfils three objectives: one, personal fulfilment; two, value added; and three, restores the organic link between humans and nature. Growth policies that do not fulfil these criteria fail the test for human capability enhancement with environmental sustainability. Policies which recognize a dual synergy framework like the paper proposes, and which have been demonstrated to fulfil these objectives are described and discussed for specific countries/sectors. A paper for a book: Sustainable Human Development and the Capability Approach, to be edited by Enrica Chiappero Martinetti (Department of Economics, University of Pavia, Italy) & Anantha K. Duraiappah (International Institute for Sustainable Development, Canada).Poverty, macro polices

The Private Sector and Privatization in Social Services: Is the Washington Consensus 'Dead'?

One of the most significant developments in the 1990s in social policy in developing and transition countries has been the growth of privatization in health, education and water services – three basic services, which involve most of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). Welfare pluralism was very much a core element of the Washington Consensus. Despite the talk of the Washington Consensus being 'dead for years', the international financial institutions have pushed for welfare pluralism in social services since the 1990s. This article critically scrutinizes the arguments and evidence that have been made in favour of greater private sector participation in these services. The article addresses what role the private sector could or should play in these services and is, thus, driven by practical policy concerns. For reasons of space, this article does not address the non-profit or nongovernmental organization (NGO) provision of basic social services (which, in most countries, is quite small in size)

State-business relations and the financing of the welfare state in Argentina and Chile: Challenges and prospects

This paper examines the ways in which taxation, social and labour (T S & L) policies in Argentina and Chile have been shaped by state-business relations and capital-labour relations in a context where business organizations/associations have different degrees of cohesiveness through time. At the heart of the theoretical framework is the view that social democratic/egalitarian/progressive policy proposals must incorporate the role of unequal power relations in the shaping of such policies. The authors suggest that the implementation and maintenance over time of such policies by the state is a contested process that mediates between business pressures for pro-business policies and the larger society´s demands for social justice. This suggests the need for what they call a political and policy mix (PPM) that could maintain business confidence in the presence of strong unions and a strong welfare state - at least for a while. Yet the authors suggest that designing a well-functioning PPM is hardly an easy task, given the contested and turbulent terrain in which the state operates. Finally, they argue following Schumpeter, Kaldor, and others that there is a need for a fiscal sociology of taxation in order to understand historically determined economic, social, political, and institutional factors that shape the level and composition of taxation which is central to financing of social democratic policies

The Politics of Social Inclusion: Bridging Knowledge and Policies Towards Social Change

This volume looks at concepts and processes of social exclusion and social inclusion. It traces a number of discourses, all of them routed in a relational power analysis, examining them in the context of the UN Agenda for Sustainable Development 2030 with its commitment to "leave no one behind." The book combines analysis that is fundamentally critical of the rhetoric of social inclusion in academic and UN discourse with narratives of social exclusion processes and social inclusion contestation, based on ethnographic field research findings in La Paz, Kingston, Port-au-Prince, Kampala, Beijing, Chongqing, Mumbai, Delhi, and villages in Northern India. As a result, it contributes to revealing the politics of social inclusion, offering policy proposals towards overcoming exclusions.Comparative Research Programme on Poverty (CROP) at the University of Bergen.publishedVersio

Taking the MDGs Beyond 2015: Hasten Slowly

The authors advise to hasten slowly in defining the successor framework to the MDGs. The review of progress in 2010 should not be intermingled with the intergovernmental discussions about the post?2015 framework. The latter should not start until a UN panel of Eminent Persons has prepared a set of thoughtful options and suggestions. The worst decision would be to keep the same MDGs and add new Goals and more Targets. The panel will have to address the following topics: (a) new structure; (b) new Targets; (c) collective nature of global Targets; (d) type of benchmarks; (e) new time horizon; and (f) disaggregated monitoring. The world will miss the MDGs largely because disparities within the majority of countries have grown to the point of slowing down national progress. In order to overcome the ‘tyranny of averages’, this article proposes a method of incorporating equity in national statistics