Trends in Female Employment at the Federal Government Level: A Critical Appraisal of 1983–1989

This paper focuses on two aspects. First, it looks at the trends in female employment at the federal level over a period of six years, from 1983 to 1989, based on data from the Federal Government’s Civil Servants Census Reports, using three years, 1983, 1986, 1989. The second aspect of the paper is to highlight the fact that not all the information that is collected is published gender-wise. This is very important from the point of view of working women as it can also have strong policy implications with regard to the advancement of women for which the Government has set up a separate ministry. The ignorance of the Ministry of Women’s Development about this aspect, that is, of available unpublished information, is surprising. The paper is structured as follows. After a brief discussion of data and methodology, the results are presented in Section 2. Section 3 discusses the data which are collected but not published at the disaggregate level which has adverse implications for women employees at the policy level. The conclusions and policy recommendations are presented in the final and fourth section of this paper. The data used in this paper are taken from the Government of Pakistan (1983, 1986, 1989). The statistics reported in these reports are classified by service groups into Secretariat, Attached Departments, Subordinate Offices, Other Offices, and in the Autonomous/Semi-Autonomous bodies by Basic Pay Scale (BPS) and gender. The Censuses show that for these years no female employee of the regular civil service is reported in BPS-22 for all the categories, and also none is reported in BPS 21 in 1989.

The Influence of Market Barriers and Farm Income Risk on Non-Farm Income Diversification

Empirical evidence shows that non-farm income diversification is associated with higher welfare among farm households. However, most studies have ignored market barriers and farm income risk in explaining income diversification behaviour. This study develops an analytical framework that includes both market barriers and farm income risk, in addition to other factors, in explaining income diversification behaviour. The analytical framework is used to test the hypotheses that: market barriers reduce the intensity of non-farm income diversification; and farm income risk increases the intensity of non-farm income diversification. The results confirm the hypotheses, suggesting that market barriers and farm income risk are key factors in explaining income diversification behaviour of farm households. Future studies should, therefore, consider the two factors in the analysis of income diversification behaviour.market barriers, farm income risk, income diversification, Agricultural and Food Policy, Community/Rural/Urban Development, Food Security and Poverty,

Trends in Female Employment at the Federal Government Level: A Critical Appraisal of 1983–1989

This paper focuses on two aspects. First, it looks at the trends in female employment at the federal level over a period of six years, from 1983 to 1989, based on data from the Federal Government’s Civil Servants Census Reports, using three years, 1983, 1986, 1989. The second aspect of the paper is to highlight the fact that not all the information that is collected is published gender-wise. This is very important from the point of view of working women as it can also have strong policy implications with regard to the advancement of women for which the Government has set up a separate ministry. The ignorance of the Ministry of Women’s Development about this aspect, that is, of available unpublished information, is surprising. The paper is structured as follows. After a brief discussion of data and methodology, the results are presented in Section 2. Section 3 discusses the data which are collected but not published at the disaggregate level which has adverse implications for women employees at the policy level. The conclusions and policy recommendations are presented in the final and fourth section of this paper. The data used in this paper are taken from the Government of Pakistan (1983, 1986, 1989). The statistics reported in these reports are classified by service groups into Secretariat, Attached Departments, Subordinate Offices, Other Offices, and in the Autonomous/Semi-Autonomous bodies by Basic Pay Scale (BPS) and gender. The Censuses show that for these years no female employee of the regular civil service is reported in BPS-22 for all the categories, and also none is reported in BPS 21 in 1989. Therefore, for this analysis, we group the female employees as between BPS 16–20 instead of BPS 16–22

Mohibul Haq Sahibzada (ed). Poverty Alleviation in Pakistan: Present Scenario and Future Strategy. Islamabad: Institute of Policy Studies and Friedrich Ebert Stiftung, 1997. 392 pages. Hardbound. Price not given.

This book is a collection of sixteen papers presented at a seminar on poverty alleviation organised by the Institute of Policy Studies, Islamabad in December 1995. The objectives of this seminar was to highlight the issues of poverty; to critically evaluate the public policies and strategies connected to it; and to present the solutions to poverty eradication with special reference to the Islamic approach. The book starts with an introduction that describes the main theme. The rest of the book is divided into five parts

Sandhya Venkateswaran. Environment, Development, and the Gender Gap. New Delhi: Sage Publications. 1994. 234 pages. Hardbound edition. Indian Rupees 250.00. Paperback edition. Indian Rupees 145.00.

Over-application of chemical fertilisers in agriculture, waterlogging resulting from over-irrigation, and deforestation caused by excessive grazing of the common lands have adverse effects on the proportion of population that derives its livelihood from land resources. Declines in common land negatively affect the livestock economy; a reduction in fish production due to water pollution adversely affects the livelihood of many families; deforestation reduces employment opportunities and leads to curtailed income; and, depleting water resources and drought lead to famine

Farzana Naqvi. Energy, Economy and Equity Interactions in a CGE Model for Pakistan. Aldershot: Ashgate Publishing Company, 1997. Hardbound. Price not given. xxii+290 pages.

Modernisation of the agricultural, industrial and household sectors causes the demand for energy to increase more rapidly than its supply. In countries that aim to modernise quickly a heavy investment is required to redress this imbalance. That is why in countries such as Pakistan, the energy has remained on the top of the agenda of loan negotiation with international donor agencies. Energy serves as both a final consumption good and as an essential intermediate input in the production of goods. Thus any change in the price of energy at both these levels affects consumption as well as production and that, in turn, can cause changes in the prices of all other commodities. A change in the prices of exportables affects their demand in foreign markets and any change in the prices of import-competing and nontraded goods affects their demand at home. The net effects of all these changes can be measured in terms of the effects on real GDP, balance of trade, and government revenue. And, because any change in commodity prices exerts a negative impact on real consumption of households; the formulation of a comprehensive energy policy requires a framework that can take the immense complexity of the linkages of all the sectors of the economy into consideration. In the book under review, Dr Farzana Naqvi, argues that the issues of energy pricing can not be examined in isolation and presents a general equilibrium framework to address the complex issues related to energy, economy and equity

Rural Poverty and Land Degradation: A Review of the Current State of Knowledge

By highlighting the lack of rigorous evidence and calling for a greater understanding of the interaction of the two processes, a recent study [Nelson et al. (1997)] has called into question the strong perception that poverty is both a consequence as well as a cause of resource degradation. This perception which is widely held is strongly evident in the writings of the multilateral development agencies such as the World Bank (1990) and IFAD (1992) and exists despite extensive reviews which indicate that the short- and long-term implications of land degradation are not very clear [see Scherr and Yadav (1995)]. Similarly, while knowledge about poverty is expanding rapidly, thanks in large parts to the massive international focus and resources brought to bear on its understanding in the past ten years or so; the existing state of knowledge is still far from providing a comprehensive understanding of all the complex dimensions of its processes. The understanding of the interactions of poverty and land degradation is even less clear and limited. This paper reviews the existing knowledge about the relationship between poverty and land degradation and draws implications for research.

Housing: Opportunity, Security, and Empowerment for the Poor

The Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper for Pakistan1 lays considerable emphasis on housing finance as a major intervention for poverty reduction. The national Housing Policy of 2001 has as its corner stone housing for the poor and needy. The Interim Poverty Reduction Strategy of Pakistan (IPRSP) completed in November 2001 explicitly recognised the importance of Housing for the poor. It stated that “housing is a fundamental human need as it provides physical, economic, and social security to the poor. However, depressed economic growth, rising population, and rapid urbanisation have resulted in an increased demand for housing infrastructure. It stated that the present backlog of housing units is more than 4 million in the country with the result that millions are forced to live in Katchi Abadis or under-serviced slum settlements. Estimates for urban population living in Katchi Abadis range from 35-50 percent”. This paper highlight the importance of housing as an important dimension of poverty by examining the available literature that show the crucial contribution of adequate housing for ensuring opportunity, security and empowerment—the three pillars for poverty reduction. There is global consensus now that these three elements form the essential pillars of any poverty reduction strategy. This paper shows how inadequate housing creates a sense of insecurity and disempowerment among the poor. Housing poverty in Pakistan is described and an index of poverty based on housing inadequacy is adapted and applied to data for Pakistan from the PIHS 1998- 99. It shows that the incidence of poverty based on housing inadequacy in Pakistan is much greater than that indicated by standard money-metric income/consumption based measures.

Rural Poverty and Credit Use: Evidence from Pakistan

The 1990s have seen poverty reduction become the overarching objective of all economic development. In countries where poverty is largely a rural phenomenon it is obvious that considerations of poverty focus on improving rural welfare. The welfare impact of credit use in the process of agricultural development is generally not explicitly documented in the literature.1 The emphasis is generally on “the requisites for development of rural financial policies that facilitate rural growth” [Desai and Mellor (1993)]. Welfare gains arise from this growth through net gains in income from the relaxation of the capital constraint leading to higher input use and resultant higher output, in addition to increasing the risk bearing capacity of households thus leading to the adoption of new technology and diversification of crop mix and income sources. Additionally welfare gains can also arise from credit use directly through improved and more efficient consumption smoothing. Pakistan is predominantly rural and poor. Attempts over several decades, by successive governments, at developing the institutional credit market in Pakistan have failed miserably. The rural credit market continues to be fragmented and beset by distortions. Credit policy aimed at improving access of the small landowners and the poor ended up being diverted to the powerful large landowners. This misuse is widely documented in Malik (1989, 1990 and 1999). Badly designed policies coupled with a weak institutional structure and rampant corruption called into question the very basis for using credit markets as a means for poverty alleviation. This paper, therefore, attempts to evaluate the underlying relationship between rural poverty and credit use.

The North American Agrifood Market Integration Consortium: A Guide to its Activities

This document provides an index and a guide to the activities of the North American Agrifood Market Integration Consortium (NAAMIC) and its predecessor organization the Policy Disputes Information Consortium (PDIC). The first meeting of the group took place in Rio Rico, Arizona in March 1995 and the most recent in Cancun, Mexico in June 2007. Since 1995 the group has held an annual workshop where issues of importance to the three member nations of the NAFTA can be discussed in an open and frank forum. It is one of the few trinational activities where academics, government employees and private sector agents can meet to discuss common problems. The activities of the group are predicated on the belief that unbiased information presented to public and private decision makers can lead to more efficient and better functioning North American markets for agrifood products.market, integration, NAFTA, NAAMIC, Agricultural and Food Policy, International Development, International Relations/Trade,