Socio-economic Development, Population Policies, and Fertility Decline in Muslim Countries

Islam is one of the world’s major monotheistic religions. Its followers, spread all over the world and numbering about 1.5 billion people, constitute about one-fourth of the world’s population. The Economist (2003). Muslims are mainly concentrated in about 50 countries, most of which have had slow pace of fertility transition, mainly due to low level of socio-economic development, on the one hand, and lack of effective population policy, on the other. With the help of macro level data available on Muslimmajority countries, this paper examines fertility decline in these countries, their socio-economic indicators, and support for family planning. Examples from two neighbouring countries—Pakistan and Iran—are also given.Population Policy, Fertility

Changing Demographic, Social, and Economic Conditions in Karachi City, 1959–94: A Preliminary Analysis

Kingsley Davis (1961) had argued that the reason that the ancient cities failed to survive was that they were too deadly. He suggested that “three of their (cities) main traits....the crowding of many people in little space, their dependence on widespread contacts (due to in-migration), and their wealth...laid them open to contagious diseases, environmental contamination, occasional starvation and warfare”. Even in the medieval age, some European cities provide examples of such problems; but especially so following the Industrial Revolution. Do the events of the 1980s and the 1990s in Karachi suggest that the city may be heading in the same direction. Recently, The Times London in a lead article in November 1994, labelled Karachi as a “City of Riches and Shattered Dreams”. It further said that Karachi had grown into a megalopolis where life moved fast and street violence had become a norm. Indeed, more than 65 percent of Pakistan’s industries and 80 percent of its finance, banking, and business are concentrated in the city and people come to it from all over the country to find jobs and fulfil their dreams [Husain (1994)]. During the past decade, street violence in the form of ethnic clashes has become a sort of regular event in Karachi. At times, these clashes have been more frequent and even bloodier than the ones before. According to the local newspaper accounts, between 1985 and 1988 (in four years), about 400 people died in Karachi due to violence, which has increased substantially over time. Thus, while the number of violent deaths remained between 350–500 during 1991–93, in 1994 alone the number exceeded 1,100, and during the first three months of 1995, over 300 persons have died due to violence.

Poor Performance of Health and Population Welfare Programmes in Sindh: Case Studies in Governance Failure

Over the past few years, the issue of what is meant by “good governance” has generated increasing attention and debate both at the national and international level [Streeten (1997)]. The role of state and how that role is to be exercised is appearing high on the agenda of politicians, policy-makers and academicians in the developing world. Governance has been defined by the World Bank as “the manner in which power is exercised in the management of the country’s economic and social resources” [World Bank (1994)]. The somewhat narrow scope of this definition has been broadened in recent years to “the sum of the many ways individuals and institutions, public and private, manage their common affairs” [Commission on Global Governance (995)] The Human Development Report [UNDP (1999)] goes beyond these definitions and gives a much more radical notion of good governance, underpinning the importance of peoples’ participation in shaping their own governance and development. This type of governance has been labeled as “humane governance”. A review of existing literature thus shows that governance has been interpreted to have different elements such as management of economic and social resources for development, formulation and implementation of policies, discharging of functions, accommodation of diverse interests towards cooperative action and above all, accountability to people and ownership by the people of the governance process. In view of the above, one may ask what constitutes good governance for the health sector? Management of resources pertains to the concept of efficiency, a term appearing with increasing frequency in global literature on health care reforms; policy formulation and discharging of functions allude to the objective of effectiveness which itself has a wide scope encompassing relevance, quality and availability of health care; while “humane governance” brings in the notion of community participation and accountability with regards to decision-making and delivery of health care.

Mothers’ perspectives on the use of social media for receiving professional support in enhancing their lactation self-efficacy: A qualitative descriptive exploratory study

Background: Inadequate breastfeeding support and low exclusive breastfeeding rates in Pakistan underpin the need for effective strategies to enhance lactation self-efficacy among mothers. Social media has emerged as a promising professional support and information dissemination avenue. However, concerns about the accuracy of online advice highlight the importance of investigating mothers\u27 perspectives regarding utilizing social media for professional breastfeeding support.Purpose: This study aims to investigate how mothers perceive social media for receiving professional breastfeeding support, to enhance their lactation self-efficacy.Methodology: This exploratory-descriptive qualitative study utilized in-depth semi-structured interviews with 12 breastfeeding mothers, purposively recruited from a tertiary care hospital in Karachi, Pakistan. Content analysis was done, resulting in the formation of themes and categories.Findings: The three core themes emerged highlighting the central role of social media in knowledge acquisition, support, and interaction: In the first theme Maternal Lactation Odyssey , the mothers shared narratives of determination and fulfillment throughout their breastfeeding experiences, but also revealed challenges and negative experiences. In the second theme, Breastfeeding Knowledge, Support, and Interaction on Social Media , the participants turned to social media for breastfeeding knowledge, to find motivation and guidance that strengthened their self-efficacy. However, concerns surfaced about the reliability of information and privacy within these virtual spaces. In the third theme Shaping Online Breastfeeding Support , mothers expressed their viewpoints and suggestions for the establishment of online professional lactation networks, the inclusion, and management of content they would like to receive, and the creation of digital platforms for fathers within these online communities.Conclusion: The research identified a need, for organized and evidence-based online assistance for breastfeeding. The proposed suggestions include establishing and maintaining lactation groups online, providing guidance ensuring accurate and well-structured breastfeeding information within digital communities, and extending support to involve fathers as well. These findings emphasize the possibility of incorporating online lactation support into both antenatal and postnatal care, ensuring accurate guidance on breastfeeding, thereby improving the health outcomes of mothers and children, in the long run

Socio-economic Development, Population Policies, and Fertility Decline in Muslim Countries

As societies transform from a predominantly traditional to a predominantly modern system, they tend to experience considerable demographic changes. Coale (1984) notes that this “transformation is the substitution of slow growth achieved with low fertility and mortality for slow growth maintained with relatively high fertility and mortality rates”. Demographic transition in Muslim countries is a fairly late phenomenon as discussed in the next section. Most of these countries have followed a similar trend as by many other developing countries. According to the most recent estimate provided by The Economist [September (2003)], the number of Muslims was 1.5 billion in 2003, of which about 97 percent were living in Asian and African countries. About one fourth were concentrated in South Asia and another one-fifth in the Middle-East and North Africa (Arab countries). Figure 1 provides the breakdown of Muslim population living in different regions of the World. Percentage of population in major Muslim countries and their estimated number at the beginning of the 21st Century are given in Table 1. Of 47 Muslim-majority countries, where more than 50 percent of the total population is reported to be followers of Islam,1 36 have populations that are more than 85 percent Muslims, while only seven of them contain less than 70 percent Muslims. However, the six largest Muslim-majority countries (in order, Indonesia, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Iran, Turkey and Egypt) contain about two-thirds of th

Changing Demographic, Social, and Economic Conditions in Karachi City, 1959–94: A Preliminary Analysis

Kingsley Davis (1961) had argued that the reason that the ancient cities failed to survive was that they were too deadly. He suggested that “three of their (cities) main traits....the crowding of many people in little space, their dependence on widespread contacts (due to in-migration), and their wealth...laid them open to contagious diseases, environmental contamination, occasional starvation and warfare”. Even in the medieval age, some European cities provide examples of such problems; but especially so following the Industrial Revolution. Do the events of the 1980s and the 1990s in Karachi suggest that the city may be heading in the same direction. Recently, The Times London in a lead article in November 1994, labelled Karachi as a “City of Riches and Shattered Dreams”. It further said that Karachi had grown into a megalopolis where life moved fast and street violence had become a norm. Indeed, more than 65 percent of Pakistan’s industries and 80 percent of its finance, banking, and business are concentrated in the city and people come to it from all over the country to find jobs and fulfil their dreams [Husain (1994)]. During the past decade, street violence in the form of ethnic clashes has become a sort of regular event in Karachi. At times, these clashes have been more frequent and even bloodier than the ones before. According to the local newspaper accounts, between 1985 and 1988 (in four years), about 400 people died in Karachi due to violence, which has increased substantially over time. Thus, while the number of violent deaths remained between 350–500 during 1991–93, in 1994 alone the number exceeded 1,100, and during the first three months of 1995, over 300 persons have died due to violence. According to the Karachi Police sources, most of the victims of violent deaths in Karachi during 1994 were men in the age group 13–50

An Analysis of Customer Services Quality on Basis of Customer Appearance: Evidence from Continental Restaurant Sector of Bahawalpur, Pakistan

Study conducted to check the impact of customer appearance on SERVQAUAL in the continental restaurant sector of Bahawalpur. The number of respondents’ used for my research is 140. The collection of data was from 10 different departments of Islamia University Bahawalpur including Department of Management Sciences, Engineering, Pharmacy, Computer Sciences, Information Technology, Mathematics, Physics, Education, Chemistry and Department of Media, also gathered responses from the employees of Islmia University Bahawalpur, Employees of different banks at Farid gate Bahawalpur including MCB, UBL, UBank (Micro finance), ABL, HBL and employees of telenor and Warid frenchise. Questionnaire was sub divided in three potions, first one was of Demographics, the second portion consists of 8 items from which 3 items asking about dominant communication style and the remaining five items were about Customer’s dressing. The last section contain the 22 items to measure SERVQUAL from which first four measuring Tangibles, next five of Reliability, next four determining Responsiveness, next four of Assurance amd last five items belongs to Empathy. All the items measured at likert point scale from 1 to 5. Overall model is significant in my study as P<0.05. Research concludes that Customer’s appearance impact on all the five dimensions of SERVQUAL. All the variables making a moderate positive relationship in Pearson’s correlation except two relatinships. One  between Customer’s Dominant communication style and reliability and second between Customer’s drssing and responsiveness, both of they are committing positive but weak relationship with each other. Keywords: Dominant Communication Style, Customer’s Dressing, Tangibility, Reliability, Responsiveness, Assurance, Empath