Saarc Tribune 08aug08 Partnership For Growth

Partnership for growth

SAARC summit adopts people-centric model by J. George

Friday, August 8, 2008, Chandigarh, India

OPED

http://www.tribuneindia.com/2008/20080808/edit.htm#6 THE "partnership for growth for our people" was the theme for the 15th SAARC Summit during August 2-3 in Colombo. The declaration issued at the concluding session on August 3 strongly underscored the people-centric approach and focus of SAARC despite tremendous pressures for aligning with a handful of powerful global entities and TINA (there is no alternative) concepts. The tyrannical obsession with "internationally competitive cost effectiveness" for attaining economic growth has been termed as development terrorism. Therefore, the economic logic of the SAARC declaration indicates that unless opportunities for livelihood security and productive employment are expanded in partnership with people, all economic growth becomes meaningless to the teeming millions of poor. This is indeed a welcome and unique departure for any final declaration by a regional economic integration and cooperation bloc in the globalisation era. The usual and standard practice in such a declaration has been to concentrate on trade-related issues like openness, market access, competitiveness, etc. The Colombo declaration makes do with mere four paragraphs on this count. The EU is considered as the oldest regional economic integration model in the world. SAARC most surely has adopted a different people-centric approach. Certainly, it is a vindication of the stand that economic growth, to be meaningful and sustainable, has to benefit the people at large. There are 41 paras in the declaration. Take out four that are salutation protocol and administrative requirements. Of the remaining 37, nearly two-fifth (15 paras) under 9 broad heads repeatedly highlighted partnership with people for development. Interestingly, poverty alleviation occupies the maximum number of paras in this people-centric partnership theme song. The "partnership for growth for our people" is not a new thing for SAARC. It was in 2005 that the decade 2006-2015 was declared as

the "SAARC decade of poverty alleviation". Besides, the advocacy group, Independent South Asian Commission on Poverty Alleviation (ISACPA), worked out details of the SAARC Development Goals (SDGs) on the lines of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). It is estimated that over three-fourth of South Asians live on less than PPP (purchasing power parity) US$ 2 per person per day. The Arjun Sengupta Committee estimated that in 2004-05 about 76.8 per cent (836 million) of the Indian total population is poor and vulnerable with a level of consumption not more than twice the official poverty line. In fact, another study in early 2008 incorporating estimated consumption expenditure on health and education shows that nearly 36.4 per cent in rural and 34.5 per cent in urban areas would fall below the poverty line in 2004-05 as against the official estimate of 28.3 per cent in rural and 26.03 per cent in urban India. These numbers unequivocally indicate that the South Asian poor are unusually defenceless to market-determined growth elements The 22 SDGs with about 75 monitoring targets have been organised into four broad deliverable windows, namely, livelihood, educational, health and environmental opportunities. The social re-engineering exhortations in the Colombo declaration are explicitly articulated in nearly every four out of five paragraphs. Social regression has emerged as the obverse side of the coin of economic progress. It is indeed heartening to note that many fundamental weaknesses inhibiting the fight against the scourge of poverty will be under a microscopic examination by the inter-governmental mid-term review mechanism of SDGs by 2009 (para 17). The unwavering commitment to implement SDGs by the state as a proactive leader is also demonstrated in the signing of the Charter of the SAARC Development Fund (SDF). The stellar role for the state cannot be disputed but the refrain in the declaration is 'peoples participation', 'rights-based approach', 'right to resources and development', etc. are not merely of ornamental significance in the declaration. It is amply evident from the experience of SAARC member nations that public service delivery mechanisms, once effective, perform income distributive role when local democratic institutions and operating procedures are people determined.

The NREGS in India, for instance, is the most successful rightsbased programme. Despite criticism it has succeeded in addressing a number of rural wage rate rigidities. In comparison, the fight against terrorism seems to suffer from a fundamental flaw of over-regulation through statutory provisioning. The series of bomb blasts for over a decade in India have taught an unforgettable lesson in the key role for "human intelligence". It appears that evocative lexicon in policing parlance like "rightsizing", "downsizing" and "outsourcing" has had overwhelming influence on the drafting backroom boys/girls. The "rightsizing" disorder, according to the South Asian Intelligence Review 7.3, has brought in a strange spectacle of an average deficit of 9.75 per cent against sanctioned posts in India. In fact, many vulnerable states in India show a deficit of up to 40 per cent. The recommended global ratio for peacetime policing is at least 222 per lakh population. Certainly, combating terrorism is not a peacetime policing. However, SAARC is resting on a firmer foundation as elaborated by the Indian Prime Minister: "Economic cooperation, connectivity and integration will be the cornerstone of SAARC in the years ahead". [The writer heads the Strategic Economic Management Initiative in Governance, Delhi.]