Journal of Development Policy, Research & Practice (JoDPRP)

Planning and Economic Coordination Challenges after the 18th Constitutional Amendment

Pervez Tahir, Nadia Tahir — Mon, 10 Apr 2023 00:00:00 +0000

The 18th Amendment has significantly changed the Constitution of Pakistan. It has increased the number of subjects in the provincial sphere. This expanded autonomy was fiscally supported by the 7th National Finance Commission (NFC) Award, which reversed the federal-provincial resource distribution formula in favour of the provinces. In this paper, the authors find that the new structure of planning and economic coordination required to implement these fundamental changes is not in place. The Planning Commission (PC), i.e., Ministry of Planning Development & Special Initiatives, continues to be a think tank of the federal government rather than the federation. Its visioning for the long-term and planning documents for the medium-term on an annual basis are found to be against the spirit of the amended Constitution, which stipulates a participatory process. The authors’ analysis leads to the conclusion that the Commission should be an independent secretariat of the Council of Common Interests (CCI) to ensure effective coordination. Towards this end, members of the Commission should also represent the provinces. Devolution to the local level, however, will continue to be a challenge.

Decentralisation and Quality of Fiscal Management: Empirical Evidence from Pakistan

Asif Razzaq, Rabia Nazir, Sundus Shaheen — Sat, 31 Dec 2022 00:00:00 +0000

Effective use of public resources is crucial for developing countries facing persistent deficits. Fiscal decentralisation is believed to enhance government efficiency over resource use. Therefore, the paper intends to examine the association between Pakistan’s Fiscal Decentralisation (FD) and Fiscal Management from 1988 to 2020. The authors develop a Composite Decentralisation Index (CDI) that captures the effect of both Expenditure Decentralisation (ED) and Revenue Decentralisation (RD) processes. After confirmation of stationarity through augmented Dickey-Fuller (ADF) and Philip-Peran (PP) unit roots tests, the study employs the Johansen cointegration method to draw longrun estimates. The study’s findings reveal that composite decentralisation reduces public deficit significantly - lower corruption, weaker underground economy, and smaller government size help reduce the fiscal deficit. The Error Correction Term (ECM) is also negative and significant at 1%, which confirms the speed of convergence towards longrun equilibrium in case of any shock or dis equilibrium in the short run. These study findings may help policymakers and legislatures draft effective long-term fiscal management policies.

Relationship between Health, Education and Labour Productivity in South Asia

Aqsa Mehmood, Hafiz Muhammad Abubakar Siddique, Romila Qamar — Sat, 31 Dec 2022 00:00:00 +0000

This study aims to assess the relationship between health, education, and labour productivity for five South Asian countries over 1991-2019 by applying the Ordinary Least Square (OLS), Fixed Effects (FE) model, Random Effects (RE) model, and the Generalized Method of Moments (GMM). The study confirms that health and education are increasing factors of labour productivity. The empirical results showed that health, measured by prevalence of undernourishment, education, and physical capital, is helpful in enhancing productivity of labour, while increasing the number of workers is inversely related to labour productivity. The study recommends that South Asian countries should focus on the improvement of health facilities and educational institutes to boost the efficiency of their labour force which can lead to economic growth.

Socio-Cultural Capital and Community Resilience: Perception of University Students about Violent Extremism in Pakistan

Adeela Rehman, Malik Ghulam Behlol — Sat, 31 Dec 2022 00:00:00 +0000

The importance of Countering Violent Extremism (CVE) has been a topic of recent interest for the global community. Pakistan is no exception to this trend. In recent years, university students have often been targets of extremist violence propaganda. This study aimed to explore perception of university students about violent extremism and the role of socio-cultural capital and community resilience in CVE. Quantitative research design was used to survey students belonging to various public and private universities in three major cities of Pakistan: Rawalpindi, Islamabad, and Peshawar. Due to the COVID-19 lockdown and closure of universities, the online survey technique was used by posting the survey on social media; using personal contacts; and emails. The ‘Building Resilience Against Violent Extremism’ (BRAVE) scale was used to assess the students’ perceptions and behaviour towards violent extremism. 480 students participated in the study over a two-month period. The findings demonstrated a significant role of socio-cultural capital in propagating as well as resisting violent beliefs and behaviour. The study concluded that culture, ethnic background, support from family and community, contribute to strengthening resilience against violent extremism among university students. It is recommended that Higher Educational Institutions (HEIs) should promote tolerance and peace through a more human rights-centric curriculum and education about different cultures as well as unbiased teaching practices to promote peaceful ways for resolving conflicts when they arise.

Attitude of University Students towards the Teaching Profession in Pakistan: A Case of Public Sector Universities

Misbah Akhtar, Huma Nawaz, Farrukh Munir — Sat, 31 Dec 2022 00:00:00 +0000

Teaching is considered a noble profession all over the world (Chakraborty and Mondal 2015). For a successful teaching-learning process, teachers must have an interest and favourable attitude towards teaching. The primary objective of the study was to explore the attitude of university students towards the teaching profession. The attitude of students was also compared based on gender, university affiliation, and disciplines. For this purpose, the ‘Attitude Scale towards Teaching Profession’ questionnaire by Tezci and Terzi (2010) was adapted. Data was collected from 598 respondents of two public sector universities in Pakistan i.e., The Islamia University of Bahawalpur and Fatima Jinnah Women University – both public sector universities in the province of Punjab by using convenient sampling technique. Of the 598 respondents, 384 were females and 214 were males. Google forms were used for the collection of data. For data analysis Independent T-test and one-way ANOVA were applied. Results showed that there was no significant difference in attitude towards the teaching profession in terms of gender and university affiliation. However, a significant difference was observed based on discipline

Impact of Climate Change on Individual and Community Mental Health

Emaan Fatima — Sat, 31 Dec 2022 00:00:00 +0000

This paper provides an overview of the current and prospective climate change-related risks and impacts on individual and community mental health, as outlined by studies from the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, Australia, Mexico, and Pakistan, in addition to a few European countries from 2000 to January 2022. It argues three major points, first, certain vulnerabilities exist with regards to which populations are most atrisk of experiencing poor psychological well-being. The main vulnerabilities and risk factors highlighted in the paper are low socioeconomic background, young age, and communities having close cultural and working relationships with the environment. Second, climate change-induced natural disasters such as floods, hurricanes, wildfires, and heatwaves can have several impacts on mental health, mainly due to worsening physical health, disruption of community cohesion, and forced relocation. The concept of community resilience is also discussed. Finally, the relationship between heat waves and increased psychological fatigue and feelings of hostility is also explored, linked with rising crime rate which can further impact individual and community mental health. It was concluded that climate change impacts individual and community mental health in many ways and that certain gaps in knowledge, such as the factors influencing the severity of this impact and the reasons behind the existence of vulnerabilities among populations, need to be addressed and incorporated into future action. Moreover, adaptive action needs to be taken in preparing societies for the impact of climate change. This includes increasing accessibility to quality mental healthcare and creating protective legal frameworks for those who are disproportionately affected by interpersonal violence during and after climate-related natural disasters.