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 rights-
based 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.]