Nazia Mintz-Habib

Sustainable development initiatives inspire almost
universal praise today since they offerwin-win options
for developing countries. Although many reports on
thistopic offer plans,strategies, and measures, the debate
about how to accomplish such development remains
unresolved. A comparative, case study analysis,
based on Tanzanian and Malaysian effortsto scale
up their national rural development strategy by joining
the biofuels value chain with niche crops like Jatropha
curcas, shows that the strategy offers more
trade-offs than are readily acknowledged. The effects
are analyzed using an institutional feasibility study
framework to explore the trade-offs between social
capital and economic capital within the global value
chain (GVC) of biofuels. The findings suggest that
rather than being win-win, sustainable development
policies are similar to most types of policy reforms,
which advocate for short-term adjustment costs that
mar political-economic stability in the society, in the
expectation of long-term gains. In conclusion we offer
some public policy observations to support the policy
makes aiming forthe long-term sustainable gains and
willing to internalize short-term losses.

This paper revisits the discourse on the roles of various stakeholders in improving labour standards in developing countries, paying particular attention on the role of multinational corporations (MNCs). This article argues that big business’s ability to improve labour standards is a multifarious issue, often misunderstood as overlapping motivations from a plethora of actors like the nation state, national and international labour unions and donor agencies are inter-engaged in complex political-economic contexts and have yet to agree on universal labour standards. None of the actors have sole responsibility or can unilaterally improve labour standards. While MNCs are seeking profit, developing countries are caught between foreign direct investment and overall economic growth through global trade. To substantiate, this article considers representative examples from mass produced consumer goods industries, which are major foreign exchange earners in developing countries, and are positioned at the centre of North-South and South–South competition in the complex matrix of global trade.

This study examines the Jatropha adoption process in Sarawak, Malaysia, a land rich in biological and ethnic diversity, but highly impoverished. Attempts to alleviate poverty through oil palm plantation development resulted in internationally condemned destruction of peat lands. Sarawak subsequently turned to the inedible, low-input, exportable, biodiesel feedstock Jatropha. This case study argues that Jatropha is unlikely to make more significant socio-economic contributions than oil palm or other cash crops. The analysis suggests that companies use social capital to aggressively expand their Jatropha business among the native population in order to gain access to native customary lands, which are often underproductive peat lands. Global biofuels sector development dynamics are examined through the lenses of political economics and social, agricultural, and energy studies. The research finds that farmers' decisions to participate in the biofuels global value chain may result in negative income effects, household food security reduction, and biodiversity loss from peat land destruction. The paper concludes with a proposal for an alternative approach to evaluate both social and financial drivers in order to prevent the negative effects of biofuel-based agribusiness on human and environmental systems.

This research examines the political and regulatory landscapes of Bangladesh’s shrimp industry and their effect on market performance from theoretical and contextual frameworks.  Conventional economic perspectives advocate global trade as a means to create market competition, which leads to capitalist development of business, and finally begets free market access ultimately leading to economic development in developing countries. On the contrary, statists advocate government’s role in promoting industrial development and economic performance as a way to move ahead.  In both cases, success depends on institutional capabilities, which are socially-politically embedded, to regulate market behaviours.  Interestingly though, neither theoretical framework provides adequate structural analysis for least developing countries (LDCs) on how to tackle industrial policies under the growing market pressure stemming from north-south and south-south competition.  Particularly, this brings conflicting policy proposals in international economic discourse. 

Market liberalization in LDCs has opened up global markets for their primary commodities, mainly agro-export-commodities like cotton, tea, and shrimp in which they have competitive advantages.  However, LDCs’ ability to maximize their trading space in a liberalized market world are severely constrained by multi-complexities of global, regionalm, and local regulatory frameworks, both formal and informal, like trade laws to non-trade barriers, to cultural stigmas.  Therefore, how much competitiveness LDCs really possess in the global market is an issue for industrialization and future economic development.  This leads to the question of this research: To what extent can primary sector producers in least developing countries move up the global commodity chain? 

To answer this question, this research focuses on redistribution practices and effects of global to local trade standards and regulations.  The Bangladesh shrimp sector is used as a representative case study.  Shrimp exports are the nation’s second largest industrial sector after garments and the industry has already been subjected to harsh world trade regulations.  The shrimp industry faces significant buyer-driven regulations from its primary markets: US (34%), EU (51%), and Japan (15%).  Moreover, the largest portion of the shrimp chain is characterized by low-skilled labour, disorganization, and informal structures.  As such, adjustment costs of changing regulations resulting from the buyer-driven international shrimp market manifest in market diversions, price erosion, and long-term momentum loss for many actors in the value chain.

This thesis takes a multidisciplinary approach to analyze the moving-up process or ‘internalization’ process of buyer driven market competition within the existing institutions that influence the domestic value chain, both formal and informal.  To analyze the changing influence of globalization on Bangladesh’s shrimp trading environment, the study considers the fact that economic redistribution practices are strongly influenced by the intensive ‘interlocking’ of formal and informal socio-political and cultural settings within which countries’ industrial organizations developed overtime.  Hence the rules and regulations stemming from the global arena are often implemented via local policies and regulations, which continuously influence both vertical and horizontal power dynamics between buyers and sellers at all levels affecting economic outcomes.  The broader regulatory framework of export supply chains is influenced by international market forces, which trickle down to the local level to export commodity producers.  In the process of trickling down, the pre-existing social production system is shifting from capitalist accumulation systems into a unique market liberalization system.

Climate change governance is an emerging topic in the citizen engagement discourse.  This is an Expert Group Meeting (EGM) report focused on the socioeconomic impacts of climate change on citizen engagement that reciprocate creative solutions from the bottom-up in public administration processes.  The EGM held during the World Civic Forum 2009 initiative on May 5 - 8 May 2009 in Seoul, Korea. The overarching theme of the forum was Building Our humanitarian Planet, espoused by three sub-themes: 1. Civic Values for Global Justice; 2. Civic Engagement in Public.  It was agreed that there is a need for UNDESA to boost its activities to enhance citizen engagement to cope with climate change challenges was emphasized during the EGM. Promotion of public awareness, preparedness, adaptation, and mitigation were recognized as critical to success. Over ten concrete policy and programme proposals were identified for further analysis, which will be presented by UNDESA as input to the forthcoming United Nations Climate Change Conference to be held in Copenhagen, 7-18 December 2009, as well as to ECOSOC through its subsidiary body, the Committee of Experts on Pubic Administration (CEPA).

The current global perspectives on climate change (CC) related policies for adaptation and mitigation as seen at the Bali conference, mostly concentrate on extreme weather events and focus on top-down policy instruments which have had limited success in preparing the most vulnerable people in developing countries at the current stage of rapid climate change.  The poorest are climatically most vulnerable in the world due to their highest dependency on the nature and climate, are also subjected to information asymmetry, socio-political austerity, which is more noticeable in climate change information and preparedness strategies sharing.  This paper asks ‘why?’. The paper argues that the effects of CC are a local experience are played down in the mainstream global climate change related polices and preparedness strategies come short at integrating local level experience.  The critical dependency of two-third of the global population on the natural resources for livelihood deserves better understanding if their lives to be saved by global climate change initiatives.  Such understandings can be gathered by focusing on the local governance systems that are responsible to carry down information from the top to the community level and accordingly mobilize, capitalize and build capacity to face the adverse effects of climate change.  It is a multidisciplinary paper that examines the contemporary CC preparedness discourse and provides an alternative angle to the problems faced by many CC projects, such as local resistances or slow adaptation.