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A vast number of people in developing countries depend on the natural environment for their livelihoods, on farmland or forests, wetlands or coastal areas
. For these people, the environment is much more than a source of recreation, it is the basis of the economy. But poorly functioning markets, incomplete property rights, and misguided policies can harm the environment and future generations. Economics has much to offer in understanding and influencing this behaviour. It also provides tools for decision-makers faced with difficult choices. How can we compare the value of environmental benefits to the costs of safeguarding them? How can we assess the impacts of environmental action (or inaction) on the poor? How should we share the costs of improvements? This book shows how researchers from four of IDRC’s regional environmental economics networks have dealt with questions like these in a wide variety of situations in Asia, Africa, and Latin America. It brings together insights from more than 15 years of research and assesses their impact on policy and the research community. It concludes by looking at the future of environmental economics in the developing regions of the world.
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Over the last thirty years, several disciplines and sub-disciplines have emerged to deepen our understanding of public policy
. However, this literature is dominated by western scholarship and has developed within the context of American and (Western) European public institutions. Efforts to place this literature in the context of the global South have been conspicuous by their absence. This book seeks to bridge this gap by placing this literature in the context of Indian public policy processes and reviews key concepts, theories and models that are employed in the study for students of public policy, policy change and administration and governance and management. It aims to shape our understanding of public policy processes as developed across several disciplines and study them within the Indian context, explaining most ideas and concepts with reference to India and the global South
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Over the last 50 years, Nepal has been considered an experiential model in determining the effectiveness and success of global human development strategies, both in theory and in practice
. As such, it provides a rich array of in-depth case studies in both development success and failure. This edited collection examines these in order to propose a novel perspective on how human development occurs and how it can be aided and sustained
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The working paper explores the development potential of the CHT and identifies options and mechanisms to expedite sustainable socioeconomic development
. This paper is the first of its kind to provide an SDG-focused assessment of the CHT
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The political debate on poverty reduction has become more intense in the developing countries, and the conception of poverty has broadened beyond monetary measures such as income and consumption to include broader socio-economic dimensions of human wellbeing, such as health, education, housing, access to infrastructure and services etc
., which together define human freedoms. Multidimensional poverty (MDP) – that encompasses capability failures and social exclusion – is a holistic and more comprehensive yet incomplete concept that has gained currency recently but only with handful applications for policy making. To advance the MDP model further, this study examine the regional variations and temporal shifts of poverty in 26 regions of Pakistan for five time periods, i.e. 1998–99, 2001–02, 2004–05, 2005–06 and 2007–08, using the multidimensional poverty approach based on education, health, and housing facilities. Standard methodological procedure developed by Alkire and Foster (2008) and recognized by UNDP (2010a) was employed. Temporal analysis shows that the MDP was higher in rural areas; declined by 7% in 2007–08 in rural areas compared to 1998–99 but merely by 1% in urban areas. Among the urban regions, Bahawalpur, Malakand, D. I. Khan, Mardan and Makran revealed a significant declining shift of 9%, 11%, 10%, 12% and 9% respectively in 2007–08 compared to 1998–99. Likewise, the rural areas in Faisalabad, Bahawalpur, Malakand, Kohat, Hazara and Sibbi showed a substantial decrease of 8%, 10%, 15%, 13%, 11% and 9% respectively in 2007–8 compared to 1998–99. Notably, Bahawalpur and Malakand showed higher temporal decline in MDP in both urban and rural areas, thereby showing a significant development in the provision of health, education and housing facilities to the people of respective rural–urban areas. However, the trend was inconsistent over time due probably to the haphazard development policies and political instability in the country resulting in higher socioeconomic deprivations. Regional analysis shows that considering both rural and urban areas, Kalat, Makran and Zhob lagged behind and remained among the poorest regions in all periods. Conversely, Karachi and Rawalpindi had least poverty in urban and rural areas. Pakistan's development trajectory is a classic case of economic growth and lagging human development. This study suggests the need for adopting an integrated approach to improve the socio-economic dimensions to meet the international standards of wellbeing such as the 2015 Millennium Development Goals. It further calls for tackling socio-economic deprivations through development interventions including improved schooling, access to technical education, non-farm enterprises, and more robust agriculture sector. Besides contributing to formulate above policy instruments conducive to poverty alleviation, findings of this study will also supplement theoretical and empirical studies on multidimensional poverty in other developing countries of Asia
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Access to sustainable and affordable energy services is a crucial factor in reducing poverty in developing countries
. In particular, small-scale and community-based renewable energy projects are recognized as important forms of development assistance for reaching the energy poor. However, to date only a few empirical evaluations exist which analyze and compare the impact of these projects on local living conditions and their sustainability ex-post implementation. To better understand the impacts and the conditions that influence sustainability of these projects, the research presented in this paper evaluated 23 local development projects post implementation. By applying an standardized evaluation design to a cross-sectional sample in terms of renewable energy sources (solar, wind, biomass, hydro), user needs (electricity, food preparation, lighting, productive uses), community management models, finance mechanisms and geographical locations, the review results provide valuable insights on the underlying conditions that influence the success or failure of these small-scale local energy interventions. The empirical evidence suggests that the sustainability of small-scale energy implementations (≤100 kW) in developing countries is determined by the same factors, independent of the socio-cultural, political and ecological context. These findings allow to better predict the long-term success of small sustainable energy projects in developing countries, this can help to improve project designs and increase the certainty for future investment decisions
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The concept of "Green Growth" is a focus of much interest and considerable debate among decision makers concerned with enhancing both nearer-term economic progress and longer-term environmental sustainability
. Proponents of Green Growth emphasize not only the need to protect various forms of natural capital to sustain improvements in material living standards and poverty reduction, but also the potential for strategically crafted environmental policies to achieve sustainability at low cost, perhaps even to help stimulate growth. However, there has been so far relatively little exploration of the analytical underpinnings of Green Growth, or its ambiguities. An exploratory investigation of the goals and underlying assumptions embedded in various conceptions of Green Growth facilitates consideration of how they might be interpreted vis-à-vis standard principles of intertemporal economic efficiency, including the value of the environment. Several plausible potential channels are identified for how synergy between economic growth and environmental sustainability might be more extensive than implied by standard economic theory. However, it is not possible to address their practical significance without more empirical research than is currently available. Consequently, some claims of substantial win-win opportunities between growth and the environment may be premature
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In a largely globalized world, characterized by immense technological advancements in many sectors, many developing countries depend on biomass energy for sustenance even today
. Much of the Government of India's projects related to the improved stove programme have been branded a "failure". However, they appear to have promising features. Cleaner Hearths, Better Homes draws on case studies from the Indian states of Maharashtra, Haryana, Karnataka, Gujarat, Andhra Pradesh, and West Bengal, and other stove programmes around the globe. The book describes India's best improved biomass stove programmes, and recommends ways in which the international community can promote the use of more affordable stoves as against the traditional cookstoves. These new stoves are energy efficient as well as easy to use, thereby leading to a significant reduction in indoor air pollution and health risks. The findings of the Indian government's stove programmes are translated into a set of recommendations in this book that could prove beneficial for half the world's population that depends on biomass energy for their livelihoods
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The objective of REDD+ is to create incentives for the reduction of emissions from deforestation and forest degradation and for the increase of carbon stocks through the enhancement, conservation and sustainable management of forests in developing countries
. As part of the international negotiations under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), compensation would be estimated in relation to national performance but how these incentives will be channeled within countries has not been specified and there are concerns about how the benefits will be shared among different stakeholders. One central issue is that under the national approach good performance in one region can be offset by underperformance in other regions of the country thus preventing the generation of predictable local incentives. Other issues relate to the need to provide incentives to a wide range of stakeholders and to avoid perverse reactions. To address these and other issues we propose separating the accounting of reduced deforestation, reduced degradation and enhancement of forests. The local attribution of credits would be easier for carbon enhancement, and possibly reduced degradation, than for reduced deforestation, since carbon gains can, in principle, be measured locally in the first two cases, while estimating achievements in reduced deforestation requires a regional approach. This separation in attribution of rewards can help to create adequate incentives for the different stakeholders and overcome some of the problems associated with the design and implementation of national REDD+ programs
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