Despite being only 65 years old Pakistan has undergone a difficult progression and suffered many setbacks. From political instability to repeated martial regimes the people of Pakistan have witnessed an endless array of changes and upheavals, all played out in front of a growing global audience. Its relationship with extremism is a well documented one and an area that forces the country into the spotlight on a regular basis. It is this troubled association with extremist behaviour that has paved the way for this research. The aim has been to ascertain what role the legacy of colonial domination and the initial years of construction have had on contemporary Pakistan’s fight with extremist behaviour. It is asserted that the actions and policies instigated under British rule coupled with the subsequent division of India have played a dominant role in the struggles that Pakistan has faced and its escalating relationship with Islamic extremism.
The majority of the research in this field looks at more modern historical components as causes and cites the late 1970’s as the turning point for Islamic extremism within Pakistan; others focus on the wider implications of British rule such as economic turmoil and financial instability yet little attention is given to the possible relationship between British rule and extremist behaviour. This Paper asserts that it was the policies and actions of the British colonial administration at the time that directly underpinned the struggles faced by Pakistan post partition and that the roots of present day Islamic extremism can be traced back to the events surrounding colonial rule.
This Paper concludes that it is impossible for colonial leadership not to have impacted the future of Pakistan given the policies they devised and the documented response of the indigenous people. However, what this research also identifies is the simplicity of such conclusions and that it is imperative that the influence of colonial rule be examined alongside various other elements that could and did influence contemporary Pakistan. Whilst colonial rule is an active part of the conclusions drawn in this piece various other factors have come to light in dissecting Pakistan’s relationship with extremism. Islam itself has been analysed and closely researched and the way in which it has been utilised as a tool for political development is a fundamental element in answering the core question within this research.
Author: Stacey Bridge Follow @Stacey1988
To what extent have the colonial legacies and formative years shaped the contemporary Pakistan and its challenges with Islamic Extremism? (5073)
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To what extent have the colonial legacies and formative years shaped the contemporary Pakistan and its challenges with Islamic Extremism?
Reflections on applying iterative and incremental software development methodologies to aid development
Having recently looked at Agile project management methodologies (Extreme Programming, Scrum and a little on Rapid Application Development, EVO and Rational Unified Process) – despite this material being focused on traditional, commercial software development and management, Matt Haikin has noted that the focus on starting small, not pre-planning everything from the start, and evolving software slowly through engagement with the ‘customer’, is strikingly similar to the practices recommended in various participatory approaches to development, and in socio-technical discussions around ICT4D projects.
In this article he thought it would be interesting to explore these similarities and see what Agile software-development methodologies might have to offer the ICT4D community – not just in terms of developing software but in the wider development context too.
Reflections on applying iterative and incremental software development methodologies to aid development (4863)
HIV in PNG – An Ongoing Health Crisis
Over the past two decades, Papua New Guinea has been plagued by the highest incidence of HIV/AIDS in the Asia-Pacific region and there is no indication of the epidemic abating. In order to assess the prevalence of the disease in PNG it is crucial to ascertain the factors which have contributed and facilitated its spread alongside those factors which have hindered effective HIV prevention strategies.
In this essay Louella Fitzsimmons looks at the history of healthcare in Papua New Guinea as well as the political and societal landscape which has allowed HIV/Aids to take root with infection rates rise exponentially. She also contrasts the experience of PNG with that of Fiji.
Historical research of HIV in Papua New Guinea is sparse and so this paper provides a valuable insight into an overlooked Global Health topic.
This essay was submitted in part of the Masters in Social Science & International Development at RMIT University, Melbourne, Australia.
Author: Louella Fitzsimmons Follow @LouellaLouella
HIV in PNG - An Ongoing Health Crisis (3640)
Featured Projects
The Learn Africa Project: Public Health, Applied Learning and Research Internship
Trevor Mattos is a Pike Scholar at Gordon College, Massachusetts. Earlier this year he and a colleague Miranda MacKinnon travelled to Togo, West Africa to direct a Development and Public Health project that had been planned since the previous year.
This project report details the establishment of the ‘The Learn Africa Project’ and highlights some of the challenges and planning required in establishing a community development and public health project from the base up in a Developing Country. It also highlights the principle research undertaken in preparation for the estabishment of the project.
Report Author: Trevor Mattos
Demographic Dimensions and their Implications on the Incidence of Street Begging in Urban Areas of Central Tanzania: The Case of Dodoma and Singida Municipalities
This study explores the implications of demographic dimensions on the incidence of street begging in urban areas of central Tanzania with Dodoma and Singida Municipalities as case studies. This study was conducted on different days at different streets and public spaces in Dodoma and Singida Municipalities to obtain data on incidence of street begging. A cross-sectional survey was employed and involved 130 street beggars. Structured questionnaires were administered on randomly selected beggars to obtain data on their demographic dimensions. Group discussions, key informant interview, and observations were also used to collect data relevant for the study.
Authors:Baltazar M.L. Namwata, Maseke R. Mgabo and Provident Dimoso
Demographic Dimensions and their Implications on the Incidence of Street Begging in Urban Areas of Central Tanzania (7913)
Dadaab Refugee Camps, Kenya
With conflict and continuing uncertainty affecting the future of Somalia following the US backed Ethiopian invasion it is little wonder Somalis continue to flee their disintegrating country. Since the early 1990’s when large scale civil war broke out the Somali Diaspora has spread far and wide. Nearly a million have fled to already poor neighbouring countries and 400,000 of those headed south to Kenya. Though many have managed to return since there remains over 100,000 mostly Somali refugees in Northern and Eastern Kenya.
Featured Articles & Papers
From Abandonment to Inclusion: The Role of the State in Violence, Public Security and Human Rights in favela communities in Rio de Janeiro – The Case Studies of Santa Marta and City of God
Beginning in December of 2008, the State of Rio de Janeiro and federal government of Brazil began a new policy shift in securitizing favela communities. In an effort to combat the city’s drug traffickers and prevalent violence, the State began installing “pacification” or “peacekeeping” units in vulnerable favela communities. Following pacification, the State then increases investment in infrastructure and social programs.
Drawn from the authors’ experience of living in Rio, this award nominated paper looks at the evolving role of the State of Rio de Janeiro in recent years in two specific favela communities: Santa Marta and City of God. As the city prepares to host the 2014 World Cup and 2016 Olympic Games, preparations mount and the international community awaits to see what Rio is capable of accomplishing in their fight to eliminate the city’s famous drug trade and infamous violence. Will these preparations benefit those most marginalized? Or will it continue to push the socially excluded even further into the periphery?
After multiple failed security policies since the 1980s, recent actions and investments show the State’s new human rights based approach to security and social and economic investment. Fulfilling its national and international obligations of respecting, protecting and fulfilling the rights of all citizens while also moving forward on a path of progressive economic and social development, the State of Rio de Janeiro is entering a new era. Its new policies are battling a deeper embedded structural violence while enhancing the capabilities of formerly deprived citizens. Santa Marta and City of God serve as case studies in analyzing the State of Rio de Janeiro, its fulfillment of human rights obligations and its progressive path of economic and social development in favela communities.
Author Mary E. Robbins
From Abandonment to Inclusion: The Role of the State in Violence, Public Security and Human Rights in favela communities in Rio de Janeiro, The Case Studies of Santa Marta and City of God (5628)
Hii Dunia – New Editor Wanted
Dear Readers,
Although almost dormant for the last few months, Hii Dunia has for nearly nine years being regularly posting articles, papers and blog posts on Global Development and Environmental subjects. It’s goal was to aid and expand the discourse in these areas by publishing online pieces of work that may otherwise have only been read by a tutor and the author themselves.
From first appearing as a blog in 2006 posting short-form articles, re-edited chapters from submitted academic papers and even a photograph of the day (!?) it slowly expanded to become www.hiidunia.com and published full academic papers in either abridged or in full form as well as a link to a PDF of the original paper.
Hii Dunia was nominated for an award early on and has also received lots of praise particularly for the addition of it’s extensive Development Directory page – which is still one of the largest freely available online Directories of its type.
Promoting the contributors to the site has been key and the community that has built up as a result has been one of the unforeseen delights of Hii Dunia. The site has gained 2000 Twitter followers and still attracts high traffic. Some papers we’ve posted have gained many thousands of views and have been cited elsewhere including in PhD Theses.
It is with some sadness therefore that I am advertising here for a new Editor to take over the reigns at Hii Dunia. My career has shifted in the last few months and whilst I’m very happy with where it’s headed I have now found it impossible to give the site the attention it requires. Therefore I’m looking for someone to take over – ideally with a passion for Global Development, who wants to make contacts within the sector and who believes that as much Global Development material as possible should be fully in the public domain.
Perhaps you are a student looking to enhance your CV and wanting to learn more form the papers you’ll publish? Perhaps you’re new to the sector and want to form links with practitioners, academics and students within it too?
The possibilities are endless. I think I’ve only begun to explore what can be done with a platform like this. You would have ‘the keys’ to Hii Dunia, all the assets such as logos etc and make the changes you see fit. Maybe you would want to orientate it more towards project work – collecting experiences of Development practitioners in the field? Expand it’s presence on Social Media? Completely change the look and layout? As editor it would be up to you.
The main tasks as Editor include making contact with potential contributors, requesting papers and other content that you both feel is suitable for the site. Keeping all the other aspects of the site up to date – checking for broken links in the Directory for example, contacting contributors to update their profiles and posting regular Social Media updates. You will need to have a working knowledge of Wordpress alongside photo editing software such as Photoshop.
If this sounds like something that might be of interest to you email me at editor@hiidunia.com giving a little bit of background about yourself, what you do, why you want to take on Hii Dunia and the direction you might take it. If you have the passion and dedication to run a site like this I’ll be happy to hand it over.
Editing Hii Dunia has been a extremely rewarding experience, its put me in touch with some fantastic people within the Development sphere and further afield and broadened my own as well as I hope it’s readers understanding of an increasingly vital subject. I hope the next nine years will be as rewarding as the first.
Daniel Corns
Editor
Large Scale Biofuel Projects in Mozambique: A Solution to Poverty?
There has recently been a large increase in global land acquisitions for fuel and food production. This has been spurred on by the combined global food, fuel and financial crisis. Speculators have been seeking out ‘cheap’ and what the investors and international development agencies term ‘idle land’ to occupy or lease. Large tracts of land are being allocated predominantly from developing nations such as Sub-Saharan Africa, Asia, Latin America and Eastern Europe – and in the majority of cases the land is not ‘idle’ at all.
The large scale biofuel industry plays a significant role in this and has expanded rapidly in recent years, particularly in Mozambique. In this thesis the author aims to examine whether developing nations such as Mozambique have achieved poverty reduction through large scale biofuel projects and the assesses the impact it has made on many ordinary landowners in that country.
Author: Claire Burgess Follow @Claireburgo
Large Scale Biofuel Projects in Mozambique: A Solution to Poverty? (13750)
Is it better to be poor in a high-income or a low-income country? – Counter-intuitive reflections, measuring well-being and the impact of inequality
Common-sense may suggest that the poor in rich countries will live better lives than the poor in poor countries. After all, the amenities of modern living are at their disposal and, in most cases, the state provides their basic needs. On one level, this assertion is difficult to refute – with a few rare exceptions, the poor in wealthy countries do not experience the famine or extreme starvation we associate with ‘Developing World poverty’.
Is it better to be poor in a high-income or a low-income country? Counter-intuitive reflections, measuring well-being and the impact of inequality (3084)
However, in the last few decades we have begun to acknowledge that poverty is not just about material needs. There has been a growing understanding that happiness and well-being are central to human existence, and a growing awareness that poverty is actually a multi-dimensional phenomenon that also includes such life characteristics as lack of control over resources, lack of education, poor health and many other non-economic factors. Poverty is also ultimately experienced subjectively and the relationship between this subjective experience and objective life circumstances can at times be quite loose. Given this subjectivity, it is far less clear whether the subjective experience of being poor in a rich country can really be said to be in any way ‘better’ than that of being poor in a poor country.
This essay explores approaches to defining what is meant by ‘better’. It considers the impact of ideas such as Subjective Wellbeing, Happiness and Quality of Life, which focus as much on what people ‘internally’ think and feel about their lives as on the ‘external’ things they have or can do and defines a set of proxies by which this multi-dimensional idea of ‘better’ can be understood.
Author: Matt Haikin Follow @MattHaikin
Posted in Comment & Analysis, Development