The global scholarly community concerned with development and social transformation has identified explicit "structural impediments" that constrain countries’ efforts to alleviate poverty and promote sustainable social development. The UNDP, in launching its Millennium Development Goals, contends that there are practical, proven solutions to breaking out of the poverty traps that entangle poor countries. In Pakistan, there has been limited substantive research conducted to identify the unique blend of structural impediments to development that prevail in the country today. Indeed, Pakistan’s prospects to promote viable, sustainable social development appear bleaker today than a decade ago. Development Challenges Confronting Pakistan seeks to rectify this void by bringing together scholars and practitioners—many of them from Pakistan—to provide a scholarly understanding of the structural impediments, or barriers, that have negative effects on Pakistan’s ability to eliminate poverty, promote social justice and implement policies to promote equity. This book will be an essential tool for analysis, study and practice. Its publication is indeed a major event in South Asian scholarship.

This book is the main text for post-graduate courses on South Asia's development, economic history and on its political economy. For researchers on Pakistan's economy, it is the key source for reference, and covers a huge and diverse array of data, literature reviews, commentary and analysis.

Pakistan’s development efforts are guided by its 2011 Framework for Economic Growth, which identifies actions needed to create a prosperous, industrialized Pakistan through rapid and sustainable development. Industrialization has the potential to drive Pakistan’s economic growth and contribute significantly to meeting both economic and human development goals in Pakistan. Expansions of industrialization activities, whether in highly developed or developing countries, can be stimuli for intense debate about such projects’ benefits and costs to the region in which they are to be located, to the national economy—and to human health and the environment. Pakistan’s 2011 Framework for Economic Growth recognizes that, to accelerate industrialization, Pakistan must reduce the cost of doing business and create an incentive structure designed to achieve a competitive, dynamic, and export-driven industrial sector capable of providing employment to the growing labor force. Competing in global markets requires a socially and environmentally sustainable industrialization strategy. The four main inputs for sustainable industrial growth in Pakistan discussed in this book are 1) Macroeconomic stability and sectoral policies to support industrial competitiveness by allowing long-term planning, including investments in infrastructure and cleaner production. 2) Upgraded trade facilitation and infrastructure (particularly transport and energy) to address some of industrialization’s spatial aspects. Improved transport infrastructure will lower production’s environmental costs. 3) Greening of Pakistan’s industrial sector to enhance international competitiveness—“greening” will make Pakistan a more attractive export partner for nations and firms committed to green production. 4) Strong institutions—for example, environmental management agencies to control pollution, and cleaner production centers to increase domestic awareness of international environmental standards—to implement industrialization initiatives effectively, including those for small and medium-sized enterprises. This book provides a comprehensive analysis of issues relating to the debate about Pakistan’s green industrial growth and lays out priorities and strategies for “greening” Pakistan’s industrial growth.

This book analyses problems of governance, development and environment affecting contemporary Pakistan; issues that lie at the centre of federal and provincial policy deliberations, formulation and implementation. The book offers a comprehensive assessment of the policies, or lack thereof. Authors from a variety of disciplines empirically and conceptually evaluate latest developments, events and data regarding law and order, economic under-performance, social intolerance and climate crisis. The book offers varied perspectives on state sovereignty, civil-military relations, spousal violence, rural development, CPEC, nuclear governance and transboundary climate risk. Arguing that the conclusions should be adopted by the social, political and economic stakeholders of Pakistan, as well as the region at the higher level of governability, the book demonstrates that it would both boost national morale and inspire individuals to further investigate to come up with innovative solutions. Examining some of the most pressing and persistent problems Pakistan and South Asia is facing, the book will be of interest to academics working in the fields of Political Science, in particular South Asian Politics, Development Studies and Environmental Studies.

While policy makers, media, and the international community focus their attention on Pakistan’s ongoing security challenges, the potential of the rural economy, and particularly the agricultural sector, to improve Pakistanis’ well-being is being neglected. Agriculture is crucial to Pakistan’s economy. Almost half of the country’s labor force works in the agricultural sector, which produces food and inputs for industry (such as cotton for textiles) and accounts for over a third of Pakistan’s total export earnings. Equally important are nonfarm economic activities in rural areas, such as retail sales in small village shops, transportation services, and education and health services in local schools and clinics. Rural nonfarm activities account for between 40 and 57 percent of total rural household income. Their large share of income means that the agricultural sector and the rural nonfarm economy have vital roles to play in promoting growth and reducing poverty in Pakistan.

A large percentage of workers and firms operate in the informal economy, outside the line of sight of governments in emerging market and developing economies. This may hold back the recovery in these economies from the deep recessions caused by the COVID-19 pandemic--unless governments adopt a broad set of policies to address the challenges of widespread informality. This study is the first comprehensive analysis of the extent of informality and its implications for a durable economic recovery and for long-term development. It finds that pervasive informality is associated with significantly weaker economic outcomes--including lower government resources to combat recessions, lower per capita incomes, greater poverty, less financial development, and weaker investment and productivity.