SDPI
Research and News Bulletin
Poverty
and Environment Special Issue
Vol.
10, No. 2, March – April 2003
Lead can damage brain and nervous system and lead exposure can cause
learning disabilities, intellectual retardation, hearing loss, speech,
language, difficulty in concentrating and staying focused and propensity to
violence and other serious health effects in children
Dr.
Mahmood A. Khwaja
khwaja@sdpi.org
Lead
pollution is one of the most important problems of environmental and
occupational origin and is widely regarded as a risk to health. Lead
accumulates in the blood, bones and soft tissues and affects the kidneys,
liver, nervous system and blood forming organs. The residence times of lead in
the body are estimated at 35 days in blood, 40 days in soft tissues, 3-4 years
in trabecular bone and 16-20 years in cortical bone.
Several
studies indicated that children are especially sensitive to lead because of
their greater exposure and as they absorb, retain and show greater damage for a
given body burden. Special concern of lead poisoning has been the accumulation
of experimental and epidemiological evidence suggesting that lead is a
neurotoxin and it impairs brain development in children, even at levels that
were considered safe. There is enough evidence to suggest that in many cases,
behavioral and developmental problems in children may be linked to exposure to
chemicals like lead in the environment. Lead can damage the brain and nervous
system and even a low level of lead exposure can cause learning disabilities,
intellectual retardation, hearing loss, speech, language, difficulty in
concentrating and staying focused and propensity to violence and other serious
health effects in children.
Researchers
have found that even children with safe blood lead levels (BPbL = 10 ugm/dL or
less) had significant brain damage. A recent study has indicated that
specially, at five years of age, the children experienced a 5.5 point drop in
IQ for every jump of 10 ug/dL in BPbL. The 73% of the children having even very
low BPbLs. showed IQ drop. It was noted that as BPbLs increased from one to
10ug/dL, a child's IQ fell by an average of 7.4 points, a far more decline than
was seen with higher BPbLs .In developing countries like Pakistan, children
with dietary deficiencies are even more susceptible to lead poisoning.
According to 1998 population census, 43.19% (55,042,917 children) of Pakistan
population comprises children below the age of 15 years. They face high risk
due to lead exposure, most likely due to the use of leaded petrol and increase
in traffic in the country.
In
Pakistan, like many developing countries, the increasing prosperity and
population growths are resulting in accelerated growth in vehicle population
and vehicle kilometers traveled. The road length, which was about 94,000
kilometers in 1980-81, had increased to 232,000 in 1997-98, indicating an
overall increase of 147%. The number of vehicles have jumped from 0.8 million
to about 4.0 million within 20 years showing an overall increase of more than
400 %. The average compound growth of vehicles is about 11%. The number of
registered motor vehicles mostly employing leaded petrol has increased from
714,940 in 1990 to 1,167,635 in 1998. Vehicle population growth rate being the
highest (27.7%) is in Islamabad.
The
transport sector is the second largest energy sector after the industry,
stimulated by increasing use of road transport at the expense of railway
system. Projected fuel consumption for transport sector has been estimated at
40,000 tons of oil equivalent (TOE) in 2050. The consumption of petrol has
increased from 828,670 metric tons (1990) to 1,189,042 (1998). According to
1998-99 estimates, 98.47% of total petrol consumption is in the transport
sector. Lead compounds are added in petrol to increase the efficiency of car
engines and to prolong engine life by reducing knock. In Pakistan, prior to
July 2001, the lead content in petrol (Premier Plus) was 0.35 gram/liter, very
high compared to maximum lead contents of 0.00 - 0.15 gram per liter in USA and
many European countries. Regular, Super Premier and HOBC were reported to have
lead content of 0.42, 0.63 and 0.84 gm/liter, respectively
The
high content of lead in petrol is a serious issue, as the end product of it is
the release of lead into the environment. A few studies have been reported on
lead concentrations in ambient air and dust-fall on some sites in Peshawar,
Rawalpindi, Islamabad, Lahore and Karachi. The reported lead levels in air
(micrograms/cubic centimeter; ug/m3) were found in Karachi (1980 - 81) 0.13 -
0.24; Peshawar (1994 - 95) 0.21 - 0.79 and Lahore (1993 - 94) 0.15 - 8.36. In
1998, a study with 24 hours monitoring on 14 locations in Rawalpindi and
Islamabad was carried out to examine the concentration levels of trace
constituents in suspended particulate matter (SPM) and to assess the ambient
air quality in the twin city. At nine monitoring locations, lead content in
total SPM was found to be in the range 0.25 - 0.98 ug/m3. In the remaining five
monitoring locations, with excessive traffic or industrial activity, lead
content in SPM was found to be in the range between 1.03 - 4.80ug/m3.
These
results indicate a very alarming increase and high levels of lead in the ambient
air at the sites and time of monitoring. The World Health Organisation/United
States Environmental Protection Agency (WHO/USAEPA) guidelines/standards for
lead concentration in ambient air are 0.5 - 1.0 ug/cm3 (annual averages) and
1.5 ug/cm3 (quarterly averages), respectively. However, an accurate assessment
of ambient air quality of a site/area is difficult without reliable information
and comprehensive data on environmental parameters. For a true comparison with
WHO or other guidelines that values a continuous monitoring and measurements of
air pollutants is essential requirement and needs to be addressed at the
earliest by Pakistan's Environmental Protection Agency (Pak EPA).
There
are not many studies carried out in the country with specific research and work
done on health or other impacts related to air pollutants, including lead. A
study carried out in 1990 on 232 students (boys and girls of ages between 3 -
18 years) of two schools in Karachi, indicated mean BPbLs for school children
as 38.2 +/- 7 ug/dl, (range 10.4 - 52.2 ug/dl) which was considerably higher
than the acceptable BPbLs of 10 ug/dl. The 92% of the children population
studied had BPbLs higher than 25ug/dl, which can cause irreversible mental
impairment. Nearly half of the children had BPbLs above 40 ug/dl and none had
level below 20ug/dl. Five children had the alarming BPbLs of 70ug/dl. No
significant differences in BPbLs were observed, between the two groups or
between the males and females in either of the two groups, the length of
distance traveled by children and the traffic density of children's areas of
residence.
In
another study carried out in 1994, five hundred school students (374 boys &
126 girls of ages 11 - 16 years) were selected from three schools in Peshawar
and their BPbLs were examined. Mean BPbLs of male & female students were
found to be 21.2 +/- 8.15 and 16.8 +/- 4.81 ug/dl, respectively., indicating
BPbLs among males to be significantly higher than females. 13% of male students
showed BPbLs in the range 31 - 50 ug/dl with no female student's BPbL within
this range. In contrast to Karachi, where 98% of the studied children
population had BPbLs over 20 ug/dl, in Peshawar 32.6% had BPbLs over this
limit, which may be due to much higher traffic activity in Karachi compared to
Peshawar.
Studies
carried out on BPbLs of 400 school going children in Islamabad and Chakshahzad
(about 10 kilometers from Islamabad) also indicated children's BPbLs lower than
BPbLs observed for the studied children population in Karachi. BPbLs of 230
school students (girls 129 and boys 101 with ages between 5 - 14) from
Islamabad were found to be in the range 13 - 32 ug/dl with overall mean BPbL of
22.8 +/- 3.3 ug/dl, in the studied children population. However, unlike
Peshawar, no significant BPbLs differences were observed between males and
females Children. The BPbLs of 170 school students (88 boys and 82 girls of
ages 13 - 19 years) from 20 villages around Chakshazad were found to be in the
range 0.2 - 8.6 with overall mean BPbL of 2.38 ug/dl. However, like Peshawar,
in Chakshahzad also mean BPbL for males (3.22 ug/dl) was found to be higher
than mean BPbL for females (1.49 ug/dl). Low levels in females may be due to
their less exposure to the outdoor environment because of the cultural reasons.
BPbLs of the studied population in Chakshazad are not only lower than Karachi
but are also significantly lower than Peshawar and Islamabad. Chakshahzad is a
rural site having comparatively much lower traffic activity, resulting in lower
vehicle exhaust and relatively very low lead levels in and around the area.
BPbLs higher than 10 ug/dl among the children of Karachi, Peshawar and
Islamabad are alarming and children in these areas face high risk due to lead
exposure, which may very likely cause many health problems.
Air
pollution is one of those complex environmental problems where control through
reduction at source is considered most desirable and the only way to prevent
the health and other damaging impacts. Once emitted into the atmosphere, unlike
other matrix/media, the recycling or re-use of the emitted products from air is
almost impossible. To combat air pollution in the country, the government of
Pakistan has formulated acts and policies. Pakistan Environmental Protection
Act 1997 (PEPA-97) covers air, water, soil and noise pollution. It also
includes hazardous waste disposal and motor vehicular pollution. The PEPA.97
under section 11, sub-section (1) strictly prohibits discharge or emission of
any air pollutant in an amount, concentration or level of which is in excess of
the National Environmental Quality Standards (NEQS). The PEPA-97 under section
15, sub-sections 1 to 3 describes the regulations of motor vehicles.
Pakistan
Environmental Protection Council (PEPC) last year approved a National
Environmental Protection Action Plan (NEAP) with “Clean Air” as one of the four
priority areas of immediate concern. Components of the NEAP clean air program
include control of vehicular pollution, industrial emission and indoor air
pollution. As part of the vehicular pollution control program, 2,65,000
vehicles (23.7%) have so far been switched over to compressed natural gas (CNG)
and over 300 CNG stations set up in the country. Efforts are also being made to
promote use of CNG in auto rickshaws (three wheelers) through motivation and
incentive schemes.
Under
the Clean Fuel Action Plan (CFAP), a phase-wise lead reduction program to
provide low and un-leaded petrol in the country was approved in 1999 by PEPC.
The main features of the program were:
(a)
October 2000 - reduction of lead content to 0.35 gm/L
(b)
Introduction of un-leaded petrol in major cities and highways
(c)
Reduce lead content to 0.25 gm/L
(d)
Reduce lead content to 0.15 gm/L
(e)
Introduce un-leaded petrol throughout the country
(f)
2005 - no more leaded petrol in the country.
It
has been reported that Vitamin C, if taken in regular doses, have potential for
reducing accumulated lead from human body, as indicated by some recent studies
carried out in Malaysia and Pakistan. Children (7 - 12 years of age) under
study at Karachi were given a 500 mg vitamin C tablet orally after dinner for
24 days. The mean lead concentration in hair, before giving Vitamin C was 12.7
± 6.6 ug/gm which after treatment with Vitamin C was reduced to 3.9 ± 3.5 ug./gm.
The lead concentration of urine samples of the same children were found to be
about 45 times higher than the concentration before vitamin C treatment.
Similar studies (August 2000 - January 2002) carried out in Ranau, Sabah in
Malaysia also indicated 24 - 54% reduction in lead concentration of children
hair after vitamin C treatment..
Pakistan
achieved “No More Leaded Petrol” target much ahead of the target time. Since
July 2001, three out of the total four refineries in the country i.e. Pak -
Arab (PARCO), National (NRL) and Pakistan Refinery (PRL) started producing
lead-free petrol and the fourth refinery, Attock Refinery (ARL) started
production of lead-free petrol in June, 2002. This is expected to subside
environmental lead pollution to some extent. However, there is a need to
periodically check the quality of petrol supplied to the users for maintaining
quality and also in view of petrol smuggled into country, which may be
containing lead. It has been reported that Vitamin C, if taken in regular doses,
have potential for reducing accumulated lead from human body, as indicated by
some recent studies carried out in Malaysia and Pakistan. Children (7 - 12
years of age) under study at Karachi were given a 500 mg vitamin C tablet
orally after dinner for 24 days. The mean lead concentration in hair, before
giving Vitamin C was 12.7 ± 6.6 ug/gm which after treatment with Vitamin C was
reduced to 3.9 ± 3.5 ug./gm. The lead concentration of urine samples of the
same children were found to be about 45 times higher than the concentration
before vitamin C treatment. Similar studies (August 2000 - January 2002)
carried out in Ranau, Sabah in Malaysia also indicated 24 - 54% reduction in
lead concentration of children hair after vitamin C treatment.
Phasing
out lead from Gasoline gives substantial economical benefits to the country. A
study carried out in USA estimated economic benefit = US $ 17.2 billion per
annum by reducing US population's BPbL by 1ug/dl. With the supply of unleaded
petrol, problems of lead poisoning due to lead in the environment have not been
completely solved. There are other sources of lead exposure, which include old
lead pipelines or lead-based solders in water supply systems, old
houses/buildings with lead-based paints and lead-based ceramics. There is a
dire need to give high priority to further develop and implement policies and
measures that facilitate at the earliest a complete lead phase out program in
the country.
The
Agreement on Agriculture (AOA): Pakistan’s Experience
abid@sdpi.org
Agriculture
plays an important role in Pakistan’s economy, accounting for over 26 percent
of GDP and almost half of the country’s labour force. The Agriculture growth
rate has been at an average of 3.5 percent per annum since 1991-92 with wild
fluctuations –rising by 11.7% percent and falling by 5.3 percent. The downward
fluctuation in agricultural growth leads to uncertainty in terms of production
and adds to the ever-increasing food import bill.
According to FAO projections, food
demand in Pakistan would rise substantially by the year 2010, as the share of
imports in domestic consumption is likely to go up further. Total cropped area
in Pakistan (total area cultivated plus area sown more than once) declined
slightly over last decade, whereas cultivable waste land was increased in that
period. These trends indicate an increased investment in sustainable
agricultural research and development, without which our food imports cannot go
down. To do the needful, we need to adapt pro-poor as well as pro-farmer
agricultural policies. It is to be taken care of that the trade liberalization
regime is largely affecting national policies and the policymaking process due
to the increased influence of multilateral and international regimes and processes
such as WTO, IMF, World Bank and OECD negotiating mechanisms in the name of
trade liberlisation. Pakistan, being a developing country enjoys certain
flexibilities and concessions for implementing WTO agreements including the
Agreement on Agriculture (AoA). Although, it is widely reported that these
concessions and flexibilities are inadequate and insufficient, yet we are not
able to avail whatever is offered to us due to our commitments with IFIs such
as ADB, and IMF.
The AoA is of particular importance
to Pakistan in terms of economic and food security. In theory, the AoA speaks
of increasing trade in agricultural products through progressive
liberalisation. The agreement stipulates that members must undertake specific
binding and reduction commitments in the areas of:
In the area of market access, Pakistan offered “ceiling
bindings” on agricultural imports during Uruguay Round (UR). Hence Islamabad
was not required to reduce the tariffs during the UR implementation period
(till 2005). However, the structure of border protection has undergone
significant change over time towards greater liberalisation, involving both the
dismantling of various non-tariff barriers (NTBs) and the reduction of ordinary
tariffs. The NTBs included outright import bans, special dispensation and
licensing, quotas, negative lists and certain monopolies. Import surcharges
were removed in 1992-93. Licensing fees and the Iqra surcharge were
abolished during 1994-95. Import quotas have been progressively eliminated
since 1987. A number of items on the negative and restrictive list have also
been fallen considerably. A reduction in the maximum applied rate of ordinary
tariffs followed these measures. The import regime seems to be fairly liberal
in recent years with applied tariffs mostly much below the WTO-bound rates.
This has led to an influx of subsidized imported foodstuff in Pakistan.
As for as the domestic support is concerned, Pakistan had
“market price support programs” for 11 crops during 1986-88 (Base Period for
AoA). The base period aggregate measurement of support (AMS) was zero from the
AoA viewpoint for these 11 crops bar sugarcane, which itself was within the
permissible level (de minimis level). Similarly the non-product specific
AMS in the form of fertilizer subsidy, electrical subsidy, and credit subsidy
were also within the de minimis level. Being a developing country,
Pakistan was allowed to give special and differential treatment (SDT) subsidies
that amounted to Rs. 2085 million in 1986-88 on fertilizer, credit and tubewell
electricity. These subsidies were for the farmers with landholding of less than
five hectares. However, Pakistan stopped availing the benefit of SDT provisions
and eliminated these subsidies in 1997-98. Pakistan still can utilize domestic
support provision under AoA.
Prior to the establishment of WTO, Pakistan occasionally
provided direct export subsidies. Exports of rice and cotton were subsidized
when the export trade was a monopoly of the public sector, but the subsidy was
abolished when the private sector was permitted to trade in these products.
Thus there was no export subsidy on agricultural products in the base period
for AoA and accordingly Pakistan cannot resort to them in future. However, it
is entitled to provide subsidies to reduce the costs of marketing exports and
internal transport as well as freight charges on exports shipment.
Apparently, it seems that AoA is not affecting the
agricultural sector in Pakistan. However, one needs to analyse this situation
in broader multilateral trading system, where the players and economies are
highly unequal. While we are unable to give domestic support or subsidies to
our farmers either due to the lack of resources or under the bindings of
various loans that we are getting from various international financial
institutes for “structural adjustment” and/or “structural reforms” programs, a
number of developed countries have devised a “legal” way out to soften their
reduction commitments under AoA. Many studies reveal that level of
protectionism in agricultural trade has gone higher in the developed world
despite the fact that their reduction commitments are (apparently) high.
According to the OECD, developed countries spent US $ 360
billion on agriculture in 1999 (about seven times more than what they had given
to the poor countries in international development assistance). Likewise, U.S.
subsidies to cotton growers totaled $3.9 billion in 2002, three times the U.S.
foreign aid to Africa. This depressed world cotton prices, cut the income of
the poor farmers in West Africa, Central and South Asia, and the poor countries
around the world. Removal of U.S. subsidies on this one crop alone could
increase revenues from cotton by about $250 million in West and Central Africa. Thus the Agreement on Agriculture
is creating inequalities between countries that could give substantial support
and protection to their agricultural sector (the developed countries) -and
those, which could not provide such protection to their agriculture sector
(under developed). This is a vicious circle where developed countries are
protecting their farms with huge subsidies and grants and later on the produce
is dumped in the developing countries. When it comes to import from developing
world, the developed countries have hundred and one excuses such as sanitary and
phyto-sanitary measures and environmental standards.
International Monetary Fund (IMF), the World Bank, and
Asian Development Bank (ADB) by influencing the policy-making processes in the
developing countries are widening these inequalities. Over decades, the
IMF/World Bank loan conditions have forced developing countries to lower their
trade barriers, cut subsidies for their domestic food producers, and eliminate
government programs aimed to enhance rural agriculture. It was the loan
conditionality of the ADB’s Agricultural Structural Reform Loan that forced
Pakistan to take “U” turn from its “Development Box” stance it took at the WTO
Ministerial Conference at Doha just two months after the Conference. So far,
the deeds of International Financial Institutions (IFIs) were considered
independent from those of the WTO. However, on 13th May WTO Director
General Supachai Panitchpakdi, IMF Managing Director Horst Köhler and World
Bank President James Wolfensohn met during the WTO General Council meeting on
coherence. The theme of the meeting was to bring coherence in the plans and
strategies of world economic agencies. In other words what Bretton Woods
institutes were doing from back channels would be openly done now in the name
of coherence.
Pakistan in this situation needs to remain over cautious.
So far our negotiators in WTO Geneva have done a wonderful job. However, at
home front there is a room for further improvement. The civil servants are
being sent abroad (mostly Switzerland and the United Statees) for WTO training
courses. However, most of them are posted in other departments when they start
to know about their subject. Why not to form a WTO cadre in our civil service
structure so that the civil servants may concentrate on WTO issues with full
concentration. There is also a sheer need to involve academia and private
sector (including various chambers of commerce) in WTO capacity building
efforts. Moreover, arranging seminars and workshops in five star hotels is not
the only way of building capacity. Various developing agencies and various
ministries should also sponsor empirical research on the challenges and
opportunities that WTO presents. This is the time to act and not resort to
rhetoric.
Corporate Agriculture Farming: Damaging interests of
small farmers
Roshan Malik
roshan@sdpi.org
The
policy package for Corporate Agriculture Farming (CAF) approved by the
Musharraf cabinet has been a matter of great controversy within the government
circles, civil society organizations and small farmers’ groups. It claims that
the policy would bring foreign investors, latest machinery and new methods of
cultivation in the country. This would increase agricultural production and
improve its quality.
The
CAF sector would enjoy the status of an industry with sufficient credit
facilities available with the banks for corporate entities. There would be no
upper ceiling on land holding and a legal cover would be given to investors by
amending Land Reform Act 1977 Section 7 of MLR 115 and Section 8 of MLR 64.
State land would either be sold or leased to potential investors for 50 years,
extendable to another similar period. Import of agricultural machinery for CAF
would be exempted from customs duty. The duty on transfer of land to corporate
agriculture companies would also be exempted. Land Reforms Act 1977 would have
to be amended by including definition of Corporate Agriculture Farming in
Article 2 as well as to incorporate the verdict by Shariat Appellate Bench of
the Supreme Court in 1991 which allows the state to acquire any land any where
in the country. While CAF policy is one step ahead from that of the verdict. It
has been designed for the convenience of investors, while ignoring landless
poor farmers.
CAF
is a model for wealthy countries that pursue industrialised agriculture. It
denies the interest and needs of billions of small vulnerable farmers who do
not live in that world. After World War II, developed countries provided huge
subsidies to their agriculture sector to overcome the food shortage. But the
situation in Pakistan is very different. Agriculture sector is still under
developed. The withdrawal of subsidies and domestic support and imposition of
GST on fertilizers and increase in power tariffs are already pushing the
farmers towards wall. Now the CAF policy would further aggravate their
vulnerability and problems. The policy provides more privileges to corporate
investors in the name of attracting foreign investment.
More
than 45% people in Pakistan generate income from agriculture sector and 93% of
them are small farmers, having very meager resources to afford hi-tech
machinery for cultivation. The corporate farming investors equipped with latest
machinery and capital would leave the small farmers far behind them. Similarly,
corporate firms would be more interested in cash crops instead of food crops.
Therefore, they might promote monoculture-cropping system, which could be a
direct risk to our food security. The local resources would then no more be in
the hands of small farmers and their food security would be at stake, as their
production would not remain competitive in the market. The farmers would either
get jobs without labour laws or migrate to cities for job thus burdening the
civic planning and management. This would ultimately increase levels of
poverty.
The
supporters of CAF claim that there would be an increase in production and
economic activity. Pakistan recorded bumper wheat production during last two
years, but many people and cattle died from hunger. It shows that our food
distribution mechanism needs to be addressed seriously. That is why the poverty
genie is out of bottle instead of the policies and assistance provided by the
International Financing Institutions (IFIs).
CAF
is capital oriented and not labour conducive. The import of agricultural
implements would damage the local implements manufacturing industry in Mian
Channu and Okara, both in Punjab. The local agricultural implements
manufacturing industry should be promoted and protected by not allowing
exemption on duty on import of implements to corporate companies.
The
focus of agricultural corporate sector is on the state land in Pakistan.
Although Supreme Court’s verdict gives the state a right to acquire land, but
it does not mean that the land would be sold or leased to foreign companies.
The local communities, the besieged tenants, the landless poor, the vulnerable
downtrodden should be given the cultivable wasteland owned by the government.
It would bring them out of the poverty trap and provide them better
livelihoods.
Implementation
of CAF policy would result into massive eviction of indigenous communities
living in Balochistan, Cholistan, Thal and certain other areas. They are
already drought ridden and their vulnerability would be increased further when
they would be pressurized to evacuate from the land for the corporate masters.
The displaced communities due to building of mega-projects were still unable to
resettle. The harassment of tenants in Punjab was another glaring example of
corporatization of agriculture sector. They have been tilling the land for the
last hundred years. Now they are being besieged, harassed and killed by the
government agencies to evict the land.
The
cultivable wasteland in Cholistan (Bahawalpur and Rahimyarkhan,) is 6.6 million
acres with 1.2 million inhabitants. Since 1978, only 350000 acres were allotted
to its 30000 applicants while 5784 applications are still pending. All the
people who were allotted the lands are now in better economic conditions as
compared to the majority of the poor landless Rohailas (inhabitants). The
allotment of the land is banned regardless of the promises and commitments made
by the successive governments to allot the land to the landless Rohailas. It
seems that the government wants to bring these Rohailas and people in other
parts of the country to the same fate as of tenants in Pirowal and Okara.
After
land, water is another important issue that should be seen in the CAF
perspective. FAO is focusing on “Water: a Source of Food Security” and says
"the world can find enough water to produce the food needed for future
generations, if we manage water wisely, now!" Agriculture consumes 70
percent of the freshwater harnessing. And by the year 2030, the world would
require 60% more food, 80% of which would be agriculture based produced through
irrigation of water.
In
Pakistan, rapid depletion of water and its distribution among the provinces has
already been a very contentious issue. Indus River System Authority (IRSA) is
unable to cater to the water needs of corporate farms to be established on the
cultivable wastelands as this system could hardly meet the requirements of the
provinces. To meet water requirement, if corporate farms would harvest water
from underground sources, the water table would further go down.
Pakistan
is a signatory to United Nation Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD). A
report submitted in April 2002 by the government to UNCCD secretariat says the
state owned lands would be distributed among the poor to reduce poverty.
Similarly, in the Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper, government clearly says the
state owned land would be distributed among the poor to bring them out of
vicious circle of poverty.
It
is necessary for us to look into the realities on ground. CAF was developed in
the developed countries by allowing huge subsidies by the government to
agriculture sector, while we are introducing the policy in the perspective of
trade liberalization under which our farmers would have to compete with the
corporate sector without subsidies and protections. This would badly affect our
farming and subsistence agriculture thus plunging the poor into deep poverty
trap. To evolve a national consensus on the CAF policy of Musharraf government,
the parliament should discuss pros and cons of this policy to save our farmers
and agriculture from the clutches of the multinational corporations in the name
of corporate agriculture farming.
Market access and organic farming
qasim@sdpi.org
Either there are no buyers in the market, or God has bestowed
upon us his bounties that still we hold stock of wheat from previous years.
This year again, there is a bumper harvest, where will it go? Not only the
wheat stocks but also bulk of cotton and heaps of rice are in godowns. We have
to find out reasons as to why we could not off load our stocks despite
concessions like low tariffs, binding for every country to import some of the
agricultural products for domestic consumption from other countries under the
Agreement on Agriculture (AoA) and an edge of being a preferential and
differential country status, acknowledging our role in the war against
terrorism. High cost of production has been identified as the main reason for
less export of agriculture stocks. Higher the cost of production the lower will
be the demand in either national or international markets. The higher cost of
production makes goods non-competitive in terms of both the price and the
quality in the market and hence forces decline in export targets. Another
reason, which makes Pakistani agriculture produce non-competitive, is the
subsidies provided by the developed world to their farmers.
Though the green revolution of 1960s almost doubled our
agriculture production, luring farmers to sow hybrid seeds, use chemical
fertilizers and pesticides that increased the cost of inputs. The use of
chemical fertilizers, pesticides and hybrid seed later proved to be harmful to
both farmers and the consumers of the agricultural products. These inputs
damaged the environment and under burdened the economies of small farmers. The
green revolution literally made farming communities non-competitive even at
local market level. Health hazards, linked to use of pesticides and chemical
fertilizers, have now proved beyond doubt. The environmentalists oppose use of such
hazardous inputs rather the pro-environment agricultural experts are now
professing organic/traditional farming.
If we go by the supporters of the green revolution, we
would be right to ask from them as for whom they want to grow more with hybrid
seeds using toxic chemical fertilizers and pesticide otherwise hazardous for
human beings when the growers and consumers would not be the beneficiaries
rather sufferers of high production cost, the prices of commodities and health
hazards linked to these produces.
Now people are talking of one step ahead of green
revolution. There is a new concept of Integrated Resource Management, which is
generally termed as Blue Revolution. And for us, since the last one-decade, we
have reached a point where increased inputs have a little impact on production,
that is almost stagnant now. According to law of diminishing returns become
effective, when increase in inputs instead of increase in returns, results in
decrease in output. When we look into the theory of returns to scale, its one
aspect is ‘constant returns’ to scale, which denotes a case where a change in
all inputs leads to a proportional change in output. The other is ‘increasing
returns to scale’ that arises when an increase in all inputs leads to a more
than proportional increase in the level of output. And the last is ‘decreasing
returns to scale’ that occurs when a balanced increase of all inputs leads to a
less than proportional increase in total output. The last one seems more likely
happening in our case.
Most of our farmers have small land holdings, they are not
able to bear such huge expenses on inputs, and generally expenditure on inputs
are much more than what they got in return. So it’s high time for us to search
out some alternates, the best alternate, so for is the organic farming. One can
find out hundred of success stories, in EU, USA, Germany and in many other
developed countries, where organic farming has gained roots. Even in our case,
there are many people practising organic farming, even in irrigated areas. This
writer visited a farm at Shireen Maafi, District Okara, where every thing is
produced organically. Owner of the farm has established a plant for preparing
organic fertilizer from dung. And in his opinion, biogas obtained during the
process is a by-product, while slurry obtained from the dung is actual product.
There is a high demand of organic produce all over the world, and it fetches a
good price, almost two times greater than ordinary produce.
God has gifted us with variable ecosystems. Without taking
much trouble, we can introduce organic agriculture in Barani areas, where soils
have no taste of chemicals. In these areas people still grow traditional seeds.
The only thing needed is government support. If government is ready to offer its
expertise, research facilities, extension services and makes a policy indent
for promotion of traditional agriculture, then there is no reason that Barani
areas remain behind irrigated agriculture. These measures are even allowed in
agreement on agriculture under green box. The only thing required, is the same
zeal and vigor with which idea of green revolution was materialized. As many
as,1.4 million hectares of Barani land can be much more productive and we can
earn much needed foreign exchange almost if not equal half to that earned from
mechanized agriculture. Then there is no need to explore new markets for our
produce, as there is an ever-increasing demand for organic produce. The Aga
Khan Rural Support Program (AKRSP) last year marketed 25 tons of organic
apricots from Northern Areas against the demand of 400 tons from abroad. This
year, their target for export of organic apricots is 60 tons and they are also
aspiring to get certified their produce as organic stuff.
The other factor that undermines
market access is mandatory standards. Every product, offered in market is
supposed to observe standards set by standard setting bodies. For food items,
standards are determined by FAO/WHO Codex Alimentarius Commission, while for
items falling within animal origin standards are maintained by Office
International Epizootics and standards for plant health are set by
International Plant Protection Convention in consultation with regional
organizations working under the umbrella of FAO. If we talk about standards of
our products, we find that let alone USA and European Union, even Sri Lanka
refused to buy onion from Pakistan on account of high residual content. The
other potential threat in future, that can limit our access to the foreign
markets, still not part of multilateral trade agreements, but will be very much
there after next WTO ministerial meeting, is the link between trade and
environment. It is not only mandatory for Pakistan but for the entire
developing world to decide to take a U-turn, a complete shift from corporate
agriculture to traditional agriculture, practiced since centuries, which is
panacea to all present day ills. This change will not only ensure greater
market access but will also serve the cause of environmental conservation. And
above all, it is totally in compliance with standards maintained
internationally.
Child Labor: Break the vicious circle of poverty and
illiteracy
Ali Ahmed Rind
Alirind@sdpi.org
Every
morning, 15 year-old Serab Gul leaves his home for one and half-hour ride,
changing two public transport vehicle on the way, to Islamabad. However, unlike
other boys of his age, who travel from the outskirts of the city to go to
school, Serab's journey ends at the car parking area of the Banking and
Commercial complex at Islamabad’s Diplomatic Enclave. The bag on his shoulder
does not contain books, but boxes of caustic, and often abrasive detergent
powder and a brush. He comes here to wash cars for which he earns about one
hundred rupees for a single day’s job.
Serab Gul left school after his father, a laborer
himself, lost his eyesight after developing some unknown illness. At the age of
13, Serab found himself in the role of sole bread earner in his family. He
lives in rented house in rural areas of the capital city, with no gas or electricity
facilities. Serab’s mother died, last year, after developing renal failure. She
was put to dialysis; however, she could not survive, as the treatment was too
costly for a family that depended on Serab’s meager income.
Serab’s story is very much linked to an interesting
debate that has been continuing on the subject of child labor in Pakistan since
past many years. Interesting point, however, is that this brainstorming,
academic debate notwithstanding, the plague of child labor is on its march consistently
in the nook and corner of the country. Civil society groups, media and the
government could only watch it spreading like a contiguous disease. Sounds,
they only can do the job of pointing a finger to the way this nuisance is
heading.
Equally awkward facet of this saga is that even the
children working in garages, teashops, parking lots or pulling donkey carts
don’t know that in the cool, murky halls of one or other hotel, their plight
and life are being debated. All the papers, words and edicts, that the
enlighten elitist and middle class had been churning out in one or other
inspired event have no impact on their living, thus rendering this debate a
futile exercise, no more than a wishful thinking of our elitists who talk on
the issue like making a case for the eradication of reed from the front lawn.
Globally speaking, there is no single cause of child
labor nor any single model adequately explain complex phenomenon of child
labor. Nevertheless, some of the factors affecting child labor are identified
as low income, indebting of family (part of repaying the debt involves a child
becoming an indentured labor to the creditor party), big family size and
fertility (household with more children end up providing less education for
each child and may need to send children to work to help earn income to meet
needs), household structure and migration, difficulty in easy access to
qualitative schooling, and demand within a given society for child labor.
However, according to a study the most common cause behind child labor in
Pakistan remains of death or illness of adult member of the family.
During past few decades, there has been an upsurge in
child rights movement. Back in 1998 Global March against child labor passed
through more than eighty countries, which led to the adoption of a new
convention (C-182) by the ILO Labor Assembly Against worst form of child labor
in June 1999, which also covers, bonded labor, sale of children and child
prostitution. The ILO’s Convention 182 concerning the prohibition and immediate
Action for Elimination of the worst form of child labor concedes to the fact
that effective elimination of the worst form of the child labor requires
immediate and comprehensive action, taking into account the importance of free
basic education and the need to address the needs of their families. The
convention recognizes that child labor to a great extent is caused by poverty
and that the long-term solution lies in sustained economic growth leading to
social progress, in particular poverty alleviation and universal education.
According to Article 1 of C-182, “Each state party, which ratifies this
convention shall take immediate and effective measures to secure the
prohibition and elimination of the worst form of child labor as a matter of urgency.
ILO, through International Program on the Elimination of Child labor (IPEC) is
helping Pakistan to remove child labor and rehabilitate child worker.
Under Pakistan’s law, 14 years is generally considered as
an age under which children should not work. However International Labor
Organization marks 18 years as the age, under which children should not be
permitted to work in any of the conditions. In 2001 Pakistan ratified ILO’s
Convention 182, which is binding for the signatory nation to commit itself to
not allow children under the age of 18 to work in the hazardous working
conditions or in worst form of child labor. According to ILO, around the world,
some 246 million children between 5 and 17 years are working instead of
attending school.
Only survey that we have for exacting the number of child
workers in Pakistan was conducted by the Federal Bureau of Statistics with
ILO’s assistance, in 1996, showing number of child labor in the country as 3.3
million. The survey showed that two third of total child workers are boys while
one third are girls. The Federal Bureau of Statistics is planning to carry out
on its own another child labor survey in 2003-04. Unofficial sources place the
numbers of child workers around 8 million. An official of ILO in Islamabad
opined that government’s initiative of Education For All (EFA) is a key macro
policy measure to address the issue. According to him, inclusion of child labor
as an indicator of poverty in Pakistan Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper is
enough to show the commitment at the part of government to tackle the menace of
child labor.
There are official pledges to make education free and
compulsory for all by the year 2015 under the slogan of EFA. A recent meeting
of the ministers of Education from South Asian Countries in their joint
statement (Islamabad Declaration) made known that they recognize education as
the most critical lever for alleviating poverty. We are no shorts of people who
think that free, compulsory and meaningful education for all children, especially
girl children and rural children, is a viable strategy to curb child labor.
In a recent workshop in the capital city, head of USAID
Pakistan enlightened the audience that education is the only solution to the
problems Pakistan is facing today. However, what we see as a ground reality
that education has become a luxury that only well off could afford. A recent
study conducted by planning section of Department of Schools and Literacy,
government of NWFP suggests that poverty remains to be one of major cause of
keeping children away from the schools.
There are many who argue that effective enforcement of
laws regarding child labor (prevalence fines and punishment) were to deter
violation of law. Others view social mobilization as a way forward to eliminate
child labor. They insist that child right could only be assured in a true
democratic system, where there is rule of law and respect for fundamental human
rights. “Today’s child laborers can never become tomorrow’s healthy and
productive citizens as their child-hood is robbed of by the rigors of life they
had to face at a tender age,” one Indian speaker, who has campaigned against
child labor across the glob, was heard saying in a seminar on child labor in
Islamabad.
It is widely understood that children are preferred, as
workers because they are cheaper source of labor and that they cannot form
trade union, thus cannot go to strike or sue their employer for the breach of
their labor rights. Noted social scientist Kaiser Bengali says only pragmatic
approach towards the issue would to regulate nature of the job for the young
workers rather than going for out-rightly outlawing it, as many campaigners on
child labor press for. He suggests that fixing the work schedule, thus
lessening of the working hours combined with compulsory education in spare time
is only practical solution available to us to tackle the issue.
So, the debates go on that what compels children to put
their books and playing tools aside and embark upon a journey that robs them of
the tenderness of carefree life? Are they free to choose or is it
socio-economic compulsion and poor-unfriendly governing system that compel them
to embark upon new course of life having stigma of child labor. Many people
think that it is lack of access to easy and free education that ultimately
results into the child labor. Likewise, there are no less people who think that
it is poverty that keeps children away from school.
“Child labor is caused by poverty and vice versa,” says
Anees Jeelani, leading child rights activist. He suggests that strategy to
eliminate child labor involve poverty alleviation measures, making education
free and compulsory up to the secondary school level, implementing child labor
laws up to the informal sectors, particularly rural areas. The civil society
groups are yet to figure out what entry point would be to tackle the issue. We
have to break the vicious cycle of poverty and illiteracy to end child labor.
Ring project report
Knowledge production face to face with sustainable
development
Nadia Maleeha and Ayesha Khurshid
main@sdpi.org
This
report aims at unraveling some of the factors that drive knowledge production face to face with
sustainable development (SD) in the context of Pakistan. It addresses the
questions such as: how research agendas are determined, what gives rise to the
need for a particular kind of research to be undertaken, how then the research
is used and who benefits from it?
Sample
selection is important since it is central to the drawing of the results. The
interviewees were chosen carefully, keeping in mind the diverse roles of
various organizations in the whole process of knowledge production, especially
in the Pakistani context. We chose to interview representatives from four
organizations/institutions including Planning Commission of Pakistan; World
Bank; National Rural Support Program (NRSP), and Pakistan Institute of
Development Economics (PIDE).
Before
discussing the major themes that the survey has brought into light, a couple of
points need special consideration. The most important among them is the vague
categorization of institutions as ‘users, donors or research institutes’. None
of the organizations in the study could categorically be placed in one group
per se. In fact a few of them shared the characteristics pertaining to all the
three categories to a certain extent. This multiplicity of identities plays a
key role in explaining the processes that determine knowledge production and
dissemination. This would become conspicuous as we discuss the emerging themes.
The second aspect is the broad overarching agendas of the organizations. Broad
in this context implies lack of focus, vagueness and ambiguity. This would
become more obvious as we discuss the following salient themes.
A. Research Criteria
The questionnaire data indicates that users base
their demands on national and local agendas and donors/sponsors provide funding
on more or less the same issues. The research institutes then take these up and
things seem to be quite orderly. However, this is where one should contemplate
on the issue pointed out in the beginning, that is, of the hazy categorization
and multiple identities of the participating organizations. Since in a couple
of cases, the same organization happens to be the user and the researcher,
there is an ostensible alignment between them. This should not be taken to
represent the whole scenario prevalent in this context since it would lead to
biased conclusions.
Careful sample selection for interviews plays crucial
role in drawing conclusive results and categorical images with their
complexities. An interviewee from the World Bank asserted that the projects are
taken up entirely on the client’s initiative (Government of Pakistan). Whereas
an interviewee from the Planning Commission of Pakistan thought otherwise
arguing that the government would only propose those projects that could bring
in money, which implicitly would be donor-driven. In fact, client-driven agenda
is a donor-driven one.
B. Selecting Research Institutes and transmitting agendas
There are a handful of development sector
institutions carrying out research in Pakistan. They have carved a niche for
themselves in this arena. The criteria for selection are the credibility and
sound research background of the institution. Moreover, relationship of a
research institute with funding and user agencies seems to be very important
and useful. Quality of research and public relations are equally important in
the selection of a research institute to provide knowledge on Sustainable
Development.
C. Use of
research
Research organizations do give importance to
independent research, but impact of the usefulness of that research is hardly
portrayed. They have no strict and sophisticated designs for impact assessment.
They do publish studies and conduct seminars, but dissemination and flow of
information seem restricted and limited only to a certain class of people. NRSP
is such an organization that conducts research for internal consumption. It
reflects in the annual report with a focus on programme content rather
qualitative research.
D. Networking
Efforts were made to have formal
networking among various research organizations. But the extent and benefits and tangible advantages of the
networking could not be defined. This led to certain informal networking among
various organizations. Although, breadth of vision and regional outlook have
been mentioned as important benefits arising out of these networks, but there
still appears to be a lot of room for using these alliances as a means to
improving the quality of ongoing research and initiating fresh work.
Secondly, another major issue is
networking among research institutes and users other than the government. Most
of the research being conducted in Pakistan is policy research, which sometimes
tends to preclude perspectives that are coming from the lower strata of
society. Sometimes due to donor pressures for quick delivery of information
knowledge production exercise tends not to be comprehensive and inclusive of
multiple sources of data. This focus on quick research conducted by consultants
from mostly the upper and middle class is not conducive to networking with
people beyond the government circles or select Research Institutes.
The government serves more like a
link between the suppliers and the ultimate users of research. Hence, there is
a dire need, for stronger networking among the suppliers and the immediate
users of the research. These can be community organizations working directly
with the people. We need to underscore the importance of disseminating
knowledge to those who are the ultimate recipients. Language, in this context,
plays a major role. Most of the research is conducted in English, which limits
the scope of dispersion of knowledge, particularly to those who matter the
most. These obstacles need to be reckoned with, to facilitate the propagation
of knowledge.
E. Problems with Research institutes
and research
According to the funding bodies,
lack of networking amongst research organizations and lack of networking with
other segments of society is a major problem for the research organizations.
Another problem is that of better quality data. Unfortunately, it is quite
vague as to what ‘better quality data’ implies. It could be attributable to a
number of factors like lack of qualified personnel or lack of funding for
particular agendas.
An important point is that there
is a need for ‘pro-active’ research as mentioned by the government. It was
argued that an institution like SDPI was brought into being, specifically
keeping the requirement of ‘pro-active’ research in mind. This again is a
contradiction in terms, since the government barely ever releases funds for
‘pro-active’ research or demands such a research project to be conducted in any
case. This further intensifies the funding issue. It is due to lack of funds
that ‘pro-active’ research is not being conducted, which brings us back to the
initial argument of ‘donor driven’ research agendas. Since the primary motive
of starting a research project, as far as the government is concerned, happens
to be whatever is palatable to the donors, therefore laying the blame on lack
of pro-active research appears to be an empty argument.
What has served, as another grave
setback to the process of knowledge production, is the brain drain. Research
Institutes do not get funding due to lack of qualified personnel and vice
versa. Apparently we are stuck in a CATCH 22 situation where both of these
factors are reinforcing each other, creating serious hurdles in the smooth functioning
of this process.
Conclusion
Knowledge production with respect
to Sustainable Development is not as smooth a process, as it appears to be,
specifically in the context of Pakistan. The government, is simply ‘not
interested in knowledge production’ as one participant pointed out, either in
its own right or as put forward by the people’s needs. The drive for selecting
a particular research theme is the amount of funds that it can generate, which
ultimately results in following the donors’ agenda. For research institutes,
lack of funding has been termed as a major obstacle in carrying out more
research. This further underscores the influence exerted by donors in the whole
process of knowledge production.
The major donors not only control the funds, they are more
involved in the direction of the knowledge production exercise. What the
donors, might perceive as better accountability, might turn Pakistani
researchers into being mere managers of knowledge rather than knowledge
producers.
Conferences and Fieldwork
Regional seminar on Policies for the Protection of
Farmers’ Rights: Evolving sui generis Options for the Hindu-Kush
Himalayas
Dr. Abid Qaiyum Suleri
abid@sdpi.org
South Asia Watch on Trade, Economic and Environment
(SAWTEE) together with International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development
(ICIMOD), organised a three-day regional seminar on “Policies for the
Protection of Farmers’ Rights in Mountain Regions: Evolving sui generis Options
for the Hindu-Kush Himalayas (HKH)” in Kathmandu, Nepal from 24-26 March 2003.
The objectives of the seminar were to:
·
Help policy makers and civil
society actors understand the contemporary debate on intellectual property
protection and rights of the poor, marginalised and vulnerable farmers of the
region in general and mountain farmers in particular.
·
Explore
various options available under the Trade Related Aspects of Intellectual
Property Rights (TRIPS) Agreement of the World Trade Organisation (WTO) to
prepare a balanced legislation that would protect the rights of commercial
breeders without impairing the rights of farmers to save, exchange, re-use and
sell seeds.
·
Explore
and evolve specific policy options, which would contribute to safeguarding the
rights of mountain farmers.
·
Provide
trade negotiators with skills and knowledge necessary to negotiate during the
on-going review of TRIPS Agreement.
More than 80 delegates from eleven countries attended the
seminar. At the end of the seminar, the participants adopted a resolution on
farmers’ rights, which is expected to help the policymakers in devising an
effective mechanism for the protection of farmers’ rights.
In the context of agriculture related international
agreements including TRIPS, the United Nations (UN) Convention on Biological
Diversity (CBD), International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and
Agriculture (IT-PGRFA), and emerging awakening of the farmers on their rights,
this seminar addressed by experts on farmers’ rights, representatives of
governments, civil society, media and academia from South Asia, East Asia, and
Europe calls upon the governments and the international agencies to evolve a
mechanism that respects the centuries old traditional practices of farmers of
sharing plant genetic resources.
This seminar urges the governments of the HKH and South
Asia regions to enact the legislation that ensure protection of local knowledge
of farming communities and plant varieties including the ones developed by
farmers, following an effective sui generis system wherein:
Law making process should be transparent and
participatory, involving all stakeholders such as governments, civil society,
and farmers’ rights groups.
Issues of food security, food sovereignty and livelihood
security should be addressed properly.
Research, development policies and actions must take care
of the livelihood interests of the least developed areas and the marginalised
mountain farming communities.
Improved access to inputs including sustainable
technology, which must not endanger health safety and environment, should be
ensured.
The seminar calls upon the governments to stop increasing
corporatisation of basic resources such as land, water, bio-mass and forests so
as to guarantee an enabling environment for small and marginalised farmers with
special emphasis on gender issues in rural livelihood context. The seminar
rejects patents on life forms and emphasises that bio-piracy should be stopped
effectively. Legislation for this purpose must be enacted at local, provincial
and federal levels, paying due attention to the vulnerability and threat of
marginalisation faced by mountain farmers.
The farmers’ rights that need to be addressed while
drafting the sui generis legislation with their multi-dimensional aspects
should include:
·
The
right of farmers to protect their traditional knowledge associated with plant
genetic resources from being misappropriated.
·
The
rights of farmers over plant varieties and local knowledge over and above the
corporate breeders’ rights.
·
The
traditional rights of farmers to save, use, sow, re-sow, exchange, sell and
improve farm saved seed of all plant varieties.
·
The
right to compensation from the right holders of plant varieties for under
performance and loss from misleading claims.
·
The
right of farmers to receive equitable benefit sharing, both monetary and
non-monetary, for the use of plant genetic resources created and conserved by
them for the development of new commercial varieties, with due regards being
given to the economic valuation of the plant and seed varieties developed by
them during the process of evolution since centuries.
·
The
right of farmers to be informed of the market opportunities so that they could
better assess the marketing options for their produce.
·
The
right of farmers to get protected against bio-piracy and theft of their
traditional knowledge.
·
The
right of farmers to be aware of national and international agreements affecting
their livelihoods directly or indirectly.
Globalisation and Mountain Farmers: Tapping Opportunities
and Mitigating Threats March 2003:
South Asia Watch on Trade, Economic and Environment
(SAWTEE) has published a volume of the compilation of the research studies that
were undertaken by its five partners: Bangladesh Environmental Lawyers
Association (BELA) in Bangladesh; Consumers Unity and Trust Society (CUTS) in
India; Pro Public in Nepal; Sustainable Development Policy Institute (SDPI) in
Pakistan; and Law and Society Trust (LST) in Sri Lanka. The volume titled
"Globalisation and mountain farmers: Tapping opportunities and mitigating
threats" has six chapters that deal with the country case studies covering
various issues of farmers' rights in the mountain regions of South Asia. The
volume, edited by Shafqat Munir and Kamalesh Adhikari, has been published under
the farmers' rights programme that SAWTEE is currently implementing in mountain
regions of Hindu-Kush Himalaya and Sri Lanka. Dr. Yubaraj Khatiwada, Member,
National Planning Commission (NPC) Nepal released the volume during the
regional seminar on farmers' rights held in Kathmandu from 24-26 March 2003.
Training of SMART-1
Provincial Module for EPAs of NWFP, Sindh and Balochistan
masood@sdpi.org
A team
from the Sustainable Development Policy Institute (SDPI) went to the
Environment Protection Agencies (EPAs) in Peshawar, Karachi and Quetta during
April 14-19 to help them install the Self Monitoring and Reporting Tools (SMART-1)
Provincial Module and to train their officials on the working of the module.
The SMART Provincial Module/software (on CD) was also handed over to the focal
persons appointed for respective EPAs. The directors general of EPA Sindh and
Balochistan took keen interest in the training program.
The
training was initiated by introducing the SMART program along with background
information, as a task taken up by the SDPI in its technology transfer project
on the request of Pak EPA. The participants were provided with a detailed
briefing on the in-flow and out-flow of data pertaining to industrial releases,
both in the forms of liquid effluents and gaseous emissions. A dummy set of
SMART Industrial Module was installed for their better understanding and future
reference. The soft copies of User Instruction Manual for Industrial Module and
relevant presentations on the SMART Industrial and Provincial Modules were
provided on a CD.
The
participants were given a detailed and comprehensive training on the effective
use of the SMART-1 Provincial Module, which included:
·
Appending industrial data in the Provincial
program.
·
Monitoring information pertaining to industries
and their respective types.
·
Producing/generating various reports on priority
parameters both on the basis of Individual Plant and Plant Types wise.
·
Viewing/printing the list of defaulters such as:
Delinquents: Current: those who have not submitted the reports in the recent
months. Consecutive: those who have not been reporting consecutively for more
than three 3-4 reporting periods. Defaulters: those who are not complying with
NEQS.
·
Generating notices/letters to the defaulters in
the SMART Program
·
Generating EPA reports for Federal EPA
The SMART
Industrial data reports may be viewed both in text, as well as, in graphical
formats. With respect to issuing notifications to the defaulters, the
participants in general, whereas the focal persons, in particular, were
explained on how to generate customised notices from the system/program. This
way, they would be able to alter/edit the notices/letters according to their
needs in future.
At the
end, again the participants, in general, but the focal persons, in particular,
were told about the importance of taking regular back-ups of their data files.
They were also told on how to save the data files received from Industries as
well as the EPA reports in proper chronological order in the PCs.
At the
end of the training programme, SDPI was presented with a letter of
acknowledgment by the focal persons of each provincial EPA for the services
provided, vis-à-vis the delivery of successful training program and handing
over of SMART-1 Provincial database.
SDPI’s Training Unit- An Overview
Asmat Ullah
asmatullah@sdpi.org
Josh Billings has rightly said that there is nothing so
easy to learn as experience and nothing so hard to apply. Through the training
arrangements we genuinely try to open up vistas of experience sharing and help
trainees to apply these learning as per their professional requisitions. It is
no disguising the fact that short training courses help professionals to equip
themselves with the cardinal requirements of the trade and apply it to the best
of its utility. It not only facilitates their working mechanism but also
galvanize their immaculate performance. Training unit at SDPI was initially
meant to extend short training courses of three to five days to Pakistan Environment
Program partners. This was to facilitate implementing National Conservation
Strategy by means of strengthening capacity of key sectors related to
environment. Therefore, a few seats were reserved for the sectors interested in
such capacity building programs other than the PEP partners.
All those who attended these training programs, the
partners and the donors described the training courses arranged at SDPI as
useful. All this encouraged the training unit to embark upon launching courses
for in-house capacity building and for the private/public sector organizations.
Since its inception (July 1998) SDPI’s training unit has accumulatively
arranged 76 training events under PECC, PEP and SDPI classifications and
trained 1406 individuals. Gender ratio remained as 1093 men and 313 women.
The Population and Environment Communication Centre
(PECC) at SDPI entrusted the unit to design and conduct trainings for the
project on Population and Environment. The trainings on seven themes have been
accomplished through which 190 individuals have been imparted training
opportunity.
Training unit deems the quality component as major
contributor to its success. The resource persons hired for such trainings are
known for their expertise in the area. The reading material, group discussions,
exercises, case studies and field visits/simulated exercises are integral parts
of trainings. Moreover, it imparts trainings on an affordable fee package. The
competitors having this standard of packages often stand above the limits of
affordability in financial terms particularly to those organizations who run
limited financial resources for human resource development as CBOs or small
scale NGOs and small organizations. Even the packages like Environmental Impact
Assessment or Environmental Monitoring that are designed for the corporate
sector charge meager amount of fee.
The training unit is equipped with the latest
art-of-the-craft accessories and a congenial learning atmosphere. The computer
laboratory is spacious enough to accommodate the training groups to accomplish
their group tasks. During the intervals trainees may well enjoy reading
valuable material in the resource center or may also avail e-mail/internet
facilities in the lab.
The training unit is currently working with five members
well coordinated team of personals fully dedicated to shoulder all types of
challenges in the realm of training. On the request of AKRSP, Chitral the unit
designed and delivered a training course at Chitral with a great success. The
criteria for the success of trainings is solely dependent on the evaluation
carried out by the trainees. Their suggestions and comments are taken seriously
and are brought forward to Fellows’ Council and Executive Director for
necessary actions. This sort of transparent activities went a long way making
this unit one among the best training institutes in the country.