SochBichar

Haris Gazdar is a "thought entrepreneur." He and his colleagues have developed an important research enterprise called "Collective for Social Science Research." 

In recent research he has been intrigued by the issue of researching social science in English while the society thinks in another language. He feels it may be important to understand the disconnect between research and policy. Language and its accompanying idiom may be bigger barrier than we often think about. So here is a thoughtful dialog on the the important issue of language and how we think. 

 Issues discussed are:

If local languages were used for social science research, policy issues would be better understood and communicated.

Even social scientists might understand society better without a language divide. 

Would language be less of an issue if there was local government?

Does language inhibit social science thinking among society and policymakers or are social scientists finding another excuse? 

Has an ample body of learning been developed in social science in English or has language been a barrier?

All Pakistani recognize the importance of this issue. Listen and make up your mind what your view is. 

And of course, see what Haris recommends for you to read to expand your knowledge of development economics and policy.

Shahid Javed Burki is a well know Pakistani economist who rose to be World Bank Vice president. He also served as interim Finance Minister for Moeen Qureshi in the nineties. He has written extensively on Pakitan and has propound the thesis of Paksitan being  resilient economy in the midst of a "graveyard of institutions".

I find him to be best positioned to talk about the economic history of Paksitan.  So if you are interested in learning about how policy was made in Paksitan or how Paksitan dealt with the many crises in its history, listen to this. We discuss:

The development of the Paksitan state in very difficult circumstances.

The genesis of India Pakistan economic conflict.

The various crises faced by Paksitan and were policy responses adequate? 

The decline of institutions in Pakistan

It is an important podcast for all students and people interested in economics of Paksitan. 

You will also get reading recommendations by Mr. Burki and an idea of what he is reading.

We discuss with Shahid Yusuf, a leading international development thinker from Paksitan the role of industrialization in the development process. 

You will hear a wide ranging discussion drawing upon Shahid's extensive knowledge of development theory and history as well as his intimate knowledge of East Asia. The discussion covers many topics including

Why industrialization may still be important to growth?

Would manufacturing move from China and East Asia to countries like Pakistan as policymakers assume?

Is creeping technology making the development industrial policy and development of manufacturing more difficult? 

What can policy do to invigorate manufacturing? 

What sort of governance structures would be required to develop a coherent industrialization policy?

Should policy just think manufacturing or are complementary services required? 

Shahid is incisive and knowledgeable. Those interested in learning policy and research must carefully listen. There are lots of ideas for thinking, debate and research here.  

Listen carefully. Shahid also makes a surprising book recommendation that will certainly wake Pakistanis up!

We talk to Nadia NaviWala the author of a Wilson Center report on "Pakistan's Education Story: the Real Crisis".

Contrary to popular myth, Pakistan spending on eduction does not appear to be low. Despite education expenditures and much effort at reform, learning outcomes remain low.  

The problem may be education policy and management. Reform is happening at a slow pace and is donor led. Much of the Pakistan education thinker seems to be marginalized from it. 

What should the education sector look like? 

How should it operate? 

What should we expect from it?

Is educations sector demand led or supply driven? 

Is fixing education merely getting teacher to school?

Should textbooks be government driven? 

These are some of the questions addressed in this podcast. 

The education sector continues to remain little understood as dogma prevails over research and thinking.

Anjum and Nadeem take up the issue of service provision and user fees. 

Project development and public service provision are not a matter of political whims but the subject of deep thought involving investigation and public discussion.

What is required is 

1. Decentralization to bring projects and service delivery closer to the people. 

2. A process of investigating consumer preferences through possibly local universities and think tanks.

3. A decision making process which includes public consultation.  

4. Non politicization of this whole process

5. Democratic system to monitor and provide guidance. 

6. No MNA or bureaucratic direction of process.

Anjum and Nadeem discuss Anjum's research on Urban labor markets. Several important hemes for understand labor markets emerge in these discussions.  

How can we look at labor markets in Paksitan cities? 

What do they tell us about cities?

How do we get better integrated markets of opportunity for the poor? 

We hope that this will develop an interest in labor markets and urban areas in Pakistan. Research in these areas is severely lacking.

We talk to Ahemd Bialal Mehboob who is an research who is the founding Executive Director of Pakistan Institute of Legislative Development and Transparency (PILDAT). 

Pilot has run a highly successful project for the measurement of the quality of democracy in Paksitan. It has also contributed in a big way to developing and managing a democratic research agenda and generating a debate around it.  

We take up several issues relating to the understanding of democracy and what its state is in Pakistan.  

Questions addressed are:

Is our democracy making progress? Is it fast enough to save it?

What needs to be done to strengthen  it?

Is our constitutional framework adequate for good democracy? How can it be improved?  

Are the changes made in our system in recent past adequate?

What needs to be done further/

What is the state of the democratic debate in Paksitan?

What further research can be done?

This is an important debate on which we will bring in many more people nd talk to important contributors Like Bilal Mehboob again. 

We hope that you will join in this debate too.

Dedicated to the first generation of teachers in Pakistan who laid a great foundation for school education that we have subsequently ruined. Sadly we don't honor them---to our cost. 

We talk to Mr.s Roohi Haque a longstanding and very respected teacher who contributed to the growth of the world-famous Beaconhouse school system.  

Roohi's extensive experience allows us to gain an insight into the school system in Pakistan.

Why is the public school system not working?

Why si the private school system expensive but yet not of international quality? 

Why do tuitions persist?

Credentials seem to be more important than education. 

Most important of all: although increasing budget is a requirement, but in the current system increasing budgets will be useless given the waste. 

The system needs a compete revamp. For that there must be a lot more discussion and debate. 

What we learn is that there is a lot that needs to be learnt about education. it is a complex system where we will do a lot more work.

Researchers an help by doing mush more work on education system, its organization, its structure, teachers, their incentives, training and quality, the curriculum and many other issues.

We discuss with well known author and anchor Raza Rumi the role of the Civil Service in governance. 

Topics discussed are:

The history of the civil service. 

Efforts at civil service reform. 

The importance of bureaucracy in an economy

How the system operates today: Recruitments: power relationships; rules of business; and transfers.

Directions for reform 

What is holding change back?

Dedicated to the economic researcher (not consultant) who tries to address some real questions

The Government of Punjab has capped school fees in an effort to prevent rising cost of education. The ordinance presents a very interesting subject for economic analysis.

Well know economist, Professor Ali Cheema (who spoke to us on decentralization) discusses the implications of this measure with us to show us that the consequences of this measure may not be beneficial to education. 

We also discuss alternatives that could have been followed by the government to put in place a system for improving quality of education while keeping a check on costs. 

A fascinating economic policy discussion that follows shows us once again that a wiser government would seek to inform its policy choices by better economic thinking. 

One consistent theme that emerges in Soch Bichar is the need for more serious economic analysis for policy. 

We need more research and debate folks.