Corporate sustainability : greenwash or a path to sustainable capitalism?

The problems of unsustainable development and the increased-awareness of corporate power in the global era have contributed to an agenda of corporate citizenship. This thesis explores the meanings and practices that fall under the banner of the triple bottom line of corporate citizenship through forty-two in-depth interviews with representatives from the corporate sector and NGO sector (including trade unions) in Australia. This purposive sample includes a specific range of corporate industries and NGO types, all of which have involvement with various areas of sustainability. Interviewees described their feelings and experiences in relation to the concept of the triple bottom line, the potential and limitations of this type of sustainability and the purpose and impacts of partnerships between NGOs and the corporate sector. On the basis of this research, this thesis argues that corporate citizenship is at best, a set of initiatives for making minor adjustments to the way companies perform their day-to-day operations and at worst, a program for improving corporate image rather than performance and for shifting the agenda of sustainable development toward corporate interests. While radical steps are required to achieve a sustainable society and environment, the terms of corporate citizenship offer very limited opportunities for change. The self-regulatory and market based model of citizenship does not challenge the impact of consumerism or the legitimacy of particular industry types and their products, except where threats are perceived to the longevity of the companies involved. Furthermore, while the exploitation of the environment and society has occurred as a result of corporate self-interest, corporate citizenship is justified on the same basis. The self-interest rationale and the tyranny of the economic bottom line in particular, substantially limit the fields of responsibility that can be included in the citizenship paradigm. While there are undoubtedly some well-intentioned corporate representatives who are working toward attaining a more sustainable corporate culture, the discourse is primarily used to shift the sustainable development agenda toward corporate paradigms and interests.

Developing an approach to assess the influence of integrating disaster risk reduction practices into infrastructure reconstruction on socio-economic development

Purpose: Disasters provide physical, social, economic, political and environmental development windows of opportunity particularly through housing and infrastructure reconstruction. The reconstruction process should not be neglected due to the opportunistic nature of facilitating innovation in development. In this respect, post-disaster "infrastructure" reconstruction plays a critical role in development discourse and is often essential to sustain recovery after major disasters. However, reconstruction following a natural disaster is a complicated problem involving social, economic, cultural, environmental, psychological, and technological aspects. There are significant development benefits of well-developed "Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR) Strategies" and, for many reasons, the concept of DRR can be more easily promoted following a disaster. In this respect, a research study was conducted to investigate the effects of integrating DRR strategies into infrastructure reconstruction on enhancing the socio-economic development process from a qualitative stance. The purpose of this paper is to document part of this research study; it proposes an approach that can be used to assess the influence of the application of the DRR concept into infrastructure reconstruction on socio-economic development. Design/methodology/approach: The research methodology included a critical literature review. Findings: This paper suggests that the best way to assess the influence of integrating DRR strategies practices into infrastructure reconstruction on socio-economic development is to assess the level of impact that DRR strategies has on overcoming various factors that form vulnerabilities. Having assessed this, the next step is to assess the influence of overcoming the factors that form vulnerabilities on achieving performance targets of socio-economic development. Originality/value: This paper primarily presents a framework for the concept of socio-economic development and a modelled classification of DRR practices.

Labour and economic development: emerging issues in developing Asia

Contents:
Child labour and economic development : emerging issues in developing Asia /​ Gamini Herath and Kishor Sharma
Child labour in developing countries : review of theoretical and : empirical issues /​ Gamini Herath
Cumulative causation as explanation and policy base for child labour /​ G. Bamberry
Child labour : an integrated approach /​ Manohar Pawar
Trade, growth and child labour practices in South Asia /​ Kishor Sharma
An overview of child labour laws, prevention strategies and assessment of their effectiveness in Bangladesh /​ Jesmul Hasan
An overview of child labour in India /​ Subhashini Subbaraman and Harald von Witzke
Child labour in India : a critical evaluation of four issues /​ Anna Pinto
Prevention of child labour in Nepal : an overview of strategy and effectiveness
Chiranjibi nepal
Prevention of child labour in Pakistan : analysis of strategy and effectiveness /​ Shafqat Munir and Hassan Mangi
Issues relating to prevention of child labour in Sri Lanka /​ Nisha Arunatilake and Roshani de Silva.

Soil erosion in developing countries: a socio-economic appraisal

Soil erosion is the single most important environmental degradation problem in the developing world. Despite the plethora of literature that exists on the incidence, causes and impacts of soil erosion, a concrete understanding of this complex problem is lacking. This paper examines the soil erosion problem in developing countries in order to understand the complex inter-relationships between population pressure, poverty and environmental-institutional dynamics. Two recent theoretical developments, namely Boserup's theory on population pressure, poverty and soil erosion and Lopez's theory on environmental and institutional dynamics have been reviewed. The analysis reveals that negative impacts of technical change, inappropriate government policies and poor institutions are largely responsible for the continued soil erosion in developing countries. On the other hand, potential for market-based approaches to mitigate the problem is also low due to the negative externalities involved. A deeper appreciation of institutional and environmental dynamics and policy reforms to strengthen weak institutions may help mitigate the problem.

Aid, economic reform, and public sector fiscal behaviour in developing countries

This paper looks at interactions between foreign development aid, economic reform, and public sector fiscal behavior. It proposes a model of the public sector fiscal response to aid inflows, which allows for changes in structural relationships due to an exogenously imposed program of economic reform. This model is applied to 1960–99 time series data for the Philippines, which embarked on an IMF- and World Bank-funded structural adjustment program in 1980. Estimates of structural and reduced-form equations paint a dismal picture of the effectiveness of foreign aid to, and the structural adjustment program in, the Philippines so far as fiscal impacts are concerned. Both bilateral and multilateral aid inflows, and the presence of an economic reform program, are associated with decreases in public fixed capital expenditure, decreases in taxation and other recurrent revenue, and decreases in public sector saving. Multilateral aid also appears to be highly fungible.

Sustainable development in developing countries: the role of social entrepreneurs

This article adds to the ongoing debate on the relationship between poverty reduction, profits, and environmental sustainability. Drawing from the literature, it presents a conceptual model with propositions to explain how social entrepreneurs can lead to sustainable development in developing countries. These propositions are further strengthened by using a descriptive case of Waste Concern—an initiative of social entrepreneurs—in Bangladesh. Findings illustrate that, despite contextual constraints in developing countries, it is possible to have sustainable development with no trade-off between poverty reduction and environmental sustainability. This win-win outcome is possible through the innovative approaches and creative thinking of social entrepreneurs who, rather than being hindered by contextual constraints, act as catalysts for sustainable development. The findings have implications for academics and policy-makers, highlighting the significance of supporting social entrepreneurs to come up with innovative methods for sustainable development.

Nonmarket valuation in developing countries: Incorporating labour contributions in environmental benefits estimates

There are limitations associated with the application of nonmarket valuation techniques, including choice experiments, in subsistence economies. In part, this is due to the concern that using money as a mode of contribution may not capture the potential contribution of low-income households. To address this limitation, respondents in this study were provided with the option of contributing towards the management of invasive plants in labour terms if they were unwilling to contribute in monetary terms. The results show that the existing practice of using dollar values to estimate willingness to contribute may disproportionately exclude the concerns of some groups within the community. The analysis also indicates that allowing respondents to express their willingness to contribute in labour increases their participation in environmental decision-making processes and hence increases the estimated value of forest ecosystem services. This study contributes to the limited empirical literature on the development of nonmarket valuation surveys, particularly choice experiments, in low-income countries in general and rural areas in particular. © 2014 Australian Agricultural and Resource Economics Society Inc.

Economic edifice, urbanisation and rural education in developing countries

The nexus between economic edifice, urbanisation and education is a somewhat understudied area in the academic literature. This applies especially to the urban-rural nexus and its impact on transition in economic edifice, which are especially pronounced in developing countries. This article addresses some selected consequences of urbanisation on education in developing countries within a context of transition in economic edifice. It is argued that transitions in economic edifice are for rural populations at times unrestrained and precipitous. It is further argued that the transition economic edifice impacts on social, economic and personal interests of not only the school-aged population, but also of the working and retired population. Against this background, this article discusses factors relating to effects of urbanization within a context of urbanisation and urbanisation theories, including transition in economic edifice, globalization, employment and employability, and vocationalisation of education. In conclusion opportunities and challenges for education in the context of transforming an economic structure in rural areas in a contemporary context is brought to the fore.

Roles of MFI support of ICTs to aid socio-economic development

Today there is a consensus on the use of Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) for development and ICTs are widely recognized as vital tools to promote various social goals. These collections of technologies ICTs have also enabled and smoothed an avenue for monumental tran formation in the process of socio-economic development in developing countries. In this paper, we discuss two major areas in the development arena associated with socio-economic development in South Asia, namely, the role of Microfinance in expansion of ICT in the region and its effects on development and poverty alleviatiori. We put forward the argument that through the intervention of microfinance, ICT can both directly and indirectly impact on growth and the way in which the adoption of ICT can be distributed to the poor.

Child labour in developing countries: review of theoretical and empirical issues

Contents:Child labour and economic development : emerging issues in developing Asia /​ Gamini Herath and Kishor Sharma
Child labour in developing countries : review of theoretical and : empirical issues /​ Gamini Herath
Cumulative causation as explanation and policy base for child labour /​ G. Bamberry
Child labour : an integrated approach /​ Manohar Pawar
Trade, growth and child labour practices in South Asia /​ Kishor Sharma
An overview of child labour laws, prevention strategies and assessment of their effectiveness in Bangladesh /​ Jesmul Hasan
An overview of child labour in India /​ Subhashini Subbaraman and Harald von Witzke
Child labour in India : a critical evaluation of four issues /​ Anna Pinto
Prevention of child labour in Nepal : an overview of strategy and effectiveness
Chiranjibi nepal
Prevention of child labour in Pakistan : analysis of strategy and effectiveness /​ Shafqat Munir and Hassan Mangi
Issues relating to prevention of child labour in Sri Lanka /​ Nisha Arunatilake and Roshani de Silva.

Education for the end of poverty : implementing all the millenium development goals

This collection of essays and case studies considers the importance of meeting the education MDG as part of worldwide poverty reduction.