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Ajaz Ahmed, ‘Climate adaptation’
Dawn, 27 November 2023
“SOCIETIES across the globe face the hardest and most long-lasting challenge to human progress in terms of climate change. Many regions are already feeling the severe impact of climate change. The developing countries, with their limited preparedness to respond to natural disasters triggered by climate change, are especially vulnerable. Thus, reducing the risk of climate catastrophes and developing the resilience of vulnerable communities has become an increasingly urgent task. However, tackling the impact of climate change in fragile settings requires transformative, and not incremental, action. This is practically impossible without having adequate resources and the technical expertise required to make infrastructure and livelihood resilient to climate change. Yet, there is a substantial shortfall of resources, resulting in an adaptation gap, which is the difference between the climate adaptation needs of a society in terms of resources and what has been done to make social and economic systems resilient to climate change.”
Dr Farzana Bari, ‘Invisible women’
The News International, 27 November 2023
“The recently released UNDP 2023 Gender Social Norms Index (GSNI) reveals the shocking persistence of gender biases globally. The index tracks people’s attitudes towards women across four dimensions – political, education, economic and physical integrity in both lower and higher HDI countries. Covering 85 per cent of the world’s population, the GSNI reveals that a staggering nine out of 10 men and women still hold gender biases against women, indicating that 90 per cent of the world’s population holds at least one bias against women. Twenty-five percent of the population believe it is justified for a man to physically harm his wife. Nearly half of the respondents believe men are better suited for political leadership, and 43 per cent hold the belief that men make better business executives compared to women. Furthermore, 28 per cent people think that higher education is more important for men than for women.”
Enem Ali Abbas, ‘Creating public value’
The News International, 27 November 2023
“Countries like Pakistan struggle for reforms because they struggle with perception more than the dearth of resources required to deliver on these reforms. Most of the decisions the government takes cannot be termed entirely as informed or more appropriately intelligent decisions because of the perception factor backed by abnormal public reaction to the same. This engages government machinery in a rut of routine affairs and quick fixes. Take torrential rains for example; the explanation by the chairperson of the PPP was quite logical but it was made fun of. Rains flood modern cities all over the world but the moment it rains in our country, we start comparing our country with modern countries – that too without any clue. We want government machinery to dry out cities miraculously even before the rain stops. This does not rid government machinery or public representatives of their duties to ensure drying of ponding points, but this asks for bigger questions at the same time.”
Sarwar Bari, ‘Beyond level-playing-field’
The Express Tribune, 27 November 2023
“Since 1970, no government ousted from the Centre ever won the election that followed. Not because the electorates didn’t vote for the ousted party again. In fact, they did. And in some cases, even with higher numbers. Yet, the parties would lose seats disproportionately. For instance, in GE-1988, PPP secured 7.5 million votes, and its nearest rival, the PMLN-led IJI, got 5.9 million. The PPP’s government was not even allowed to complete two years in power. In the next election, the PPP’s vote bank in fact surged to 7.8 million, but its seats in National Assembly dropped from 93 to 44. IJI’s vote bank also increased by 2 million to 7.9 million, but its seats increased from 54 to 105. PMLN-IJI formed the next government, but faced the same fate that it had designed for the PPP only a couple of years back. Isn’t it magical that in 1993 election, PPP’s vote bank dropped to the 1988 level, but its seats increased by two-fold to 86. While PMLN maintained its vote bank of the 1990, its seats dropped by 32 to 73. Resultantly, it faced the same fate that the PPP had faced in the 1990 election.”
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