The launching ceremony of a book titled 'Pro-Poor Growth and Governance in South Asia-Decentralisation and Participatory Development' written by Ponna Wignararaja and Susil Sirivardana was held here on Wednesday.
The book advocates a pro-poor growth strategy where the poor also participate directly as subjects in development.
The contributors maintain that a critical element in that process was social mobilisation where organisations of the poor work in partnership with restructured state and a socially responsible private sector. They saw a new political space for that in the current attempts at decentralisation, which were also aimed at developing power to the people.
To illustrate these possibilities, the book presents six case studies from India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Nepal and Bangladesh. Together they show how new social movements and organisations of the poor are converging with efforts to decentralise and to share power at the local level.