Development has ceased to be a government prerogative alone with the ever widening gap between government capacities and the demands of development. This is particularly pertinent to the developing countries, where shrinking government budgets, galloping inflation and rampant poverty seem to define the landscape.
The developed countries and the developing countries form a continuum which ends in the extensive poverty of the lower end of the third world. The developed world, in terms of philanthropy, has now become not only a potent donor, but is driving the development agenda of the underdeveloped world. Decisions regarding who lives and who dies are taken when funds are diverted to malaria or to AIDS in Africa as a matter of choice.
Dr Shamsh Kassim - Lakha, Chairman of the Board Pakistan Centre for Philanthropy (PCP), while speaking at the Global Philanthropy for Development Forum at The Frederick S. Pardee Centre Boston, said Philanthropy thus, is now recognised as a significant global player that can help assuage suffering through providing both relief and sustainable remedy if strategically utilised. In the third world, especially in Pakistan, the potential of philanthropy is being seen as one of the possible means that can be used to support the needs of the development sector. The potential of philanthropy, according to recent local estimates, runs into billions of rupees. It was philanthropy he said that played a lead role in reaching out to the victims of the recent devastating floods in Pakistan. He said if we look at giving as a percentage of GDP as reported by an ERNST & YOUNG Compilation in 2010, we have the following figures:
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USA : 2.2%
UK : 1.3%
Canada : 1.2%
Hong Kong : 0.4%
Singapore : 0.3%
India : 0.2%
China : 0.2%
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