东南亚台商协会的建立及其功能分析

随着中国台湾省厂商对东南亚的投资与移民,当地的台商组织应运而生,经过多年的发展,东南亚台商协会已经在台商的事业与生活中扮演着相当重要的角色。台商协会紧紧围绕"服务台商"的这一基本宗旨,在丰富台商业余生活,联络乡谊;帮助台商解决经营困难,促进台商事业发展;传承中华文化,协助创办台商子弟学校;服务桑梓,回馈当地社会,树立台商形象等方面发挥着极为重要的作用,但同时应注意到台商协会也是台湾当局拓展与东南亚国家实质关系的重要载体。     

Challenging conventional views on mobile-telecommunications investment: evidence from conflict zones

Huge amounts are being invested in information and communication technologies (ICTs) such as mobile phones and their telecommunications infrastructure. Development agencies adopt a conventional view on the ‘climate’ needed to encourage such investment, believing particularly that good governance and security are required. We question this conventional view with a study of mobile telecommunications in three insecure states that score very badly in the Worldwide Governance Indicators. Data are limited, but they suggest that insecurity and ‘bad governance’ may not be the barriers to investment that are normally supposed. Indeed, it is possible – at least for this type of digital technology – that they may encourage investment.     

Impacts of displacement on urban livelihoods: a railway project in Metro Manila

This article seeks to understand the ways in which urban livelihoods are affected by development-induced displacement, with a particular focus on residents remaining in the locality. Through an empirical case study of a railway upgrading project in Metro Manila, the article investigates livelihood impacts of large-scale demolition and displacement, which varied depending on whether the physical capital of remaining residents declined due to land clearance and the extent to which they relied on the local livelihood network established with displaced settlers. In comparison, households remained intact when they had little engagement with the local informal economy.     

Sustaining livelihoods in complex emergencies: experiences of Sri Lanka

This article examines the role of context-specific factors that help to perpetuate the vulnerability of conflict-affected people. The discussion revolves around key concepts of household livelihood security, resilience building, income diversification, market access, and armed non-state actors. It is argued that, while conflict-affected households develop adaptive strategies to sustain their livelihoods amid the commonly observed vulnerabilities, the governance arrangements of the parties to the conflict can place stress on local initiatives, confining them to subsistence level and so reinforcing their vulnerability. Deeper analysis of the sources of vulnerability and implications of policy processes could help to inform intervention strategies.     

A journey towards development: the impact of local NGO programmes on women living in the char lands of Bangladesh

Both national and international policy-making institutions have acknowledged the contribution of NGOs in alleviating poverty, through empowering the poor and continuing to support their endeavours. In Bangladesh NGOs are working at national and local levels, but very few are working with the poorest and most vulnerable groups who live in the riverine and coastal areas, known as the char lands. These areas are unlike other parts of the country in terms of their physical, economic, and social structures, and they require a different approach in order to address the unique set of problems facing those who live there. Using experimental and innovative programmes, a small number of local NGOs have begun to make an impact in an area where government interventions and success are rare.     

Investing in multi-stakeholder dialogue to address natural resource competition and conflict

How can multi-stakeholder dialogue help assess and address the roots of environmental resource competition and conflict? This article summarises the outcomes and lessons from action research in large lake systems in Uganda, Zambia, and Cambodia. Dialogues linking community groups, NGOs and government agencies have reduced local conflict, produced agreements with private investors, and influenced government priorities in ways that respond to the needs of marginalised fishing communities. The article details policy guidance in four areas: building stakeholder commitment, understanding the institutional and governance context, involving local groups in the policy reform process, and embracing adaptability in programme implementation.     

Explaining popular participation in India’s local democracy: Some lessons from panchayats in West Bengal

The 73rd amendment to the Indian Constitution launched an extensive experiment in local democracy. Based on a study of 2,794 gram panchayats and field observations in West Bengal, this article examines when and why popular participation in panchayat elections—the most basic and visible aspect of local democracy—differs across local governments. The study finds that gram panchayats witness high levels of participation when they pursue policies that benefit the villagers, such as greater investment in education, and when they are seemingly less corrupt. Investment in public goods and lower rents are known to promote economic development and general welfare. In addition to these familiar implications, this study shows how these policies also have political consequences for democracy in India.     

Post-disaster emergency and reconstruction experiences in Asia and Latin America: an assessment

From United Nations emergency responses involving tent camps, to the reconstruction approach of FUNDASAL in El Salvador and the post-disaster provision of housing by Caritas in Asia, it is clear that a giant step has been taken in thinking about emergency shelter, as well as about how prevention and reconstruction are managed. This article evaluates some current good practices in Asia and Latin America in post-disaster emergency shelter that use local skills, materials, and tools, and participatory processes.     

Local preferences of mung bean qualities for food autonomy in India

The concept of food autonomy draws attention to qualities of local food and food networks that can facilitate connectivity between local food production and consumption. This article reports on a study conducted in Hisar, India, that reveals how rural producer, processor, and consumer preferences of mung bean quality interact with their aim to maintain and develop a territorial mung bean connectivity so as to reinforce food autonomy. The study showed that local mung bean food qualities related to suitability in the local cropping system, processing requirements, and consumption choice. It suggests that local preferences be integrated into a reorientation of research and scientific development agendas, and should become an essential consideration of development and extension efforts, which also carries implications for the food autonomy of local producers, processors, and consumers.     

Health and hygiene behaviour change: bottom–up meets top–down in Tibet

The Tibet Poverty Alleviation Fund (TPAF) has been working in the Tibet Autonomous Region of the People's Republic of China since 1998 to increase the income and assets of rural Tibetans. From the beginning, TPAF recognised that high morbidity and mortality were a constraint on efforts of rural Tibetans to improve livelihoods. Early interventions to train township doctors and midwives were not sustainable. In 2005, in partnership with local health authorities, TPAF launched a Behaviour Change Communication (BCC) strategy to build villagers' capacity to improve health and hygiene practices and to make informed choices about using government-run primary and preventive health services. Results from counties and townships in three Prefectures are preliminary, but they show significant changes in health knowledge and practice, and growing links between village needs and government services. Next steps include strengthening implementation and institutionalising government support to extend and support the approach.     

Over the border and under the radar: can illegal migrants be active citizens?

Active citizens can become a powerful driver of development by holding to popular account those who traditionally wield decision-making power at the local and national levels. Active citizenship draws from a long history of understanding the importance of community participation and ownership of development interventions. However, in spite of its inherent strengths, active citizenship may not be a possible (or optimal) outcome in all circumstances. This article argues for the realistic expectation of active citizenship (and indeed participation) of one specific sub-population in Thailand, where the overwhelming majority of illegal migrants (of an estimated total of 800,000–1.5 million) are Burmese. Their precarious existence as illegal migrants compounds the development needs that confront any poor community. This in turn hinders their ability to engage actively in the development process. This article reviews the lessons learned by a Thai-based NGO that has worked with illegal Burmese migrants for more than 15 years. It discusses the unique strengths and weakness of these illegal communities, whether or not it is appropriate to seek to engage them as active citizens, and the implications for NGOs working with such communities. It suggests that the unique role that NGOs must play, in cases where public participation could endanger the lives of community members, is that of advocate-guardians, whereby they assume the role of active citizen on behalf of the community in question and simultaneously provide development interventions and advocate on its behalf.     

The dynamics of contemporary local-government policies and economic development in West Papua

There have been enormous political, economic, and social changes in West Papua. Every governor of West Papua has designed programmes to boost economic development and reduce poverty. The influx of migrant workers under the ‘transmigration programme’ into West Papua has limited the job opportunities for indigenous people in the labour market. This article concludes that the local government's strategies failed to deliver suitable development programmes to the local people, which resulted in increased poverty, the continuing poor development of the education system, and the deterioration of the population's health condition, with a rise in the number of Papuans infected with HIV and AIDS.     

The Political Economy of U.S. Direct Investment in East Asian NICs, 1966–2000

This paper examines the role of FDI from the United States in the economic performance of East Asian NICs for 1966–2000. To this end, we draw our argument of the role of FDI from the modernization–dependency debate. Then, we test the economic effects of U.S. direct investment on economic growth in East Asian NICs using a neoclassical production function model that captures the economic impacts of both foreign and domestic investment on economic growth. Our empirical results show that U.S. direct investment has a positive and significant effect on economic growth in East Asian NICs.     

Improving Reputation BIT by BIT: Bilateral Investment Treaties and Foreign Accountability

The literature on foreign direct investment (FDI) has paid an increasing interest to international institutions such as bilateral investment treaties (BITs), but whether BITs help attract FDI is an unsettled question. Building on the existing literature, this article argues that BITs can change investors’ perceptions and the corresponding investment they make because signing BITs signals the involvement of another powerful country that is able to compel the host government to comply. This implies that the effect of BITs is not constant across signatory countries: BITs are more effective when they are signed with rich and influential countries. Using monadic and dyadic FDI data, this article finds that BITs signed with powerful countries (defined as the top six largest economies) lead to an increase in FDI inflows (both from these signatory countries and from other countries). BITs signed with other countries, despite in a larger quantity, have little influence on FDI inflows.     

东北亚区域分工协作的走向——日本产业结构调整意图评析

中国经济高速增长 ,使东北亚日益成为世界关注的焦点 ,作为发达国家的日本 ,其经济和产业结构调整必然会对该地区的分工协作的发展产生重要影响。 1997年东南亚金融危机过后 ,除日本以外 ,东北亚各国和地区受贸易和投资的牵引 ,经济获得了较快的恢复和发展 ,贸易与投资格局也发生了变化。东北亚各国和地区具备开展分工协作的坚实基础 ,但同时也面临着诸多困难和障碍。作为东北亚惟一的发达国家日本 ,也正在积极推进产业结构调整 ,力争在今后本地区的分工协作中掌握主导权 ,但发展的现实和趋势说明 ,日本的这一企图是徒劳的     

Juxtaposing handloom weaving and modernity: building theory through praxis

This article investigates the interaction between the processes of building development theory and development practice, arguing that theory must start with practice – and should not be top–down, starting with the ‘outside gaze’ of a supposedly detached academic or policy maker. The questions posed point to critiques of mainstream development narratives and notions of innovation through the diffusion of new technologies. The authors suggest that the assumptions embedded in mainstream development processes lead to unequal access to global and local markets, and that when they are imposed from the outside without a real understanding of the context, the development project is bound to fail. Parameters for assessing and evaluating outcomes also need to be based upon a close understanding of context – and this often comes through active involvement within it and not through being ‘detached’ and outside it. The assumption that an outside gaze is ‘objective’ is based in an implicitly colonial discourse, while building theory by being involved in the practice produces better methodologies for action and development.     

The roles of,and relationships between,expatriates, volunteers,and local development workers

This article reports on exploratory research based on interviews with expatriate and local aid workers employed by local and international NGOs in Phnom Penh, Cambodia. Thematic analysis of the interviews found that personnel were placed in groups based on their job category – consultant, volunteer, or permanent staff – regardless of experience. These categories logically reflect each worker's pay level, purpose, and role, but they may also have an implicit power meaning which reinforces group differences and inhibits inter-group relationships. Relationship building was reported to be the most important factor contributing to the success of capacity-development initiatives. Four sub-themes were identified: communication, friendship, reciprocal learning/teaching, and confidence.     

东南亚和东北亚经济体工业化差异分析

曾被归纳为东亚模式的东南亚三国与东北亚的台湾、韩国的工业化道路实际上存在很大差异,本文试图从历史条件、人力资源、政体与产业政策、外国直接投资与技术发展模式四个方面揭示这些不同类型的工业化产生的原因及发展轨迹,并讨论金融危机对其的影响。     

Indigenous floating cultivation: a sustainable agricultural practice in the wetlands of Bangladesh

Floating-bed cultivation has proved a successful means to produce agricultural crops in various wetland areas of the world. In freshwater lakes and wetlands, vegetables, flowers, and seedlings are grown in Bangladesh using this floating cultivation technique, without any additional irrigation or chemical fertiliser. No detailed study of this indigenous cultivation technique has been published to date, although the laboratory method, hydroponics, is well documented in the professional literature. Our study is focused on the nature and characteristics of the Bangladeshi system, where local farmers have demonstrated the potential for the sustainable use of such common-property local water resources. We seek to establish a reference point for further research into this technique for its possible refinement and an assessment of its suitability for replication.     

Making housemaid remittances work for low-income families in Sri Lanka

In rural Sri Lanka, remittances from housemaids working in the Middle East figure prominently in household livelihood strategies. This article examines the impact of housemaid remittances on living standards and suggests measures to maximise the benefits of remittances for recipient households while minimising the personal and financial costs of migration. The effectiveness of migration as a household strategy depends on a decent overseas job with a reliable income, a reduction in the costs of migrating and remitting, and the responsible management of household welfare and finances by recipients, including the maintenance of local income sources while the migrant is away.