This collection brings together international scholars to interrogate a range of educational practices, procedures and policies, around the organizing principle that 'myths' often require critical scrutiny. Engaging with key themes in contemporary global education, the contributors challenge and address educational myths and their consequences.

The vision of the founders of the United Nations, the World Bank and the IMF some fifty years ago contrasts sharply with the often weak and limited performance of the institutions they created. The 15 papers in this volume critically assess this record in order to set out proposals for strengthening and restructuring the institutions to meet the new challenges of the 21st century. The changes proposed emphasize human security rather than military security, poverty eradication, gender equity and new international mechanisms to offset growing global inequality.

This collection brings together international scholars to interrogate a range of educational practices, procedures and policies, around the organizing principle that 'myths' often require critical scrutiny. Engaging with key themes in contemporary global education, the contributors challenge and address educational myths and their consequences.

The vision of the founders of the United Nations, the World Bank and the IMF some fifty years ago contrasts sharply with the often weak and limited performance of the institutions they created. The 15 papers in this volume critically assess this record in order to set out proposals for strengthening and restructuring the institutions to meet the new challenges of the 21st century. The changes proposed emphasize human security rather than military security, poverty eradication, gender equity and new international mechanisms to offset growing global inequality.

Mahbub ul Haq Human Development Centre's 2010-2011 Report on Food Security in South Asia is a valuable contribution towards the conceptual and empirical analysis of food security in South Asia. It analyses the issues of availability and access to food for all South Asians, especially the poor. Ensuring adequate food at affordable prices to all people at all times is the duty of each government. The high prices of food and fuel and economic crisis of recent years have put half a billion South Asians in poverty, millions of children out of school and into work, and over 300 millions of South Asians malnourished. The Report presents critical analyses of food production, distribution, and access for three South Asian countries, India, Pakistan, and Bangladesh. The Report also assesses food security from the perspectives of women and climate change. The Report critically reviews the public food distribution system and social safety net programmes. The Report argues that to give economic growth a human face, South Asia needs to seriously address the effectiveness of its food security initiatives. The objective of all development programmes must be the people and their wellbeing, and food security is the main lifeline of the people.

In his 1972 Janeway Lectures at Princeton, James Tobin, the 1981 Nobel Prize winner for economics, submitted a proposal for a levy on international currency transactions. The idea was not greeted with enthusiasm, as the 1970s were a period of optimism and confidence in floating exchange rages. Yet, whenever currency crises erupted during the past decades, the proposal for a levy on international currency transactions would once again arise. In the 1990s, two additional facts have sharpened interest in the Tobin tax proposal. First is the growing volume of foreign exchange trading. Second, interest is coming not only from policymakers and experts concerned with the smooth functioning of financial markets. It is shared by those concerned with public financing of development--the fiscal crisis of the state as well as the growing need for international cooperation on problems such as the environment, poverty, peace and security.
This work makes a systematic analysis of the proposal for a foreign exchange transactions levy. Its chapters examine the economic desirability of such a levy, its technical and political feasibility, its revenue potential, the possible uses of that revenue, and related administrative and institutional aspects.

This work explores a new development paradigm whose central focus is on human well-being. Increase in income is treated as an essential means, but not as the end of development, and certainly not as the sum of human life. Development policies and strategies are discussed which link economic growth with human lives in various societies. The book also analyzes the evolution of a new Human Development Index which is a far more comprehensive measure of socio-economic progress of nations than the traditional measure of Gross National Product. For the first time, a Political Freedom Index is also presented.
The book offers a new vision of human security for the twenty-first century where real security is equated with security of people in their homes, their jobs, their communities, and their environment. The book discusses many concrete proposals in this context, including a global compact to overcome the worst aspects of global poverty within a decade, key reforms in the Bretton Woods institutions of World Bank and IMF, and establishment of a new Economic Security Council within the United Nations.

Mahbub ul Haq Human Development Centre's 2009 Report on Trade and Human Development in South Asia focuses on the imperative of linking the wellbeing of people to the trade-led economic growth that is happening in South Asia now. The human development model asserts that economic growth that is not linked to people cannot be sustained either socially or politically. Liberalization of trade must be complemented by well-designed equitable policies that serve as an engine for employment creation, capacity building, and poverty alleviation. However, the relationship between trade, human development and economic growth is not straight forward. That link has to be created consciously by forward-looking policies and strategies by both national governments and multilateral trade negotiating bodies. The Report presents critical analyses of agricultural, non-agricultural and services trade of South Asia, and it raises the issues of how the current trade negotiations have not yet addressed the concerns of developing countries. The Report argues that to sustain economic growth and enhance human development, South Asia needs to negotiate seriously at the multilateral trading forums, and also to use the regional forum (SAARC) to advance its economic and social goals. The wealth of data collected for the Report on South Asia's human development and trade-related indicators will be valuable for policymakers and academic researchers.

This report is about agriculture and its link to human wellbeing in South Asia. This report presents an in-depth analysis of the experience of five South Asian countries: Indian, Bangladesh, Pakistan, Nepal and Sri Lanka.