The Government of Kenya has successfully developed macroeconomic policies that overcome constraints in the domestic and international environments and have a relatively well-functioning public sector. At present, the major challenge facing Kenya concerns the ability of the government to improve agricultural productivity given the weakness of its research services and peasant resistance to development. The response to the 1984 drought indicates that the Government of Kenya has the formal structures in place to deal with emergencies, yet the absence of reliable statistics on grain production, marketing, and on-farm storage led to serious miscalculations of the severity of the drought. Government of Kenya has been reluctant to experiment with institutional forms that reduce the opportunity for direct political control, especially over agricultural marketing. Privatization of the grain trade or the establishment of cooperatively owned local dairies has been proposed but rejected as too risky. New policies and concerted action, at both the government and community levels, tend to be in response to threat or hardship rather than a result of a dynamic strategy. Given this tendency to avoid experimentation with alternative political forms, socioeconomic development in Kenya may be limited in the years ahead.
The population of Indonesia is 175 million, of which 65% live in Java. Java has only 7% of the land area, causing a population density of 2,000/square mile. This has lead the government to introduce a policy of transmigration which encourages people to move from Java to the larger outer islands. In the last 35 years 4.3 million people have moved from Java to Sumatra, Borneo, Celebes, and Irian Jaya. The total area of Indonesia stretches over 3,200 miles and has 16,000 islands of which 1,000 are inhabited. It has vast resources of oil, lumber, rubber, tin, palm oil, copra, coffee, tea, pepper, cloves, nutmeg, and quinine. Indonesia is also rich in minerals, including coal, bauxite, iron ore, and gold. Even with a national family planning program, population growth has reached 2.1% a year. 3 other islands that people are induced to move from are Madura, Bali, and Lombok, although their population densities are less then Java. The small islands near Singapore are being developed and Batam will be a free port to compete with Hong Kong. The most intense migration has been to Kalimantan (Borneo) which has 4 provinces. The migration policy began in 1905 and by 1930 100,000 people, had moved to other islands; 600,000 people were relocated to plantations in Java for labor needs. In 1979-84, a more ambitious program costing 2.3 billion moved 1.5 million people. In the most recent 1984-89 plan, a goal of 3.1 million were to be relocated but due to budgetary restrictions only 150,000 families have moved. The main social issue addresses the domination of other people by Javanese, not only in numbers but cultural differences. Some observers say the real reason for migration is political in ensuring the boundaries and geographic integrity of Indonesia.
Women are gradually gaining influence in Brazilian politics, especially since recent advances in the women's movement, but they still play a limited role. There have been journals devoted to feminism and some notable feminists since 1850. In 1932 suffragettes in Brazil gained women the right to vote. Women's associations burgeoned in the 1940s and 1950s, culminating in a peak in number of women in national elected positions in 1965. A repressive military regime reversed the process, which resumed in 1975. 1975 was also significant for the Brazilian women's movement because of the U.N. Women's Year. Several large, influential feminist political action groups were formed, typically by upper class women with leftist views, although some church and union groups from lower classes also appeared. In 1979-1981, the coherence of these groups fell into schism and fragmentation, because of disagreements over the feminist political doctrines and roles, views on legality of abortion, and special interest groups such as lesbians. Another bitter dispute is opposition by leftist women to BEMFAM, the Brazilian Society of Family Welfare, which provides family planning for the poor: leftists oppose BEMFAM because it is supported by funds from "imperialist" countries such as the U.S. There are several types of feminists groups: those that emphasize health, sexuality and violence; those composed of lesbians; those originating from lower classes and unions; publicly instituted organizations. Brazilian law forbids discrimination against women holding public office, but in reality very few women actually do hold office, except for mayors of small towns and a few administrators of the Education and Social Security ministries. Political office in Brazil is gained by clientism, and since women rarely hold powerful positions in business, they are outsiders of the system. Brazilian women have achieved much, considering the low female literacy rate and traditional power system, but their equality continues to be a major challenge.
Pakistan's gross domestic product (GDP) has grown at an average of 5.3%/year since 1950 and real per capita income has increased 3.7%/year over the past decade, despite a 3% annual population growth rate. Contributing to this dynamic economic growth have been migration, the construction of a new national economy following independence, controlled irrigation, foreign exchange availability, and an expectation on the part of the public of higher earnings and consumption. Despite these trends, the Pakistan economy is structurally weak and there have been rapid increases in both the domestic and foreign debt. Economic growth has been based largely on trading and soft services. Government departments are known for their corruption. This self-contradictory economic picture derives directly from the structure of Pakistani society, which is dominated by the elite of Punjab Province. Urbanization is increasing economic inequality in the society, and government taxation policies are biased toward big agriculture and industry. Pakistan's poor performance in education, social development, and family planning are expected to inhibit future economic development. Only 26% of Pakistanis are literate, reflecting the low social value placed on education. Even in urban areas, there is no evidence of a decline in fertility. This results from the psychological and economic need for children, women's limited roles, Islamic opposition to family planning, and inefficient government delivery of social services. Within a few years, population growth will magnify the structural weaknesses of the Pakistan economy. It is hoped that the dynamic nature of Panjabi values and behavior, especially of the new middle class, will lead to a redress of this situation.
The governments of South Asian countries have become aware of the substantial role that nongovernment organizations (NGOs) or voluntary agencies can play in rural development and other nation building activities. Although private agencies cannot substitute for government programs, there is general consensus that NGOs use development funds more efficiently and innovatively than government programs. NGOs in Bangladesh, India, and Pakistan exemplify the influence these organizations have on development in South Asia. The Lutheran World Service in Bangladesh, a foreign origin NGO, has branched out from its original aim of providing relief and war rehabilitation to give skills training and technical assistance to the poor. The Bangladesh Rural Advancement Committee, an indigenous NGO, works for the well-being and self-reliance of the landless poor, those with very small farms, and women. NGOs in Bangladesh have been especially innovative in developing methods to encourage self-help, such as local organization and credit, which are often combined with training in practical skills, literacy, nutrition, and family planning. Present NGO activity in India is dominated by the Gandhian tradition. There is a potential conflict between the philosophy of the NGO's in terms of building on the people's felt needs from the bottom up and the tendency of government agencies to want to plan for the people. In Pakistan, the concept of development-oriented NGOs is recent and not yet strong, although the government has adopted a policy of routing funds from government and from bilateral donor agencies through NGOs in 2 areas--family planning and women's welfare. The chief limitation of NGOs is their scope, meaning that the major burden of the development process rests on government agencies.
