Areas of Concern in Pakistan

[Creating Peace and Security] [Promoting Democracy] [Shaping Globalisation]

Creating Peace and Security

Before and even during the Cold War, military confrontation used to be the most common way of dealing with international conflicts, a confrontation which international politics tried to avoid by a strategy of reciprocal determent. The end of the Cold War, however, did not bring peace in perpetuity. On the contrary, numerous new conflicts erupted while long-standing disputes, such as those about Palestine or Kashmir, flashed up again. Conflicts over political and economic resources and ethnic or religious recognition starting from an intrastate level but often affecting and involving whole regions became an important new type of armed hostility.

The growing number of military and police missions in which Germany has assumed greater responsibility for the resolution of conflicts have also created a new role for development policy. Proposals for comprehensive political solutions will attribute greate weight to international cooperation as well as to forms of civil conflict resolution. At the same time, there is some concern that development policy objectives might be subjected to security policy concerns. On this background, international development cooperation has started in the early 90s to reflect and discuss its role and impact in the context of violent conflicts. The debate is mainly revolving around two questions:

(1) How and through which instruments can programmes and projects of development cooperation contribute to crisis prevention, conflict transformation and peacebuilding?

(2) How can development organisations prevent their activities from exacerbating conflicts and crises in their working area?

A realistic analysis of the causes of conflict, the often difficult development of societal and political structures which are conducive to peace or post-conflict reconciliation are essential for a peaceful development. With the development of its own toolbox the Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung has been able to add a conflict-sensitive approach to its programmes in many crisis-ridden countries and to make it a key-standard for implementation and evaluation.

Two working lines structure FES’s own engagement in this field: on the one hand, the Foundation implements programmes which generally address structural causes of social conflicts and focus on crisis prevention and conflict transformation as a secondary objective. On the other hand, FES conducts projects which directly aim at conflict transformation and peacebuilding.

In the Topic Centre for Civil Conflict Management – a project within the regional cooperation programme South Asia and located in the FES office in Islamabad – experience relating conflict sensitive programme management and civil conflict transformation is being processed and made available to interested parties in both the national and the international arena.

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Promoting Democracy

Without economic development, the basic needs of societies cannot be met. How to distribute societal wealth and social security in a democratic manner and involve the developing countries effectively in the shaping of an international order are therefore questions of a curial nature in order to attain the political goals of long-term development and lasting peace.

Democratic consolidation takes time and continuous sensitive encouragement which involves all of society and cannot be ordered from the top. Only a functioning State can guarantee and maintain enabling conditions for democracy and good governance for its citizens. However, the essential elements of democracy must come from within the civil society. Participation is not just about taking part in elections, but in the entire social, cultural and economic life of a country.

Accordingly, the promotion of democracy is not equivalent to the implementation of existing ready-made models. It needs to be adapted to the existing political, social, cultural and economic conditions in a country and be supported by the key socio-political actors.

The manner in which democracy is promoted by the Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung, however, goes far beyond a purely technical and instrumental notion of “democracy-building”.

Formal democracy (i.e. constitutional order, competition between political parties, elections and institutions) is both an essential prerequisite for democratic processes and a means to attain them. Practised democracy, however, calls for more than just the democratic minimum of free elections and constitutional safeguards for human rights. Without the support of civil-society structures, without interaction between the State, the political community and representative bodies of society and without the underpinnings of a democratic political culture (acceptance of procedural rules, non violence and mutual tolerance), democracy is not viable.

Freedom of expression and independent, competent media are key conditions for a functioning democracy. The media development policy of the FES is specially designed to ensure the professional work of journalists and make possible a free flow of information so as to enable all sectors of society to have access to information, including the underprivileged groups. A democratic society cannot be created without the independence of media pluralism. On the basis of critical and comprehensive news, views and information citizens, voters, consumers and workers make meaningful choices that affect their lives, liberty and property. Thus, in an emerging information society, the right to information has become a key to the governing process and establish the transparency of decision-making. Commitment to the promotion of media and communication is, therefore, one of the Foundation’s policies aiming to strengthen democratic and development structure and civic political culture.

One of the most outstanding programmes of the recent past has been the support of Pakistan's transition to democracy by facilitating increased political participation and establishing a critical dialogue between political parties and the general public. A Young Professionals Network (YPN) supported by FES provides highly committed youth from disadvantaged areas with an opportunity to participate in national and international debates, receive need-based training and get prepared to assume political and social responsibility in a modern society while observing the fundamental values of humanity and democracy.

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Shaping Globalisation

While some people are frightened by globalisation and call for clear demarcations, others find it hope-inspiring in view of greater integration in the global economy and improvements in society. It is one of the tasks of the Foundation in the context of its international activities to help overcome fears, prejudices and misunderstandings by describing the actual changes and processes which the term “globalisation” entails in order to enable the partners to take part in international debates and processes themselves and thus contribute to the “shaping of globalisation”.

Long is the list of governments which embarked on risky reforms because of external pressure or because they believed the boastful promises and recipes of international financial institutions. However, the outcome of the disreputable mix of liberalisation, deregulation and privatisation known under the term “Washington Consensus” is far more sobering – a fact that even the World Bank and the IMF have to concede in the meantime. While most reforms have benefited a tiny section of the middle-class, the majority of the populations see themselves as losers of globalisation. Conversely, those countries – many of them in the Asian regions – which had continued to use the existing scope for government action, invested wisely in infrastructure, training and the health of their populations and kept their domestic financial markets stable, are increasingly able to assert themselves on the world markets.

Whenever the world economy was becoming more interdependent and national rules and regulations were challenged by international competition, the struggle for social rights was shifted to the international level; this is a lesson learnt from the history of both the international labour movements and the foundation of the International Labour Organisation (ILO) in 1919 whose main task it is to define social standards and norms. A considerable compendium of global rules and agreements has been put in place in the meantime, but in actual fact these agreements are “preached, not practised”. Unions with a large membership and the ability to act – a core concern of the Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung – therefore play an important part in the realisation of the “social dimension of globalisation”.

Recently, the Foundation has set a unique example of development-oriented and democratic cooperation between workers and employers by facilitating the establishment of the Workers Employers Bilateral Council of Pakistan (WEBCOP), a body which has been officially recognised by the government as competent consultant in labour policy issues.

Special attention is paid to strengthening of women who represent more than half of Pakistan’s population while being heavily underrepresented in politics, management, education and other strategic fields at national and local levels. They often become the target of violence, discrimination and other rights abuses, both domestically and at their work-places. FES cooperates with government agencies, women’s organizations and other non-governmental groups to create equal opportunities and increase the involvement and participation of women in all spheres of life. The Foundation supports capacity building, strategy development and networking of female politicians and activists and promotes the social and economic rights of women through research, seminars and trainings. A Regional Gender Competence Centre is currently being established in Manila and Delhi.

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