Governance for Human Development in Asia and the Pacific - Bridging the Gap Betw

Effective governance is a necessary condition to achieve people-centered development, including the Millennium Development Goals, in Asia and the Pacific. This presentation explains four collaborative research programs – Implementing Decentralization Policies in Asia, Urbanization and Urban Management in Asia, Democratic Governance, and Reinventing Government and the State Capacity for the 21st Century. For each program key questions, methodology, collaborative arrangements, main findings, publications, and results are discussed. Finally, a two-year research agenda on the next generation issues of governance and security in Asia and the Pacific is suggested, including some currently funded projects.

G. Shabbbir Cheema is Program Director, Department of Economic and Social Affairs, United Nations. He is also Visiting Fellow at the Ash Institute for Democratic Governance and Innovation, Harvard University. As a senior UN official over the past 15 years, Dr. Cheema provided leadership in designing and managing regional and global research programs in electoral and parliamentary systems, human rights, transparency and accountability of government, post conflict reconstruction, urban management, and decentralization. He received his Ph.D. in political science in 1973 from the University of Hawaii. He has taught at Universiti Sains Malaysia (1975-79), University of Hawaii (1988-89), and New York University (2002-2007). From 1980 to 1988, he worked as Development Administration Planner at the United Nations Center for Regional Development, Nagoya, Japan. In 1988-89, he was Research Associate, East-West Center. Dr. Cheema’s books include Decentralizing Governance: Emerging Concepts and Practices, co-editor and contributor (Brookings Press, 2007); Building Democratic Institutions: Governance Reform in Developing Countries, author (Westport: Kumarian Press 2005); Reinventing Government for the Twenty First Century: State Capacity in a Globalizing Society, co-editor and contributor (Westport: Kumarian Press 2003); Urban Shelter and Services: Public Policies and Management Approaches, author (New York: Praeger, 1987); Rural Development in Asia: Case Studies on Program Implementation (New Delhi: Sterling, 1985); and Decentralization and Development: Policy Implementation in Developing Countries (Beverly Hill and London: Sage Publications, 1984).

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Research Program, East-West Center

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Brenda Higashimoto, 944-7531, higashib@eastwestcenter.org

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