Steering the Poverty‐Environment Nexus in Central Asia: A metagovernance analysis of the Poverty‐Environment Initiative (PEI)

The close and reciprocal ties between poverty and environmental degradation present significant potential for simultaneous improvement of the livelihood of the poorest along with increased opportunities and enhanced resilience of the environment and natural resources. By supporting governments and other stakeholders in designing and implementing development plans that tackle environmental and poverty concerns in a joint manner, the globally operating UNDP‐UNEP Poverty‐Environment Initiative (PEI) addresses a major governance challenge for sustainable development (SD) and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in particular. Focusing on Central Asia, and specifically Tajikistan, a country outside the spotlight of studies concerned with SD governance mechanisms, and through the analysis of PEI programme documents and stakeholders’ interviews, this article probes into the governance and governance co‐ordination (metagovernance) settings for SD. The article closes by presenting a set of recommendations to improve governance co‐ordination, while achieving more inclusive decision‐making and ultimately increasing the impact of PEI on the society and the environment. Specifically, it argues for improved information policy and enhanced integration of endogenous knowledge. Furthermore, national and local development planning and private initiatives should be better linked, and the different levels of governance for poverty‐environment mainstreaming should be more coherent. The solutions discussed are of relevance for wider Central Asia and the global community engaged in moving the SDGs into the mainstream of governance and policy frameworks.     

Urbanization in China and the Coordinated Development Model—The case of Chengdu

China's urbanization faces two greatest difficulties of creating non-farm jobs to “landless farmers” and providing required amenities and social services to urbanites-to-be. In the earlier phase of development, TVE employment had provided important relief to the job pressure. Later, the “Small-city Strategy” that emphasized forming towns and small cities around where rural population resided successfully deterred rural population's entry into large cities. Today, China is implementing a Coordinated Development between the urban and rural sectors, aiming to reach a balanced development between the two sectors by making not only large cities more welcoming to rural migrants but also the small cities, towns, and areas where rural population now reside harder to leave. At the core of the coordination are three concentrations of rural residents, farmland, and firms, intended to help rural residents to settle in large cities, small cities and towns, as well as new residential areas in the countryside, to de-segment land to realize economies of scale, and to gather firms of a same industry in organized industrial areas to gain agglomeration economies and create non-farm jobs. This article examines the trajectory of China's urbanization, analyzes the working mechanism of the Coordinated Development model, and investigates Chengdu's practice of the Coordinated Development, which will help to provide insights into the new developments in China's urbanization.     

城市化的城乡差别效应和城乡协调发展

城市化作为人口和地域的乡 -城转化过程 ,必然会对城市和乡村两个方面产生各种差别效应。深入研究这种差别效应 ,对统筹城乡发展 ,具有重要意义。本文主要利用 2 0 0 0年人口普查省内迁移有关数据 ,分析乡 -城迁移体现于收入水平、年龄结构、生育水平、受教育程度、劳动就业、人口分布等特征的城乡差别效应。认为全面建设小康社会 ,必须充分注意城市化的差别效应对城乡协调发展的影响 ,实施城乡协调型的城市化战略 ,走城市化推动型的城乡协调发展道路。     

中国特色的人口老龄化过程、前景和对策

基于基本国情 ,中国老龄化具有老年人数多、老龄化速度快、未富先老和老龄化地区差别大的特点。老年人健康长寿水平与发达地区有很大差距 ,中国老龄政策要把老年人健康作为优先考虑的内容。老龄化速度快是低生育的结果 ,应充分利用“人口红利”为老龄化做好物质准备。老龄政策必须与经济社会发展水平相适应。在未富先老的条件下 ,老年人提高生活质量必须政府主导、社会参与、群众支持     

Equity,efficiency, and identity: Grounding the debate over population and sustainability

If social scientists are to provide a more useful contribution to international debates over population and environment, we must find ways to combine the insights of our competing theoretical traditions. Political economy, rational choice, and cultural institutionalist perspectives are each associated with a different assessment and characterization of the population problem, as well as divergent strategies of response, prioritizing in turn the goals of equity, efficiency, and cultural identity. The principal argument of this paper is that these three perspectives, and the goals which they embody, are like the three legs of a stool; none is sufficient and each is necessary to uphold socially acceptable responses to population growth in the context of broader challenges of sustainability. Each perspective is reviewed in turn, distinguishing narrow and polarizing applications that trivialize the way social and economic systems rely on the natural environment from applications that are useful in fashioning a more integrated approach. The paper concludes with reflections on how this approach may support and enrich a focus on sustainable livelihoods in development planning.     

“四普”至“五普”间中国城镇化的发展

利用中国第四次人口普查和第五次人口普查的资料 ,分析了在“四普”至“五普”期间中国城镇化的发展状况及出现的问题 ,揭示了中国城镇化发展的地域差异。在 2 1世纪中国的城镇化仍将快速发展 ,如何克服中国城镇化过程中所出现的问题 ,进而引导中国的城镇化朝着健康、有序的方向发展 ?这是一个至关重要的问题。     

论智力资源对物质资源的替代

本文认为,智力资源对物质资源不断进行替代,是一个普遍的和重要的经济规律;认识并利用这一规律,对我国经济发展具有相当的必要性、迫切性和现实性。基此,本文对智力资本替代物质资本这一经济规律进行了初步的研究:说明了这一规律的含义、表现、原因及作用,并在此项研究基础上对我国现实的经济发展提出了自己的一点思考。     

中国人口迁移流动的人力资本替代效应及影响分析

人口迁移流动是改变人口数量和人力资本空间分布格局的重要因素,人口迁移流动造成的人口数量和人力资本空间分布变化是否一致及其对区域经济社会发展的影响是一个需要更加深入研究的问题。本文针对我国人口流动过程中形成的人口素质结构转变进行理论思考和实证研究,探讨其形成的经济原因和造成的经济影响。相关数据显示我国高等教育群体和中等教育及以下群体长期以来一直处于净流向相同的状态,而2013-2015年以来各省陆续出现净流向相反的现象,形成了人口数量和人口素质的替代效应。高等教育人才的净流入地区是经济发达省份、地理条件优越省份以及少数民族自治区,北京、天津、上海、浙江、江苏以及广东省等三大都市圈内的六个省市的高等教育净流入人才占跨省高等教育净流入总人口的绝大多数。人口替代对当地的经济影响表现为三点:第一,改变当地劳动力资源禀赋结构,使高等教育群体及中等教育群体人数的比较优势发生变化;第二,改变地区平均受教育年限,影响地区科技创新能力;第三,拉大地区劳动力收入差距。据此提出两点政策建议:首先,地方省市可以通过市场化的产业结构调整手段控制相应的流动人口群体规模,而不必依靠限制人口流动的政策以及硬性提出人口调控目标来管理流动人口规模。其次,地方政府要做好地区经济规划以及定位,充分认识现在的人口替代对于未来地区创新能力以及劳动力收入差距的影响。     

西部经济增长的人力资源开发战略

西部地区的经济发展需要充分开发当地的人力资源,人力资源开发应成为西部优先发展的战略目标。本文论述了人力资源开发与经济发展的关系,分析了西部地区人力资源现状和存在的问题,在此基础上提出了西部人力资源开发战略。     

制约三江源地区生态移民迁入地可持续发展的因素

由于三江源地区社会发展的特殊性,在移民进入后迁入地同样面临如何实现可持续发展的问题。本文运用实证分析和规范分析相结合的方法,分析得出后续产业发展缓慢,生态补偿机制建设滞后,生态环境建设难度大,人口增长过快,教育落后、人力资本匮乏,地方政府行为能力建设滞后是制约迁入地实现可持续发展的因素。