Curriculum Vitae of Zubair Faisal Abbasi

Career Objective

Provide excellent quality managerial and research inputs on public policy, longer term institutional development, and fast track strategic initiatives for economic and social uplift projects and programmes.

Positions and Assignments

2008-09: Independent Development Consultant:
Advisor to STEP: Special Talent Exchange Program on research, monitoring, and evaluation activities.

• Visiting Faculty: Iqra University and Shaheed Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto Institute of Science and Technology, Islamabad. Design and teach courses on 'Human Development and Human Security', ‘Development Economics’, ‘Industrialization and Developing Countries’, and ‘Disaster Management’.
• Visiting Faculty: Sustainable Development Policy Institute, Islamabad. Supervise researches and write proposals for funding.

• Columnist: Write columns for newspapers the DAWN, The News, and the Business Recorder. In addition, often invited for expert opinions on issues of Pakistan’s economy by Pakistan Television and Aaj TV.

2005-07: National Project Manager with United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) for Trade Initiatives from a Human Development Perspective (TIHP) project based in the Ministry of Commerce, Government of Pakistan.
Tasks: Project planning and management; policy development, analysis, advocacy, and economic research; assist the government of Pakistan in establishing policy coordination modalities. Establishing linkages and start course on ‘trade and human development linkage’ in academic institutions.

2004-05: Manager Monitoring and Evaluation with National Commission for Human Development (NCHD). The commission is a fast-track implementation modality of the Government of Pakistan focusing on health and education sectors to achieve Millennium Development Goals.
Tasks: Research, monitoring, and evaluation related module development and implementation; trainings for capacity building; progress monitoring and reporting; project management and implementation.

2002-04: Regional Director with APPNA SEHAT. The organization is a subsidiary of Association of Pakistani Physicians of North America (APPNA) which sponsors a primary healthcare and development programme in Pakistan.
Tasks: Project planning, management, and implementation; evidence and community-based monitoring and evaluation; conduct trainings on health and development issues including trainings for capacity building of local civil society organization.

1998-2002: Development Communication Coordinator with Action Aid Pakistan; Deputy Coordinator with Sustainable Development Networking Programme (SDNP) - a global initiative of UNDP managed by International Union for Conservation of Natural Resources (IUCN) in Pakistan.
Tasks: Facilitating diffusion and spread of information communication technologies; coordination with key stakeholders and information management to develop Pakistan's first development information gateway. In addition, developed around 6 projects for the ePoor.org initiative addressing issues of digital divide, e-information, and e-services.

During the above mentioned periods, undertook various development consultancy assignments some are mentioned below:

• 2009, Strengthening Public Grievance Redress Mechanisms (SPGRM) to develop ‘CSO Engagement Strategy’ for the Federal Ombudsman Office, Islamabad (May - July).

• 2007, Consultant for ‘Regional Programme to Secure Farmer’s Rights to Livelihood in Hindu-Kush Himalaya (HKH) Region’ during March-April. The two year project was implemented by Sustainable Development Policy Institute, Islamabad in collaboration with South Asia Watch on Trade, Economics, and Environment, Nepal.

• 2005, Volunteer during the earthquake recovery and relief and operations. Worked for around three weeks in Muszaffarabad, Kashmir.

• 2002, Consultant for UNDP during March – April, on end of the project evaluation for Baluchistan Trial District Management Project.

• 2001, Consultant with Action Aid Pakistan on a study investigating the ‘Formation of District Governments and Devolution of Power Process’ during October- November.

• 1999, Consultant to SUNGI Development Foundation for information gathering and dissemination while advocating the development rights of Ghazi Barota Hydropower and Tarbella Dam Project affected and displaced persons. Assignment also required to organise debates and building multi-stakeholder network on the issue of rights of development affected and displaced persons.

Academic Qualifications

M.Sc. (2007-08) ‘International Development: Industry, Trade and Development’, Institute of Development Policy and Management (IDPM), The University of Manchester, UK.
Modules: Public Sector Reforms and Management; Research for Economic Development; Global Institutions, Trade Rules, and Industrialization; Industrial Competitiveness; Industrialization in Developing Countries; Economic Development; Issues in Development Finance; Trade Policy and Development.

Dissertation: Analysis of the Political Economy of Industrial Policy in Pakistan – The Role of the State as Entrepreneur and Conflict Manager.

Other researchers included developmental states, Fairtrade in coffee, global value chains in automobile industry, foreign remittances and economic growth, issues in economic growth and development, trade-poverty-inequality linkage, and governance in developing countries.

M.A. (1996-98) History, University of the Punjab, Lahore, Pakistan.
Modules: Historiography; Philosophy of History; History of Europe since 1789; History of Indo-Pak Subcontinent - including Indus-Valley Civilization, Sultanate and Mughal Era; Towards Pakistan (1857-1947); and Since Pakistan (1947-present).

Academic Interests and Professional Skills

• Governance, public and private sector development, poverty and inequality, industrialization and trade strategies, development economics, climate change, disaster management, and sustainable human development

• Project designing, management and evaluation, multilevel multidisciplinary trainings including life-skills; applications of qualitative and quantitative development research methods; policy development and analysis; gender analysis; advocacy and communication strategies

Awards and Memberships

• The British Chevening Scholarship, 2007-08.
• Exceptional Performance recognition for UNDP-TIHP project in 2006-07.
• Certificate of Merit and other awards from Government College, Lahore, 1991-93.
• Merit Scholarships from National Bank of Pakistan 1989-1998.

• Member of 9 national and international professional associations and project steering committees which includes prestigious entities such as Human Development and Capability Association, Boston, USA; International Association of the Wilton Park, UK; The British Alumni Association of Pakistan; The Population Association of Pakistan; Pakistan Society of Development Economists, Islamabad, Pakistan

Workshops and Articles

• Organized, participated, and delivered presentations in more than 55 national, regional, and international conferences and consultative workshops which include lectures in academic institutes. Some international and national events are listed below:

o Facilitated focused group discussion-recommendation session on ‘Strengthening Accountability Mechanisms to Improve Service Delivery’ during a high profile Policy Dialogue Forum organized by the UNDP and Federal Ombudsman Secretariat Islamabad at Serena Hotel, Islamabad between August 18-19, 2009.

o Chaired a session on Climate Justice during a regional meeting of ‘Imagine New South Asia’ initiative by Action Aid and Bangladesh Unnayan Parishad, in Dhaka, Bangladesh held between March 31 and April 1, 2009.

o Presented ‘Regional Cooperation, Conflict, and Food Security in SAARC’ in Katmandu between October 23-24. The conference was organized by SAWTEE, Oxfam-Novib, and CUTS International.

o Participated in a IDPM study tour to Singapore between March 17-21, 2008. Interacted with key development, academic, and government officials.

o Participated and delivered presentation on ‘SAARC Development Fund: Projects Under Social, Economic, and Infrastructure Windows’ organized by the Indian Council of World Affairs/Ministry of External Affairs and Konrad Adenauer Foundation at Sapru House, New Delhi, India. The event was held between June 1-2, 2007.

o Participated as discussant on a paper from Pakistan presented in ‘International Conference Trade in Services in South Asia: Opportunities and Risks in Liberalization’ Colombo, Sri Lanka, April 4-5, 2007.

o Participated in the Review Meeting of project ‘WTO Doha Round and South Asia: Linking Civil Society with Trade Negotiations’, organized by CUTS (Consumer Unity and Trust Society) held between December 21-22, 2006 in Delhi, India.

o Participated in a five day training on ‘Trade and Development’ at Siem Reap in Cambodia between March 26-30, 2006. The training was organized by the Regional Office of the United Nations Development Programme, Colombo, for Project Managers of Asia Pacific region.

o Participated in International Conference on ‘Improving National and Regional Disaster Response Capacity’ held between Friday 2 - Monday 5 December 2005. The conference was organized by the Wilton Park, an executive agency of the British Foreign and Commonwealth Office, based in Wiston House, Sussex, UK.

o Participated in International Conference on ‘Millennium Development Goals: Ensuring Achievability and Accountability, organized by the Wilton Park. The conference was held between 20th to 24th June 2005.

o Participated in South Asia Forum ‘Governance and Local Development’ organized by the Wilton Park from April 29, 2002 to May 3, 2002 at Wiston House, Sussex, UK.Participated in “ICTs and Development” workshop organized by One World International and ICIMOD (International Center for Integrated Mountain Development) in Katmandu, Nepal from July 16 to 20, 2001.

o Represented Sustainable Development Networking Programme Pakistan in TASKNET [Towards South Asia Knowledge Network] Vijayan Bhawan, New Delhi India, November 22 and 23, 1999.

Contributed more than 60 articles and Op-Eds on development related themes in national and international newspapers and magazines. The latest ones are as follows:

o 2009, The DAWN, ‘Facilitating Domestic Commerce’, Economic and Business Review, August 17.
o 2009, The DAWN, ‘Identities and Conflict’, August 12, Op-Ed
o 2009, The News on Sunday, ‘Trade Secrets’, August 9,polical economy section [Review of the Trade Policy Framework of Pakistan]
o 2009, The News on Sunday, ‘Trade: The Human Development Perspective’, July 19, political economy section
o 2009, The DAWN, ‘The Security Continuum’, July 14, Op-Ed
o 2009, The DAWN, ‘Social Capability for Economic Progress’, June 1, the Economic and Business Review
o 2009, The News, ‘Dealing with IDPs’, June 1, OpEd.
o 2009, The News on Sunday, ‘From Emergency to Opportunity’, May 31, political economy section [IDPs and poverty]
o 2009, The News on Sunday, ‘The Missing Link’, May 3, political economy section.[development policy and climate change]
o 2009, The News on Sunday, ‘Need for Inclusive Development’, April 19, political economy section.[climate change and climate justice]
o 2009, The News on Sunday, ‘Need for a U-turn’, March 29, political economy section. [national growth and development strategies]
o 2009, The News on Sunday, ‘Beyond Rhetoric’, March 15, political economy section. [climate change]
o 2009, The News on Sunday, ‘At What Cost?’, March 8, political economy section.[privatization and deregulation]
o 2008, The News on Sunday, ‘Reasons of Failure’, October 16, political economy section. [institutional development]
o 2008, The News on Sunday, ‘Whither the State’, October 5, political economy section.[Institutional development and development policy]
o 2008, The News on Sunday, ‘Pie in the Sky’, July 27, political economy section.[trade and industrial policy]
o 2008, The News on Sunday, ‘Against the Tide’, July 13, political economy section.[economic development strategies]
o 2008, The News, ‘Addressing Inequality’, July 7, Op-Ed.
o 2008, the DAWN, ‘Poverty Eradication’, June 13, Op-Ed.
o 2008, The News, ‘Reforming Social Security’, June 7, Op-Ed.
o 2008, The Business Recorder, ‘Budget: Establishing Social Policy as Doctrine of State’, June 07, Weekend magazine.
o 2008, The News on Sunday, ‘Anyone for Equity’, June 1, political economy section.
o 2008, The DAWN, ‘Changing the System’, May 15, op-ed.
o 2008, The News on Sunday, ‘A Powerful Parliament’, April 20, political economy section.
o 2008, The Economic and Business Review of The DAWN, 'Re-industrialization and Neo-liberal Doctrine', March 24; The Business Recorder, published on March 31.
o 2008, The DAWN, ‘Revising Growth Strategy’, February 4, Op-Ed.
o 2008, The DAWN, ‘Is a Developmental State Possible?’, January 23, Op-Ed.
o 2007, The DAWN, ‘Warfare or Welfare State’, December 10, Op-Ed.
o 2007, The DAWN, ‘Post-Martial Law Regimes’, November 21, Op-Ed.
o 2007, The News on Sunday, ‘The Right Question’, November 18, political economy section.
o 2007, The News on Sunday, lead article ‘Rebellion or Revolution’, November 11, political economy section.

References are available on request.

Facilitating Domestic Commerce

By Zubair Faisal Abbasi
Monday, 17 Aug, 2009 | DAWN: Economic and Business Review |

FOREIGN trade is important to provide a vent to production while domestic trade is essential to develop both the capacity to produce and to have production surplus for exchange. Here export-led growth is a case in point.

One may ask: what is strategically different in the current Strategic Trade Policy Framework from the previous strategy of Rapid Export Growth Strategy (REGS) which has little success to boast of?

In capitalist economies, a combination of the state and entrepreneurs undertake ‘development’ and create conditions for sustained economic growth. The engine of growth happens to be manufacturing sector, supported by technology, industrial, and labour policies along with other flanking social policies to allocate resources.

In this way, many researchers argue that developing countries adjust prices to meet the developmental objectives and use the multidimensional approaches to engineer competitive advantages. Such a developmental orientation of combining the state and the capital resources has been obvious only because of its absence.

Interestingly, the synergy between the civil-military bureaucracy and the merchant-feudal-capitalist class of using capital for economic growth and development has mostly been in political patronage.

Free trade and free market were assumed to be a panacea for economic development. It received support and advice along with favourable conditionalities from international finance institutions. In short, a subsistence level agrarian economy which was to be turned into a modern industrial economy could not have the support of a successful developmental state.

A question arise: has the free-trade really delivered when the state is rolled back and economy put at the mercy of free-market fundamentalism? Here we take the example from international trade. Pakistan is witnessing an increasing trade deficit despite following an export-led growth strategy and having divorced other flanking policies such as industrial policy called ‘interventions’ which distort markets through tariffs and subsidies.

During the last two decades, trade liberalisation has been the policy. The average tariff has fallen quite sharply and in a WTO-plus fashion. These were 120 per cent in 1985 and stood at around 12 per cent in 2007-08. However, the reduction in tariffs coincides with increase in trade deficit. As compared to the trade deficit being at $1.2 billion in 2001-02, it has reached around $14 billion in 2008-09.

In fact, the trade deficit, which Pakistan is witnessing has similarities elsewhere as well. A recent study by famous economists Amelia Santos and A.P. Thirwall shows that liberalisation in 22 developing countries stimulated export growth and raised import growth also, leading to a worsening of the balance of trade and payments. They argue that despite taking all measures such as removing anti-export-bias, import control, non-tariff barriers, and exchange rate distortions, liberalisation raised export growth less than imports. Most astonishingly, they reveal that this has constrained the growth of output and living standards. May be Pakistan’s economic managers need to interpret the trade experience and analyse a sharp decline in industrial output which has shown negative 7.7 per cent growth in a more comprehensive fashion.

It is worthwhile to mention that Pakistan has slipped nine points downwards on the Global Competitiveness Index which lists 134 countries and stands at 101. The deterioration has been in all of 12 indicators.

The Strategic Trade Policy Framework 2009-2012, claims that ‘by 2012 the competitiveness ranking of Pakistan will improve from 101 to 75’. In the absence of a viable national system of innovation which can connect the triad of education, industry/business and policy governance, the target seems to be far removed from reality.

Last but not the least, Pakistan should learn from some policy experiences from China and the US. Looking at the global recession and fall in global consumption which have impacted the trade balance of China as well, the countries are stimulating local production and consumption. ‘Buy America’ is one measure for a growth stimulus. In fact, it is estimated that 7.9 per cent increase in China’s GDP will actually come from domestic consumption due to increasing linkages between local production and consumption.

In the context of strategic trade policy, breaking away from the past, Pakistan needs to focus more on domestic commerce and give a (big) push to local brands, wages, production, consumption – in a nutshell develop a facilitating social and physical infrastructure for economic development.
[ends]
Source: http://www.dawn.com/wps/wcm/connect/dawn-content-library/dawn/in-paper-magazine/economic-and-business/facilitating-domestic-commerce-789