Linking Sustainable Livelihoods to Natural Resources and Governance: The Scale of Poverty in the Muslim World

220 Pages·2014·2.32 MB·English

by  Abdul-Mumin Abdulai

Abdul-Mumin Abdulai 
Elmira Shamshiry
Linking Sustainable
Livelihoods to
Natural Resources
and Governance
The Scale of Poverty in the Muslim
World
Linking Sustainable Livelihoods to Natural
Resources and Governance

Abdul-Mumin Abdulai (cid:129) Elmira Shamshiry

Linking Sustainable
Livelihoods to Natural
Resources and Governance
The Scale of Poverty in the Muslim World
Abdul-Mumin Abdulai
Elmira Shamshiry
Institute for Environment and Development
National University of Malaysia
(Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia, UKM)
Bangi, Selangor , Malaysia
ISBN 978-981-287-052-0 ISBN 978-981-287-053-7 (eBook)
DOI 10.1007/978-981-287-053-7
Springer Singapore Heidelberg New York Dordrecht London
Library of Congress Control Number: 2014941867
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Foreword
T he Muslim world constitutes about one-fi fth of the world’s population. This means
that higher poverty incidence in the Muslim world will contribute signifi cantly to
the total poverty incidence in the world. It is against this backdrop that the authors
deserve commendations for their attempts to investigate poverty and the ways to
reduce poverty in the Muslim world. The increasing incidence of poverty in the
developing world has led many individuals, both in the public and private domains,
to question the effectiveness of the conventional poverty alleviation strategies, and
has led to the growing need to explore alternative policy approaches to alleviate
poverty, particularly in the developing countries. This is due to the fact that poverty
amidst plenty has been seen as the greatest challenge of the twenty-fi rst century
(World Bank 2000/2001: World Development Report—Attacking Poverty ).
The global picture of poverty is not encouraging. Out of the estimated world’s
over six billion people, 1.23 billion (21 %) live under US $1 per day, 2.8 billion
(47 %) live under US $2 per day. Average income has almost doubled in the devel-
oping countries, but widening global disparities have also increased the sense of
deprivation and injustice for the poor. Globalization expects to burden the poor
more than the non-poor. This scenario has well positioned the state as a key player
in poverty alleviation. Even though different countries adopt different policies to
eradicate poverty, which is based largely on the economic strength of the individual
countries, the main goal of these strategies has been to achieve improved quality of
life for their citizenry.
With regard to natural resources, socio-economic development can be improved
immensely by the effi cient use of the endowment of valuable natural resources,
particularly mineral resources, water resources and land. Therefore, utilization of
natural resources seeking to achieve socio-economic development must be done
in a manner that will not expose the majority of the population to environmental
externalities, especially the poor people. It has been acknowledged that poverty
and poor environment stewardship reinforce each one. The traditional consensus
on poverty and environment is that poverty is both the cause and effect of environ-
mental degradation.
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viii Foreword
Sustainable utilization of natural resources has crucial implications for poverty
alleviation. The reason being that most of the economic costs of environmental deg-
radation generally fall on the poorest due mainly to their inability to take remedial
actions, engage in alternative livelihoods, and provide themselves with alternative
sources of income and employment. In the developing countries, most of the people
live in rural areas and are heavily dependent on natural resource based economy.
Livelihoods can be made more resilient and sustainable when good governance
becomes the bedrock of natural resources management. This is the subject-matter
of this book. It will add value to the literature on natural resources, sustainable
livelihoods and governance, at least, in the Muslim world.
Institute for Environment and Development, UKM P rof. Emeritus Chamhuri Siwar
Bangi, Selangor, Malaysia
Pref ace
In this book, the authors have investigated poverty and its reduction strategies in the
Muslim World using, as proxy, selected member countries of the Organization of
Islamic Cooperation (OIC). The principal objective in this study lies in exploring
the possible channels out of poverty leading to livelihoods sustainability in the
Muslim countries. The analysis has, therefore, been patterned along the parameters
of natural resource endowments (particularly mineral resources), the level of social
and economic development and fi nally the enabling role of governance in poverty
reduction. Again, the signifi cant role of Z akat in resources mobilization for poverty
reduction has been demonstrated in this book, especially on the urgent need to give
Zakat a befi tting institutional support. Using linear regression in Chap. 8, the study
has discovered an inverse correlation between GDP per capita PPP and poverty
reduction. The coeffi cient of determination (r 2 ) is .3672, which means 36.72 % of
reduction in poverty has been accounted for by the independent variable—GDP per
capita PPP performance. Although performance in social and economic develop-
ment (measured by GDP per capita PPP for the period 1993–2007) has taken a
nose-dive except in 2007 for a few of the selected Muslim countries, the study has
identifi ed pockets of stronger GDP per capita PPP values with many of the oil-
producing Muslim countries compared to the non-oil-producing countries. However,
the study has found no correlation between oil-resource endowments (daily oil pro-
duction) and poverty reduction, as some of the oil-producing countries pose high
poverty headcount ratios as in many of their non-oil-producing counterparts. On the
other hand, the majority of the oil-producing countries pose quite minimal poverty
headcount ratios. This fi nding seems to suggest that natural resource endowments
present mixed blessings if you like, and, to a signifi cant extent, cannot be utterly
described as constituting a complete “curse” or “panacea”, as portrayed in some
quarters of the development literature—at least in the case of the selected Muslim
countries. Against this backdrop, the study has recommended, among others, the
intensifi cation of collaboration among the Muslim countries to facilitate achieving
sustainable development objectives. For that reason, a multi-dimensional develop-
ment collaboration model called D evelopment Collaboration Octagon Model
(D eCOM) has been developed that seeks to offer an alternative approach to
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