Employment expansion through local resource mobilisation

The present volume contains the papers and proceedings of a Workshop on The Expansion of Employment and Income through Local Resource Mobilisation' held in Comilla, Bangladesh from 1 to 3 July 1981. The workshop was jointly sponsored by the Center on Integrated Rural Development for Asia and the Pacific (CIRDAP) and the ARTEP. Financial assistance for the workshop came from the UNDP as part of its support for the ARTEP project on the expansion of employment through local resource mobilisation.

Local resource mobilisation for employment expansion is a topic to which both the ARTEP and the CIRDAP attach great importance. It is one of the areas in which the ARTEP has been carrying out investigative studies in several Asian countries. Work on this project has been completed in Bangladesh and is nearing completion in India, Indonesia, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Thailand. The Bangladesh study and the draft reports on other studies formed the background material for the workshop. Actual discussion at the workshop centred around a few selected issues on which a number of papers were specially commissioned and were written by eminent specialists, administrators and planners.

The purpose of the workshop was to promote discussion and exchange of views and experiences among planners, administrators and other specialists on issues related to the expansion of employment and income through local resource mobilisation. The discussion and the pooling of knowledge and experi ences in the workshop provided valuable insights on the potentials of and obstacles to local resource mobilisation and the organisational and institutional framework through which such mobilisation can be attempted.

Participants at the workshop, who included the consultants of the ARTEP carrying out investigative studies on the subject in countries mentioned earlier and staff members of the ARTEP and the CIRDAP, were drawn from Bangla desh, India, Indonesia, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Thailand. The workshop was held at the CIRDAP. In this connection we would

like to put on record our deep appreciation for and the sense of gratitude to Mr. Aziz-ul Haq, Director of the CIRDAP, who made his presence felt in all practical matters related to the organisation of the workshop. It is he who along with Dr. A.R. Khan, Chief of the ARTEP, thought of the idea of holding the workshop. Special thanks are due to Dr. F.T. Orillo for the time and effort he gave for the workshop. It was the untiring efforts put in by the administra tive staff of the CIRDAP which ensured the smooth running of the workshop, and they deserve thanks for this.