Ponna Wignaraja, Susil Sirivardana and Akmal Hussain (eds), Economic Democracy through Pro-Poor Growth . New Delhi Sage Publications, 2009, Rs 695, 361 pp
Abstract
The book Economic Democracy through Pro-Poor Growth is the eighth in the series by the South Asian Perspective Network Association (SAPNA), a South Asian think tank. It mainly deals with good governance, with an emphasis on participatory development in combination with systematic decentralization of power and resources to the grassroots level that lay the basis for poverty reduction in the region. The book has four parts. The first part, ‘A Quarter Century of Learning from the Poor’, starts with the brief introduction followed by chapter 1 and 2 both written by Ponna Wignaraja. The second part, ‘The Core Methodology with the Poor as Subjects’, has five chapters and reinforces the coherence of emerging pro-poor growth strategies and the fundamentals of poverty eradication in South Asia. The third part, ‘Sensitization and Training of Facilitators through Praxis and PAR’, has only one chapter followed by part four, ‘Making the Macro Framework Pro-poor: A Strategic Agenda’, which has three chapters analyzing the case studies on the practice of decentralization reforms and the constraints faced by the poor for empowerment. Chapter 1, ‘The Point of Departure’, highlights the various lessons learned from the survival strategies of the poor themselves and from new