It has been experienced that in addition to the natural growth of population the migrants from rural to urban areas have created enormous problems. In result these problems have affected the human settlement patterns and degraded environments in the metropolitan areas of the Third World, Pakistan particularly Karachi. The phenomenal development which occurred at an apparently fast pace has also created pressures on basic utilities and problems for the authorities concerned with the improvement of environment in the metropolitan areas. Lack of adequate housing and infrastructure for millions of people of low-income groups living in slums locally known as Katchi Abadis are the main challenges for the urban planners in Pakistan. The essential focus of this research is on human settlement patterns and particularly on those physical and social problems affecting the environment in metropolitan Karachi as a whole and in the Katchi Abadis in particular. To understand the nature of the problems and formulation of applicable policies the research is based on the data collected from Lyari and Korangi two Katchi Abadis in Karachi. In view of the analysis of the process of slum formation, policies and hindrances to the execution of applied policies and present situation in the case study areas this study has proposed two types of policy and a modified management system for the adequate implementation of proposed policies to overcome the problems of Katchi Abadis in Pakistan, particularly in two selected Katchi Abadis in the Karachi metropolitan area. These policies may hopefully result in upgrading the environment in large cities in developing countries and in Pakistan and Karachi in particular.

Among all types of psychiatric disorder, depression is the most prevalent one which affect nearly one third of the contemporary adult population. Depression also ranks top with regard to women’s health and is now contributing heavily to the global disease burden. WHO makes clear that the overall rates of women's depression confirmed across all centers are almost 2 times higher than that of men. This review was performed with aim to examine the risk factors of female depression in developing countries. It also focuses on the strategies and policy recommendations for policy makers. In summary, results included poverty, educational level, unemployment, being unmarried, marital crisis, victims of violence, undesired pregnancies, lack of social support, poor relationships with parents and in-laws, history of depression, were associated with perinatal depression. Besides, financial difficulties, not living with parents, lack social support, expose to violence, bad school behavior and maternal depression were associated with female adolescent depression. / published_or_final_version / Public Health / Master / Master of Public Health

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Abstract This paper is a contribution to the discussion on Innovation for Development. It is argued that innovation strategies in developing countries are the result of competing policy and contextual factors. In exploring this theme, it suggests that innovation strategies which are shaped by domestic market and policy realities are more robust and contribute towards improving the country-level performance of enterprises. The paper has seven sections which include a brief review of the literature related to innovation strategies in developing countries; a small discussion of success factors and policies of countries that offer good experiences and lessons in applying innovation strategies; a part on what policy implications to draw from the literature and the success stories for less developed countries; and a final section on the role of the donor countries in facilitating the implementation of the innovation strategies. The paper puts forward some tentative conclusions that summarise what has been learnt from the paper and affirms that the innovation-systems based strategies are indeed internationally replicable. The resulting policy and developmental frameworks will invariably exhibit high levels of variation. These differences emerge primarily from the systemic approach encouraged by the use of innovation policy. Secondly, the innovation-systems approaches ensure adaptability whilst maintaining methodological rigour. It also enables comparability and thereby also promotes appropriate and relevant benchmarking. Finally, the innovation-systems paradigm has a normative capacity to dynamically absorb and respond to the needs and demands of locally-specified domestic contexts.

This study explores the prospects for the emergence of democratic regimes in developing countries in general and in Muslim countries in particular. This question has both intellectual and policy relevance for the 1990s and beyond. The optimistic view about the future of democracy has been challenged by Samuel Huntington who sees the status of democracy in the world in 1984 as not very different from what it was about ten years earlier. Huntington further claims that among the Islamic countries, "particularly those in the Middles East, the prospects for democratic development seem low." Huntington attributes this to the recent Islamic revivalism, particularly Shi'ah fundamentalism, and the poverty of many of the Muslim countries. This study will test and reject the thesis that Islam is directly responsible for the absence of democracy in the Muslim countries. A model to measure the society-state power index is proposed, with a control for Islam, to observe whether Islam plays a neutral role in the process of democratization or it is a force hindering the inauguration of democracy in Muslim countries. Support for a structural explanation of democratization is found. The failure by the developing countries to inaugurate democracy is due to the uneven distribution of socioeconomic and political power resources. The cultural explanations, e.g. the role of religion, are thus rejected. A total of 87 countries are included in a cross national regression analysis, consisting of 31 Muslim countries, 17 newly inaugurated democracies, and 39 other developing countries. The period under investigation covers 1970 through 1988. This study also has implications for the U.S. and other developed Western countries that are concerned with the persistence of authoritarianism in the developing countries. Some policy proposals are offered as to help establish democracy in developing countries.

published_or_final_version / Geography and Geology / Master / Master of Philosophy

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Knowledge is the key to growth and development. Unfortunately, the knowledge gap which exists between industrialized countries and developing ones is large. As information technologies play an essential role in the movement of knowledge and information, they hold promise for the reduction of this gap. Information technologies are being introduced progressively in all activities of both the public and private sectors. Business organizations and commercial activities are thus being profoundly transformed, at varying levels and by different instruments. Developing countries cannot afford to be left behind in this information revolution. The international community recognizes this, and has instituted a range of programmes promoting electronic commerce in developing countries. However, to maximize the benefits, developing countries must put in place an environment that favours and promotes the acquisition, absorption and communication of knowledge by their citizens and business enterprises.

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This thesis examines the identities and the narratives of Overseas Chinese. Through discussing their history, I explore how the overseas Chinese came to imagine themselves as a community called 'Chinese Diaspora', which is ostensibly held together by the imagination of a 'homeland' in a faraway place in the distant past. By examining autobiographical texts, I discuss how the 'Chineseness' they maintained throughout the migration is founded upon such a virtual reality, and how this in turn is experienced by the individuals. Taking the narratives as something that both reflect and construct their identities, I explore the conundrum women in diaspora face in representing their own experiences of the community on the basis of Maxine Hong Kingston's memoir. Chinese women of diaspora have particular difficulties in claiming their individuality through narrations, especially because the community that sustains the 'traditional' Chineseness is rapidly transforming.