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During the last two decades, there has been proliferation of
civil voluntary initiatives in the name of local and international
development. The international donors of a large variety have played
catalyst role in supporting such initiatives financially to help engage
in meaningful interaction with the states in whose jurisdiction they
operate. These initiatives have been given many names, most popular
being the NGOs (Non-Governmental Organisations). However, in this paper
one is referring to this collectivity as civil voluntary initiatives
(CVIs). They can be institutions, organisations or behaviours, forms of
social activism or participation—formal and informal, organised and or
random. There is general perception that these initiatives are "donor
driven" and follow a "western agenda". We also observe that many
international donors do not tend to fund and encourage impartially; they
leave out faith-based groups from their support net. The latter
reportedly receive charity donations from foreign governments in the
name of serving religion—Islam, in the case of Pakistan.

Many in the developing world face social exclusion and discrimination, preventing them from actively participating in society itself. Sound macroeconomic policies with a focus on stabilizing the price level and social outcomes can help to achieve social justice for marginalized people. This study empirically examines the impact of macroeconomic policies on social inclusion, considering specifically the coordination among them in promoting that social inclusion. It deals primarily with pure non-income dimensions of social inclusion such as education, and health, etc. Using annual panel data of 51 developing countries for the period 1995-2017 this study employs state-of-the-art panel data estimation methods – pooled estimation, fixed-effect, and random-effect models. To check for robustness and to handle the problem of endogeneity, the 2SLS technique has also been used. This study argues that a well-designed macroeconomic policy framework can do much more than just achieve economic goals. Results suggest that fiscal and monetary policy, through resource mobilization, can play a significant and positive role in promoting social inclusion. However, these fiscal and monetary policy actions are not independent; thus, a policy mix is required to achieve the target of an inclusive society.

Economic growth, although being a major quest of all the economies, is not an automatic phenomenon. Among its determinants, structural change in the form of reallocation of labour from low to high productivity sectors is of crucial importance. In view of the remarkable growth performance and unprecedented structural change of Asia in the last couple of decades, this paper investigated the case of 20 selected Asian countries. By employing the data spanning from 1991-2018, the study shows three main results. First, by employing Shift Share Analysis framework, it reaffirms reaffirm the findings of previous literature that structural change contributes to the aggregate productivity growth. Second, by utilizing Generalized Methods of Moments technique, the results find it to be an important booster of growth. Third, the results are reliable and consistent with alternative measures of structural change like Norm of Absolute Values and Modified Lilien Index. Taken together, these findings suggest that the governments in Asia (other regions like Africa and Latin America may alike) must chalk out policies for structural change promotion.

Economic growth, although being a major quest of all the economies, is not an automatic phenomenon. Among its determinants, structural change in the form of reallocation of labour from low to high productivity sectors is of crucial importance. In view of the remarkable growth performance and unprecedented structural change of Asia in the last couple of decades, this paper empirically investigated the case of 20 selected Asian countries. By employing the data spanning from 1991 to 2018, the study shows three main results. First, by employing Shift Share Analysis framework, it reaffirms the findings of previous literature that structural change contributes to the aggregate productivity growth. Second, by utilizing Generalized Methods of Moments technique, the results find it to be an important booster of growth. Third, the results are reliable and consistent with alternative measures of structural change like Norm of Absolute Values and Modified Lilien Index. Taken together, these findings suggest that the governments in Asia (other regions like Africa and Latin America may alike) must chalk out policies for structural change promotion.

Income inequality is one of the critical barriers to growth
and development in most of the developing countries including Pakistan.
Every third man in Pakistan falls below the poverty line1. Moreover, the
budget deficit has also been a serious issue throughout the history of
Pakistan"s economy. The persistent budget deficit is the constant source
of increasing poverty and deterioration of income distribution. Since
deficit is financed by increasing indirect taxes and money supply, it
causes the reduction in purchasing power and leads the masses towards
poverty [Arif and Farooq (2011)]. Therefore, it is a dire need of the
economy to have a good public policy such that it could reduce budget
deficit, alleviate poverty and redistribute income. Malik and Saqib
(1985) suggest that the resources of the economy can be distributed
equally only through appropriate changes in the tax system. Fiscal
policy can have a significant influence on removing the gap between
haves and havenots both directly and indirectly. It directly affects the
disposable income of individuals, whereas affecting their future earning
capacities indirectly

Oil prices not only affect the agricultural commodity directly but also indirectly through different channels. However, among these channels, the most important is the channel of exchange rate. The reason for putting emphasis on the mediating role of exchange rate between the oil prices and food prices nexus is that the oil‐importing counties like Pakistan pay their import bills in terms of foreign currency in the international market which as a result escalates the demand for foreign currency in oil‐importing countries. This study has analyzed the indirect influence of oil prices on food prices via exchange rate. We developed a Composite Index (CI) of the agricultural commodity prices including wheat, cotton, rice, gram, sugar cane, and maize. This index is generated by using Principal Component Analysis (PCA). Further, to construct our econometric model, we used mediation approach by applying Seemingly Unrelated Regression (SUR) model. The results indicate a positive relationship between exchange rate and prices of oil. We also found the same relationship between exchange rate and the food prices. In addition to this, we witnessed positive effects of prices of oil on the food prices in the presence of exchange rate. Our study confirms that exchange rate partially mediates between the nexus of oil prices and food prices. Our analysis explains the impact of oil price on agricultural commodity prices through the channel of exchange rate by using time series data of Pakistan.