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EJAD (Economic Justice and Development Organization) is an Islamabad based non-profit, non-governmental organization formed to undertake peoples’ perspective research and advocacy on issues related to trade, human development and economic justice in order to achieve Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) for a better sustained future. EJAD is a policy think tank whose mission is to increase public participation and promote fair debate on critical issues related to trade, human development and economic justice in both national and international forums.

1. Context

2. Why EJAD?

3. Mission Statement

4. Objectives

5. Strategies

Pakistan is a developing country where the social indicators including unemployment and household incomes are deteriorating despite the economic growth.  A steep fall in public sector development spending, increasing unemployment and worsening agricultural activities has led to widespread poverty especially in rural areas.  Pakistan is a very poor country with a per capita income of about 842 USD per annum, and an official literacy rate of 53 percent, which may be exaggerated.  Half of the population has no access to potable water or basic health services and 24 percent population is living below the poverty line. More importantly, differences in income per capita among the society and across regions have persisted or widened. Hence, poverty varies significantly among rural and urban areas and from province to province.

It is a widely recognized fact that poverty only exists because of economic injustices in the society and as a result of imbalanced and non-participatory policies of the State. The policies that create livelihood opportunities for masses across board always result into poverty-reducing effects in the community. Such policies provide an enabling agricultural and commerce & industry environment where the civil society itself takes joint and welfare oriented innovative businesses that provide livelihood opportunities to everyone more especially to the vulnerable groups of the society.

In Pakistan, while agriculture, industry and services are important sectors of economy, trade (export and import) plays important role to fill gap between supply and demand and provides benefits to producers, traders and consumers. Trade affects everyone in the country and therefore, a balanced trade policy and enabling trading environment is crucial for the sustainable development. The trade related policies are influenced, at the one hand, by demands of the local stakeholders and, on the other hand, by the international trade agreements more specifically the World Trade Organization (WTO).

Trade liberalization under the auspices of World Trade Organization (WTO) is an important aspect of globalisation. Developing countries are required to abruptly liberalize their trade policies under the new system. Being member of the WTO, Pakistan has to change its trade related policies to fulfil its commitments and any compromise or negligence in this regard would lead to a negative fall out on everyone in the country. The civil society in the country has serious concerns on all these accounts in Pakistan and the need has been felt widely to monitor and raise these issues explicitly as a civil society with a hope and commitment to reform the system.

Trade liberalization under the auspices of WTO is promoted as panacea for all economic ills and short cut to quick prosperity. Member countries of the WTO are required to liberalize their trade policies under the new system. However, the process of trade liberalization has been partial and unequal. What had been a gradually evolving trade liberalization process over the centuries for “new developed countries” has now become a strategy condition for “still developing countries”. Developing countries have been lowering trade barriers more rapidly than northern countries without getting promised results. Their economies are shrinking with increase in poverty. Being weak economic players in global economy, developing countries, seemingly, has little policy choice but to fall in the line.

Many individuals and organizations, all over the world, are now challenging the rationale and modus operandi of institutions like WTO. This wave of corrective justice in international trade to make trade fair is now a well-recognized phenomenon and perhaps a hope for developing countries. International civil society has played a key role in this process. The collective efforts made in this regard reveal many success stories.

While Pakistan, being a member of the WTO, has to change its trade related policies to fulfil its commitments, there is an important need for cost-benefit analysis along the way. This is more important with reference to the fallout on poor people, employment, incomes, small and medium scale business, informal sector, environment and development goals. In Pakistan, unfortunately very little work has been done to study the impacts of trade liberalization on different walks of life. Due to lack of empirical research, the overall response of interest groups to the policies of WTO remains dormant and issue specific.

Civil Society Organizations (CSOs) in Pakistan have so far been responding to the WTO policies in sporadic way due to lack of WTO specific programmes as well as human resources. At one time, CSOs decided to monitor and raise these issues explicitly as a civil society with a hope and commitment to reform the WTO system. A joint civil society initiative “WTO Watch Group (WWG)” was initiated during 2001 to fill the research based advocacy gape in the country. The WWG is comprised of key organizations in Pakistan i.e. ActionAid-Pakistan, Oxfam GB-Pakistan Programme, Sungi Development Foundation, Sustainable Development Policy Institute, and TheNetwork for Consumer Protection. After successful coordinated interventions at the WWG platform, a need was felt within the WWG to form and register an independent organization (having a fulltime team of trade & economic experts) in order to monitor trade & economic national and international developments and carry out advocacy and lobbying guided by the research and analysis. It has been anticipated that such an organization would help refine positions of civil society in Pakistan on different WTO agreements in order to effectively sensitise the policy makers by providing them precise feedback on wide range of WTO issues. On the other hand, a wider public support will help the organization mount a public pressure as well.

In this backdrop, the subject initiative ‘EJAD’ has been taken to undertake peoples’ perspective research and advocacy on issues related to trade, human development and economic justice. Oxfam GB is facilitating establishment of EJAD and has provided necessary funds to kick-start the organization. EJAD aims to help protect rights of people, especially vulnerable women and men, in the era of trade liberalization and to develop critical awareness and pressure regarding Pakistan’s engagement with the WTO. The key objective of EJAD is to help transform the related national policies into ones those are sensitive to people’s basic rights, protect their livelihoods, promote their competitiveness and raise economic justice in the society. The EJAD will take care of issues of stakeholders and communities who have been negatively affected by the national and internal policies governed by the process of trade liberalization and are becoming ever more vulnerable.

“To facilitate Pakistan (civil society and the Government) to ensure safe engagement in the globalisation process and make the trade and economic policies work for poor in order to achieve MDGs and sustainable development in the country.”

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1. To serve as hub for providing WTO and trade related information, analysis and their implications on various walks of life.
    

2. To conduct research and advocacy on issues related to economic justice, trade and development and transfer the research findings to policy makers in the country in order to bring democracy and transparency in the trade related policies.
    

3. To advocate on policies those are sensitive to people’s basic rights, protect their livelihoods, and promote their competitiveness.
    

4. To raise awareness among stakeholders such as farmers, small and mediums entrepreneurs, labour groups, informal sector workers, consumers, etc. on WTO, other trade agreements  and domestic trade related policies so that they can cope with the future challenges.
    

5. To help strengthen livelihood opportunities for vulnerable women and men in the era of trade liberalization.
    

6. To carefully watch WTO and assess its impact on Pakistan.
    

7. To serve as a source of expertise and independent advisory services for the government, private sector, and non-governmental initiatives about trade policies and WTO.
    

8. To initiate, establish and participate in collaborative advocacy and other activities with like-minded civil society organizations in and outside the country. 

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EJAD employ five broad strategies to achieve its objectives, namely: monitoring; research and analysis; advocacy and lobbying; awareness raising; and networking.  

Monitoring: EJAD keep abreast of the various developments, discussions, debates, and decisions being made in the international trade regime. Additionally, EJAD watch trade and economic policies of the government and monitor Pakistan’s engagement with WTO. Internationally, EJAD keep an eye on positions/activities of related groups/networks/ organizations. 

Research: The lack of available information makes it very difficult to establish a comprehensive understanding of the linkages between trade policies, economic welfare, and the power structures that shape our society. EJAD struggle to fill this information gap so that these issues may be better understood. EJAD believe that the knowledge gaps should be filled through serious efforts towards research. EJAD undertake research, identify researchers and institutions (local & international), and commission the research where appropriate. The research findings guide the advocacy work of EJAD. 

Advocacy and Lobbying: EJAD is committed to advocate for required change at the policy level. Lobbying is an important ingredient of advocacy especially at policy level and EJAD exploit the available policy space and try to expand it for more inputs from the civil society. 

Awareness Raising: The information gleaned from research and monitoring becomes useful only if it is disseminated. EJAD is mandated to serve as hub for providing WTO and trade related information, analysis and their implications on various walks of life. EJAD strive to raise the level of public awareness concerning the importance of international trade in the current global scenario and implications of trade liberalisation on people in Pakistan. EJAD disseminate relevant information through media, public meetings, seminars, and the like. EJAD plans to actively advance positions on relevant issues and encourage discussion and debate at all levels. At the grass root level, EJAD plans to present comprehensible WTO, trade and economics related technical stuff so that the different stakeholders can understand them easily. EJAD endeavours to use following channels to disseminate information and initiate debate:

Networking & Alliance Building: EJAD believes that the resistance, in this era of globalisation, also has to be globalised for it to be effective. Therefore, EJAD would be building alliances with others both within and outside Pakistan. Efforts would be put to share information and ideas with other related government departments, research institutions, chambers of commerce, academia, NGOs, community organisations, and various other bodies working on similar themes. Through broader membership, the EJAD believes that joint efforts with diverse stakeholders will help refine our positions on different WTO agreements and effectively sensitise the policy makers by providing them precise feedback on wide range of WTO issues.
 

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