Livelihoods sustainability in Malaysia: implication on cooperation with West Asia

Abstract

The over-riding objective of managing sustainable development is to avail the citizens of livelihood opportunities and chances on sustainable basis, especially the vulnerable sections of the population. As collaborated in the Agenda 21 document on combating poverty, enabling all people to achieve sustainable livelihoods requires creating the enabling environment that allows policies to tackle effectively issues of development, sustainable resource management and poverty eradication simultaneously. This has not been that easy for the majority of the developing economies as far as the need to successfully tackle the menace posed by poverty and deprivation is concerned. Nevertheless, to an appreciable level some few countries have been much more successful in managing economic growth with equity in distribution; thereby sustaining livelihoods and greatly reducing poverty incidences. Malaysia is one such country that has tremendously been successful in combating poverty so as to scale up livelihoods of the greater majority of its population. It has been widely acknowledged that there exists no single blue print to addressing development issues and tackling development crises. This has been evidenced by Malaysia's example during the Asian economic crises. However, with the increasing global and regional cooperation, some countries have proved their acumen beyond any doubt in successfully tackling development issues; the same issues that bogged many countries down. In that light, the paper seeks to examine how far Malaysia's success in managing livelihoods sustainably may be exploited to strengthen and enhance its cooperation with West Asian countries and even beyond.