4.2.4.7 NGOs and civil society The ESAP region is perhaps second only to the LAC region in terms of the intensity and capacity of NGOs and their ca­pacity on a wide range of issues that are important to social issues. What originated as voluntary work in the immediate post-independence decades (1960s and 1970s) in the Asian countries became organized nongovernment organizations (NGOs) (Tandon, 2000). Starting as small trusts and locally based civil society groups, they have taken on different or­ganizational formats: for instance the Asia Pacific Research Network (APRN) is a collection of 37 member organiza­tions, and has a mandate to exchange information on lo­cal and international issues that shape society in the region. These organizationsareexpectedtogrow                                         into international and multilateral oir future similar to the way in which the World Social Forum evolved. Increas­ingly there is a trend among NGOs in the region to focus on building an Asia-Pacific community (Yamamoto, 1995).
     From being the effective or people-friendly implementa­tion arm and partner of the State in development programs, the NGO sector in Asia will increasingly partner with actors in arenas such as agriculture, health, population, gender and empowerment, urban planning, water management, micro­credit and insurance. A relatively new path that the NGOs are treading now, as partners of the corporate sector and in leading the environmental movement, promises to grow into a powerful driver of change in the ESAP region (Korten, 1997; Yamamoto and Ashizawa, 1999; Barkenbus, 2001). There are also civil society networks that work towards building effective working relationships among countries. The South Asian Perspectives Network Association (SAPNA) is an example, pointing out future directions in development policies in the South Asian countries (Wignaraja, 2005). The argument for this engagement is that South Asian countries will need a new praxis and management of knowledge systems in order to address the demand for development with equity. An emerging trend in the Asia-Pacific region is that of NGO innovation in non-formal education (NFE) (UNESCO, 2003). Advances in NFE and NGO leadership in empowering local people (e.g., NFE and access to credit in Korean villages, functional literacy in rural China/Ban­gladesh) have major implications for pluralistic agricultural extension practice and AKST in general (Sulaiman and Hall, 2005; UNESCO, 2005).
     The Asia-Pacific NGOs have not partnered with sci­ence—agricultural science in particular—in learning for, planning and implementing knowledge-based agricultural development. Their role in agricultural science and technol­ogy has been limited to technology dissemination. Though there are cases where NGOs have helped scientists to learn about local contexts, generate new/modified technologies and find new ways of working, these cases are rarely ac­knowledged by formal public sector agricultural science (Rhoades, 2000). The trend of NGOs to partner with re­search and non-research actors in the agricultural innova­tion system may be strengthened in the coming decades (Hall et al., 2004). While the NGO arm of corporate social responsibility is appreciated widely and is even considered an essential partnership as a check on unhindered exploita­tion and profiteering, there is increasing concern that NGOs funded by/co-opted by corporate sector may lose their ca-

pacity to articulate social and ethical issues in development when corporate strategies neglect such implications.
     Overall, the social and political drivers of change pres­ent a mixed bag of positive and negative impacts on the future of agriculture in ESAP. For AKST, while increasing in­vestments and learning opportunities emerge from more so­cial interactions and political changes, it is likely that many of these investments may be private sector investments in AKST given that public resources may be increasingly di­verted to social security nets or other essential infrastructure investments. Social and political drivers portend a change in the nature of regional cooperation and of the actors who will ensure that AKST continues to generate useful tech­nologies that are accessible to and utilized by farming com­munities and other rural producers. These new actors with new social and scientific skills will be from the private sector and NGOs, and therefore public sector AKST (constituting a large component of KST in ESAP) must equip itself to partner with these new actors.

4.2.5     Education, culture, ethics and health
Important social drivers such as education, health and cul­tural norms (their resilience, capacity for modernization and global human rights and value systems) can shape fu­ture AKST in the region. This shaping occurs primarily by bringing more educated and healthy people to generate and utilize knowledge in the agricultural sector and by absorb­ing global advances in S&T into local cultures or adapting local habits and practices, perceptions of risk, etc., to accept modern technologies or ways of working.
     Standards of living in 2050 are expected to decline in response to demographic transitions in countries such as New Zealand, Singapore, Japan and Australia that are already undergoing a transition toward increasingly older populations (Ross, 2006). In countries such as Malaysia, Indonesia, and Philippines where the population is relatively young now, the impending transition (combined with ap­propriate saving responses) is likely to have large positive impacts on standards of living for at least 50 years or more (Ross, 2006).

4.2.5.1   Employment
Employment opportunities are closely related to overall demographic composition and location; the ESAP popula­tion will be predominantly urban and engaged in service or manufacturing activities by the 2030s. A decreasing share of the economic pie will come from the agriculture sector (World Bank, 2007) reflecting the changing and increas­ing employment opportunities in other sectors, which may absorb rural unemployment and surplus agricultural labor force (see 4.2.1).
     Asia's labor force will increase by 14% (245 million people) between 2005 and 2015. Though China will con­tribute to this increase, China's share will be limited because of its internal fertility rate and population growth rate. By 2015 China will add 7% additional labor to its current la­bor force. The corresponding figures for Bangladesh (25%) and Philippines (24%) are far higher (ADB, 2005). Labor force participation rates will tend to be lower in South Asia compared to East Asia and Pacific countries. Yet, the de­veloping countries of the region will reap a "demographic