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SD Conferences
Missing Links in Sustainable Development: South Asian Perspectives
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Concept NoteThe SDC series has been established as a prime Conference in South Asia on development issues attracting leading intellectuals and policy-makers to come together. Some 136 panelists from 11 countries participated in the Eighth SDC in December 2005. An anthology based on peer reviewed SDC papers is published and launched at the succeeding Conference. The published books form part of curricula on development of some of the educational institutions within Pakistan and are also quoted in research publications. The concept of Sustainable Development (SD) is essentially an interdisciplinary one. Economists, environmentalists, anthropologists, political scientists and others have advanced rigorous theories to explore the various dimensions of sustainable development. Yet, often their findings and suggestions have not been noticed beyond disciplinary boundaries; they have been ignored in the policy arena and thus could not contribute to solving problems at the grassroots level. The South Asian region has posed a challenge for SD. It hosts the largest number of the world's poor, is characterized by the widest gender gaps in access to resources, and by latent and violent conflicts over the equitable distribution of natural resources. Narrowing the gaps in sustainability research and bridging the space between the scientific discourse on SD and practical steps towards a sustainable South Asia has been the mission of SDPI's conference series on sustainable development. This year's Conference thus aims at identifying the missing links in SD for South Asia and proposes fillers for those. Questions addressed at the Ninth SDC will include why benefits of globalization have failed to trickle down to the region's vast population and steps towards a process of global economic integration that benefits the marginalized. It asks, which channels exclude women from access to resources, such as land, decent work, and human security, and how these structures can be changed. Many sound ideas for tackling deforestation, the declining water availability and deteriorating water quality are on the table. Yet, the capture of water governance through the powerful leads to unsustainable water management in South Asia . The Conference digs below the surface of these and many more issues, for reasons and steps towards change. For this task, the region's pool of cutting-edge academics will be tapped and top researchers invited together with policy-makers, activists and other relevant stakeholders for a vibrant three-day debate. There will be one main plenary each day in which prominent keynote speakers will be invited to address significant areas of sustainable development such as globalization and poverty; gender; and environment. The plenary each day will be followed by two concurrent sessions/panels on sub-themes covered under the overarching theme. The plenary will last for one hour and 30 minutes while the duration of each panel will be two hours and 30 minutes with three to five presentations by speakers invited to the Conference. The following sub-themes will be covered under the overarching theme Globalization Abstracts followed by papers are invited for the sub-themes under the overarching theme. Details are explained in this concept note. Contact information of the panel organizers is provided to facilitate communication between a potential speaker and the respective panel organizer. A screening committee will review the abstracts. Speakers whose abstracts are approved will be required to submit their papers. More details and deadlines are given in the last section on author’s guidelines. The panels listed in the concept note are subject to change and modification depending on the response from potential speakers and their abstracts.
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