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SD Conferences
Missing Links in Sustainable Development: South Asian Perspectives
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Sub-ThemesGlobalization South Asian economies have opened up to global trade and investment flows - at various speeds, with dissimilar policies. The promise to them had been the same: Liberalize, privatize - and your economies will grow, human development will follow. The promise has not been cashed in. Despite economic growth, South Asia is the world's region with the largest number of poor, highest gender gaps, and lowest literacy rates. Deforestation continues at a high rate and water scarcity increasingly poses a security threat to the region. Obviously, the simple equation that sustainable development is a good whose demand increases with greater purchasing power has been proven wrong. The Mahbub-ul-Haq Human Development Centre concludes in its 2001 report on “Globalisation and Human Development” that during the globalization phase about half a million people in South Asia have experienced a decline in their incomes and inequality has increased. Yet, many parts are missing in the jigsaw. The panels under this sub-theme will identify and analyze missing links between globalization and sustainable development. Panel 1: Trade and sustainable development: The WTO needs a new face Session: Regional trade agreements and conflict mitigation We invite scholars and policy practitioners, both from within and outside the region to present their empirical and academic work focusing on the links between trade and conflict to enrich the ongoing discourse around this subject. Contact: Panel 2: Trade and sustainable development: The WTO needs a new face Session: Informal Trade The number of Regional Trade Agreements (RTAs) has been increasing steadily over the last 15 years. By the beginning of 2005 around 250 RTAs had been notified to the WTO. Such agreements are viewed as either WTO-plus or as defensive arrangements to counteract the impact of globalization, which the WTO is instrumental in promoting. In terms of their trade impacts, the RTAs can be trade-creating or trade-diverting leading, respectively, to welfare gains or losses. Informal trade (smuggling) serves as an objective indicator of comparative advantage; its extent determines whether there are potential welfare gains in trade liberalization (via tariff and quota reductions). Also, an accurate fix on the magnitude of such trade provides useful insights for policy makers. It allows them to determine the volume of goods that will begin to flow through formal channels, their potential revenue effects, the impact such flows could have on domestic industries and the trade imbalances it could create. The estimation is not easy; in addition to data collection problems a comparative assessment of transport and procedural costs is necessary to determine the extent of tariff reductions required to trigger the cross-over into formal trade. This session invites presentations linking quantitative with analytical insights on informal trade, with a view to informing regional trade policy. Contact: Panel 3: Trade and sustainable development: The WTO needs a new face Session: Marine fisheries: Compliance, sustainability and livelihoods Exports of marine products from developing countries face increasingly stringent compliance requirements from northern consumers. The Sanitary and Phytosanitary-Hazard and Critical Control Point (SPS-HACCP) agreement governs health and safety standards while the voluntary Marine Stewardship Council (MSC) standards relate to harvesting activities. Although compliance requirements are flexible in view of the limited institutional capacities in the South, these standards will, over time, become more pervasive. The macro, meso and micro-level impacts can potentially engender export and livelihood losses. However, compliance with such standards is also key to ensuring long-term sustainability on the economic, social and environmental planes. Further compliance becomes increasingly more complex as one moves higher up the supply or value chain. Both the spread and depth of the issue require careful analysis in order to generate a suitably tailored menu of policy, institutional and technical interventions. Accordingly, we would like to invite contributions by academics and policy practitioners to share their research and shed light on a subject that is acquiring considerable regional importance. Contact: Panel 4: South Asia in the WTO: In search of a common position Post Hong Kong scenario of WTO is leading to a situation where decisions on multilateral trade are being taken in pluralateral and bilateral negotiations. Negotiation blocks are playing a crucial role in WTO. The panel, South Asia in the WTO, aims to analyze the negotiating positions of individual South Asian countries on the various issues of the July Framework Agreement in the aftermath of the WTO Ministerial in Hong Kong, and identify areas where common positions are emerging and areas where there are divergences of interest. It is expected to provide an open forum for discussion and debate to a wider audience of policy makers, researchers, private sector participants as well as civil society organizations so that South Asian countries may take well informed positions in WTO. Contact: Panel 5: Regoverning markets: Inclusion of small growers and producers in the supply chain There is an urgent need for anticipatory policy responses to agrifood restructuring that will enable small-scale producers to participate in dynamic markets. The capacity for public policy response is currently limited, notably because the majority of policy makers are unaware of the changes taking place. The debate around pro-poor growth and rural livelihoods is proceeding as if national public policy were still the key determinant of rural livelihoods. Little strategic analysis and advice is presently available within the public domain, and the framework for information and lesson sharing within and between stakeholder groups and across countries and regions is weak. The private sector’s capacity to respond to the particular challenges of small-scale producers is also limited, particularly where there are few incentives to change business practice in ways that deliver development benefits. The major aim of this panel is to explore the missing links that are hindering inclusion of small farmers and producers in the dynamic supply chains. Contact: Panel 6: Policy trends and development in access to Genetic Resources and benefit sharing Farming sector remains a major source of livelihood for a majority of the population in developing countries since centuries and Pakistan is not an exception to it. Natural resources and indigenous knowledge related to crop/Plant Genetic Resources (PGR) are two important pillars, not only for the livelihood assets of farming communities but also of their food security. PGR are resources that are built as a result of collective action (agronomic practices, traditional and shared knowledge, conservation and protection of wild as well as valuable traits of genetic resources) over many generations of crop and farming communities. As small farmers are usually not organized in a formal way, hence all collective efforts pertaining to genetic resources are informal and decentralized. Owing to their informal nature, intellectual property protection and benefit sharing of these collective efforts has always remained an issue. However, a number of models are emerging internationally to help these farmers to develop the basis of future legal system to protect and conserve their knowledge and resources. In the new era of globalization, international and national law and policies have significantly changed the policy environment relating to the management and control of genetic resources. Better analytical tools are needed to enable policy makers to evaluate the trade-offs and consequences of the particular decisions. Any approach adopted by the Government or competent authorities cannot be successful without the involvement of the farming communities in governance and ensuring their participation in policymaking through acknowledging the rights of marginalized communities and decentralized decision making process so that their needs and concerns are addressed affectively in developing specific policies. Recently many countries have been involved in research and development of access to genetic resources and benefit sharing but the changes and new directions and their consequences need to be analyzed as well. As such information will not only identify the crosscutting themes and trends from the perspective of the developing and developed countries but also help in recognizing the widespread and growing knowledge of plant genetic resources that will lead towards the emerging new policies and obligations and their effects at the global level. SDPI as a member of South Asia Watch on Trade, Economic and Environment (SAWTEE) is in the process of identifying crosscutting themes and trends that have emerged including farmers’ rights, the rights and concerns of indigenous communities, benefit sharing and access to genetic resources, disclosure of origin, etc., in order to prepare a model law on benefit sharing focusing on the traditional ways of the farming communities of the Hindukush Himalayas. Contact:
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