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Sustainable Development Policy Institute Ninth Sustainable Development Conference Dec.15, 2006
Sustainable development cannot be achieved without an effective sustainable governance-based on principles of accountability, transparency, participatory approach and meritocracy. The need for good governance was highlighted as one of the main links during the final and third day of SDPI’s Ninth Sustainable Development Conference ‘Missing Links in Sustainable Development: South Asian Perspectives.’ Dipak Gyawali, Research Director, Nepal Water Conservation Foundation and Institute for Social and Environmental Transition, Nepal during his plenary session called for the need to re-define sustainability away from neat but static ‘proceduralism’ towards a more clumsy but dynamic ‘constructive engagement’ between the bureaucratic hierarchism of the regulatory state, the risk-taking innovativeness of the market, and the cautionary criticism of the egalitarian social auditors. He lamented that despite sustainability presenting itself as an obvious idea with inherent appeal, it had proven to be notoriously difficult to pin down or put into practice. Sharing examples from Nepal’s water and power sector where community management of resources has been successfully practiced, he said that it was important to move the debate on sustainability to the plurality of the policy terrain.
During the session on ‘South Asian Peoples’ Movements: Bringing Development Home’ Mr. Aasim Sajad Akhtar discussed the role of the state and its justification for dominating society by invoking the imperative of ‘national security’ or ‘national development.’ He shared how this has been the pretext for the suppression of many people’s struggles for livelihood, national rights, shelter and ecology. He said that military was directly involved in the suppression of movements and struggles considered to be threatening national security or being anti-development. He particularly highlighted the case of the struggle of landless farmers on state lands in Punjab centered on Okara military farms, and the struggle of coastal fishing communities in Badin and Thatta. Dr. Bishnu from Nepal looked at the people’s war waged by the Communist Party of Nepal and the people’s movement of April 2006. He discussed how the civic movement of April 6-24, 2006 proved that people’s power could defeat autocratic, feudal regime by peaceful means. He recommended that non-violent civic movement need discipline, commitment, ability of leadership and believe on people’s inner strength to settle conflict and building peace. Dr. Rafi Khan from SDPI highlighted the positive role played by the Sarhad Awami Forestry Ittehad (SAFI) as the only formal attempt to engage in forestry reform advocacy and political activism despite the harsh and challenging environmental, cultural, political and financial odds. The SAFI activists present during the session shared how the power of the timber mafia and the unhealthy forestry policies of the state were playing havoc with the already downtrodden lives of the people of NWFP. Mr. Faisal Shaheen shared the findings of a study conducted in the state of Orissa, India conducted by Manas Rajan Kar. Dr. Peter Lund Thomsen from Copenhagen chaired the session.
Dr. Abid Q. Suleri during the session on ‘Re-Governing Marketing: Inclusion of small growers and producers in the supply Chain’ said that the trade and marketing trends in the world were changing drastically He presented the meso and macro level picture of the governance system of the country and stressed the need of the functional and institutional governance and democracy and the politicization of cooperatives. Ms. Bryn Gay and Chatrini Weerratunge focused on conceptualizing the principles of participatory economics, corporativism, fair trade and corporate social responsibility and called for the development of an alternative global, social–economic justice framework in order to foster the climate of participation, fair pricing and equitable partnership for small-scale producers. According to their report around 2.6 billion people worldwide are dependent on agricultural based livelihoods, with majority of the people living in poor rural economies of developing countries. In developing countries poor producers and farmers have inherited market imperfection including lack of market access, lack of access to credit, the inability to switch to other sources of income generation, they said. Mr. Roshan Malik from Southern Illinois University while discussing the pitfalls of the white revolution for small dairy farmers identified seasonal supply, poor insemination, lack of proper feed, poor collection system, food safety system and the lack of Government support as the main reasons for the low and poor productivity in the dairy sector of Pakistan. Establishment of model dairy farms consisting of research and sale centers, cooperative dairy farms rather than big commercial farms are the key for the development of small milk producers of Pakistan, he said. Dr. Nadeem-ul-Haq, Director of Pakistan’s Institute of Development Economics (PIDE) chaired the session.
Mr. Pradeep Mehta from the Consumer Unity and Trust Society, India, Dr. Abid Suleri from SDPI and Engineer Jabbar presented their papers on ‘South Asia in the WTO: In search of a common position’. Dr. Suleri highlighted the fact that there is never a win-win situation in the WTO and Pakistan therefore needs to focus on areas where it has a comparative advantage. Dr Suleri pointed out that Pakistan is not only a strategic partner in the war on terrorism, but is a direct beneficiary of growth in EU & US as these are its major trading partners. Dr. Suleri questioned whether it was in the interest of developing countries to have a common position in the WTO and discussed the implications of the increased number of RTAs/BTAs in this context. Mr. Mehta and Pranav Kumar spoke on ‘Suspension of the Doha Round Talks: the cost implications for India’ and acknowledged that at such negotiations there is always a give and take. They recommended that domestic reforms should be benchmarked on whether they can lead to a relatively more pro-poor growth or not, if one has to link pro-development outcomes of trade negotiations with pro-poor growth outcomes. They also highlighted that opportunity costs need to be taken into account in these negotiations.
Dr. Karin Astrid Seigmann from SDPI in the session on ‘Water Justice and Governance in South Asia’ recommended that water conservation should be given priority over large storage projects and that health implications of water related interventions should be accessed before embarking on them. There should be economic incentive such as secure property rights, improving access to water for the marginalized and more efficient use of scarce resources, she said. Dr. Peter. L .Thomsen from Denmark discussed public private Partnership (PPP) of water resources. Mr. Pervaiz Amir commented that since Pakistan was now a water stressed country there was need for comprehensive planning, policy development and implementation in this sector. Dr. Urs Geiser from University of Zurich, Switzerland chaired the session.
Professor Parimala from the University of Delhi in the session on ‘Educational Policies in South Asia’ shared that South Asia continues to suffer from high drop out rates, especially a high incidence of young girls dropping out of schools due to increased demands on women labor. There is also a class and gender disparity in the classroom as well as in the textbooks, she said. She recommended that schools, rather than politicians should have the autonomy to choose their own syllabus. Mr. Sarfaraz Khan from the University of Peshawar discussed the role and policies of the HEC, while Mr. Shahid Siddiqui from LUMS Lahore, examined the relevance and impact of the teacher training programs in Pakistani classrooms and the return to the status quo inspite of these trainings. Mr. Mohammad Babur shared the findings of an Agha Khan University study that evaluated the existence, communication, understanding, implementation and process of educational policy formulation in the country and concluded that district and field offices continue to be unaware of policies. Pakistan badly needs policy formulation that is participatory, he said. The panel closed by raising questions on the relationship between knowledge and power and the hierarchies between transfer of knowledge. The participants pointed out that Pakistan’s educational policies were silent on the education of disabled students and recommended that educational policies on the macro level should be combined with micro level strategies.
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