Media Coverage

Food insecurity in the region may grow starker if co-operative measures were not pursued among Saarc member states and it is also necessary for poverty reduction and human development. This was the crux of a session on "regional co-operation for food security in South Asia" during the 16th annual Sustainable Development Conference of Sustainable Development Policy Institute's (SDPI) which concluded here on Thursday.

The conference concluded with a renewed resolve towards greater regional co-operation in South Asia. The conference brought together policy and practice communities to interact and recommend interventions and present workable solutions to emerging challenges in South Asia.

On the 2015 development agenda in the context of millennium development goals (MDGs), Marriyum Aurangzeb, Member National Assembly, said Pakistan had been unable to achieve MDGs due to lack of effective monitoring. She added peace and security should be included as a separate goal in the post-MDGs agenda.

Experts also stressed that the civil administration involved in the implementation of MDGs needed to be monitored and held accountable. Their performance should be linked with clear performance indicators. The development partners and the global community should be reminded of their promise towards fulfilling the MDG goal focusing on building global partnerships. The developed countries must honour their commitments in the MDGs process and should contribute towards foreign assistance, the committed portfolio of investments.

Experts in the session on Alternate Dispute Resolution (ADR) and access to justice argued for the need for such mechanisms so as to prevent various types of conflict, including the persistent militancy problem in Pakistan.

In the roundtable discussion on governance, peace and justice in South Asia, Dr Vaqar Ahmed, Deputy Executive Director, SDPI observed that bilateral issues were halting regional co-operation.

Paul Macarthy from the World Bank highlighted the unbalanced distribution of power between the public sector, private sector and citizens. "Good governance can only be ensured when there is equal distribution of power in the society," he observed.

It was also noted that connecting people, as in the IDRC fellowship for Asian students, had helped students across South Asia to explore and understand common challenges to the region.

Panellists in the session on Institutional Dynamics of Policy Research in South Asia identified discrepancies in the institutional dynamics of policy making in the region. The dynamics of policy making were argued to be inconsistent in order to encourage policy-relevant research. It was suggested that quality research should serve as guidance for policy makers. It was established that the issue of autonomy over the research agenda had particular influence on the relevance and the quality of research produced by either universities or think tanks.