The Sustainable Development Policy Institute (SDPI) held its Tenth Sustainable Development Conference (SDC) from 10 -12 December 2007 in Islamabad, Pakistan. The overarching theme of the SDPI’s Tenth SDC was Sustainable Solutions: A Spotlight on South Asian Research. It was attended by 65 panelists from ten countries including Australia, Germany, India, Nepal, Pakistan, Singapore, Sri Lanka, Switzerland, UK, and the USA. An audience of over 1,000 participated during the three days and debated with the speakers presenting papers on issues ranging over five sub-themes: globalization; gender; environment and disaster management; health; and, history. Apart from the 14 panels based on the sub-themes, three keynote plenary sessions also took place with lectures delivered by prominent scholars.
Each SDC is designed to be a forum for sharing and exchanging dialogues on sustainable development with practitioners, civil society and policy-makers. The SDC series has been established as a prime Conference in South Asia on development issues attracting leading intellectuals and policy-makers to come together.
This special issue of Research & News bulletin carries detailed proceedings of the Tenth Sustainable Development Conference.
“Research-based solutions will help us in removing our pre-conceived biases and will be the first step towards sustainable human development defined as the enhancement of peace, social justice and well-being, within and across generations.” This was stated by the Caretaker Chief Minister NWFP, and Chairman, Board of Governors, SDPI, Mr. Shams ul Mulk, at the inaugural ceremony of the Tenth Sustainable Development Conference (SDC) organized by the Sustainable Development Policy Institute on 10 December 2007 in Islamabad.
Mr. Shams ul Mulk talked about the SDC coinciding with the United Nations Climate Change Conference in Bali, Indonesia, where Pakistan led the developing countries’ group G-77. Many countries in South Asia including Pakistan have remained under developed for decades with poverty, illiteracy, lack of healthcare and morbidity hampering our progress, despite efforts to overcome them financially and practically, he said. He hoped that the SDC would come up with result oriented discussions and sustainable solutions to problems of poverty, illiteracy, mortality and morbidity, environmental degradation, climate change and disaster management, gender inequality, and insecurity.
The Conference should not end at discussing the solutions that worked or that did not work, the next step should be to share the solutions put forward with community based organization leaders, government policy makers and INGO facilitators for future implementation, he said.
Mr. Mulk also launched SDPI’s Ninth SDC anthology titled “Missing Links in Sustainable Development: South Asian Perspectives” at the Conference based on seventeen chapters and three sub-themes: Gender and Human Security, the Economics of Globalization, and People's Rights and Livelihoods.
Dr. Abid Q. Suleri, Executive Director (Interim) of SDPI gave an overview of the Institute’s work, especially mentioning the impact and recognition of SDPI’s work by the Government of Pakistan in terms of both its research and policy advice. He shared that the SDPI has been entrusted to compile the National Sustainable Development Strategy (NSDS) by the Ministry of Environment, and has also provided technical input on health issues to planning commission for Vision 20/30, policy recommendations on domestic preparedness for services liberalization, trade policy and laws related to farmers’ rights to the Ministry of Commerce. SDPI is also collaborating with Ministry of Food, Agriculture and Livestock (MinFAL) and Food and Agricultural Organisation (FAO) on pro-poor agricultural initiatives. At the district level, District Government Nowshera, following SDPI’s research findings, banned the sale and use of land of an abandoned DDT factory until its soil is reclaimed to avoid serious health hazards, he highlighted.
He regretted that space for independent policy research both in terms of financial, as well as political terms was shrinking day by day. “Trans-disciplinary research—a research that also includes people’s perspective in defining the research problem, carrying it out, and disseminating it—is seldom appreciated by governments of the world including the governments in South Asia,” he said. He highlighted that independent research institutions such as SDPI are not being recognized by the Higher Education Commission as “Academic Research Institutes” for funding purposes and stressed upon the Chief Minister to press upon relevant circles to get this criteria redefined. In conclusion, he acknowledged the financial support of Department for International Development, Pakistan (DFID); Heinrich Boll Foundation (HBF); Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC); ActionAid Pakistan (AA-P); Canadian International Development Agency-Programme for the Advancement of Gender Equality (CIDA-PAGE); and Friedrich Ebert Stiftung (FES) towards the Conference. The Conference was also supported by SDPI partners including NCCR, IIED, SAWTEE, SAFIT, and RSPN, he said.
Reported by Sarah Siddiq
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