Building Research Capacity

Research Initiative

Training

SDPI hosted a one-day training on "WTO, Trade and Sustainable Development: A Southern Agenda." The training was held on 20 April 2005 at the SDPI premises. It was attended by retired and serving government officials, WTO experts and members of the civil society at large. For details please click here.

Workshops/Seminar

TKN was represented in an independent panel at the Sustainable Development Conference 2004 hosted by SDPI. TKN South Asia members presented the concepts of their planned study under TKN’s third phase.

Future Capacity Building

Future capacity building activities would include: training workshops hosted jointly with likeminded institutions, development of training manuals specific to WTO relevant areas, raising awareness of the need of demand driven capacity building at the grassroots through seminars, conducting where possible, in collaboration with grassroots NGOs, on-the-field training.

The following capacity building activities are planned for 2005.

• SDPI, as the TKN South Asia secretariat plans to arrange a Trade and Sustainable Development workshop focusing on the issue of agricultural trade under WTO. We plan to use expertise of TKN members, IISD and other identified experts to bring cross-regional and global perspectives to the workshop. Tentatively, the workshop is scheduled for October, 2005 in Islamabad, Pakistan, in order to build capacity for the Ministerial. The precise date and venue for the conference will be decided later.
• SDPI, as South Asian regional focal point plans to identify 3-4 major trade and sustainable development relevant events (meetings, ministerials etc) taking place in the region. Prior to each identified event regional partners will strategize on the approach to influence policy makers. If possible, identified meetings will be used to participate physically and present policy recommendations from research that will be conducted by South Asian network partners.
• In view of TKN’s mandate to influence policy, TKN members plan to hold an exclusive session at the 2005 WTO Ministerial being held in Hong Kong. TKN partners will present the findings of the research undertaken in TKN's current phase.