(28 -29 November 2013, New Delhi, India)
Continuing its engagement with member States to increase regional cooperation for accelerated inclusive and sustainable development across the sub-region of South and South-West Asia, the UNESCAP’s New Delhi-based office hosted the Policy Dialogue on Regional Cooperation, Connectivity and Inclusive Development in SSWA on 28-29 November at New Delhi. One highlight of the event was the High-level round table of eminent experts and officials who discussed the potential for greater regional cooperation between the 10 member States. Other policy discussions and analysis addressed priority development areas for SSWA countries and ways to strengthen regional connectivity for trade and transit facilitation. Panelists also recommended actions to boost regional cooperation in food security, energy security and disaster-risk reduction strategies.
The Policy Dialogue also discussed the recommendations of the South Asia Policy Dialogue on Women’s Economic Empowerment through Entrepreneurship that ESCAP-SSWA had held on 27 November, and which was attended by major South Asian women’s chambers of commerce and entrepreneurship, and network organizations.
Two key publications were launched in SSWA as part of the event: the ESCAP Trade and Investment Report 2013, during a panel of experts considered the key results of the Report and implications for trade and investment strategies in the sub-region, and the MHHDC South Asia Human Development Report 2013, with key luminaries from across South Asia engaged to discuss the conclusions and opportunities for greater regional cooperation to address waterrelated aspects of human development in SSWA. The latter launch has been the outcome of a partnership between ESCAP-SSWA and the Mahbub-ul-Haq Human Development Centre (MHHDC), Pakistan.
The sixth Session held on 29 November 2013 was designated as “Special Session on Regional Cooperation, Human Development and Water” and it was jointly organized by the UN-ESCAP-SSWA, India Water Foundation and the Mahbub-ul-Haq Human Development Centre (MHHDC), Pakistan. Dr Arvind Kumar, President, India Water Foundation, presented a paper on “Regional Cooperation, Human Development and Water” at this session. In his presentation, Dr Kumar emphasized on the need to introspect the stumbling blocks that impede the growth of mutual cooperation in South Asia in effectively dealing with vast array of problems, especially in water and environment sectors.
Referring to the critical role of water and environment as the main drivers of economic growth and sustainable development, Dr Kumar lamented the ongoing strain on already scarce water resources by the recurring incidents of water and climate-induced disasters, which frequently transcend geographical boundaries. Besides, Water security in South Asia is under threat from many other factors: population growth, urbanization, increasing water pollution, the over-extraction of groundwater, water-related disasters, and climate change.
He averred that the existing institutional mechanism at national and regional levels along with their current planning and management had proven insufficient to address the challenges of meeting diverse needs for water and environment sectors and its resultant impact was discernible in gradual pace of growth in almost all sectors of economy and management of natural resources. He asserted that such a situation warranted apolitical solutions to water related problems with participation of civil society along with official level measures adhered to by respective governments of South Asia to bring the region on the trajectory of growth to translate the dream of 21st century as the century of South Asia.
Dr Kumar in his paper also dealt with water-human development linkages, existing water related challenges in South Asia and the role of water in promoting development in the region. Emphasizing on the need for a paradigm shift in the prevalent water discourse in the region, Dr Kumar noted that the ongoing official and public discourse on water was reported to be highly political and motivated more by national and local interests than shared regional concerns. The current water management practices in vogue across the region were predominantly technical in nature. Water policy formulation and implementation had been dominated by engineers, scientists and ‘hydrocrats’ for decades.
He opined that this overemphasis on technical aspects or hard approach to water management could result in underrepresentation of social and ecological perspectives and it was also prone to leave limited opportunities for the people to sufficiently understand issues or advocate on their own behalf.
He suggested that under the given situation in South Asia, where future water scarcity entailed potential of acting as a constraint on much needed development, cooperative management of water and environment sectors was crucial to ensuring future water, energy and food security. In his view, Civil Society Organizations (CSOs) could serve as important conduits for fostering dialogue and linking grassroots issues to the negotiation process. Such endeavours would prove instrumental in the utilization of full potentials of water as a catalyst for human development thereby ensuring long-lasting peace and prosperity of South Asia.
