South Asia Watch on Trade, Economics and Environment (SAWTEE), in collaboration with Oxfam in Nepal, organized a National Stakeholder’s Dialogue on "Upcoming 18th SAARC Summit: Nepal’s perspectives on climate change, agriculture, food security and disaster risk reduction" on 16 October 2014 in Kathmandu. The major objective of the dialogue was to identify and discuss issues important for Nepal in areas of climate change, agriculture, food security and disaster risk reduction. The dialogue was attended by sixty five participants representing the government, civil society organizations, private sector, academia, and the media.
The program started with an
opening session where Ms. Noreen Khalid, Interim Country Director, Oxfam in
Nepal, highlighted the need to move forward with good collaboration between
civil society organizations and the government of Nepal in mitigating and
adapting to climate change effects and disasters. Mr. Nirmal Kafle, Joint
Secretary, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, acknowledged the vulnerability of South
Asia to climate change and stressed the need for collaborative efforts,
especially in terms of financial cooperation and knowledge sharing. Dr. Govinda
Nepal, Member, National Planning Commission, further stressed the need for the
18th SAARC Summit to convert prior commitments into reality.
Concluding the inaugural session, Dr. Posh Raj Pandey, stated that these issues
should be tackled by formulating policy measures through national and regional
initiatives by taking vulnerable and poor people into account.
The remaining part of the
programme was divided into three thematic sessions, namely on climate change, agriculture
and food security and disasters. In the first thematic session on climate
change, Mr. Ajay Mani Dixit, Executive Director, Institute for Social and
Environmental Transition (ISET), started the discussion by highlighting the
need for South Asian countries to strive to mitigate the negative effects of
climate change. Identifying Nepal’s vulnerability to climate change, Dr. Smriti
Dahal, Senior Programme Officer, SAWTEE, gave a presentation on climate change
issues in Nepal and the different initiatives taken by SAARC to address climate
change. Dr. Madhav Karki, South Asia Chair, International Unit for Conservation
of Nature (IUCN), suggested taking a regional initiative to address the major
climate change issues in the upcoming United Nations Climate Change Conference
(UNCCC). However, Mr. Arjan Dixit, Regional Climate Change Coordinator Asia,
CARE International, presented his doubts on SAARC for taking a common position
on climate change in global platforms stating that individual countries will
have different interests.
The participants highlighted the
need for more research involving universities and academia along with an
effective monitoring and evaluation mechanism and a single window policy for
information and knowledge sharing.
The second thematic session on agriculture
and food security started out with a presentation by Dr. Krishna P. Pant,
Fellow, South Asian Network for Development and Environmental Economics
(SANDEE), where he talked about the role of SAARC in the region to attain food
security. Addressing the issues of declining agriculture sector in the country,
Ms. Yamuna Ghale, Senior Programme Officer, Swiss Agency for Development and
Cooperation, stated that agriculture and food security should also be analyzed
from a political perspective and that the priority should be given to women and
small farmers while making policies. Mr. Jagat Deuja, Executive Director,
Community Self Reliance Centre (CSRC), mentioned that the land management
agendas should not be ignored since the majority of people in South Asia are landless
and are dependent on agriculture for subsistence. Mr. Pradip Maharjan, Chief
Executive Officer, Agro Enterprise Centre, further mentioned that there are
still more challenges that needs to be addressed in the context of mutual
collaboration and recognition within
SAARC.
The participants also pointed out
the importance of involving youth/students in the agriculture sector and
acknowledged the need to devise farmers based programmes related with family
farming, commercial or sustainable farming. It was also suggested that issues
related with food price volatility and export driven agriculture should also be
taken forward in the upcoming SAARC summit.
In the last thematic session on
disaster risk reduction, Dr Meen B. Poudyal Chhetri, President, Nepal Center
for Disaster Management, recommended the establishment of a SAARC regional
information center. Mr. Surya Narayan Shrestha, Deputy Executive Director,
National Society for Earthquake Technology Nepal (NSET), suggested to learn from
each other to strengthen public-private-partnerships. Moreover, Mr. Bimal
Gadal, Programme Manager, Oxfam in Nepal, underscored that disaster risk
reduction should incorporate prevention, preparedness and mitigation within a
broad context of development.
The participants recommended that
the donors, government and aid agencies needed to invest in the area of
cost-effective disaster preparedness and research rather than only focusing on
disaster response.
Hiramani Ghimire, Executive
Director, SAWTEE, concluded the dialogue by saying that climate change,
agriculture and food security and disaster risk reduction are interrelated, so
comprehensive efforts are needed to address the problem. He also stated that
the prior commitments made in these areas should first be implemented rather
than enlarging the list of new commitments.
Programme Agenda
Presentations:
Climate Change in Nepal: Domestic and Regional Perspectives
Agriculture and food security Nepal’s perspectives for Upcoming18th SAARC Summit
Disaster Risk Reduction – Policy to Action
Programme Report :
Report on the National Stakeholder’s Dialogue on Upcoming 18th SAARC Summit
