SAWTEE conducts various programmes advocating the cause of social justice and economic equity in the context of globalization and liberalization in general and trade liberalization in particular. SAWTEE and its member institutions organize conferences, seminars, policy dialogues, consultation meetings, talk programmes, monthly forums and interaction programmes at regular intervals to achieve this objective. The advocacy at the policy level is also supplemented by publication and distribution of policy briefs, briefing papers and issue papers on relevant issues on a timely manner.
Successful advocacy campaigns of SAWTEE and its member institutions include:
- Adoption of the concept of regional “seed bank” as an instrument for protecting food security in South Asia, which is reflected in the Declaration adopted by the 16th Summit of the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) held in Bhutan in April 2010.
- Convincing the Government of Nepal to preserve policy space required for achieving its development objectives in the process of signing Trade and Investment Framework Agreement (TIFA) with the United States.
- Convincing the Government of Nepal to preserve the policy space required for achieving its development objectives in the process of the country’s accession to the WTO.
- Convincing South Asian governments not to join the International Union for the Protection of New Varieties of Plant (UPOV), which could be detrimental to the interest of nearly 800 million farmers in the region.