SAARC In 3rd Decade

Yuba Nath Lamsa
THE South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) Charter Day was observed by all its member states with a flurry of activities to commemorate the day when it was formally announced by signing the Charter of the regional body in Dhaka 21 years ago. The founding fathers of the SAARC visualized a prosperous South Asia through collective efforts and cooperation. However, the pace with which SAARC is moving ahead is so slow that it has not been able to achieve its much vaunted goal of fostering meaningful cooperation for the prosperity and progress of the one-fifth of humanity living in this region.SlowThe twenty-one years are not short a period to build an organization and get into work. In the twenty-one years of journey, other regional blocks like ASEAN and European Union had advanced quite a lot. But the SAARC has been entangled and preoccupied so much with the bilateral issues of the two powerful rivals of the region that the process has hardly moved ahead in the practical sense in accordance with its objectives. It has been sometimes difficult for the leaders of the region even to shake hands and share a common podium every year, despite the requirement by the SAARC Charter to hold summit meeting annually. Only thirteen SAARC summits have been held in the period of 21 years.The primary goal of the establishment of the SAARC is to eradicate mass poverty and accelerating the pace of development in the region through mutual cooperation. As a region beset with inter-state conflict and mutual suspicion, the initiative to foster mutual cooperation and understanding is definitely an appreciable job as prosperity of the nations depends not on confrontation in the present inter-dependent world. But these nations are more preoccupied with their own internal problems. Each nation has different strategic, economic, international approach and priorities, which may not, necessarily, be compatible with the regional approach. The only concrete work the SAARC has, so far, done is in the area of free trade. But due to nation-centric approach, the South Asian Free Trade Agreement (SAFTA) has still not come into full operation in the real sense. Although ratified by all the members, the SAFTA has hit the road block due to self-centric attitude of some of the member states. As a result, the intra-regional trade in South Asia is minimal, which is less than four per cent of the total international trade. There are so many barriers on all fronts in SAARC region. These barriers are getting tighter despite the mounting demands from different sectors for easing them. Even the movement of people from one country to others except between Nepal and India has been very difficult. On building a single South Asian community, we must learn lessons from other regional groups. The European Union has already introduced one-currency, one visa regime and free movement of people and free trade among the member countries. South Asia can follow this model. SAARC can begin this process by introducing visa-free regime for the people of the region so that it would facilitate free movement, exchange of ideas and views and promotion of people-to-people relations and contact.Poverty has been the chronic problem of the region and poverty alleviation is the central challenge of the SARRC region. South Asia is the region of heavy concentration of the poorest people in the world. The SAARC has also aimed at eradicating poverty and meeting basic needs of the people. For this purpose, 2005-2015 has been declared as the SAARC Decade of Poverty Alleviation. Accordingly, Poverty Alleviation Fund and 'SAARC Development Fund' have been set up to work for poverty alleviation and raising the living standard of the people. SAARC plan of action for poverty alleviation has also been formulated and adopted and necessary directives have also been given to the Secretariat to implement the plans and initiate projects on poverty alleviation and other social and economic issues. However, SAARC has achieved no concrete results except publishing glossy reports on the poverty alleviation front.Poverty is not merely an economic connotation. Economic growth alone does not ensure eradication of poverty. Poverty is the by-product of other factors like low economic growth, social injustice, cultural discrimination, communal conflict, ethnic disparity, gender discrimination, failure to respect human rights and lack of democratic stability. These issues must be simultaneously addressed to eradicate poverty and achieve high standard of living of its peoples.Looking at each issue, South Asia has lagged far behind compared to other regions except sub-Saharan region of Africa. Massive poverty, huge gender gap and discrimination, poor status of health and education, rising human rights violation and conflict, growing number of AIDS/HIV cases, widening gap between the rich and the poor, low level of development and high population growth, mass unemployment, food insecurity, dependence on import for meeting energy demands, huge trade deficit, heavy spending on security and less in social sectors, communal tension are some of the characteristics of South Asia. These are the common issues which have inflicted the entire South Asian region. This requires collective and regional approach to attack these social, economic and cultural ills. In line with the United Nations Millennium Development Goal, the SAARC has also adopted its regional goal to be met by the next five year so that SAARC nations could achieve the global standard of living. South Asia has tremendous potentials in terms of natural and human resources. These potentials need to be duly harnessed in order to transform South Asia into a rich and prosperous region in the world. The global experience has shown that development and progress can be achieved more by cooperation among the nations than competition and confrontation. South Asia has to replicate this notion practically and work closely for the larger interest of the people making the past rivalry and enmity a page from history. Action NeededThese developments are indicative of the fact that there is no dearth of commitments and vision in fighting social and economic evils which South Asia has been confronting. What is needed now is the stronger commitment to practically implement these visions, dreams and plans. Also several efforts have been made by the civil society including journalists in brining together the peoples of South Asia and working collectively for the common cause of the region. It would be appreciable if the SAARC duly recognizes the initiatives of the civil society and put their suggestions into practice.
url: http://www.gorkhapatra.org.np/content.php?nid=8091

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