REGIONAL WORKSHOP

 

TWO-DAY REGIONAL WORKSHOP
THEME: RESTRUCTURING OF SAARC
HEJ AUDITORIUM
UNIVERSITY OF KARACHI
MARCH 30-31, 2010

 

ORGANIZAED BY THE PROGRAM ON PEACE STUDIES
AND CONFLICT RESOLUTION, DEPARTMENT OF
INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS, UNIVERSITY OF KARACHI IN COLLABORATION WITH THE HANNS SEIDEL FOUNDATION, ISLAMABAD

 

 

CONCEPT PAPER OF TWO-DAY REGIONAL WORKSHOP
THEME: RESTRUCTURING SAARC
MARCH 30-31, 2010

BACKGROUND

South Asian Association of Regional Cooperation (SAARC) will be 25 years old in the year 2010. In a quarter of a century of its existence, SAARC came up with some innovative ideas to deal with issues which impeded the process of regional cooperation. Yet, despite holding several summits and ministerial meetings since its inception in December 1985, SAARC has failed to come up to the expectations of the people of South Asia.

Composed of 20% of global population and a home of oldest civilizations, South Asia after its emancipation from the colonial tutelage in 1947-48 remained exposed to numerous inter and intra-state conflicts. Issues ranging from enormous poverty to under-development, malnutrition, illiteracy, environmental pollution and shortage of water and energy negatively impacted on the transformation of South Asia from a region plagued with conflicts and other economic/social problems to a developed and secure region.

When the then Bangladeshi President Zia-ur-Rehman mooted the idea of South Asian regional cooperation in 1977-1978, there was a dearth of intellectual and scholarly thinking in South Asia for following the road of regional cooperation. It took another three years to materialize the idea of the Bangladeshi President when in April 1981 first meeting of foreign secretaries of South Asia was held. With the holding of foreign minister’s meeting of South Asia in 1983 the stage was set for launching SAARC in December 1985 when the first summit of South Asian heads of state and government was held in Dhaka. Since then, SAARC has established itself as a full-fledged regional organization but still there are some of the critical issues which impede the process of regional cooperation in South Asia.

At a time when SAARC is almost quarter of a century old, it has a long way to go in order to implement its decisions on regional economic cooperation. The fault lines of SAARC no doubt prevent its transformation as a viable regional organization. Some of the fault lines which one can figure out in SAARC are:

1. Lack of Political will among SAARC members to effectively deal with issues which relate to easing restrictions on the free movement of people, goods, services and capital.
2. The conservative nature of SAARC charter which needs to be revised according to the new realities since its inception in 1985.
3. The ineffectiveness of SAARC headquarters and in inability to play a leadership role in the region.
4. India’s failure to dispel insecurity, suspicion and mistrust among its neighbors about New Delhi’s perceived quest for regional domination.
5. Lack of ownership of SAARC at the official level.

   More so, the failure of SAARC to promote intra-regional trade, to hold regular summits and ease travel restrictions also speaks for the limitations of SAARC. While, one can be critical of SAARC performance in quarter of a century of its existence, one should also take into account the fact that like the United Nations and other international and regional organizations like ASEAN and EU, SAARC is a governmental organization which is dependent on the member states to deliver. When the governments are politically fragile and vulnerable to domestic and external pressures, it becomes difficult for SAARC to play a leadership role in South Asia. Since 1985 till today, the South Asian countries under the umbrella SAARC discussed several areas of cooperation and also made headway in identifying issues which can help the people of this region to live a stable and prosperous life. The membership of SAARC has risen from seven to eight and several external powers now have observer status. But, being a victim of unresolved conflicts and failing to overcome paranoia, suspicions and mistrust, SAARC failed to come up to a particular standard which is required for a successful regional organization.

Around twenty-five years after the formation of SAARC it is time to analyze why it failed to deliver and how it can deal with the fault lines which tend to block its progress and development. One important area which needs to be examined while analyzing the strengths and weaknesses of SAARC is its weak structure. Hence, without restructuring SAARC in terms of its structure, it is very difficult to expect some breakthrough as far as the challenge of regional cooperation in South Asia is concerned.

It is in this context, that a two-day regional workshop on ‘Restructuring SAARC’ has been conceptualized. Following other models of regional cooperation in different regions of the world, it is time to examine in depth why SAARC has not been able to perform better and to what extent restructuring of this organization may help in promoting regional cooperation in South Asia.

 

Mission Statement

The purpose of two-day regional workshop entitled ‘Restructuring SAARC’ is to enter into a meaningful discourse for steps to transform SAARC as a viable regional organization.

 

Workshop objectives

The workshop aims to achieve following objectives:-

1. To conceptually and theoretically examine regional cooperation in the context of SAARC.
2. To discuss various models of regional cooperation and explore the inviability or viability of these models in case of South Asia.
3. To examine the rationality of restructuring SAARC.
4. To explore areas of restructuring SAARC and the impediments in this regard.
5. To examine in detail the role of state and non-state actors in the process of regional cooperation in South Asia.
6. To create better sense of awareness and understanding among workshop participants, particularly students about SAARC; its relevance or irrelevance.
7. To submit the findings of workshop to all the major stakeholders of SAARC, including the governments and the concerned NGOs.
8. To publish the proceedings of the workshop in the form of a book.

 

How these objectives could be achieved?

Although, it may not be possible to accomplish all the eight objectives of workshop mentioned above, one can hope to pursue three ways to ensure a productive and meaningful discourse on ‘Restructuring SAARC.’ First, to select resource persons having enough expertise and original thinking on the theme(s) of their paper(s). Second, to promote meaningful dialogue which can help formulate findings of the workshop. These findings can be shared with the SAARC headquarters in Katmandu and respective governments so as to help improve the performance of that regional organization. The proposed panel discussion which will be held after the holding of the regular sessions of the workshop will give an impetus to the overall effort of coming up with practicable and useful suggestions and methodology for restructuring SAARC. Third, with the involvement of students and participants from the cross-sections of society, one can hope to come up with new ideas and approaches of not only revamping SAARC but also concerning the process of regional cooperation at the governmental and non-governmental levels.

 

THEMES OF THE WORKSHOP

1. Regional cooperation: A conceptual framework
2. Emergence and growth of SAARC
3. SAARC and its fault lines
4. The rationale and challenge of restructuring SAARC
5. Country perspectives of restructuring SAARC: Afghanistan, Bangladesh, India, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka
6. Panel discussion on restructuring SAARC