Sustainable Development and Southern Realities Past and Future in South Asia

Does sustainable development open up possibilities of meaningful change in existing South Asian economic, political, and social structures? This was the key question explored in the regional Sustainable Development Conference held in 2002 under the auspices of the SDPI. This anthology comprises the papers presented in the conference. Many of the papers assert that the South Asian realities do not always compete with each other, nor are they contradictory. They demonstrate that despite its criticism, sustainable development agendas have engaged everyone–policy-makers and theorists–in all fields. This has led to the emergence of multidisciplinary approaches in researching sustainable development and the pursuit of multi-pronged strategies for actualizing it. Such attempts have succeeded in some areas and failed in others.

This collection of essays ranges from serious academic writings to think pieces and transcribed presentations. The essays are divided into two broad themes. The first concerns the environment sector specifically while the second focuses on broad social policy issues emanating from within and outside the region. Environmental issues are integral to the sustainable development agenda; as such, they cannot possibly be divorced from economics and politics. The different subsections within this broad theme examine the environment poverty nexus, and issues ranging from forest policy, water management to sustainable industrial development and trade as well as the Southern concerns about international environmental negotiations.

The second theme, captured in the second section of this book, relates to broad social policy issues that impact the lives of people in South Asia. This section examines the dynamics of globalization, poverty, and their impacts on livelihoods, women, changing labor markets as well as the need for conditions of peace and a change in the mindsets of people. Such a change becomes critical if the violence, that is part of South Asia’s everyday life and that also has complimentarities in the processes of globalization, is to be overcome. Without such changes and their complex interconnections, sustainable development would remain a dream.

ISBN 969-8380-69-8