Declaration of People's Summit for People's SAARC

1. Introduction to People's SAARC [TOP]

Civil society (people's movements and NGOs) have been working together for some time to forge a people to people forum in the SAARC region and to enable non-government voices to come together at the regional level. In 1994, a meeting was held in Kathmandu to discuss ways to foster cooperation, solidarity and action at the people-to-people level in a fragmented South Asia. The South Asian Forum on Human Rights (SAFHR) hosted the meeting, and participants drafted an 18-point Statement of Concerns, which was handed over to the SAARC Secretary General. The following year, a consultation on the "Alternative Agenda for South Asian People's Solidarity" jointly organised by INSAF, INSEC, PILER and PP21 (People's Plan for the 21st century) was held in New Delhi. Participants sought an alternative agenda for a People's SAARC to address the concerns and aspirations of the people, reflecting the struggle for empowerment, livelihood and dignity of the South Asian people as a whole. This meeting produced a 14-point agenda for action. In 1996, the 1st SAARC People's Forum was held, and lobbied the official SAARC meeting on the issue of trafficking. This led to an acknowledgement at the 9th SAARC summit that trafficking is a grave concern for the region, and a commitment to develop a convention on the trafficking of women and children. The 2nd SAARC People's Forum further lobbied to change the text of the draft convention, and thereby impact on the policy framework of SAARC.

Several current SAAPE members and SAP -I and its national SAP members have been involved in this initiative from the start, promoting regional ties, interactions and people to people exchanges. These activities have yielded results in bringing people to the forefront of policy formulation and pro-people policies and development actions. Different means were adopted to organise, strengthen and link civil society actions for development, policy alternatives, and promotion of human rights and peace. Besides regional programming to bring different actors of civil society together on the issues of human security, poverty and livelihood, democratic governance and peace, regional civil society forums have been created. The most recent People's Summit was organised by SAP and SAAPE in Islamabad to coincide with the 12th SAARC summit in 2004.

2. Rationale for the proposal [TOP]

In all the countries of South Asia, poverty is widespread. Across the region, populations suffer from widespread illiteracy, child malnutrition, the low status of women, low wages, poor health services, high military spending, discrimination against ethnic and religious minorities, erosion of democracy, increasing state coercion, communal strife and involuntary migration.

Although there are great differences between the countries in terms of size of territory, population, natural resource base, ethnic groups and the development of civic politics and popular movement for democracy and justice, nonetheless the similarities and the shared concerns override the differences. These similarities demand that a regional perspective be adopted for people's welfare.

Because of a shared past, problems of communal violence, ethnic strife, conflict over use of natural resources and eviction across state boundaries have become regional issues. The issues of migration, sharing of water, harnessing of energy, combating fundamentalism, protecting minority rights, and such other concerns have to be tackled regionally.

SAARC was created in recognition of this imperative at the state level. SAAPE members recognise the need to ensure a similar process of dialogue and alliance building at a people to people level. People's movements, NGOs and other elements of civil society recognise the need to develop a common analysis and approach to issues of regional concern in order to affect change at that level. Furthermore, the official SAARC process does not include a mechanism to enable civil society to interact with it. Therefore, there is a need to establish a parallel process to ensure the concerns of civil society are heard at the regional level.

The People's SAARC proposes to facilitate effective people-to-people interaction and co-operation and create an opportunity for sharing ideas and experiences and effectively dealing with growing trends of fundamentalism, ethnic divisions, advances of global economic forces and the imperialist agenda. A People's SAARC creates the opportunity for people-to-people interactions to develop a collective vision. Both SAAPE and SAP aim to facilitate people's movements and grass-roots organisations coming together to strengthen alliances and build people to people relationships, therefore organising such an event fits with the overall objectives of both networks. There is also commonality between SAARC's priorities and issues on which SAAPE and SAP are working, and therefore opportunities for direct input into SAARC policy development and implementation.

At the 2004 People's Summit, participants reiterated the need for social movements to come together with a common agenda of action; and the need to make SAARC meaningful for the people, particularly those who are deprived and discriminated against in terms of gender, caste, class, ethnicity, religion and culture.

3. Objectives [TOP]

Through a People's SAARC event in parallel to the official SAARC summit,
We intend to:

• Lobby SAARC to implement the SAARC Social Charter and ratify its own conventions
  
• Present a civil society perspective on key issues
  
• Enhance linkages and partnership among civil society groups, networks, coalitions and other social movements for working on common pro-people agendas
  
• Influence SAARC processes so that they include the concerns and perspectives of grass-roots organisations in their discussions and in their policy development
  
• Raise the profile of issues of concern within the media and the general public - for general awareness raising and to put further pressure on SAARC and on governments
• Increase the participation of civil society groups and networks in reflecting, forming and implementing development alternatives in the region
  
• Demonstrate where and how SAARC is fulfilling its mandate and where not

4. Themes [TOP]

The format of People's SAARC brings-out strengths from social activists, human rights and peace workers, representatives of marginalised groups like farmers, workers, Dalits, women, fisher folk and other sections of the society in the countries of South Asia. The main themes of the 'People's SAARC will be woven around the six key areas as follows:

• Trafficking and Human security
  
• Food Sovereignty and Livelihoods;
• Governance, Peace and Demilitarisation
  
• Poverty, Trade and Globalisation
• Gender and Labour
  
• International and Trans-border Agenda

5. Activities [TOP]

Preparatory activities:
National level consultation workshops will take place in each country of the region (except Bhutan) to prepare national positions in relation to the key themes. These consultations will bring together representatives of NGOs, trade unions, women's organisations, peasants' organisations and youth groups to input their perspectives. The delegates to the regional meeting will be selected during the workshops, ensuring a balance of gender, caste and ethnicity as far as possible, as well as ensuring that people with relevant skills and experience are included, including journalism / media skills.

In Bangladesh, a children's painting competition will be organised on the theme of peace.

People's SAARC event [TOP]

A three-day event will take place in Dhaka immediately prior to the official SAARC Summit. SAAPE and SAP will bring together approximately 150 delegates from the countries of the region other than Bangladesh. A further 100 delegates from Bangladesh will be invited. In addition, interested organisations will be encouraged to sponsor their own participants as much as possible. Delegates will represent people's movements and civil society organisations active in fields relating to the key themes. Representatives from other pan-Asian alliances will also be invited as appropriate.

The event will include theme working group sessions to develop joint regional positions and action plans on each issue; plenaries; a rally or other media event; cultural events; and opportunities for sharing resources, experiences and building networks for future work.

The event will produce statements outlining the civil society perspective on each theme, which will be presented to the official SAARC Summit and used as the basis for media work. These, and the action plans, will also be the basis for longer term campaigning work.

6. Outcomes [TOP]

The outputs of the event will be:

• Statements of concern of South Asian grassroots movements and civil society groups in relation to the key themes. These will be presented to SAARC prior to the official summit, as well as (over a longer time period) to national governments, INGOs, IFIs and others whose work affects the issues.
  
• Mass rally to pressure SAARC to address poverty, injustice and social inequity in the region
  
• Media coverage of the event
  
• Action plans for future campaigning and lobbying activities as far as possible
  
• Increased participation of civil society groups and networks in reflecting, forming and implementing development alternatives in the region
  
• Thematic commissions activated for regular consultations to enhance people's understanding on pro-poor issues

The outcomes will be:

• Agreement within a representative group of civil society activists on a common approach to key regional issues, and a shared perspective which will be used as the basis for future advocacy in different fora
  
• Active and improved participation of civil society actors in the national and regional fora on development policies
• Raised awareness and understanding within the media of the region of civil society's critique of SAARC
  
• Higher profile for civil society concerns within national governments, which will facilitate initiating future dialogues

Deliverables

A comprehensive report of the summit will be published by mid-2005. The report will comprehensively cover the discussions at national level forums and during the People's Summit. The report will present people's views on the development and policy agenda. The report will also present a follow-up plan on activities that will be followed by the summit.