OPENING ADDRESS FOR SAAPE/ICSF POST TSUNAMU MEETING, 24-26 APRIL

As the current President of the South Asian Alliance for Poverty Eradication I would like to warmly welcome you all to this meeting – ‘A People's Process for Post-Tsunami Rebuilding’ - which is being jointly organised by SAAPE and our friends at ICSF. I would also like to thank our hosts, MONLAR, for all they have done to make this meeting happen.

Before I go on I would like to express my sincere condolences to all who have suffered, and are still suffering, at the hands of what was one of the world’s biggest natural disasters. I know that many of us here today have friends, relatives and colleagues that were injured, displaced or lost their lives in the catastrophe. Our thoughts and prayers continue to be with you.

The tsunami is a stark reminder that despite the many differences in cultures, languages, religions and political systems across the world there are many common factors and shared concerns that affect us all. Many of our countries are plagued by poverty, discrimination, the erosion of democracy, food insecurity, environmental degradation, increasing state coercion and an appalling - and growing - gap between rich and poor. Millions of our countrymen and women are malnourished and are denied access to the most basic of services - health care, water, sanitation and education. And it is in the context of this rising poverty that your countries have suffered still further – as a result of this unprecedented natural disaster.

And four months on, hundreds of thousands of people - particularly poor fishfolk and farmers - continue to be plagued by hunger, poverty and disease - with little certainty of what the future holds. The international community was quick to put their hands in their pockets – but the millions of dollars raised must be channeled towards the people that need it most - the poorest and most vulnerable. However, despite the claims made by many of the governments and large development agencies, it is becoming increasingly clear that, rather than working for the poor, the polices that are being put in place are actually undermining local level efforts to restart lives and livelihoods. The affected people are being systematically excluded from the decision making processes - unable to make their voices heard and challenge the anti-poor agendas that are exacerbating poverty, insecurity and inequality.

Effective action to challenge these anti-poor polices and programmes requires partnerships and alliances based on shared values and principles, trust, and friendship. SAAPE, as many of you will know, is a network of like-minded civil society groups from Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka – who work together with the aim of eradicating poverty and protecting human rights and social justice in South Asia. It is supported by our European partners HIVOS and Novib [who I am very pleased to also see here today] and work’s hand in hand with many other similar networks and organisations across the world.

SAAPE hopes that this international gathering will build on the momentum generated by the earlier meetings in Thailand and Indonesia, by consolidating the solidarity partnership and provide a space to advance an effective, pro-poor rehabilitation agenda. And that is why I am so happy to see so many different organisations represented here today. I see before me members of fisherfolk organisations, grass roots development movements, peasant and agricultural organisations, human rights groups, as well as valued northern partners – a rich mosaic of ethnicities, languages, cultures and religions. Yet despite our differences we all share a common objective. The wish to harness the power of collective action and create a rehabilitation framework that enables communities to take control and shape their own destiny.

Over the next two days we will all have the chance to share ideas, experiences and visions on important themes that concern us all. It is people’s lives that are at stake. It is the local communities and families that will be affected by the decisions that are made, now and in the longer term. So, let me finish by expressing my sincere thanks to all those who have worked so tirelessly to make this meeting happen. I hope we can all make full use this valuable opportunity to promote viable rehabilitation and development alternatives based on people's own knowledge and innovations; strengthen like-minded networks and alliances and bring people to the forefront of policy formulation and pro-poor policies and development actions.

Thank you.

Dr. Arjun Karki
President, SAAPE