17 Years Of SAARC
Significant Achievements

By Chiranjibi Paudyal

SOUTH Asian Association for Regional Co-operation (SAARC) has completed 17 years making significant achievements to accelerate the process of regional cooperation in an effective manner. Established in 1985 with a view to raising the living standards of the people of the region through united efforts. SAARC, the youngest regional grouping of the globe has made significant achievements to formalise the regional process. Its attempt to free over 40 percent poverty stricken population of the world, from sorrow and agony seems to be encouraging.

Difficult

To achieve the goal of SAARC is very difficult as the region houses over 23 percent population of the world and around 40 percent people live under the poverty line or in a difficult economic condition. Despite the rich natural resources and the glorious past of rich ancient civilization, the countries of the region have engulfed into the mire of poverty as well as many other problems. Major problems of the region are related to the economic, social, environmental, terrorism and others. However, there is the prospects of prosperity if the natural resources and human resources are properly utilised. This is the region of eastern civilisation, land of peace and learning from where the Buddha spread the message of world peace. Gandhi taught the principle of non-violence, the ancient sage spread the message of peace and spiritualism and the ancient Hindu religion sprung. The Islam flourished from the region and the region is unique in various aspects.

Despite having a glorious past and high prospect for development, the region has plunged into the depth of problems for the last few years. There is conflict, violence and murder and there is the environment of distrust among the people and the countries of the region. The most striking issue of the region is poverty. Over 500 million people of the region are compelled to live a very miserable life with an income of less than one dollar a day. This has created other problems including the conflict, violence and murder. To address the difficulties of the people, the SAARC has forwarded many programmes including the poverty alleviation programme in the member nations with the co-operation of the United Nations Development Programme and other donor agencies. Though the programme proved to be very successful, its impact could not give any concrete achievement to the people due to its limited implementation, lack of resources and expertise. Involvement of the local people in the selection and implementation of the project was very fruitful. But it could not involve many people so its impact remains limited only to a handful of population.

Most of the countries of the region have been facing the problem of violence and murder. Continued conflict has compelled the nations to stop their development efforts and mobilise the resources towards conflict resolution. The Maoists insurgency of Nepal, Tamil Tigers separatist movement of Sri Lanka, violence and murder campaign of various separatist groups in India, fundamentalist Islamic organisations terrorist activities in Pakistan have created serious problems in the region. Bangladesh, and Bhutan are also not exception to such difficulties. Indo- Pak tension is another hurdle standing in the regional process. The existing bilateral problem has halted the regional cooperation. Indo-Pak tension, Bhutanese refugee issue, Tamil Tiger and separatist movements are some of the examples of such bilateral problems.

Most of the problems of the region are interrelated and cannot be resolved in isolation. The insurgency, the separatist movement, the conflict and violence cannot be resolved with the efforts of a single country due to the open border and common cultural and social background of the countries. In view of this, the SAARC countries agreed to fight jointly to defeat the menace of terrorism, enemy of the civilised world. Despite the adoption of convention on terrorism, the member countries have not been able to unitedly launch a programme to root out terrorism from the region. There is the need of united efforts of all the countries of the region. Trafficking of women and girls, drug trafficking and HIV / AIDS are also inter-related to the member countries of the region. These problems will certainly be very serious in the coming days if effective programmes are not implemented in time.

Despite so many problems and differences among the member nations of the region, the SAARC has made remarkable progress during the last 17 years. Keeping in view the problems including the high percentage of poverty, terrorism that has already claimed thousands of lives and other problems, the progress made by the region is noteworthy. The SAARC has given a strong message of the necessity of the regional grouping. It has been able to convince the people of the region and outside that the regional co-operation is a must if the economic cooperation is to forward for the well-being of the people of the region as envisaged in the SAARC charter.

The SAARC has made a lot of progress in infrastructure development. Efforts have also been made to make organisational contact with similar regional groupings. Though the bilateral disputes are not entertained in the SAARC forum, it has been very fruitful to lessen the disputes during the meeting of the SAARC leaders. The SAARC summit sideline meetings held between the leaders of India and Pakistan, India and Sri Lanka and Nepal and Bhutan have helped a lot to lessen the problems. Progress has also been made in poverty alleviation. South Asian Free Trade Arrangement, simplification of the visa procedures among the SAARC countries, promotion of the intra regional trade, regular exchange of ideas and information among the professionals of the region and the regular exchange of visits of the officials and people in various forums inside the region and outside have helped to further integrate the SAARC process. The common voice in many international and regional forums and the common approach for the entry in the World Trade Organisation (WTO) are also some of the important achievements of the SAARC.

It is quite difficult to imagine the region without the existence of the regional grouping especially after the nuclear test by the two member states: India and Pakistan. The two nuclear power of the region are the important members of the region and the regional forum has to some extent helped reduce the tension in the region. There may not be enough progress and achievements during a short span of time in a region with so many problems but it is the fact that the region has done a lot within a short period.

Commitment

SAARC is the hope of over one fifth of the total population of the world. It is quite impossible to seek the solution of all the problems of the region in a short period of time. It is also not good to be pessimistic about the achievements made through the SAARC grouping. A lot of achievements have been made through this forum. Foundation has been laid and the time has come to forward programmes jointly to accelerate the economic pace of the member countries and raise the living standard of the people and resolve the problems through strong political will. Commitments have been made in the past and now this is the time to give momentum to materialise the commitments and make the region prosperous. Concrete efforts should be made to transform South Asia into a peaceful, conflict free and prosperous region.

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