Director's Message

Greetings from OneWorld South Asia!

It is my pleasure to announce the Seventh Annual Regional Meeting (ARM), being held on 8-9 February 2008 at the InterContinental, New Delhi, on the theme “Climate Justice for Realisation of the MDGs: Southern Perspectives and Voices.”

As we move into the eighth year of our journey, it is once again time to review our own work and achievements in the context of the progress on MDGs in the South Asian region.

OneWorld South Asia (OWSA) sees the MDGs as a holistic inter-related framework of sustainable development, and aims to mainstream ICTs within this paradigm to accelerate progress towards these goals. Enabling grassroots voices in the policy dialogue on MDGs is an integral part of this endeavour.

During the year, OWSA has been working in close collaboration with its partners in South Asia towards formulating ICT solutions, providing technical skills and building capacities of civil society organisations, community based groups and collectives, and also creating platforms for sharing of knowledge and expertise for advocacy on a variety of issues in the region.

In the current context, the global debate on climate change adds a new dimension to the challenge of realising the MDGs. For South Asia, we are now faced with the dilemma of balancing the demands for mitigation and meeting development goals in the region. The pre-eminent global discourse does not necessarily highlight this southern dilemma, or the southern voiced principle of common but differentiated responsibility on global climate justice.

The Seventh Annual Regional Meeting is an attempt to further this debate and seek alternatives to the current trade-off.

The purpose of the two-day deliberation is to establish the relevance of both claims – climate justice and development – for the South (South Asia in particular), identify the contentions between the two in the light of ongoing climate change negotiations, underline the need for continuing and enhanced Southern participation and activism, and explore new avenues for engagement.

OWSA looks forward to drawing upon the experience and commitment of our partners and leveraging synergies that will emerge from this meeting, to take forward the agenda of sustainable development in South Asia, as well as climate change mitigation and adaptation, supported or not as they could be, through the use of ICTs.

Naimur Rahman
Director
OneWorld South Asia