CEPA Symposium on Making Sustainability the Next Metric: the Post-2015 Development Agenda

The symposium brought together key South Asian resource people and invited participants to discuss Asian perspectives and ideas into the global discussions on the post-2015 development framework.

Dr Debapriya Bhattacharya, Chair, SV and Distinguished Fellow, CPD, delivered the opening address on the Current Debates and Activities in the MDG/SDG Global Discussions. He pointed out that, the MDGs did not address a basic aspect of development challenges facing the low-income countries, i.e. the need to transform their productive capacity. Foreign aid flows, often, have been concentrated on humanitarian assistance and social sectors.

While these are also recognised as important priorities, it needs to be noted that development of physical infrastructure did not receive adequate financing. In this backdrop, ‘building productive capacity’ may be delineated as a standalone target in the post-2015 agenda with a view to accelerate the structural transformation of the developing economies.

The panellists and selected group of invitees discussed the position papers and other solicited inputs through 6 key sessions structured as interactive discussions. The session outcomes are expected to be collated into South Asia’s suggestions for the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), processes and measurements to be taken forward through the Southern Voice initiative spearheaded by the Centre for Policy Dialogue (CPD) in Bangladesh.

A number of members of the Southern Voice network participated  as chairs, presenters and discussants in various sessions, including Ms Priyanthi Fernando, Ms Karin Fernando, Dr Udan Fernando and Dr. Vagisha Gunasekara from CEPA; Dr Fahmida Khatun from CPD; Dr Shehryar Toru Khan and Mr Asif Saeed Memon from SDPI; Dr Saman Kelegama and Ms Kanchana Wickramasinghe from IPS; Dr Nidhi Sabharwal from IIDS.