Steering Committee Meeting-2011: Dhaka

A meeting of the SANEI Steering Committee (SC) was held on March 14, 2011 at the Dhaka Sheraton Hotel, Dhaka, Bangladesh. This is the 3rd Steering Committee Meeting held in Dhaka since the SANEI Secretariat moved from Islamabad

Attendees

Wahiduddin Mahmud	Chairman	Bangladesh
Isher Judge Ahluwalia	SANEI Representative to GDN	India
G M Arif	Member (Representing Rashid Amjad, PIDE)	Pakistan
Mustafa K Mujeri	Member (SANEI Coordinator)	Bangladesh
M Govinda Rao	Member	India
Parthasarathi Shome	Member	India

In addition, Zaid Bakht, Research Director BIDS attended the meeting at the invitation of the SANEI Coordinator.

Apologies

1. Bishnu Dev Pant, Member, Nepal

2. Asoka Gunawardena, Member, Sri Lanka

Opening

The meeting was opened by the Chairman of the Steering Committee. He also formally released the SANEI Working Paper Series 11-01 to 11-16.

Welcome Message

SANEI Coordinator welcomed the distinguished participants expressing his deep gratitude for their presence in the meeting. He also expressed his special thanks to Isher J Ahluwalia for her deep interest to attend the meeting and continuous advice and guidance relating to SANEI activities.

Follow Up on Previous SCM Minutes

Coordinator SANEI presented the update of the previous SCM decisions. The members appreciated the SANEI Secretariat's efforts for achieving the SAARC Recognition of SANEI. The members expressed the hope that SANEI as a SAARC recognized body would help strengthen the Network and receive funds from various donor agencies.

• Letters were sent to the Director of Afghanistan, Bhutan and Maldives at the SAARC Secretariat seeking assistance in identifying member institutes for SANEI. They advised to contact respective Embassies in Dhaka. The SANEI Secretariat contacted the Embassies seeking assistance and received the list of the organizations/institutes who could be SANEI member.

• The certificate mentioning SANEI as a SAARC recognized body has been received from the SAARC Secretariat.

• Letter has been sent to Dr. Sultan Hafeez Rahman, Director General, South Asia Department, ADB on June 24, 2010. The SANEI Coordinator also met him in Dhaka and discussed the issue with him.

Recent SANEI Activities

The SC members discussed ways and means of making SANEI more effective and visible. Various strategies and options were examined and it was agreed that all members would take initiatives to support SANEI activities. The SC members also agreed that SANEI should undertake more training and capacity building programs including measures to expand the Network's capacity to undertake collaborative activities such as joint research programs, training programs, public lectures, organizing summer schools and meetings of the researchers and policy makers, and similar other activities in order to promote regional cooperation and generate better regional understanding leading to adoption of mutually beneficial policies and programs for the benefit of the people of South Asia. It was agreed that SANEI should play an important role in fostering SAARC vision and act as an effective conduit for capacity building and mutual collaboration among the research institutes in South Asia.

• The SANEI Secretariat explained the problems in maintaining the current SANEI website which is static and ASP server based. The Secretariat informed its plan to create the demo version of the new website by June/July 2011.

• The SC Members suggested that more links (member institutes, SANEI WPS, abstracts, donor agencies and communication materials) should be put on the SANEI website to make it more useful to the users.

Decisions

Some of the decisions adopted at the meeting are:

New Membership

• The members approved SANEI membership of Economic Research Group (ERG), Bangladesh and Centre for Multidisciplinary Development Research (CMDR), India. The SANEI Secretariat will send formal approval letters to the institutions.

SANEI-RRC Review Process

• Beginning with the 13th Round RRC, the RAP embers will evaluate and rank the proposals for funding. At the same time, they will recommend name(s) to the SANEI Secretariat who would oversee and guide the next phases of the review process.

Financial Report

• The SANEI Secretariat shall provide the audited financial report to the SC members in the SC meeting following the end of the financial year.

Training Program

• The SANEI Secretariat will take steps such that two participants from each member country (Bangladesh, Nepal, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka) may participate in the training program conducted by the National Institute of Public Finance and Policy (NIPFP), New Delhi on Fiscal Policy in May 2011.

13th Round RRC Theme

• The broad theme for the 13th Round RRC will be “Sustainable Urbanization”. The SANEI Secretariat shall prepare a concept note on the theme and circulate to RAP and SC members for comments prior to its finalization.

Date/Venue of 11th Annual Conference and SC Meeting

• The 11th SANEI Annual Conference is tentatively scheduled in December 2011 in Dhaka, Bangladesh and the SC meeting on the final day of the Conference. The exact dates will be finalized by the SANEI Secretariat through discussion with RAP and SC members.

 

The SANEI Steering Committee has decided to undertake various measures to expand the Network's capacity to undertake collaborative activities including joint research programs, training programs, public lectures, organizing summer schools, meetings of the researchers and policy makers, and similar other activities in order to promote regional cooperation and generate better regional understanding leading to adoption of mutually beneficial policies and programs for the benefit of the people of South Asia. The SC Members were confident that SANEI will play an important role in fostering the Network's vision and act as an effective conduit for capacity building and mutual collaboration among the research institutes in South Asia.