t the regional level, a number of institutional weaknesses when it comes to climate change need to be addressed. For example, the South Asia Cooperative Environment Program (SACEP), established in 1981, is a regional intergovernmental organization with eight member–states. Although South Asian nations had foreseen the inevitable “severe ecological disequilibrium and the threat of environmental degradation in the Region,” SACEP remains grossly under–financed and under–staffed to achieve its core mission goals. And the rotating appointment of SACEP’s leadership from each member–state every three years has hardly contributed to the competitive management needed for a vital environmental organization in the world’s most climate–vulnerable region. Changing this counterproductive dynamic would help integrate environmental policymaking and coordinate policy implementation across the region.
An institutional reform with diverse intervention needs should tangibly enable SACEP to initiate and implement climate action programs throughout South Asia to address the ever–growing adverse effects of climate change. However, increased resources and adequate financial support from SACEP member–states and external climate funds need to be raised to help meet SACEP’s technical and administrative staffing requirements—providing the means for implementing programs of climate action at scale. Moreover, each member–state should assign up to three highly capable technical staff from their national environmental and climate change institutions to serve at the SACEP’s headquarters in Colombo. Their three–year rotational terms should aim at enabling the headquarters’ career personnel to achieve maximum strategic coordination in resource mobilization, and project design and implementation—closely working with the member–states’ focal point institutions.
To successfully initiate these reforms at SACEP, and similar environmental institutions, adequate resources from the member–states, whose national budgets are politically influenced, is needed. Sustainable financial resources are scarce without political will for addressing this global challenge. By undertaking frequent country visits to meet with the member–states’ top political leadership, including legislators charged with appropriations— to enlist their support for SACEP—SACEP’s leadership can make tangible contributions to region wide efforts for minimizing climate impact, which affects all South Asian nations.
Following meetings with the Sri Lankan and Afghan presidents in 2021, each South Asian leader pledged sustainable support for the full operationalization of SACEP to achieve its core mission objectives with a direct impact on the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) across the region. This much necessary outreach by SACEP’s leadership needs to be maintained, enabling the organization to acquire the sustainable resources it needs to execute its mandate against “environmental degradation” in South Asia.
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Addressing institutional weaknesses in climate–vulnerable South Asia
Monsoon season. Image by DARSHAK PANDYA from Pixabay
April 22, 2024
Across South Asia there remain several sticky institutional weaknesses when it comes to climate change. Regional institutions intended to address climate change need both substantial reforms and better funding, writes Amb. M. Ashraf Haidari.
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t the regional level, a number of institutional weaknesses when it comes to climate change need to be addressed. For example, the South Asia Cooperative Environment Program (SACEP), established in 1981, is a regional intergovernmental organization with eight member–states. Although South Asian nations had foreseen the inevitable “severe ecological disequilibrium and the threat of environmental degradation in the Region,” SACEP remains grossly under–financed and under–staffed to achieve its core mission goals. And the rotating appointment of SACEP’s leadership from each member–state every three years has hardly contributed to the competitive management needed for a vital environmental organization in the world’s most climate–vulnerable region. Changing this counterproductive dynamic would help integrate environmental policymaking and coordinate policy implementation across the region.
An institutional reform with diverse intervention needs should tangibly enable SACEP to initiate and implement climate action programs throughout South Asia to address the ever–growing adverse effects of climate change. However, increased resources and adequate financial support from SACEP member–states and external climate funds need to be raised to help meet SACEP’s technical and administrative staffing requirements—providing the means for implementing programs of climate action at scale. Moreover, each member–state should assign up to three highly capable technical staff from their national environmental and climate change institutions to serve at the SACEP’s headquarters in Colombo. Their three–year rotational terms should aim at enabling the headquarters’ career personnel to achieve maximum strategic coordination in resource mobilization, and project design and implementation—closely working with the member–states’ focal point institutions.
To successfully initiate these reforms at SACEP, and similar environmental institutions, adequate resources from the member–states, whose national budgets are politically influenced, is needed. Sustainable financial resources are scarce without political will for addressing this global challenge. By undertaking frequent country visits to meet with the member–states’ top political leadership, including legislators charged with appropriations— to enlist their support for SACEP—SACEP’s leadership can make tangible contributions to region wide efforts for minimizing climate impact, which affects all South Asian nations.
Following meetings with the Sri Lankan and Afghan presidents in 2021, each South Asian leader pledged sustainable support for the full operationalization of SACEP to achieve its core mission objectives with a direct impact on the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) across the region. This much necessary outreach by SACEP’s leadership needs to be maintained, enabling the organization to acquire the sustainable resources it needs to execute its mandate against “environmental degradation” in South Asia.
