The Minister maintained that government was pursuing National Zero Hunger Program to address hunger and malnourishment in the country. However, he differed with food insecurity figures for the country and said that these had been estimated "a bit high". He also said that social safety net programs, such as BISP, had been institutionalised through legislation to ensure their sustainability.
During the session on 'integrated food security phase classification (IPC)', panellists agreed that IPC had the potential to be a useful tool for determining the level of food insecurity in Pakistan. They said that shortcomings in the IPC framework could be addressed in collaboration with Global Support Unit.
Addressing the session on 'Civil-Military Imbalance and its Policy Implications', former director-general of ISPR Major-General (Retd) Athar Abbas said that internal weakness of the state invited aggression and provided opening to external interferences. "Military rule was always counter-productive in the long run....continuity of democratic process and practices were essential to develop institutions and society", he said. Talking about Indian context for military operations, Dr Sunil Dasgupta said that execution of military operations in India was determined by factors including, civilian government; public support for using force and military preparedness.
Bishnu Upreti from Nepal stated that instead of following western paradigm on civil military relations, the region should construct a local framework on the basis of common understandings and close interaction with all stakeholders to achieve stability, peace and democracy. Dr Saeed Shafqat stated that South Asia was a politically fragile and conflict prone region where civil military relations were highly contextual and process oriented.
During the session on 'Third Wave of Democracy in South Asia', Dr Talat Mehmood of Social Science Research Centre, Germany, cited Bertelsmann Transformation Index (BTI), which states that with the ranking of 110th out of 128, Pakistan was among the least democratic states in the world.
Professor Jon Breman from the Netherlands said that equality was the societal frame for democracy. Criticising west, he added that although the west has adopted process of equality, but unfortunately at the stake of de-democtrizing other regions of the world. Abdul Wali, of PIDE Islamabad deliberated that Pakistan was an extremely un-democratic country, where dysfunctional and inept democracy prevails due to imbalances in power structure.
Discussing the power struggles, the speaker also pointed out factors that destabilised the situation for their interest threatening the national security. Nihal Rodrigo of Sri Lanka, who is a former Secretary-General of Saarc, said that China's owed its development to its willingness to learn from small countries and that was what was needed by South Asia region.
Deliberating on session 'Climate change triggers migration', Feryal Gohar said that absence of women's voices in mainstream government policies created barriers in reaching out to government in times of environmental crisis. Shafqat Kakakhel, member of SDPI's Board of Governors, commented on the vulnerability of women in times of humanitarian crisis.
Dr Giovanna Gioli from Germany said that plight of women in migrant households was worsened by factors including social discrimination, lack of education and land rights. Stephen Commins talked about the role of institutions in providing justice to victims of environmental crisis.
Zahida Rehman deliberated on how women can use innovative and indigenous strategies to cope with natural disasters, especially in the absence of government. During the session on 'Future of Global Governance and Development' the panellists shared how increased accountability, inclusiveness and representativeness at all levels was important for the global governance to work.
Johannes Blankenbach from the US said that unilateral policies were not effective in the new world order and there was a need to go beyond transnational boundaries to tackle global development challenges. Dr Hans Frey said that soon, the concept of national boundaries might dilute because of technological advancements, while giving rise to global citizenship.
Stephen Commins from the University of California said that globally MDGs could not deliver as they were based on international power imbalances, and argued that global governance should offer accountability mechanisms. Dr Sunil Dasgupta from University of Maryland commented that move from G-8 to a greater G-20 was an indicative of increased representation of South in the decision-making at the global level.
Mome Saleem and Shakeel Ramay from SDPI said that way forward for South Asia was to rise above the existing intraregional conflicts and have a common voice at the global level particularly on the need to make the global system more inclusive. The session on 'conflicting female and feminist identities' was chaired by former member of the Planning Commission Dr Saba Gul Khattak.