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SCIENCE DIPLOMACY FOR SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT IN SOUTH ASIA: NEED AND OPPORTUNITIES

SCIENCE DIPLOMACY FOR SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT IN SOUTH ASIA: NEED AND OPPORTUNITIES

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SCIENCE DIPLOMACY FOR SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT IN SOUTH ASIA: NEED AND OPPORTUNITIES
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<strong>Centre for Studies in Science Policy School of Social Sciences, JNU </strong> a Talk on <strong>SCIENCE DIPLOMACY FOR SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT IN SOUTH ASIA: NEED AND OPPORTUNITIES</strong> By <strong>PROF PAUL VAN GARDINGEN, FRSA</strong> UNESCO Chair in International Development, University of Edinburgh, UK Director, UK's Ecosystem Services for Poverty Alleviation (ESPA) Date: <strong>Wednesday, 16th September 2015</strong> <strong>Abstract: </strong>Sustainable development has emerged as a key development framework to promote and strengthen development which is integrated, inclusive and ensures inter-generational equity. Efforts towards this end have resulted in the design of many ambitious and result-oriented programmes to better identify sustainable development needs and priorities at the local and regional levels across countries. Year 2015 is a watershed moment for all these efforts as global and national leaders will discuss a new set of Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) at the upcoming United Nations Sustainable Development Summit (25-27 September, 2015). Better and informed engagement among citizens, scientists, policymakers, private sectors and a whole range of other stakeholders is essential for collective action on and progress towards these goals. These goals are of critical importance in a rapidly developing south Asian region where resources, goods and services are shared across political boundaries. How can Science &amp; Technology (S&amp;T) and the scientific and research community can contribute to the political and diplomatic engagement and action on SDGs across this region? And how can science diplomacy efforts be better supported in south Asia through regional cooperation on science and research, capacity enhancement and policy-practice engagement? <strong>About the Speaker: </strong>Prof Paul van Gardingen is the UNESCO Chair of International Development at the University of Edinburgh, UK and Director of the UK's Ecosystem Services for Poverty Alleviation (ESPA) global research programme. He is one of the leading international scholar in sustainable development and advises many UK Research Councils, government departments, development donors (like World Bank and DFID) and national governments on promoting research, science and innovation for international development cooperation. He has facilitated the design and implementation of many environment and development focused global research programmes on environment, forestry and natural resources management (NRM). He was instrumental in the overall design of the Ecosystem Services for Poverty Alleviation (ESPA), an innovative global research programme funded by UK's DFID and two research councils (NERC and ESRC) in more than 50 countries in Asia, Africa and Latin America. As Director-ESPA, he also oversees and guides the research-policy-practice engagement activities to promote evidence-informed decisions on sustainable management of natural resources for poverty alleviation and human well-being.

A warm welcome to the modified and updated website of the Centre for East Asian Studies. The East Asian region has been at the forefront of several path-breaking changes since 1970s beginning with the redefining the development architecture with its State-led development model besides emerging as a major region in the global politics and a key hub of the sophisticated technologies. The Centre is one of the thirteen Centres of the School of International Studies, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi that provides a holistic understanding of the region.

Initially, established as a Centre for Chinese and Japanese Studies, it subsequently grew to include Korean Studies as well. At present there are eight faculty members in the Centre. Several distinguished faculty who have now retired include the late Prof. Gargi Dutt, Prof. P.A.N. Murthy, Prof. G.P. Deshpande, Dr. Nranarayan Das, Prof. R.R. Krishnan and Prof. K.V. Kesavan. Besides, Dr. Madhu Bhalla served at the Centre in Chinese Studies Programme during 1994-2006. In addition, Ms. Kamlesh Jain and Dr. M. M. Kunju served the Centre as the Documentation Officers in Chinese and Japanese Studies respectively.

The academic curriculum covers both modern and contemporary facets of East Asia as each scholar specializes in an area of his/her interest in the region. The integrated course involves two semesters of classes at the M. Phil programme and a dissertation for the M. Phil and a thesis for Ph. D programme respectively. The central objective is to impart an interdisciplinary knowledge and understanding of history, foreign policy, government and politics, society and culture and political economy of the respective areas. Students can explore new and emerging themes such as East Asian regionalism, the evolving East Asian Community, the rise of China, resurgence of Japan and the prospects for reunification of the Korean peninsula. Additionally, the Centre lays great emphasis on the building of language skills. The background of scholars includes mostly from the social science disciplines; History, Political Science, Economics, Sociology, International Relations and language.

Several students of the centre have been recipients of prestigious research fellowships awarded by Japan Foundation, Mombusho (Ministry of Education, Government of Japan), Saburo Okita Memorial Fellowship, Nippon Foundation, Korea Foundation, Nehru Memorial Fellowship, and Fellowship from the Chinese and Taiwanese Governments. Besides, students from Japan receive fellowship from the Indian Council of Cultural Relations.