Created: 05 February 2014
Civil Society leaders of South Asian countries have stressed on the need for strengthening people-to-people cooperation to exert pressure on the respective nations to address the problems faced by common people in South Asia region.
Speaking at an interaction on the role of civil society organizations in the changing political landscape of South Asia, jointly organized by South Asia Alliance for Poverty Eradication and NGO Federation of Nepal in Kathmandu on Sunday, they said poverty and insecurity were the common problems of the SAARC countries.
They also put emphasis on raising the issues from the level of people during the 18th SAARC summit to be held in Nepal. The civil society leaders further highlighted the role of civil society for democracy in the region saying that militarization was a common problem in most of the South Asian nations.
Civil society activists Arezo Qaninh of Afghanistan, Mohiuddin Ahmad of Bangladesh, Bhutanese refugee leader DNS Dhakal, Rakhi Sehgal of India, Imad Mohammad of Maldives, Nalini Ramarajan of Sri Lanka and Charan Prasai and Sharmila Karki of Nepal shared the experiences of their respective counties and put forward their opinion on strengthening people to people relation in the region.
Source: NGO Federation Nepal (NFN)