SDPI Research and News Bulletin
Vol. 15, No. 1 (January-March, 2008)

Chairpersonship Change at SDPI

The term of Mr. Shams ul Mulk as Chairperson, Board of Governors (BoG) of SDPI came to an end on 13 March 2008. He served as the Chairperson of the Board for six years. The Board would like to record its thanks to Mr. Mulk for his outstanding service to the Institute.

SDPI is also pleased to announce the appointment of Mr. H.U. Beg as the new Chairperson. Mr. Beg, Pakistan’s former top financial policy maker and administrator, has held various key managerial and professional positions for about four decades. He has served several Federal Ministries as Secretary, including Fuel, Power and Natural Resources; Railways; and Planning and Development. He was Secretary Finance for eight years and earlier worked as Managing Director, Investment Corporation of Pakistan; Chairman, ADBP; as well as State Life Insurance Corporation of Pakistan.

Besides his prominent background in the government and public sector organizations, he has made immense contributions in the private sector as well. He has been actively associated with studies and feasibility reports such as the ‘Stock Exchange Study - Private Investment Expansion Programme (391-0514)’ of USAID; ‘Flow of Funds - Primary Education Development Programme (PED)’ of USAID; a feasibility report for setting up an investment bank in Pakistan; and reports on ‘Crop Insurance for Agricultural Development Bank of Pakistan,’ ‘Restructuring of Public Sector Corporations,’ ‘Economic and Social Well-being for the Eighth Five Year Plan,’ and ‘Mineral Policy of the Government of Pakistan.’

Mr. Beg graduated from the Punjab University, Pakistan in 1941 and attended a one year International Program on Taxation at the Harvard Law School, Cambridge, USA in 1956. During 1966, he studied at the Harvard Law School and Harvard Business School as a Visiting Scholar.

New Executive Director at SDPI

The Board of Governors of SDPI has appointed Dr. Abid Qaiyum Suleri as the new Executive Director of the Institute. Dr Suleri has been serving as Acting Executive Director since July 2007. Prior to joining SDPI he served as the Head of OXFAM GB (Pakistan) Programs. With a Ph.D. in Food Security from the Natural Resources Institute UK, Dr. Suleri has conducted intensive research on Globalization and Rural Livelihoods. His other research interests include institutional reform, disaster management, the poverty-environment nexus and sustainable natural resources governance. Dr. Suleri is called on to give policy advice and serves on several policy forums and advisory boards at the national, regional, and international levels. He also serves on the Board of Studies of several universities and co-supervises Ph.D. and M. Sc. students under the NCCR program.

He represents the civil society of Pakistan in various working groups, steering committees and technical committees formed by the Government of Pakistan at the Planning Commission; the Ministry of Commerce; the Ministry of Food, Agriculture, and Livestock; the Ministry of Environment and the Pakistan Agriculture Research Council. He also represented Pakistani civil society at the Doha and Cancun Ministerial Conferences of the WTO as well as the World Food Summit. He was a part of the official delegation of the Government of Pakistan to the WTO Hong Kong Ministerial Conference. Dr. Suleri also gives training courses and lectures on numerous aspects of sustainable development to parliamentarians, academia, government officials, journalists and development practitioners.

He has been published in many national and international journals. He is also a development journalist and contributes to major national and regional newspapers, as well as in the electronic media, on the political economy of sustainable development.

UNEP ROAP and SDPI Sign an MoU for Environmental Cooperation

The UN Environmental Program, Regional Office for Asia and the Pacific (UNEP ROAP) and SDPI have signed a Memorandum of Understanding for environmental cooperation. The agreement aims to strengthen the UNEP ROAP and SDPI relationship of mutual cooperation, through close collaboration. These activities will strengthen the environmental communities, identify emerging environment issues and promote regional cooperation and leadership by example. The activities in Pakistan will be conducted in close coordination with the Ministry of Environment, Government of Pakistan.

Mr. Surendra Shrestha, Regional Director of UNEP ROAP (Bangkok) and Dr. Abid Suleri, Acting Executive Director of SDPI, signed for their respective organizations. Dr. Subrato Sinha and Dr. Mahmood A. Khwaja from UNEP ROAP and SDPI would, respectively, be focal persons for the program and activities.

The partnership envisages that SDPI will assist UNEP in the implementation of its Regional Strategy at the sub-regional and national levels. It is agreed that for the period 2008 - 2010 the parties will cooperate in the areas of environmental education and awareness, chemical management, environment assessment and capacity building of partners and stakeholders. A follow-up meeting was held at SDPI, to determine modalities and discuss likely activities.