POKHARA, NEPAL: Administrators, policymakers and experts from South Asia and beyond discussed contemporary aspects of decentralization and the issues associated with it at the Asia Federalism Conference 2022 in Pokhara, Nepal from 31 May to 3 June 2022.
The international conference, organized by the Hanns Seidel Foundation (HSF)'s country offices in South Asia, promoted a better understanding of democratic devolution in Asia and explored governance dynamics in relevant policy areas, such as Participatory Local Governance, Climate Change Policies, Intergovernmental Coordination, and Conflicts and Political Management.
It also included an official visit to the Legislative Parliament of the Gandaki Province, meetings with the Parliament's Speaker, Deputy Speaker, bureaucrats and Members of Parliament, and a visit to the Provincial Ministry of Interior.
At the conference, HSF Pakistan Resident Representative, Dr. Steffen Kudella, stressed:
Democratic devolution is the distribution of power in an organization between a central authority and the constituent units. Such as broad definition, of course, implies that there are many different forms of federal political systems which are all equally federalist. This becomes obvious in South and South East Asia where very different types and stages of decentralization are being implemented.
Speaking on Participatory Local Governance in Pakistan, Dr. Saeed Ahmed Rid highlighted that local self-governance needs more support. To ensure the continuity of the local government system, he suggested that a more detailed constitutional clause is required which provides the broad contours of the local government system including the time frame for holding the local government elections at the end of the term.
The expert delegation from Pakistan included: Mr. Muhammad Riaz (Joint Secretary, Ministry of Inter Provincial Coordination), Mr. Sheharyar Khan (Executive Director, National Dialogue Forum), Dr. Saeed Ahmed Rid (Assistant Professor, Quaid-i-Azam University Islamabad), Dr. Qamar Abbas Cheema (Lecturer, National University of Modern Languages, Islamabad), and Steffen Kudella (HSF Pakistan).
The experts agreed that democratic devolution and decentralization are tools of good governance and can help to resolve conflicts and contribute to the progress of a democracy. In a federal structure, multiple levels compete and – at the same time – cooperate with each other. However, any federal system is dependent on factors such as the respective size, population, ethnicity or languages of a country. Furthermore, it depends on the principle on which the federation is formed: “coming together” or “holding together.”
The international conference hosted over 20 participants from Pakistan, Nepal, India, Sri Lanka, Australia and Germany, and was generously supported by the German Embassy Kathmandu and the Government of Nepal.
For more information on HSF Pakistan please visit pakistan.hss.de. Press contact: islamabad(at)hss.de.