intercultural resources
FTA WATCH-INDIA

People's SAARC
In July 2008, the People’s SAARC event was organised by peoples movements, NGOs from all over South Asia, in Colombo in parallel to the governments’ official SAARC Summit. The three days of discussions were captured in a statement, which highlights the main issues of people’s interest in the region towards forging a Peoples’ Union of South Asia (People’s SAARC declaration, Colombo - 2008). It was felt that the process should go beyond merely a parallel event, have a more evolved structure and be able to translate issues into broad south Asian campaigns. Organisations and individuals related to this process met again in Kathmandu on March 18th, 2009. They decided to develop a structure which would capture people’s interests and form working groups to work on specific themes and campaigns; and work towards alternatives to the current model of regionalism embodied in the official SAARC process. A working group on trade and economics in South Asia was created and will look at developing a trade model for the region based on people’s needs.