Where is saarc headquarter

Some of the challenges are, however, unique to member states, thus the need for principles and objectives to govern interaction. Such unique challenges include threats of terrorism and conflicts. According to the Charter, these principles do not substitute but complement bilateral and multilateral interaction.

Deliberations normally exclude issues that are bilateral and contentious, also, SAARC makes all decisions based on unanimity. The other objective is to fasten economic, cultural, and social development to give everybody an opportunity to lead lives full of dignity and achieve their potentials. The organization also aims at promoting mutual assistance, strengthening collaboration with other developing nations, speaking in a unified voice in international forums on shared interests, and partnering with other regional bodies with shared goals.

This council consists of Foreign Ministers of each member states and they formulate policies, track progress, and initiate new areas of cooperation.

They meet twice a year, or during an agreed extraordinary session. Standing Committee : This committee comprises of Foreign Secretaries of each member states. Reporting to the Council of Ministers, this committee ensures finance availability, monitors, and coordinates all programs. They also prioritize programs and mobilizes resources. This committee meets at least twice a year and often when necessary.

In April , at the Association's 14th summit, Afghanistan became its eighth member. His Excellency Mr. In the late 's, the then Presidentof Bangladesh Ziaur Rahman proposed the creation of a trade bloc consisting of South Asian countries and with this end in view, he wrote communicated with the heads of governments of South Asian countries. SAARC charter is available here. The thinking behind the charter was to recognize and reaffirm the commitment of all South Asian nations to democracy.

The SAARC Charter of Democracy contains many important provisions that recognize the supremacy of the respective constitutions, guarantee the independence of the judiciary, and renounce unconstitutional measures adopted in changing the head of a state.

As provided in Article V of the Charter, the Council undertakes the following functions:. The Council is mandated to meet twice a year as also to hold its extra-ordinary session by agreement of among the Member States. More information about the Council of Ministers can be found here. Standing Committee is mandated to meet as often as necessary.

Generally, they meet prior to the sessions of the Council of Minister, i. The Committee reports to the Council of Ministers on regular matters and asks for specific decision on policy matters from the Council, if needed. More information on the standing committees can be found here.

Technical Committees consist of representatives of Member States are responsible for the implementation, coordination and monitoring of the programs in their respective areas of cooperation. Apart from determining the potential and the scope of regional cooperation in agreed areas, Technical Committees are involved in formulation of programs and preparation of projects.

They also coordinate the implementation of sectoral programs and assess the implementation regularly. It generally meets prior to the sessions of the Standing Committee. It is also mandated to convene on stand-alone basis to coordinate implementation of the approved SAARC programs and activities. More information on Programming Committee can be found here. It coordinates and monitors implementation of activities, prepares for and services meetings, and serves as a channel of communication between the Association and its member States as well as other regional organizations.

The Secretariat is headed by the Secretary General, who is appointed by the Council of Ministers from Member States in alphabetical order for a term of three years. However, the Summit has generally been convened at an interval of one and half year or so. The next i. Summit Declarations provide directives and mandate for regional co-operation. Dhaka, Regional cooperation on agriculture and rural development has been in the focus of SAARC from its inception. In , two separate technical committees on agriculture and rural development were established and a number of specialized programs and projects were initiated by the member states through these technical committees under the auspices of SAARC Integrated Programme of Action SIPA.

Later, the two technical committees on agriculture and rural development were merged into one. The reconstituted committee was also mandated to consider livestock and fisheries matters. Functioning of this technical committee has been helpful in bridging knowledge gap, sharing experience and expertise, identifying areas for pursuing regional actions and projects etc. More information about regional cooperation on agriculture and rural development within SAARC can be found here. With a view to creating conditions favorable for fostering greater investment by investors of one member state in the territory of another member state of SAARC and for providing a regional forum for settlement of commercial disputes by conciliation and arbitration, Agreement for Establishment of SAARC Arbitration Council was signed during the Thirteenth SAARC Summit held in Dhaka on November The need to promote cooperation in the area of biotechnology has been recognized by the heads of States at various SAARC Summits since The working group has met several times and in their third meeting, they considered and finalized a Concept Paper on a Program of Cooperation in the field of Biotechnology between SAARC member states.

The Program provides for collaboration in the areas of medical biotechnology, agricultural biotechnology, environmental biotechnology, animal biotechnology, marine biotechnology, bioinformatics, plant tissue culture, genetically modified organisms and bio-safety, marker assisted selection, bio-fertilizer and bio-gas, vaccine production, genomics and proteomics, nano-biotechnology, RNA interference technology platform, stem cell research and Industrial biotechnology.

They also realize that culture could play a major role in promoting relations and understanding among South Asian countries. The one of the key objectives of SAARC is to accelerate the economic growth and social progress in the region.

More information on regional cooperation on economic and trade within SAARC region can be found here. SAARC countries have been cooperating in the development of various dimensions of human resource. At the thirteenth SAARC summit held in November, in Dhaka, India proposed to create a Centre of Excellence, in the form of a South Asian University, which can provide world class facilities and professional faculty to students and researchers drawn from every country of the region.

SAU started its operations from the academic year The university now offers post-graduate and doctoral programs in various disciplines that include Development Economics, Computer Science, Biotechnology, Mathematics, Sociology, International Relations and Law.

The South Asian region is energy deficient as it does not produce enough oil and gas to meet its needs thus depends heavily on imports. Most of the Member States do not have the capacity to generate sufficient electricity to meet their demands.

Therefore, Securing sustainable energy supplies to meet energy needs at affordable prices has become a major energy policy imperative of Member States of SAARC. The process of regional cooperation in energy sector began in January, with the establishment of a Technical Committee on Energy. The Technical Committee on Energy met twice. Thereafter, recognizing that this vital area requires focused attention, the Council of Ministers approved the creation of a specialized Working Group on Energy in January, The thirteenth SAARC summit, decided to establish the SAARC Energy Centre in Islamabad to promote development of energy resources, including hydropower; and energy trade in the region; to develop renewable and alternative energy resources; and promote energy efficiency and conservation in the region.

The Centre which was established in has become fully operational. Therefore, the heads of states of SAARC nations have been reiterating the need of cooperation in this area. Some significant headway has also been achieved in this regard over the last two decades.

A Regional Study on the Causes and Consequences of Natural Disasters and the Protection and Preservation of the Environment was commissioned by the leaders in and the study was completed in A Technical Committee on Environment was established in to examine the recommendations of the regional study, identify measures for immediate action, and to decide on modalities for their implementation.

SAARC Environment Ministers have been regularly meeting to further enhance regional cooperation in the area of environment, climate change and natural disasters since A number of milestones have been accomplished toward greater cooperation in financial issues within SAARC region. However, due to some technical difficulties, the reserve was not been utilized by the member states.

The SAARC Food Bank was established initially to provide emergency supply to a nation facing crisis resulting from production shortfall or a natural calamity like cyclone, floods, draught, earthquake and such other factors. The fourteenth SAARC summit in New Delhi in approved the move to adopt a common approach to collective food security of the region and since then the institutional progress and policy guidelines have much walked ahead to give it a functional character.

SAARC Food Bank is now operational and now the question is how to make it broad based and responsive to taking challenges of disaster mitigation that a nation may suffer from any of the calamities. At the time of establishment of the Food Bank, the total quantum of food grain was finalized at , Metric Tons from the original signatory Member States. Thus, the total quantum stood at , MT.

This was a follow-up of the earlier three meetings, the first and the second of which were held in Colombo in October, and February, respectively, and the third one in Kabul in November, Communication plays a vital role in building regional cooperation. The heads of states of SAARC countries have stressed the importance of developing infrastructure and adequate communications networks among Member States to reinforce the process of economic cooperation during the ninth SAARC summit held in Male in To enhance the collaboration among the member states of SAARC with regard to communication, the communication ministers of SAARC countries have been meeting on a regular basis and a number of programs have been initiated.

A plan of Action on telecommunication was adopted in the first conference of SAARC Communication ministers in May, to promote cooperation among Member States in the field of telecommunication on a sustained basis.

A Revised SAARC Plan of Action on Telecommunications was adopted in with a view to promoting cooperation in the enhancement of telecommunication links, utilizing information technologies within the SAARC region and minimizing disparities within and among Member States in the telecommunication field.

The working group holds several meeting and discussed various aspects of regional cooperation on communication. The group also discussed issues like cross-border interference of radio signals, revision of accounting rates and collection charges among SAARC countries, multilateral utilization of terrestrial communications routes among SAARC countries, cyber security etc. Since the inception of SAARC, its member states have been working together with a view to alleviating poverty in the region.

At the thirteenth summit held in Dhaka on 13 November , SAARC leaders decided to give priority attention to encourage regional cooperation in the areas of science and technology to meet the challenges of the twenty-first century. Accordingly, the first meeting of the Ministers of Science and Technology took place in New Delhi on 16 September, The Plan of Action identifies areas of i Cooperation in the field of science and technology, ii Standardization and laboratory testing, iii Themes for cooperation, and iv Project development.

The Ministers also approved a number of short-term activities to be carried out during the year At this meeting, implementation of the SAARC Action Plan was reviewed and a number of short term activities were approved for implementation. The Ministers expressed their firm commitment for the prioritization of initiatives in Science and Technology in the region for a prosperous South Asia.

Regional cooperation in the areas security among the SAARC member states has seen significant development. A good number of milestones have been achieved through successful coordination among the SAARC member countries in the fields of drug and drug related crimes, terrorism and police matters. The convention entered into force on 15 November following its ratification by all member states. The objectives of the Desk are to collate, analyze and disseminate information on terrorist offences, tactics, strategies and methods.

For more, visit here. The purpose of this Additional Protocol is to strengthen the SAARC Regional Convention on Suppression of Terrorism, particularly by criminalizing the provision, collection or acquisition of funds for the purpose of committing terrorist acts and taking further measures to prevent and suppress financing of such acts. Acceleration of social progress through active collaboration and mutual assistance amongst Member States was a primary objective of SAARC.

SAARC promotes social agenda in the region mainly through cooperation in the following areas:. The heads of states of SAARC countries during the second summit held at Bangalore in underlined that concrete steps should be taken to facilitate tourism in the region.

A Technical Committee on Tourism was created in The twenty-fourth session of the Council of Ministers held in Islamabad on January, , approved establishment of the Working Group on Tourism.

The Working Group on Tourism prepared a Plan of Activities which includes promotion of SAARC as a common tourist destination, to encourage private sector in promoting regional cooperation in tourism, human resource development, promotion of South Asia identity through tourism, cultural and eco-tourism development. The Working Group was authorized to periodically review implementation of this Action Plan.

The leaders at the fourth summit which was held in Islamabad in December, decided that certain categories of dignitaries should be entitled to a special travel document, which would exempt them from visas while travelling within the region.

It was decided that twenty-four categories of entitled persons, which include dignitaries, judges of higher courts, parliamentarians, senior officials, businessmen, journalists, sportsmen, etc.

Later in February, , a meeting of the SAARC foreign ministers revisited the scheme approved a proposal to exempt 19 categories of people from visa requirement and agreed on a liberalized scheme under which select journalists, business persons and sportspersons can be given long-term multi-entry visas after prior clearance. The SAARC Youth Awards Scheme was introduced in with a view to promoting extraordinary young talents and encouraging the overall development of the youth in the region.

The Agreement provides for cooperation on development issues through joint studies, workshops and seminars and exchange of information and documentation in poverty alleviation, human resource development, trade promotion, foreign direct investment, environmental protection and prevention of drug trafficking, infrastructure development, etc.

The Agreement envisages cooperation in implementing the relevant SAARC decisions relating to Children through an annual agenda which include joint studies, exchange of documentation and monitoring of implementation.

They will also exchange technical and operational details of plans for improvement of national, regional and international telecommunications network. The MOU embodies a general agreement for broad-based collaboration with the aims and purposes of promoting sustainable human development for attaining poverty elimination, preservation and protection of environment, regeneration of natural resources, employment creation, and the goals of women in development; undertakes periodic consultation for joint activities, publishing studies on priority concerns, and exchanging relevant reports.

The Memorandum contains provisions for mutual consultation and exchange of information between the two organizations.

In addition, the two organizations have agreed to seek each other's technical cooperation in pursuing their respective drug control activities in areas of drug supply and demand reduction to assist in the development and implementation of activities, such as human resource development, improving regional cooperation on drug intelligence through the SAARC Drug Offences Monitoring Desk, establishment of a networking arrangement among existing institutions in drug abuse prevention, etc.