SAARC seeks to free region of poverty and provide food security

The South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) in its Kathmandu Declaration stated its intent to free the South Asia region of poverty, adding that the organisation will look to provide food security to its member nations.

In a statement released by the association, the leaders of the SAARC nations reaffirmed that they were determined to deepen regional integration for peace and prosperity by promoting mutual trust, amity, understanding, cooperation and partnership amongst each other.

"The leaders reiterated their strong commitment to free South Asia from poverty and directed the Ministerial and Secretary-level mechanisms on poverty alleviation to review the progress and revisit the SAARC Plan of Action and its effective implementation, also taking into account the Post-2015 Development Agenda," the statement read.

"The Heads of State or Government agreed to increase investment, promote research and development, facilitate technical cooperation and apply innovative, appropriate and reliable technologies in the agriculture sector for enhancing productivity to ensure food and nutritional security in the region. They also underscored the importance of promoting sustainable agriculture," it added.

The statement further said that the member nations agreed to eliminate the threshold criteria from the SAARC Food Bank Agreement.

"The leaders directed to eliminate the threshold criteria from the SAARC Food Bank Agreement so as to enable the member states to avail food grains, during both emergency and normal time food difficulty. The Leaders urged for early ratification of the SAARC Seed Bank Agreement and directed to constitute the Seed Bank Board, pending completion of ratification by all member states," it read.

The Leaders also directed the relevant SAARC bodies to finalize the establishment of Regional Vaccine Bank and Regional Livestock Gene Bank," it added.

"The leaders recognized the potential of cooperatives in achieving inclusive, broad-based and sustainable economic growth and development, and called for sharing of experiences, expertise and best practices in this sector," the statement further said.

The 18th SAARC Summit concluded with all participating leaders agreeing to a 36-point Kathmandu Declaration Letter.

The next SAARC Summit is scheduled to be held in Islamabad in 2016.