Dr. Abid Qaiyum Suleri عابد قيوم سليرى(Urdu) | |
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Born | September 9, 1969 Pakistan |
Residence | Islamabad, Pakistan |
Nationality | Pakistani |
Fields | Food Security; Environment; Sustainable Development in South Asia; Non Traditional Security Issues; International Trade; WTO Agreements; Globalization; South Asian Integration |
Institutions | Executive Director, Sustainable Development Policy Institute |
Alma mater | University of Agriculture, Faisalabad Natural Resources Institute, University of Greenwich, Chatham Kent |
Doctoral advisor | Dr. Peter Golob |
Abid Qaiyum Suleri (born: 9th September, 1969) is a Pakistani social policy analyst and development practitioner. He specialized in Food Security from University of Greenwich, UK. He is Executive Director of leading Pakistani Think-tank [1] Sustainable Development Policy Institutesince 2007. Dr. Suleri is a prolific writer and regularly contributes [2] to various national and international newspapers. He is a strong supporter of social justice and warns that militancy and violence cannot be tackled without addressing individual insecurities such as food insecurity, poverty, and marginalization. He is serving on various policy formulating foras in Pakistan as well as in South Asia. He is serving on National Planning Commission's Task Forces on climate change and social sector development. Dr. Suleri is Head of Regional Advisory Board of National Center for Competence in Research North-South. He also heads the Regional Steering Committee of Imagine a New South Asia, a broad based network of civil society organizations and individuals working for a New South Asia free from social injustice, conflict, poverty, hunger, diseases,and hegemonic regimes. He is the vice chair of executive board of South Asia Watch on Trade, Economics, and Environment. He is also the co-chair [3] of Climate Action Network South Asia.
In March 2010, Prime Minister of Pakistan [4] appointed Dr. Suleri as Member Board of Management (BOM) of Pakistan's largest oil distribution company Pakistan States Oil [5]. Dr. Suleri is Chairman of PSO BOM's Finance and Audit Committee.
Dr. Suleri was born in Lahore, Pakistan. He received his early and intermediate education in Sialkot and Lahore. He earned his B.Sc (honours) and M.Sc (honours) from University of Agriculture, Faisalabad. He started his career as technical and development officer in an agro-chemical company in 1992. Later on he joined Government of Punjab as a civil servant in 1994. He won Commonwealth merit scholarship for his doctoral studies and left for United Kingdom in 1995. There he obtained his PhD in Food Security from University of Greenwich, Chatham, Kent under the supervision of Dr. Peter Golob. Upon returning, he joined Punjab Food Department in 2000. He resigned civil service and joined Sustainable Development Policy Institute (SDPI) as Head of Globalization and Rural Livelihoods Program in 2001. In 2004, he joined Pakistan program of Oxfam GB as Head of Program but rejoined SDPI in 2005 as Assistant Executive Director. He is serving as Executive Director of SDPI since 2007. His research interests include Food Security, International Trade, Governance, Social Transformation in South Asia, Climate Change, and Livelihoods. Dr. Suleri is serving on various policy foras both at national as well as at regional level. He is member of National Planning Commission's Task Forces on Climate Change and Social Sector Development. He is also a member of Federal Forestry Board of Government of Pakistan. He also serves as Member Board of Studies at Sustainable Development Study Center, GC University Lahore. He represented Pakistani Civil Society during WTO Ministerial Conferences of Doha and Cancun. He was part of official delegation during WTO Ministerial Conference at Hong Kong. He heads the Regional Steering Committee of social campaign Imagine New South Asia (INSA). He is also the co-chair of Climate Action Network South Asia.
There are many reasons for food price hike in Pakistan. However, to me, the primary reason is inefficient governance that fails to ensure consistent food supply as per the demand of consumers. Increase in prices of agricultural inputs, increase of cost of transportation, damage to physical infrastructure limiting the supply of food products, hoarding and cartelisation (especially in case of sugar) and smuggling of food grains and live animals to neighbouring countries are some of the other factors leading to food inflation. But again, all of the above mentioned issues could have been tackled through better government initiatives at the local level.
We have to have a national food security strategy—a strategy that should address all the three aspects of food security. A federal ministry of food security should be responsible for implementing the food security strategy by ensuring that it becomes an important priority of all other national policies.
Dr. Suleri's thoughts on World Food Day 2011 can be accessed in The Express Tribune of October 16, 2011
So, what can be done to reduce the impact of food price on the most vulnerable members of society? First things first; our policy-makers need to come out of their state of denial and accept that there is the issue of food insecurity. They then need to strengthen the social protection system to provide targeted relief, either in the form of cash for work or food for work programmes, to those who are deprived of access to food. For children, local authorities should introduce free lunch schemes in schools.
Dr. Abid Qaiyum Suleri is the lead author of "Food Insecurity in Pakistan 2009". A report, prepared by SDPI in collaboration with Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation and World Food Program. The report compares 131 districts of Pakistan on the basis of their food security. It is observed that state of food security in Pakistan has deteriorated since 2003. The conditions for food security are inadequate in 61 percent districts. In terms of population almost half of the population of Pakistan (48.6 percent) doesn’t have access to sufficient food for active and healthy life at all times. The report comes up with substantial evidences that inter and intra provincial disparities exist in terms of food security. FATA has the highest percentage of food insecure population (67.7 percent) followed by Balochistan (61.2 percent), and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KPK) (56.2 percent). The lowest percentage of food insecure population (23.6 percent) is in Islamabad. Among the districts, Dera Bugti has the highest percentage of food insecure people (82.4 percent).
Executive Summary of Food Insecurity in Pakistan 2009 as carried by The News Pakistan.
as posted at Heinrich Boell Stiftung's website December 2010
Dr. Abid Suleri is a Pakistani social policy analyst and development practitioner. He is a prolific writer and regularly contributes articles for various national and international newspapers. He is a strong supporter of social justice and warns that militancy and violence cannot be tackled without addressing individual insecurities such as food insecurity, poverty, and marginalization. He specialized in food security and obtained his PhD in this subject from University of Greenwich, UK.
Dr. Abid Qaiyum Suleri, in 2004, led SDPI's team that in collaboration with [World Food Program] ranked (then) 120 districts of Pakistan on the basis of their food insecurity. This was the first of its kind work in Pakistan. The study revealed that on the basis of physical availability of food, socio-economic access to food, and food absorption 52% rural population of Pakistan was food insecure. The worst food insecure districts included Tharparker, Dera Bughti, North Waziristan, South Waziristan, Shangla, Jamrood, Hango, Kharan and all others that are now being perceived as "axis of evil" within Pakistan.
Food Insecurity in Rural Pakistan 2003 is available on SDPI's web page
Dr. Abid Suleri was one of the keynote speakers to share his thoughts on social dimensions of food insecurity at Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, Washington DC in June 2009. he presented case study of food insecurity-militancy nexus in Pakistan. Woodrow Wilson's publication "Hunger Pains" can be downloaded here.
Dr. Abid Suleri looks at the global food crisis of 2007-08 and using Pakistan as a case study concludes that the national governance is a key component in understanding what happened and why. His paper published by Boston University's Frederick Pardee Centre for the Study of Long range Future notes, “Here is the lesson that the world in general and countries like Pakistan in particular should draw from the soaring food prices: improve national food governance in the short run and sustain it in the medium and long term; and make long-term investment in the food supply chain at all levels. After all, it is the political action or inaction that determines whether a famine will occur or not.
In another report that SDPI produced for UNDP Pakistan, Dr. Suleri explored the global picture of Food Security with insights into the issue of the global rise in food prices. He discussed the issues of sustainability and availability of food and suggested a way forward with short and medium term solutions. Food Security: Where we are, where we want to go? is available on UNDP's webpage
Download the complete article from The News, November 13, 2011
Access the article in the Encore Pages
Pakistan’s decision to grant India the MFN status would be a quantum leap in normalising trade between the two countries. ---Enhanced economic ties would not solve all our bilateral issues. We still need to resolve the issues of Kashmir and tit-for-tat allegations of terrorism. Nonetheless normalisation of trade would definitely help in trust-building between the two neighbours. This process would catalyse initiation of any meaningful dialogue to resolve these issues amicably.
We must give peace a chance. By living as friendly neighbours, we will be able to divert a substantial portion of our defense budgets to social sector development and turn this region into a hub of global growth.
Download the complete article from The News, October 23, 2011
It is in the best interest of both sides to understand that this bilateral engagement is but a national necessity. Therefore, the two countries need to revisit their global repositioning in order to jointly play a pivotal role in evolving both the South Asian geo-economics and also envision the evolution of the Asian Economic Community.
Access the complete article form The Financial Express India, October 18, 2011
In an ongoing study on costs of economic non-cooperation in South Asia by CUTS, Jaipur, and SDPI, Islamabad, it was found that annual welfare gains to Indian consumers by importing certain products from Pakistan would be around $4 billion and similarly importing certain products from India would benefit Pakistani consumers by $280 million. Considering the population of Pakistan at 17.8 million, this would translate to $15.73 per person, and for the 1.2 billion people in India it would mean a gain of $3.30 per person, annually. The big figures apart, the gain to Pakistan would be nearly five times that of India.
Download the complete article from The News, October 9, 2011
Unfortunately, a mention of Pakistan and India; and one gets ready to hear some unpleasant news. However, after a long time the meeting between Pakistani and Indian Commerce Ministers resulted in an excuse to rejoice. Not only that, after three and a half decades Pakistani Commerce Minister visited India. Both the ministers were also able to take some tangible and positive steps towards trade normalization between their countries.
Download the complete article from The News, July 3, 2011
I agree that there is no “substantial” breakthrough and bilateral issues, yet inching towards peace and attempting to mend the 60 years of trust deficit is not an easy task. It would require lot of patience and consistency on both sides.
Slashing A Budget: Download the complete article at The Dawn, May 29, 2011
It is a sign of insanity to keep repeating the same mistakes over and over again, expecting different results. It is high time we, as a nation, redefined our spending priorities in favour of ordinary citizens. If that is done our budget formulations would surely yield different results.
Download the complete article at The News, March 20,2011
To me, both the people as well as the government feel the heat Ñ the government because it has to take non-popular decisions, the people due to the impact of those decisions. But the worst crisis that the country is facing today is that of the crisis of trust that does not exist between the government and the international community and between the government and people of Pakistan. Same is the situation between the people of Pakistan and the international community. Trust cannot be built through presidential ordinances and requires a thorough political discussion to reach a broader consensus. The challenge is can we use political wisdom without politicising these issues any further?
Download the complete article at The News, Feb 6,2011
This is about time we should find out solutions for our economic issues through political wisdom and not through politicising them. Year 2011 is going to be a tough year, but we can certainly turn 2012 a year of relief by setting our priorities right during the current year.
'Covered in daily The News, Pakistan November 7, 2010
Indeed, glancing through the debates on flood recovery, one either comes across the blame-game, or its opposite, the praise-game, the latter stating that everything will be good. What seems to be missing is analysis; an attempt to answer some of the questions that we have raised is missing. With Pakistan Development Forum around the corner, one needs to remind our policy makers, journalists, and researchers that it is the understanding of people's livelihood concerns, the state's, civil society's and international donors' response that we consider is the utmost challenge for flood rehabilitation. All of us would have to be ready to address this challenge and contribute towards strengthening good governance, as governance is nothing but a complex process through which a plurality of societal actors aims to formulate and achieve common objectives by mobilizing and deploying a diversity of ideas, rules, and resources.
Humanitarian organisations put their lives in danger to serve the people Published in The News on Sunday, September 12, 2010
The government of Pakistan should try to understand why people have a blind faith in organisations such as Edhi Foundation, Shaukat Khanum Trust, Khwaja Ghareeb Nawaz Foundation, Rural Support Programmes, Sahara Trust, etc. They should also try to figure out why international humanitarian organisations such as Oxfam, Actionaid, Muslim Hands, Islamic Relief, Mercy Corps, Church World Services, Catholic Relief World Vision etc., are able to generate and mobilise funds. All of these national and international organisations are credible.
Dr. Suleri differs with Prime Minister of Pakistan's statement that NGOs engaged in flood relief would misuse the funds Published in The Express Tribune, September 4, 2010.
Prime Minister Gilani's remark against NGOs constitutes a very serious allegation, especially since the head of the government made it. He should apologise to the representatives of NGOs for his remarks and his government should hold a meeting to learn just how and why the NGOs were able to mobilise 80 per cent of the funds coming for flood relief.
Rehabilitation of flood damage may take 3–4 years and most of the donors seem to wait for a rehabilitation plan based on independent damage assessment. Image of government, reports of corruption in earthquake donations, and weak institutional arrangement for disaster management can also affect donor's response. Government may not compensate for losses due to natural and man-made disasters, but can certainly compensate for the loss of credibility by involving credible people in aid delivery and monitoring mechanism at the local level.
Dr. Suleri's article in daily The Express Tribune, Pakistan August 27, 2010
current losses by the floods are just the tip of the iceberg as people’s lives, the country’s economy, food security, and political stability may face even worse challenges in the coming weeks and months. Providing clean drinking water and food to the flood survivors is a daunting task, but an even greater challenge is controlling the spread of infectious diseases, especially cholera, diarrhea, gastroenteritis, and skin diseases in the camps, caused mainly due to the lack of medicines, clean water and sanitation. People have lost most of their livestock and the remaining may die because of starvation and lack of veterinary care.
The areas that were declared most insecure in terms of food by Sustainable Development Policy Institute- World Food Program- Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation in their Food Security in Pakistan 2009 report, have also been hard-hit by the super flood raising concerns of famine, thus posing threat of further growth of militancy there, an upcoming international report says.
The News (Pakistan) Top Stories, August 26, 2010
Floods in Pakistan; the challenges ahead August 23, 2010
An analysis of some of the major challenges facing Pakistan in the aftermath of the recent floods.
Covered in daily The News, Pakistan August 15, 2010
Nearly 700000 hectares of standing crops are under water or destroyed and in many cases surviving animals are without feed. Humanitarian agencies like World Food Programme, local NGOs, and International NGOs have already started their relief operations. However, it is a daunting task to cater for the needs of 14 million people out of which at least six million would require sustained food supply for weeks and months to come. Life would move on, but one wonders how many more human disasters our policy makers require to learn disaster preparedness.
Download the complete article at The Express Tribune May 18, 2011
It is not about sacking a few individuals, but rather, about redefining the civil military relationships. The military establishment should categorically reassess its positions and tell the nation the truth about our role in the war on terror. The spy agencies should stop focusing on defence and foreign affairs, allowing the designated political forces to take independent decisions. A revised civil-military relationship would help in building a peaceful, prosperous and tolerant Pakistan as imagined by its founders. A new social contract should be in place where the state and its agencies do not consider their citizens ‘agents of enemies’, but rather protectors of this country.
Download the complete article at The News, May 8, 2011
Let us believe in the official statement released by the ISPR four days after the killing of Osama. If all of the above-mentioned is true then why some institutes are more sacred than others in this country? Why should we reduce our public sector development programme budget to beef up our defense budget? And, finally, if we have proved to be inefficient and unreliable to the US in war on terrorism then on which grounds will we be able to stop activities of Black Water and CIA operatives in Pakistan? Will they not come to capture more high level targets in other garrison towns of Pakistan?
We need to believe in our own self to defeat the menace of extremism
I being a Pakistani Muslim may not be rising to protest against the killing of Shahbaz Bhatti out of fear or simply due to the reason that he was a non-Muslim in Pakistan. But will this act of mine guarantee that I will not be killed in a suicide attack in a mosque, in a shrine, even in my own house? Will my silence guarantee that the school of my children will not be attacked by these militants whose only aim is to create panic and terrorize the society? Download the complete article at The News on 6th March 2011
Covered in Daily Express Tribune, Jan 7, 2011
I am mourning not only his murder but also the murder of my own ideology — that of ‘live and let live’. And it is an ideology that is common in many religions.
Covered in Daily The News, Jan 16, 2011
Emma Duncan in her Book, "Breaking the Curfew" describes Pakistanis as a nation which has ideas without ideologies and ideologies without ideas. I kept on recalling this phrase during the last two weeks. Do the killer of Salman Taseer and those who are condoning this act and glorifying the killer have any idea about the ideology they are trying to promote? Are they not approving that anyone can be declared as blasphemer, infidel and killed? Have the ulemas of various major sects of Islam not declared followers of other sects as non-Muslims and vice versa? According to their ideology, Muslims in Pakistan would have the right to declare those who disagree with their understanding of Islam as non-Muslims and liable to death.
Daily Express Tribune, Jan 5th 2011
His death will add to political instability in the country, which could worsen the state of law and order. He was an important political figure and had been defending the proposed amendments to the blasphemy laws.
'Covered in daily The News, Pakistan December 19, 2010
Staying mute on why the East Pakistan required a separate homeland will not help Pakistan. Three types of histories prevail here; one that is narrated in our country, the other that is taught in the neighboring country and a third that is the true history which the masses won’t discuss due to taboos, state of denial, fear or ignorance. The same is true for the history of partition of Pakistan.
'Covered in daily The News, Pakistan November 21, 2010
What can be done differently? There is a lot that needs to be done to save the system in Pakistan from self-destruction. However, one of the most important things is to enhance resilience and coping capacities among masses against internal and external uncertainties. The priority should be to enable the people to meet minimum basic requirements of life. In order to do so, we would have to think of a new development paradigm, a paradigm that should revolve around human development and individual security. An indicator of successful implementation of human security paradigm would be a visible reduction in the gap between haves and have not which in turn keeps the societal fabric intact and hold us as a nation together. Failure in bringing this paradigm shift can lead to a situation where no one would be able to save the "haves" from the wrath of "have-nots".
Dr. Babar Shahbaz and Dr. Suleri explained that deeply rooted mistrust between the state actors and local stakeholders, lack of a sense of ownership in local communities, and the state’s ignorance of local livelihood realities are some of the major causes of the ineffectiveness of Pakistan’s current forest management paradigm.
In his book Social Dimensions of Globalization? A case of Pakistan, Dr. Suleri maintains that the past one and half decade saw emergence of two forms of globalization. “Good” globalization brought material rewards and “so called” transparent and free politics to the nations of West Europe and North America. Whereas, “Bad" globalization for its part has largely affected rest of the world. Globalization’s level playing field focuses merely on liberalization, be it “economic liberalization” or “policy making liberalization”. Globalization of policy formulation is achieved at the cost of local sovereignty. The role of national governments is being revised and local gains as well as solutions of local problems are sacrificed to achieve a global good. This objective in itself may not be very bad. However, the method adopted to achieve this objective becomes controversial and comes under heavy criticism especially from developing world, which is already suffering from inequalities in resource distribution. This is where people start questioning about the social dimensions of globalization.
Click here to download the pdf version of Social Dimensions of Globalization
Dr. Suleri and Kevin Savage of ODI, UK carried out this study to explore the role of remittances in Earthquake rehabilitation. "International remittances have played a significant role in livelihoods in the wake of the earthquake that hit northern Pakistan in October 2005. A large number of people from the earthquake-affected areas of the North-West Frontier Province (NWFP) and Kashmir live abroad and, although remittance flows were severely disrupted by the earthquake, they recovered relatively quickly. The widespread destruction and damage inflicted on the economy means that external sources of income such as remittances will be vital to recovery, both for individual households and for the country as a whole", were the findings of their work.
This paper can be downloaded here
Food For Survival, August 1, 2010 Coping with growing food insecurity is a daunting challenge for Government of Pakistan.
Fiscal Fire Fighting, June 8, 2010 Federal budget 2010-11 is not only painful for the people. It is painful for the government as well, and rather more so.
Hunger Pains, February 28, 2010 Despite the claims and efforts of our economic managers to bring macro-economic stability in Pakistan, the miseries of a common person don’t seem to end. Six "F" crises (Food, fiscal, fuel, frontiers, fragility of climate and functional democracy) are getting aggravated with every passing day.
Federal Budget: Wrong Framework, July 15, 2007 Only fiscally strong provinces and local governments would be able to chalk out a bottom-up process of development that is closer to the aspirations of common masses.
Pakistan's Budget: Survey with mixed findings, June 17, 2007 Despite the government’s claims of robust economic growth, the Economic Survey contains a lot of alarming facts.
SAARC: A Failure Story, April 22, 2007 The dream of a new South Asia is of realisation of freedom — free from want, freedom from fear, and freedom to live with dignity. But is SAARC the right platform to realise it?
A Framework of Barriers, March 11, 2007 Once again political differences between Pakistan and India have rendered SAFTA meaningless.
A New voice for a New Region, January 28, 2007 All those factors that have traditionally hampered peace between India and Pakistan may be coming together for the sake of a peaceful and prosperous South Asia.
Pakistan & India: Freedom for Past, January 14, 2007 Pakistan and India need to go beyond formal exchanges to resolve their differences. The world abounds in examples that the two countries can follow to foster peace and prosperity in South Asia
The trickle that never becomes a steady flow, December 24, 2006 Food scarcity and physical insecurity coexist in Pakistan’s most turbulent regions. This is what results from economic growth unaccompanied by distributive justice.
Money does the Talking, December 2006 Role of Remittance in Earthquake
On Earthquake Rehabilitation:Not their moneys worth, November 12, 2006 Efforts at reviving peoples livelihood in the earthquake-hit areas do not seem to be working. Their single-minded focus on reviving financial assets has the key to their failure.