Building Resilience through Collaboration

with the Global South

Ambassador Shahid Kamal

Founder

COMSATS Centre for Climate & Sustainability (CCCS)

Resilience

• Resilience underpins sustainable development in a unpredictable

world.

• Resilience is about having the capacity to persist, adapt and transform

in the face of change.

• Resilience is not one technology, or one innovation in Global South.

Resilience is about changing the whole system.

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Approach to Resilience

• Complexity: Identify root causes of complex development

challenges, and how these can be addressed with a multi-

disciplinary approach.

• Constant Change: Risks and stresses are becoming increasingly

unpredictable and systems need to have the capacity to navigate

uncertain future.

• Inclusive Decision Making: Putting people and communities,

especially women and marginalized groups, at the centre of

decisions and empowering them to help develop sustainable

solutions.

• Flexibility and Learning: A rigid or fixed solution will not

build resilience for change; approaches need to be adaptive and

responsive, constantly learning from what does and does not

work.3

International Agreements in 2015

• Sendai framework for Disaster Risk reduction

• Financing for development

• Sustainable Development Goals

• Paris Agreement

2030 Development Agenda

• 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development has offered Global

South a framework collaboration and partnerships to achieve

SDGs.

• Issues relating to sustainable development are interconnected

and interdependent.

• Ability to meet the UN SDGs is tied up with research capacity.

• Universities can contribute to achieving SDGs through capacity

building, collaboration, and engagement with government and

industry.

• SDG # 17 calls for multistakeholder Partnerships to share

knowledge, expertise and technology to support achievement of

SDGs.

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Paris Agreement

• Meeting the objectives of Paris Agreement on Climate Change

requires appropriate financial flows, a new technology

framework and an enhanced capacity building framework thus

supporting action by developing countries and the most

vulnerable countries

• North-South and Triangular cooperations have the potential to

promote partnerships for implementation of Paris Climate

Agreement and meet goals for climate action.

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• Agriculture is driving force for poverty alleviation and has potential

to unlock economic growth.

• Interventions and initiatives that address needs of the most

vulnerable communities need to be accelerated.

• Need to share ideas and best practice for building resilience of food

and agriculture systems.

• Agriculture sector is highly impacted by climate change.

• An important aspect is to equip the agriculture sector with efficient

and climate-smart technologies in increase the crop yield.

• Need to share ideas and best practice for building the resilience of

food and agriculture systems.

Sustainable Agriculture

Collaboration and Engagement

• Fostering international partnerships and collaborative research have

a critical role in addressing global challenges.

• Collaborative approaches require negotiation of all aspects of the

partnership, from objectives to governance, as well as sensitivity to

and respect for multiple and often diverging agendas and

constraints of various stakeholders.

• Responses include flexibility and adaptation, long-term vision,

development of research infrastructure.

• Building capacity of local scientists and research institutions.

• South-South Cooperation requires global partnership and North-

South cooperation is a significant mechanism for sharing and

coordinating diverse knowledge and drawing from respective

expertise and strengths.

Role of STI in Sustainable Development

• STI are primary drivers of progress.

• STI has a critical role in achieving a more sustainable and

prosperous future.

• STI will help countries towards increased sustainability and

resilience.

Forum on Science & Technology for

Sustainable Development

• COMSATS proposal for setting up forum to promote Science &

Technology cooperation and networking in realizing SDGs in

partnership with UN and interested organizations.

• Forum is based on realization that developing countries have

varying degrees of progress in different spheres of scientific and

technological pursuits and with commonalities of socio-economic

conditions sharing of scientific knowledge and partnerships would

help to accelerate pace of their sustainable development plan.

• Promoting science and technology will benefit developing countries

through South-South Cooperation on meeting UN Sustainable

Development Goals (SDGs).

Centre for Climate Research and

Development (CCRD)

• CCRD was established in 2014

• CCRD’s mission is:

• To develop and strengthen research capacity in Pakistan on various

aspects of climate change policy;

• To establish knowledge networks within the country and outside

• To promote awareness and advocacy on issues of climate change

• To provide support and policy advice to Federal Ministry of Climate

Change.

Experience of CCRD

Sustainable Food Systems under Climate Change in South Asia

• South Asian institutes/scientists gained better understanding on

climate change-food security nexus.

• Importance of systemic approach was recognized.

• Young scientists from South Asia got chance to work under the

supervision of experts from institutes like PIK and IIASA.

• Project will help develop local talent.

• Collaborators expanded their network base with scientists from

diverse background which would be helpful for expanding research

areas and make it multidisciplinary.

• Collaborators from North increased knowledge on the reality of

food security situation in South Asia.

Experience of CCRD

Smart Water Metering and Pricing Project

• Integrated water management approaches and a novel idea for

installation of smart water meters and implementation of water

tariff for water conservation.

• Capacity building of researchers involved in urban water

conservation and management.

• Development of low-cost smart water meters for large scale

implementation.

Experience of CCRD

Pakistan Low-Carbon Scenario Analysis

• Project provided estimation of GHG emissions and identification of

mitigation options for Pakistan to reduce its GHG emissions across key

sectors.

• Project partners included CCRD and PITCO from the South and IISD and

ECN from the North.

• Project incorporated stakeholder consultation at extensive level leading to

improved understanding of GHG emissions and mitigation planning at

national level.

• It provided an evidence base for INDCs submitted by Pakistan to the

UNFCCC.

Experience of CCRD

SEA and EIA of EU’s Rural Development Programmes in Pakistan

• CCRD has worked on Environmental Assessment of EU's rural development

programmes in Pakistan.

• Objective of environmental assessment was to ensure that the environmental

impacts arising out of planned development activities are taken into account at

design stage.

• Project provided an opportunity to young researchers to interact with rural

communities and to get an insight of environmental and socio-economic

problems in Pakistan.

• It provided an understanding to the challenges at the community-level of under-

developed regions of the country.

• Intergovernmental organization of developing countries to

promote economic and social development through

application of science and technology.

• COMSATS established in 1994 with 27 member countries

from developing world.

• COMSATS is working on promoting South-South

Cooperation and North-South and South-South-North

Cooperations.

• Promoting South- South Cooperation by sharing knowledge

and expertise through network of 22 Science and

Technology centers of excellence.

Introduction to COMSATS

• Developing countries will be among the most adversely affected

by the impacts of Climate Change and its anticipated shocks to

their economic, social and natural systems.

• Environmental risks pose a threat to realization of Sustainable

Development Goals.

• Managing and adapting to climate risk is critical for sustainable

development.

Climate Change Impacts

• Recognizing environmental sustainability as the underlying

theme connecting the SDGs, COMSATS decided to establish

the COMSATS Centre for Climate and Sustainability

(CCCS).

• So far, thirteen member states have joined CCCS and other

member states are expected to join CCCS and support this

important initiative.

• CCCS network in member states will enhance connectivity and

collaboration for working on the linkages between climate

change and sustainable development.

• CCCS will promote regional and global partnerships for climate

action and sustainability.

COMSATS Centre for Climate &

Sustainability (CCCS)

• Share knowledge, data and scientific expertise

• Work on collaborative projects

• Provide training and sharing good practices

• Strengthen evidence-based analysis to facilitate policy making

and evaluation methods

• Explore locally derived data to develop innovative solutions

• Build on homegrown knowledge and experience

• Understand what approaches to promoting sustainability have

worked in other countries

CCCS Objective

• CCCS is establishing a network of local, national, regional

and global partner organizations.

• To take the CCCS initiative forward, cooperative linkages

and partnerships are being established in areas of learning,

capacity building, international networks to share data and

scientific information, training on SDGs and funding for

activities.

CCCS Partnerships

Next Steps

• Enhancing capacity to conduct collaborative research on global

issues will increase knowledge and skills of scientists in developing

countries.

• Skills and experience that funding recipients are expected to acquire

should be adapted to particular need of a country.

• Research should be geared towards community involvement

enabling them to become agents of change and to ensure

ownership of projects.

• Institutional strengthening of the Global South through training

on bankable projects and proposal writing.

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Next Steps

• Project partners must have stakeholder consultations with the

government agencies to discuss their projects and possible outcomes

as support at the government level is useful.

• Strengthening ownership by developing countries is important for

successful partnerships.

• Consideration to be given to recognising national priorities, strategies

and policies and designing of research projects.

• Balanced flow of resources, efforts and benefits can make the

partnership successful.

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