Talking Economics as if people mattered

Spent the best of three days at the 6th SouthAsian Economic Summit hosted by IPS and held at the Cinnamon Grand this week.  Supposed to be the first certified carbon neutral conference in Sri Lanka, certified as such by the CarbonConsulting Company, and incredibly well organized by IPS, the Conference was a huge learning experience for me, as well as posing many questions and challenges.

The number of ‘suited’ South Asian men and the paucity of women delegates, the overwhelmingly economistic nature of the discussions (okay, so it is a Economic Summit) that discussed the most populous region in the world in terminology that only recognized demographics,populations and human capital and not real women, men and children, all made me somewhat tongue-tied and uncomfortable.  I was constantly being challenged to recognize the carbon neutrality of the event because more often than not, the breakout rooms were freezing, so was really pleased that Selima Ahmed, Founder President of the Bangladesh Women’s Chamber of Industry and Commerce, challenged delegates' inability to walk the talk and suggested we open the curtains and regulate the airconditioning.  Made me think, it needed a woman to do that.  But it also made me wonder whether carbon neutrality is a cop out, allowing users who can afford to pay, to maintain detrimental consumption patterns and lifestyles.  Tried to suggest to Sanith de S Wijeyeratne, Chief Operating Officer of the Carbon Consulting Company, that this could have been an opportunity to influence the Cinnamon Grand but realised I was irritating him by my insistence.   It would seem that the only visible concession that the hotel has made to a change in practice has been to replace bottled water with water jugs –  but given the number of people and sessions, this has probably had a bigger impact than it would seem at face value.

So what was I doing here?  IPS in a rare moment invited me to present in the session on Managing Intra-country growth disparities, probably expecting some self-selection into the gender disparities parallel session (which, according to organizer, Anushka Wijesinha, was only attended by women delegates and no men, sigh!) which I rejected and got myself answering questions on ‘managing urbanization inclusively’.  More about what I said in a subsequent post… need to go see what the final sessions are like, especially to see how  Professor RehmanSobhan deals with G L Pieris!

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