Civil Society and the Pandemic: Perspectives from South Asia

Thursday 6 Apr 2023, 12:30 → 14:00 Europe/London

Zoom

At this roundtable, civil society representatives and academics from South Asia will share their regional experiences of civic action from the outbreak of the pandemic to the present day. The pandemic has fuelled authoritarian tendencies and created new uncertainties and organisational struggles for the civil society sector. Yet, despite these challenges, the pandemic has also brought opportunities for new civic spaces and social movements. The roundtable therefore aims to exchange experiences and observations across South Asia to generate recommendations and provide practical tools for civil society organisations to navigate the current crisis.

 

Speakers:

Mr Amitabh Behar (India), Chief Executive Officer of Oxfam India

Mr Biraj Patnaik (India), Executive Director for National Foundation of India

Dr Marufa Akter (Bangladesh), Assistant Professor at the Department of Global Studies and Governance in Independent University, Bangladesh

Dr Salma Malik (Pakistan), Assistant Professor at the Department of Defence and Strategic Studies, Quaid-I-Azam University, Islamabad, Pakistan

Dr Samuwel Chaminda Padmakumara (Sri Lanka), Head of the Department of International Relations, University of Colombo

Mr Tarek Hassan Semul (Bangladesh), Research Fellow at the Bangladesh Institute of International and Strategic Studies