Investing in children securing our future: a south Asia report

South Asia's low human development achievements, particularly for children, are compounded by some of its fostering and active conflicts. Some of these conflicts are inter-linked, and many linger and ferment for generations. They pose real threats to the survival and personal security of children, women and men, rupture and destroy institutions that operate for the protection and benefit of families and communities, and diminish access to resources and services required to fulfill basic needs, The climate of insecurity and instability in some parts of the region is a serious impediment to the achievement of wider economic and political goals and the advantages to be gained from cross-border cooperation. In a globalising world it is difficult to insulate countries from conflicts outside their borders and internal conflicts can easily spill over in neighbouring countries. It is even more difficult to Insulate children from the consequences of armed conflict. Children's needs take a back seat in times of crisis or political instability. Children play no role in instigating or perpetuating conflict, and yet they are forced to endure its consequences.

Security discourse has typically focused on issues such as external threat perceptions and conventional defense issues. But in the wake of international events and economic and political transformations, attention is tuming to nontraditional factors for national and regional security. This report makes a first attempt to demonstrate how investing in children is one such non-traditional factor that must form a part of the security agenda for South Asia. At the same time, the report affirms that the implementation of peaceful solutions in any situations of conflicts is critical for the future of the region- and especially of its children. Most works on children and armed conflict see children as victims and emphasize the need for more research to understand better the effects of conflict on them. This report goes a couple of steps further. While recognizing the many and enduring effects that children suffer as at result of armed conflict, it also notes the potential of children to transform the fortunes of whole societies. The report stresses the thesis that putting children at the center of planning and policy making is not only a high leverage entry point for interrupting and transforming the intergenerational cycles of poverty, illiteracy, and denial of opportunity. but of enabling them to successfully address the very issues that lead to violent conflict. Additionally, the report forwards the proposal that enduring security and prosperity in South Asia are likely to be strengthened if children are given the respect they deserve as citizens of nations, if their views are heard, and if they are equipped in their formative years with the skills that are required to uphold democracy and peace.