A three day meeting under the “Third South Asia Policy Forum” was held on April 25-27, 2010 at the Hotel Everest, Kathmundu. The meeting was jointly organized by INSA (Imagine a New South Asia), CANSA, SWATEE, SACEJ, NGO Federation of Nepal with financial assistance of Actionaid, Wateraid and Oxfam. The keynote speech was delivered by Mr. Rashed Al Mahmud Titumir, Secretary General of INSA Regional Steering Comitee and Chairperson of Unnayan Onneshan in the very beginning of the meeting in which Dr. Prakash Sharan Mahat, Minister, Ministry of Energy, Nepal as the Chief Guest and Mr. Abdus Shaheed, MP, Chief Whip, Bangladesh Parliament, Mr. Haji Mohammad Adeel, Senator and leader of the Parliamentary Party, National Awami Party Pakistan, Mr. Madhab Kumar Ghimire, Chief Secretary, Office of the Prime Minister and Council of Ministers, Government of Nepal were present. The report named “ Agriculture and Food Security in South Asia” presented by Unnayan Onneshan stated that more than 199 million people may be hit by rice shortage in Bangladesh, which is more than 34 percent of the projected population in 2100. “In 2050, more than 29 million people in Bangladesh and 15 million in Nepal will face rice shortage, which may be equivalent to 10 and 25 percent of the population, respectively” said Mr. Rashed Al-Mahmud Titumir while presenting his paper. This will be more than 740 million (19.58 percent) for India, 549 million (43.71 percent) for Pakistan and 73 million (53.50 percent) for Nepal, he added.

The Fourteenth meeting of Subsidiary Body on Scientific, Technical and Technological Advice (SBSTTA) of the Convention of Biological Diversity (CBD) was held at Nairobi, Kenya between 10 and 21 May, 2010. This meeting tried to develop recommendations that will be negotiated and adopted as decisions by the Conference of the Parties to the Convention in Nagoya, Japan (COP10) this October. Mr. Mohammed Abdul Baten, Research Associate of Unnayan Onneshan, participated the meeting and presented a research paper in side event titled ‘Community Based Management of the Sundarbans: local people’s rights and participation in protected area management’. The research work received substantial applaud from the audience and they emphasised on carrying such type of  researches more and more to support indigenous and local people’s demand of establishing their traditional rights over natural resources management. Moreover, Unnayan Onneshan participated International Indigenous Forum for Biodiversity Meeting on Indicators held at Nairobi, Kenya in between 7 and 9 May 2010, and presented a research paper focusing mainly traditional occupation in the Sundarbans area.