In Global Peace Through The Global University System

2003 Ed. by T. Varis, T. Utsumi, and W. R. Klemm

University of Tampere, Hameenlinna, Finland

NURTURING PEACE CULTURE

Motilal Sharma

Worldview Hindustan Foundation

"Dyauh Santiantariksam santih prthivi santirapah santirosadhayah santih. Vanaspatnyah santir visve devah santir Brahma santih sarvam santih santireva santih sa ma santiredhi."

"May the sky be peaceful and peace giving; may the mindspace be peaceful; may the earth be peaceful; may the waters be peaceful; may the annual plants be peaceful; may the forest be peaceful; may all the bounties of nature be peaceful; may there be peace, and peace only; may such a peace come to all." (Yajur Veda XXXVI.17)

"There is no way to peace, Peace is the way." (Mahatma Gandhi)

"True peace is not merely the absence of tension but is the presence of justice and brotherhood." (Martin Luther King)

Introduction

As we enter the 21^st century, one of the most disturbing facts is that military expenditures around the world are on the increase. In the mid-1990s, the known military expenditure was US$800 billion each year, or $145 per person worldwide, which has significantly increased due to expanding conflicts in various parts of the world. Almost half the world's scientists and engineers are said to be involved in military R&D. Imagine if this cadre of experts could be brought to work for peace. Had there been global peace, during the same period, by the year 2002, the accumulated total in savings or what is termed peace dividends, could have been about $1,600 billion, which could have been diverted to reduce poverty or promote human development on a massive scale never imagined before. The harsh reality is that while the 21^st century has been heralded as a time for peace, today we are in a world thriving in a culture of violence. How do you make transition from a culture of violence to a culture of peace? The issue therefore is how to address the threats of violence and how to start building a culture of peace.

Hundreds of thousands of refugees, old men, women and children, flee their villages to avoid the violence and death of wars in their homelands. Malnourished people grow by the millions. All of these stem from violence and conflict, and the absence of peace and democracy. The tragedy is that many of the frontline persons involved in these conflicts are young people, who have played into the hands of terrorists, rebels, dictatorships, and greedy militia. It is clear that the process of transition towards democracy is one of the important factors conducive to the construction of a culture of peace. The culture of peace should be understood as the creation of peaceful, non-violent behavioral patterns. The main indispensable values on which a peace culture can be built may be grouped around such key notions as justice, human rights, democracy, development, non-violence, and peaceful resolution of conflicts.

History clearly shows that mankind has tried diligently to pursue peace. The tragedy is that this long effort has been discontinuous and pursued in spurts. In a morbid but amusing way, the ongoing competition or race in violence at all levels of present human system gives the impression that humans are in a hurry to die. Under this scenario, peace is a multidimensional phenomenon and it means more than the absence of structural violence or war. More than ever before, mankind is besieged by the problems of dishonesty, envy, alienation, poverty, disease, hunger, and above all his identity crisis. In the advanced economics, humans seem to have been reduced to members of "the lonely crowed or as objects traveling along the airport conveyor belt." In the less developed countries, people plod like carabaos through barren rice fields dependent on the grace of rainfall and the prices of commodities beyond their control. Such processes of dehumanization and depersonalization impinge upon the mental balance of the individual, which is a precondition for a state of peace and tranquility. Man is broken up from within, and this inner disintegration is reflected in the disorganized state of human system at all levels. The umbilical cord is a link from the individual to the world community. The organic wholeness of the human being is quite essential in order to achieve lasting peace at the global level. This disharmony lends to disturbances. To heal our community, our psyches must heal as well. The military, social and environmental dangers that threaten us do not come from sources outside the human mind; they are reflections of it, mirroring the fears, greed and hostilities that separate us from ourselves and each other. For our sanity and our survival, therefore, it appears necessary to engage in spiritual development as well as social change, to merge the inner with other paths to achieve the objectives of peace. There is a need therefore for the creation and nurturing of integrated individuals.

Mahatama Gandhi walked in this earth with the message of Sarvodaya, which rests on the well being of everyone. He once said: "For me, non-violence is a creed. I must act up to it whether I am alone or have companions. Since propaganda of non-violence is the mission of my life, I must pursue it in all weathers. Those who are attracted to nonviolence should, according to their ability and opportunity, join the experiment. There will never be an army of perfectly non-violent people, but it will be formed of those who will honestly endeavor to observe non-violence, to be a creed, has to be all-pervasive. I cannot be non-violent about an activity of mine and violent about others. That would be a fallacy, not a life force". In many ways, Gandhi is in agreement with the Bible, such as in the Biblical message: "Everyone who hates his brother is a murderer". Similarly, consider his closeness to the Tao, which declares, "Weapons are instruments of fear. They are not a wise man's tools. Peace and justice are dear to his heart, and victory is cause for rejoicing."

Peace: The Concept

The concept of peace must start with the concept of the child. To my mind, this begins with the advent of birth in the womb of the mother. Every effort must be exerted to protect, to nurture, and to sustain the living being in the mother's womb. That is why to me abortion is violence of the first order. Life is our most precious commodity - and it is in the beginnings of birth, in the cradle of a mother's womb, that the opportunities for peace or the risks of war begins to take shape in the life of human beings. Indeed, one may say that peace or war emanates from the womb of a mother.

The concept and practice of peace must revolve and penetrate five layers of social units. First is the individual, then the family, followed by the community, the nation and finally the international community. They all inter-twine and relate with each other and this interconnectedness is best understood when examined singularly and then in their combination. Let us first deal with the individual. In this sense, peace is a state of mind, which allows the individual to operate optimally and freely. It is only in this state can the individual contribute constructively to the fashioning of his world and his fellowmen. There are a number of pre-conditions for this state to emerge. Firstly, there should be absence of constraints, which affect man's freedom. These constraints could include religious, political, economic, social, technological, and cultural factors. Secondly, there must be opportunity for the individual to grow in body and mind, in emotions and spirit, in isolation and in communion with others.

In this sense, poverty is most destructive towards the mother. Nurturing a babe in her womb, her most immediate concern is her health and nutrition. If your food is a good diet, then it follows that the body would evolve into a sound physical structure, which would facilitate in turn development of sound emotional and behavioral attitudes. A sound mind, as the platitude goes, comes from a sound body - and sound minds would emanate sound behavior and attitudes. The nurturing of the mother therefore, if I may assert, is the beginning of any movement towards global peace. She is the heart of the family, which is second layer of any peace initiatives. The family remains the nucleus of society, and while negative forces of war, famine, disease, ignorance, want and exploitation repeatedly threaten to rend the family nucleus apart, it still remains the kernel of society. It is within these confines that the seeds of attitudes, values, traits, and psychosocial and emotional norms and concepts begin to take shape. The values and goals cherished by generations of families are conserved and transmitted from family to family in ways that are most mysterious yet powerful and permanent.

This brings us to the third layer, the community of families. This is the immediate surrounding other than the members of the family to which the children are exposed. In these social structures, families are virtually bombarded with huge nets of social biases, political and vested interests, economic inequalities, religious rigidities and norms, cultural patterns and propaganda, technological machinations, and wave upon wave of psycho behavioral norms and standards. If children are loosely anchored to their families, and are left without guidance to these social and community forces, then the initiations into confusion, hatred, self-pity and eventually violence begin their slow and dangerous trend. The results are all around us - not only in the poverty of the third world but also in the affluence of first world cities. Drug-addiction, organized crime, street violence, bank runs and frauds, university examinations scandals, scientific research and development on weapons for war and space invasion, religious terrorism, political party machinations for power, economic elite and business monopolies, and cultural engineering. These are the more conspicuous and dramatic examples of societal ills that bread violence and tear away at the fabrics of peace and development.

This brings us to the fourth layer, the nation. Nations are marked by their strength of vision and the histories of their people. Yet the poor nations that comprise the Third and Fourth Worlds have not, in the past centuries, been able to break their bondage of poverty, ignorance and disease. And it is not entirely of their own making. In fact, a large part of their misery and state of under–development stem from forces beyond their control, but originating from their former colonial masters and the super-powers obsessed with global designs of control and dominance. And so we are witnessing today the phenomenon of techno-economic denomination where First World governments predominate the international markets of trade and price of commodities, the sources of credit and loans, the applications of science and technology to the cause of war and competitive advantage, the arming and financing of terrorist societies and brigands, the traffic and marketing of drugs, cigarettes and liquor, and the waging of mini-scale wards and acts of violence pitting brothers against brothers, fellow citizens against fellow citizens, the poor against the poor.

And this is our state of affairs at the fifth layer, the international community. It is, from a practical and policy point of view, a starting point for a global movement for peace. Super-power government such as the United States of America is inching towards the realization that peace, after all, is the best policy for their own and global interests; that peace, after all, is the most positive element for an environment of development and growth. Towards these goals, all international institutions - multilateral and bilateral - must rework their policies, plans, programs and projects on the basis of movements towards and for peace, and not for competitive advantages of global-control and domination of world resources, credits and financing, news and information, armaments stocks and police forces, and, political and religious ideologies. Peace should be the byword and the end-word for development.

Peace Development Education

All human beings are endowed with the seeds of compassion. When exposed to right conditions at home, school, in society at large, and later perhaps through our pointed efforts in schools (education or training), the seed will flourish. Hostile behavior is not essentially innate, and violent behavior is caused by a variety of biological, social, situational, and environmental factors. In fact, we have seen many examples in life and history that violent behavior is not inherited, and children of criminals turn out to be good human beings, and given a good environment, became useful citizens. For example, the granddaughter of Italian dictator Mussolini became a parliamentarian in the Italian Assembly. Even the daughter of Russian dictator Stalin turned out to be a creative professional.

Peace development education is a process towards reclaiming of man's innate state of happiness. This state of mind has been defined as "Buddha nature" in Buddhism, which is defined as a state of mind untainted by negative emotions and thoughts, present in human beings. Human affection or compassion is an indispensable factor in developing the "Buddha nature." When human intelligence and human goodness or affection is used together, all human actions become constructive. This becomes the basis of a spirit of reconciliation that can be used to overcome aggression and resolve conflict. Peace development therefore is a process of strengthening social cohesion where all people, irrespective of their religion, color, sex, respect each other and the entire group moves towards togetherness.

Peace development education could be conceived as a program to develop "Buddha nature" (wholesome behavior) among the participants of the program. This should start at kindergarten and in a graded way, it should move up from kindergarten to primary education, to secondary, to college and then the university. This is the education we need - an education which means values development among children for respecting each other, respecting each other's religious beliefs and political convictions, contributing to each other's welfare and development, thus diminishing the differences between people, no matter what their social caste heading towards stronger social cohesiveness.

Peace development education should focus on the emotional development of a human being, in particular the youth, to strengthen the individual's attributes of compassion and a life for others with the goal to inculcate wholesome behavior and character on the part of the individual. The peace education curriculum should teach, in an experiential and participatory manner using a variety of examples, community-based projects, the positive and non-violent resolution of conflict. Curriculum development should reflect the values of society - but not only mirror the present but also envision a desired future. Love, respect, vision, shared values, and entrepreneurship skills - this is the basic formula for a culture of peace. This should be the focus of peace development education curriculum. A peace curriculum therefore should not be limited to the teaching about different levels of conflicts and crisis, including the levels of the personnel, interpersonal, family, community, national and international levels. It should first focus on behavioral modification on the part of the individual to equip the person with positive attitudes and authentic character. Toys, games and leisure products should move away from themes of war, violence, and conflict, and instead these mental and leisure exercises should focus on social cohesion, peace behavior, conflict resolution, and promotion of peace development. This will lead to collective consciousness, or the "awareness of awareness", which can only be achieved through strong and vigorous peace development education involving all peoples, from leaders to the masses with inquiry as a methodology.

Policy Development

The programs of peace development education cannot operate in a vacuum. There is therefore a need for each government to adopt a National Peace Policy; and parallel with this, a National Peace Policy for Youth begun and adopted at the grassroots level. Annually, there should be a Youth Peace Parliament where outstanding youths can be given prizes and recognition by communities. A National Peace Policy will put into proper perspective a concrete framework arrived at jointly by the government, the representatives of the youth population aged 15 to 25, and society's various socioeconomic sectors. The objective is to set on course a strategic policy for peace development and implementation process to identify the thrust of peace development education activities. Its foundation will be tolerance in every sphere of human activity - religious, moral, ethnic, political, socioeconomic, cultural, political/government, military, and international.

Youth and Peace Development: An Action Plan

An infrastructure for peace development must be designed and implemented in the context of the societal environment in which it is to be nurtured and operated. To put peace development education in practice an operative system of youth peace development forums beginning at the school/community level then upwards in a participatory manner to the national forum needs to be developed. Their planning, membership, policy framework, programs and activities shall be initiated, led, and implemented by the youth, supported by adults and community leaders. It will be useful to establish at the school level, the school/community youth peace council for peace development, which will discuss and address community peace-related issues and prepare students in terms of attitudinal formation. The school community/peace development councils should send their representatives to local bodies as active full members, not observers. Development and implementation of action plans based on state and national peace policy should be supported by setting up a District Youth Peace Development Fund. There should be participation of youth and appropriate policy should be developed to bring youth from youth councils to legislatures as active members. Representatives from Youth Peace Development Councils in colleges and universities, who are age 18+ and can vote, should be allowed to participate there. There should be a special department of youth and peace development at the state level responsible for supporting and monitoring activities of District Youth Peace Development Funds and State Youth Peace Development Forum. The national government, having developed the National Policy on Peace and the National Peace Development Policy for Youth, must now be the guiding light in extensive awareness building and implementation of these policies at the ground level through peace development fora at lower levels. These fora will provide appropriate skills on how to participate in conflict-resolution effectively. All fora from the school and village to the national level, should be directed to the building of an institutionalized infrastructure of information sharing, consultation, in decision making with youth possibly exercising the right to veto such decisions that run contrary to their generational interest. This concept is hardly practiced anywhere or even contemplated.

Information and Communication Technology for Peace Development

Our biggest challenge today is to maximize the power of information and communication technologies (ICT) in addressing the issues relating to rural development, poverty reduction and peace development. There is, therefore, a need to design, test, and learn from innovative electronic media-based strategies, supported by ICT on strategies and ways of increasing participation of the poor in governance, make use of market information, and increase their access to a variety of resources to address the basic issue of poverty reduction and peace development. We must bring down the ownership, use and control of selective and digital technology from the elite and government regimes to the level of communities and the poor that they serve. We must vitalize the community media with the involvement of people to strengthen peace development efforts. It is vital to bring information to the doorsteps of the poor (the beneficiaries). Today's communications media are excellent vehicles for conveying much-needed information to achieve much needed peace development. Hi-tech based Internet and digital technologies are not only becoming a lot smarter, they are growing more user-friendly and can help communities in fighting poverty by arming them with information, knowledge and technologies thus directly contributing to the development of peace culture.

It is estimated that there are about 900 million adult illiterates in the developing countries, and well over 200 million functionally illiterate in the industrial world. The illiterates are still in large numbers even after 550 years after Gothenburg invented the art of printing. If the current trend continues, illiteracy will remain a major development issue well into the 21^st century. With this in mind, the dream of a harmonized world with equal opportunities for all seems much ever further than before. And with the communications revolution repeatedly transforming many countries into knowledge-based societies, the developing countries will be left out of the process light years behind the rest of the world. The prospects for human development which is basic to poverty reduction and peace development are not very encouraging in countries suffering from illiteracy and lack of access to information and resources. The elimination of corruption and reaching out and providing basic services to the poor becomes the core of the future agenda of development which is directly related to peace development, the success of which again remains on the empowerment of the poor as well as effective participation of the poor in governance to establish good governance practices, as well as implementation of development programs addressing poverty-reduction and peace development issues. Illiteracy combined with lack of information is a barrier in path to good governance and the development of peace culture. ICT based websites can work wonders in fight against corruption and improved transparency in governance as well as spreading peace culture.

As a policy, all governments in the Asian region are investing more in infrastructures and communications; as a result, more and more rural areas being electrified. With the availability of energy in the villages, all types of information technology could be brought without much additional costs. There is no need to wait for roads and civil works; since the dissemination of messages with the developments in satellite technologies, do not depend on these basic infrastructures. Rather, the availability of satellite facilities, Wireless Application Protocol (WAP) and other mobile connections facilitates the expanded movement of information to the most rural and remote villages. At the same time, using the community approach, the costs can be shared to ensure sustainability and investments in ICT based human development at the grassroots makes it viable because the village makes its own workstations. The availability of these concepts will help identify the constraints to be overcome and the effective strategies, which can help in the efficient implementation of the concept of taking knowledge to the rural poor. With relevant technology, more than 75 per cent of the rural populations can be reached which today are not served efficiently with basic services including education, health, information, skills, etc. In this context, ICT can help to empower the rural poor through equipping them with education, giving them information on market data anytime and anywhere thus helping them to get the benefit to market changes; likewise, health information can promote awareness about the importance of maintaining health from the viewpoint of quality of life, financial well being of the family, village productivity, and micro-enterprise development.

Their participation in governance can be improved and they can involve directly in e-commerce for productions to be sold to outside customers, thereby eliminating the need for expensive middlemen. The major issues to be covered by community media may include the need to manage the environment in a sustainable manner; exploding rate of population and urbanization; food security; human needs with regard to health, education and literacy; peace and democracy; and poverty reduction. There is, therefore, a need to create a mechanism such as Institute of Information and Communication Technology for Peace Development (IICTPD), which can help in strengthening existing ICT based systems and developing ICT based strategies the development of peace culture. This can initiate globalization of peace development effort using ICT networks around the world.

In the past decade, the technological advances particularly in the field of ICT have been so rapid that it has changed the shape of all economic activities in the world, and in pushing the world towards globalization (global village). However, there is no demonstrated effort on the part of the public or private sector to bring the benefits of ICT to the poor in terms of delivery of improved basic services like education, health care, and in equipping the poor with necessary information and skills to bring them into the mainstream of society so that they can be a productive partners of globalization. The poverty encourages deviant behavior, which contributes to violence. In reality, the information gap is increasing between the haves and have nots resulting into increased power flow towards the elite, who already possess the power and weakening those who are deprived of it which can result into increased poor populations, enlarged poverty, and potential social disasters. These will further constrain optimization of development efforts by multilateral and bilateral donors towards reduction of poverty and peace development. ICT is creating a distance-less world where communication is becoming instantaneous and has placed immense power into the hands of, so far, of the haves and elite. It is impacting on all dimensions of life: education, health, quality of family, culture, leisure and arts, scientific and technological world and world peace. ICT can introduce new ways of participation by the poor man, women and young people in the global economy in a cost-effective and poor-friendly ways thus creating opportunity to address the issue of poverty reduction and peace development.

Vision and Mission of the Global University System (GUS) clearly support these proposals. GUS can play a vital role in initiating interventions on peace development through ICT applications. It can provide appropriate gateway to the existing open universities and open learning systems for developing distance education courses for the training of peace workers and moral leadership, design and development of peace development education projects (national and international). GUS may consider establishment of Internet based network of institutions and NGOs involved in peace development education and research. GUS can also provide expertise in the development of programs in the development of the personal and collective competencies, which can greatly facilitate globalization of society as well as globalization of peace culture. Establishment of smart communities around the globe for peace development could be another important activity where GUS can play an important role. GUS needs to develop ICT based network of open learning institutions in the developing countries to strengthen its activities in the area of peace development through ICT. GUS can also help open learning institutions in the developing countries in the improvement of quality of education to facilitate development of global work culture. This will support poverty reduction efforts of donors.

The 21^st century may see the greatest paradox in history: unprecedented science and technology growth in the hands of a minority urban elite; but huge oceans of impoverished poor suffering from illiteracy, ill-health, malnutrition, overpopulation growth, etc if ICT is not used effectively for poverty reduction and peace development. Access by the poor to high tech opportunities is the issue, which requires immediate attention so that it can be used to empower the poor with knowledge and equip them with productivity skills as well as involving the poor in building peace culture.

What Donors Should and Can Do

Peace is love - love that is nurtured in the womb of the mother. Her spirit embodies the fabric that matures the children, rears the family, animates the community. That is why each time an act is committed against the family it is a spear plunged into the womb of a mother. It is therefore critical that the universal goal should be the attainment of global peace by the year 2002. To do that, we must make people aware, and take action, against ideas, strategies, and programs that spawn competition, aggression, exploitation, racism, superiority. Also ensure that development aid from the multilateral and bilateral donors is not used by dictators/governments in building weapons of mass destruction. Physical violence - such as global monopolies on trade and cartels or loans credits packages of usurious rates and impositions - are much more difficult to cope with. They are insidious. They are hidden, but they breathe and spread a web of violence. That affects impoverished millions in the Third World. The awareness, the action that must be taken can best be achieved through education of people. Use of ICT can also help in building awareness. In this task, our first beneficiary must be women and the disadvantaged. Mothers and the world's impoverished are bringers of love. Let us be the same to them.

There is a direct relationship between peace and development, particularly if we factor in the huge military expenditures. If we tally these military expenditures, their worth would amount to huge peace dividends equivalent to thousands of new classrooms, new hospital wards, new housing units, as well as miles of highways and farm roads, which would have led to more rapid and larger national development. To begin with, at individual level, the multilateral financial institutions (MFIs) including multilateral development banks (MDBs) and IMF, should effectively implement the policy of linking concessional assistance with military expenditures, and there should be a covenant in all forms of assistance (both the technical assistance and loans) that any increase in military expenditure will result in reduced assistance or its cancellation. In addition, the MFIs may consider contributing at least 1% of their annual profits to the setting up of Regional Peace Development and Conflict Resolution Funds, which can be used (in supporting peace workers) to help victims of conflicts, civil war, or in bringing stability to government as well as rehabilitation of the victims. There should be multi-donor interventions at the regional level to help establish regional mechanisms (such as Asian Peace Institute) which can facilitate the efforts of national governments in the formulation of National Peace Development Policies, strengthening regional capacity in conflict resolution, enhancing skills in peace research and peace development programs such as peace development education or training of peace workers.

Donors can consider starting multi-donor activities as part of their development program to help countries initiate peace policy development to support their exchange programs and in aid of action research and studies on conflict resolutions, training programs, research programs, etc. A simple calculation can demonstrate the possible impact of coordinated Donors' assistance: if only one percent of foreign aid is devoted to peace development education, this should result, properly managed and invested, into savings of millions of dollars since no funds will be needed to finance anti-peace and pro-military activities, and in fact make obsolete the annual military exercises done by two or three countries annually which only glamorize the image of violence and the military lifestyle at the cost of peace culture and provision of basic services for the disadvantaged groups.

Conclusion

I would say that the youth are important assets of any nation, making up 800 million of Asia's population. Investment in youth for peace development will certainly improve productivity, the quality of labor force directly contributing to economic growth, addressing the issue of poverty, developing new value systems responsive to the movements of globalization and ICT. The donors' support to peace development activities should be high priority. Peace development directly contributes to poverty reduction and social cohesiveness therefore the peace development interventions should be introduced in social sector projects particularly rehabilitation, including education, health and housing - all of this will provide a strong foundation to peace development. We all have a common future and to ensure the safety of our common future, there is need for education systems around the globe to focus on developing the "Buddha nature" in students to nurture wholesome behavior rich in compassion and authentic character, which are the foundations for world peace.

Author Biographical Sketch

Motilal Sharma, Ph.D. Chairman Worldview Hindustan Foundation, India 4/665, Jawahar Nagar Jaipur - 4 (Rajasthan), India Tel/fax: (91 - 141) 2655469 E-mail: whaf1@datainfosys.net

Dr. Motilal Sharma retired from the Asian Development Bank as Principal Education Specialist in the year 2002 after completing his service as an International Civil Servant for more than 19 years. Currently he is Principal Advisor of Worldview International Foundation, Sri Lanka and Chairman of Worldview Hindustan Foundation, India. He completed his Ph.D. degree in Education (M.S. University of Baroda, India); M.Ed. and M.A. Political Science, (University of Rajasthan, India); B. Phil. in Educational Technology (University of Birmingham, UK); and a course in Non-formal Education (Michigan State University, USA). He started his career as primary school teacher and rose to the position of University Professor. He has teaching experience of about 20 years together with cumulative experience of more than 19 years in development activities of the Asian Development Bank (ADB). Prior to joining ADB in 1983, he taught postgraduate courses, and guided research at the postgraduate and doctoral level, in the field of education. He has published five books and more than 100 professional papers in reputed journals of education.

While at ADB he has been mission leader over a period of about 19 years in multi-million dollar project. As part of his duties in processing of ADB'S multi-million dollar projects he has worked in path-breaking areas such as girls/women's education, poverty reduction, beneficiary participation projects, vocational/technical and skills development, Information and Communication technology (ICT) and lately in peace development education.

He has prepared, implemented and worked as a resource person in international conferences, and have been acknowledged as an international expert in his professional field. In addition, he has done pioneering work in the areas of poverty reduction and ICT, and has been acknowledged internationally as one of the few global experts on open learning systems and distance education. The significant regional seminars he was responsible for have included (i) Regional Seminar on Distance Education, Bangkok, 1986; and (ii) Round Table Conference on Distance Education for South Asian Countries, Islamabad, 1989. The Regional Seminar on Distance Education, 1986, was a landmark event in the field of distance education as many of its resolutions were implemented by several DMCs of ADB and its two volume proceedings, were widely circulated and included in the Educational Research and Information Clearing (ERIC's) computerized system of the Department of Education, USA to make the same accessible throughout the world. He has delivered many keynote addresses and made professional presentations at international and national conferences including the conference on "Using Technologies for Education and Training: An Economic Perspective" in the World Bank. Now he is working as an International Consultant and currently involved in World Bank education projects.