Seminars
An all pervasive perception about low quality of outcomes of governmental as well as private sector initiatives has led to outright despair and loss of faith in the capacity of State and Society to cope with the development challenges in Pakistan. When it comes to recent intellectual and policy responses to deteriorating socio-economic indicators, it appears we have not been comprehensively attending to the critical issues in theory/diagnostic and practice/design of development strategies. It seems that our best minds are either unavailable or uninterested in applying themselves to the critical issues of theory and practice in different socio-economic spheres.
I-SAPS Seminars provide a platform to the best minds to apply themselves to the pressing social and public policy problems being faced by Pakistan. The Seminars have been instituted to address the issues of Theory/Diagnostic and Practice/Design concurrently on critical policy issues. By an innovative design of these Seminars, we hope to stimulate fresh ideas leading to intellectual clarity and effective solutions.
The Seminars provide an avenue to the leading academicians and policy practitioners to share their thoughts and enter into a productive academic discourse with diverse audience comprising young as well as established scholars, university students, development and media practitioners. These interactions would enrich the participants to contribute to a development praxis, which would gradually help enhance the quality of outcomes of development initiatives in Pakistan.
I-SAPS Seminars, addressed usually by one speaker and one discussant, are innovative in their design, in many ways. A series of Pre and Post Seminar activities is organized for each Seminar. Before each seminar, an abstract on the topic of the seminar along with moot points is shared with all potential participants. As post seminar activities, the audio presentation and report of the seminars is placed on I-SAPS website. In order to follow up on any further questions or queries, the speakers remain available to respond during the following two weeks through Seminar Blog.
The Seminars are fairly open in the selection of the topics, which may range from pressing issues, of public policy relevance, to those of academic import. I-SAPS Seminars are held fortnightly, on the first and third Thursday of every month. The venue of the Seminar is I-SAPS’ premises at House 13, Street 1, G-6/3, Islamabad.
