Search

South Asia, a sub‐region with nearly a third of the world's population living in extreme poverty and hunger, has been affected by the COVID‐19 pandemic in an unprecedented way. The pandemic has undermined the progress achieved by the subregion towards attaining sustainable development goals. This study argues that fostering environmental sustainability in the South Asian region is crucial to "Building Back Better" while taking cognisance of future climate‐related risks. With the low level of preparedness, the collapse of global supply chains, and restrictive regional integration, the individual country in the region lacks the fiscal and technical capacity to implement sustainable development goals effectively. Therefore, based on the analytical approach to regional integration, this paper explores the potential role of regional integration in ensuring environmental sustainability in South Asia. Additionally, this study illustrates how the COVID‐19 pandemic has affected several environmental aspects at the regional level, such as clean energy, disaster risk reduction, and waste management, and shows how regional cooperation can address these challenges post pandemic. While previous studies mainly focus on regional integration in the European Union, this study targets the crucial importance of regional cooperation in South Asia in achieving environmental sustainability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Covid‐19 epidemic is a public health emergency of international concern. It poses a massive risk for the human race across the planet, calling for the need to take measures at the local, regional, national, and global levels. South Asian countries stand more vulnerable to the pandemic due to their dense population, poor infrastructure, and low surveillance system. This paper aims to understand the challenges from the Covid‐19 pandemic for South Asia; and investigates the strategic and operational responses to this pandemic by policymakers and healthcare professionals, respectively, in South Asia. The study uses interviews and opinions of policymakers and doctors, from the South Asian region, involved in tackling the Covid‐19 crisis. The qualitative analysis is performed on these interviews and opinions by using NVivo 12 software. The findings indicate that policymakers and healthcare providers across South Asia have been showing efficient teamwork while dealing with this pandemic. The healthcare administrators being at the operational level, convey the challenges they face to the policymakers who then respond to them at a strategic level. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]