“Data is an input. Technology is a tool. They are not ends in themselves. They are meant to make human development systems work better… Our objective should be to create the new systems where tech policy and innovations come together.” 

— Dr. Sania Nishtar, Federal Minister, Poverty Alleviation and Social Safety Ministry, Pakistan

“Countries in South Asia can work towards common frameworks for data and technology governance. This will facilitate cross-border investments in sectors like education and health. Converging technologies can also open the scope for new avenues in regional cooperation that can, for example, use open-source platforms and e-commerce, build an ecosystem of entrepreneurs and innovation…” 

— Mamta Murthi, Vice President, Human Development, World Bank

"Regional cooperation for human development has been limited in South Asia but technology opens the door to many possibilities. I see opportunities for more knowledge exchanges and data sharing, especially in science and academia, and a strengthened regional voice on digital justice and data governance." 

— Cecile Fruman, Director, Regional Integration and Engagement, South Asia Region, World Bank

"The least we can do is to actually share knowledge and build a kind of academic community. I think that this should also be partly to do with how the community can co-construct technology… What is the meaning of a technological revolution if it's not being led by the people?" 

— Anita Gurumurthy, Executive Director, IT for Change, India

“South Asian countries need to work together. There is a need for bilateral cooperation on research, design and development, on reducing health care costs, providing data-driven health care services, and on disease surveillance. COVID-19 has shown us how quickly a disease can be transmitted and can transform into a big pandemic.” 

— Dr. Khondaker A. Mamun, Founder and CEO, CMED Health, Bangladesh

“Among other things like platform and content, one of the key areas where collaboration can help is sharing success stories and good cases where successful models have been implemented in different parts, and how can we learn, adapt and contextualize them in the local context.” 

— Rabi Karmacharya, Executive Director, OLE Nepal