A strong civil society can act as a voice of change

The ultimate goal of the 8th five year plan is leaving no one behind.  As Bangladesh is approaching graduation from LDC to developing country by 2024, it is essential promoting prosperity fostering inclusiveness. 

Minister of Planning Muhammad Abdul Mannan said this in a Learning and Closing Event in hotel Le Méridien Dhaka organised by ICCO Cooperation on Tuesday. 

Effective civil society can act as a watchdog to ensure transparency, accountability and efficiency of the development intervention which will also support to address leave no one behind, speakers remarked.

Among others, Dr Qazi Kholiquzzaman Ahmad, Chairman of RtF BD & Palli Karma-Sahayak Foundation (PKSF), Koen Everaert, Team Leader – Food & Nutrition Security and Sustainable Development, Delegation of the European Union to Bangladesh, Towfiqul Islam Khan, Senior Research Fellow, Centre for Policy Dialogue (CPD) and Osman Haruni, Senior Food Security Advisor, Embassy of the Kingdom of the Netherlands were presented as special guest while Abul Kalam Azad, Head of Programs, ICCO Cooperation chaired the session. 

The Netherlands Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) and the ICCO Consortium are involved in a strategic and global partnership – Civic Engagement Alliance (CEA) which was implemented from 2016 – 2020 in association with Nijera Kori, Civil Society Alliance for Scaling up Nutrition (CSA- SUN), and Right to Food Network, Helvetas Swiss Intercooperation,  The Leprosy Mission International Bangladesh (TLMIB). 

This partnership is all about countering the worldwide tendency of limited and decreasing political space for CSOs, a press release from Civil Engagement Alliance reads.

Since the adaptation of SGDs, the government has been escalating the efforts, reviewing the progress and engaging stakeholders to accelerate the action. 

Civic Engagement Alliance is working to give voice to the voices of society and supporting to ensure access in land, right to adequate and nutrition and access to finance in partnership of the Civil Society Organizations (CSOs) and the civil society at large. 

In the workshop, speakers stated that to build a society of fair economic, social and political development, we need to work for reducing inequality and injustice.

The speakers also urged to consider pathway-specific recommendations that will be supportive for effective implementation of the 8th five-year plan.