Speakers emphasized researching to assess development effectiveness as well as dissemination of information about development effectiveness and the role of CSOs for better development results.
A day-long consultation on ‘Development Effectiveness’ was held on 29 March 2018 in Dhaka organized by VOICE, an advocacy and research organization, in cooperation with CPDE, a global platform of civil society. The consultation was attended by representatives of CSOs, member of civil society, community workers, dalit leaders, academicians, writers who were presided over by Ahmed Swapan Mahmud, Executive Director, VOICE. Dr Md. Rezaul Basher Siddique, Deputy Secretary of Economic Relations Division of Finance Ministry, Serajud Dahar Khan, Amin Ur Rasul spoke at the consultation among others. Mahbub Khan Badhon, Lecturer, University of Dhaka; Zeenath Sultana from BRAC, Prakash Chandra Roy from Nagorik Uddyog presented their country experiences sharing a presentation on success stories in implementing project activities.
In the welcome speech, Mr Ahmed Swapan outlined the objective of the consultation while he summarised the issue on development effectiveness and its short history. He emphasized human rights-based approach and talked about the Istanbul principles while implementing development projects. He also stressed country ownership and peoples’ centred development projects to maximize development effectiveness. Farhana Akter, the Program Coordinator of VOICE, discussed the historical background of the High-Level Forums of Aid Effectiveness and formation of the two remarkable global platform named GPEDC and CPDE while she also pointed out the role of CSOs in development effectiveness and enabling an environment for CSOs to conduct activities at national level.
Significantly, a power-point presentation titled ‘Self-funded Model for Community-led In-situ Conservation of Sea Turtles’ was presented by Mr. Mahtub Khan Badhon, Professor, the University of Dhaka where it was demonstrated how a project was successful on the conservation of sea turtle. Furthermore, Ms Zeenath Sultana from BRAC also presented the processes of project implementation of BRAC about Busan principles. Whereas, Prakash Chandra Roy from Nagorik Uddyog also shared a presentation on ‘Dalit Rights Movement: Our Efforts and Achievements’ which was also a successful rights movement of a disadvantaged and marginalised group of people.
Dr. Md. Rezaul Basher Siddique, Deputy Secretary, Economic Relations Division, Ministry of Finance also shared a power-point presentation titled ‘Making Aid Deliver Results: The Changing Dynamics and Local Responses’. In his presentation, Dr. Rezaul Basher Siddique highlighted changing the landscape of aid effectiveness and various initiatives taken by Bangladesh in this regard while he emphasized the role of local stakeholders in making development cooperation useful.
Aminur Rasul told that civil society organisations need to conduct various research activities to assess whether the Busan principles are practised in the projects. He also pointed out to utilize success experience of another country in this regard.
Mr. Ahmed Swapan Mahmud concluded with vote of thanks to all participants for their presence and valuable contributions in the event.