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Staff Correspondent

Speakers at a roundtable called for enacting a rights law to protect the citizens’ privacy. They said that neither the government nor private companies had the right to infringe on individuals’ privacy on the pretext of security or economic reasons.
   They said that these days the government as well as private companies demand too many information of citizens for providing passports, cell phone connections, voter ID. They also opposed phone tapping.
   They said that the citizens in Bangladesh were often deprived of using new technologies, like facebook.
   In recent years, they said, mobile phone tapping and internet surveillance deprived the citizens’ privacy.
   They said that service providers often infringe into citizens’ privacy by demanding their voter ID cards, which contain too many of their details.
   They said that Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission was not at all an independent body as it is controlled by telecommunications ministry on the pretext of national security.

Staff Correspondent

Speakers at a roundtable discussion yesterday called upon the government to enact a privacy act to protect privacy, personal information, correspondence and means of communication of people.

They pointed out that individual privacy is a constitutional right of every citizen and yet it is being violated at every step of everyone's life and no one can take legal actions against such violation.

The discussion titled "Privacy rights and citizen's concerns" was organised by VOICE in association with Privacy International at the Cirdap auditorium in the city.

"Article 43 of the constitution says every citizen shall have the right to privacy of his correspondence and other means of communication," said Ahmed Swapan Mahmud, executive director of VOICE, a rights-based organisation.

Staff Correspondent

Rights and development activists asked the civil society organisations on Wednesday to engage with the donors and the government for effective utilisation of foreign assistance in development activities.

 Speaking at a consultation meeting they said that no development effort, without the involvement of the common people, could provide the desired results.  They called for involving the people with development efforts, from planning to implementation.
 Two forums, Aid Accountability Group and The Reality of Aid, jointly hosted the national consultation session on ‘engagement of civil society organisations in aid effectiveness’ at the National Press Club.
 Palli Karma Shahayak Foundation chairman Qazi Kholikuzzaman Ahmad said it was time to adopt a plan to make Bangladesh, a self-reliant and welfare state, an election pledge of the Awami League-led alliance government.
 He said that the civil society had a huge responsibility to mobilise and involve the people with the process of development.  Kholikuzzaman said that Bangladesh needed a plan to exit from the aid burden.

PRESS RELEASE
 

[Dhaka, 25 August 2010] A national consultation titled `Engagement of Civil Society in Aid Effectiveness’ has been held at the national press club in the city today. The consultation was attended by a wide range of civil society groups including NGOs, community organizations, women rights groups, research and advocacy organizations, trade union groups, academicians, human rights organizations, media and activists. Eminent economist Dr. Kholiquzzaman Ahmad, Chairman of Palli Kormo Sahayak Foundation, Dr. Piash Karim from Brac University, Mohsin Ali, coordinator of Governance Advocacy Forum spoke in the meeting among others. Ahmed Swapan Mahmud, Executive Director of VOICE and Convenor of the Aid Accountability Group (AAG) moderated the consultation.

The meeting suggested to reform the aid delivery management and architecture to create enabling environment for the civil society organizations to make aid more effective. Speakers also said that a tri-party coordination among government-NGO and development agencies is also indispensable to achieve the goals and objectives of the Paris Declaration and Accra Action Agenda, and this should be the integral part of aid and development cooperation.

Independent CSO Watch Group Should be Formed to Ensure Aid Effectiveness:
Capacity and Efficiency of CSOs should be developed

Mymensingh, Bangladesh, 21 August 2010

A day-long consultation on “Civil Society Engagement on Aid Effectiveness” was held at the District Council Auditorium in Mymensingh on 21st August 2010. Jointly organized by Aid Accountability Group (AAG) and The Reality of Aid Network, 70 participants along with the local government representatives, political leaders, social workers, women organizations, NGOs, human rights organizations, journalists and activists of greater Mymensingh region participated in the program. Upazilla Chairman of Mymensingh Sadar Mr. Faijur Raman Fakir was present as chief guest while Yazdani Quraeshi, President of Supro (Campaign for Good Governance-CGG) Mymensingh district presided over the meeting.

VOICE's Executive Director Ahmed Swapan Mahmud was profiled recently on the CIVICUS World Assembly blog on the CitizenShift website. The assembly will take place in Montreal this year, and will focus on three main themes: Aid Effectiveness. Economic Justice and Environmental Justice. A portion of the original blog post is re-posted here.

Dhaka, 08 August 2010

A 2-day long Capacity Building Workshop titled “Development Results: Engaging CSOs In Aid Effectiveness” held at the CBCB Auditorium in Dhaka on 7-8 August 2010. The workshop was jointly organized by Aid Accountability Group (AAG) and The Reality of Aid Network. A number of fifty participants from different civil society organizations and activists of different part of the country took part in the program.

Among others, Ahmed Swapan, Convenor of AAG, Abdul Awal of Noakhali Rural Development Society (NRDS), Mohosin Ali of Wave Foundation, Arup Rahee of Lokoj Institute, Rashed Titumir of Unnayan Onneshan, Ratan Sarker of INCIDIN-Bangladesh, Dipu Shamsul Islam of Speed Trust, Mousumi Biswas of SUPRO, Nayela Akter of BNPS, Md. Atiqul Islam Chowdhury of Equitybd, Sajjad Ansari of ISOL, Rejaul Karim Chowdhury of COAST Trust, Subal Sarker of Bangladesh Bhumiheen Somity, Mohiuddin Md. Akber of KORMI (Pabna), Dahar Khan of Interaction, Madhab C Dutta of SODESH were present.

The Aid Accountability Group, Bangladesh announces a month-long program for the broad implementation of the Accra Action Agenda, seeking to achieve greater and more meaningful involvement of CSOs in bringing change in aid effectiveness policy and practice. The strategy towards this is the capacity development of CSOs in order for them to initiate and sustain policy dialogue spaces that allow for broader and inclusive participation of various kinds of CSOs at the country and local levels and contribute to changes in policy and practice for aid and development effectiveness.

Voice has just released its plan, to be implemented from next month to the end of 2010 and beyond, regarding a national strategy for Aid Effectiveness Advocacy.

Voice invites members of the community and concerned parties to download the plan here and encourages comments and collaborations.

Community meeting on ADB's Public Communication Policy will be held in Jamalpur on 8 July 2010. Local communities affected by the ADB's project, NGOs and CSOs will be attending the meeting. The meeting will broadly discuss on the ADB's PCP and on how the policy was put in place during implementation of ADB's projects in the area. VOICE has already translated the relevant materials on PCP which will also be shared in the community consultation.