Archive - Feb 2010

Dear all,

Greetings! VOICE and Bank Information Centre (BIC). This is to invite you/your representative to a training workshop. Please find information below and also details in attached files.

Subject : Unpacking the World Bank Group operations in Bangladesh in the Context of Climate Change and Development

When: 2-4 March 2010

Where: The Catholic Bishops Conference of Bangladesh (CBCB), 24/C, Asad Avenue, Mohammadpur, Dhaka- 1207

Who to contact: Farjana Akter, Programme Coordinator, VOICE, <farjanakter@gmail.com>

RSVP: 8158688, 01712-990078

As the number of participants are limited for better outcome, please confirm your participation soonest as possible.  We are only accepting participation through confirmation.

Looking forward to hear from you.

Best regards,

Ahmed Swapan

Some 21 civil society organizations staged a protest rally on Tuesday to denounce the role of the development partners and their allied ‘elite class’ and bureaucrats in development process, saying they were responsible for misusing foreign aid.

They [the development partners in Bangladesh, the ‘elite class’ and the bureaucrats] have made the country increasingly indebted since liberation, the protesters from rights based organizations told the rally.

Bangladesh government on Monday began a two-day dialogue in Dhaka with multilateral lenders and donor countries seeking approval of the poverty reduction strategy, a lender-driven development document.

Parallel to the ongoing BDF meeting, the rights organizations — Arpan, AMKS, Eso, Bangladesh Krishak Federation, CSRL, EquityBD, Kishani Sohva, Lead Trust, On line knowledge centre, Protikrit, Karmajibi Nari, La via campesina, MFTD, Prantik, Purbasha, RCSV, Swadhin Bangla Garments Sramik Federation, Solidarity Workshop, Sirajganj Flood Forum, Uddipan, Voice, and World Development Movement, UK—organised the rally in front of National Press Club in the city.

The organizers demanded sovereign, democratic and responsible financing to ensure that the benefits of aid and loans reach the poor through a transparent and accountable manner.

Speakers at a press conference yesterday said loans and grants of the World Bank (WB), Asian Development Bank (ADB) and other international financial institutions are destructive for Bangladesh as the donor agencies take away more kickbacks than what they have provided as aid or loans.

Only 25 percent of the foreign aid and loans provided to the country go to the target group while the rest of them are attained for the auxiliary and support services, they added.

The speakers said this at the press conference organised by VOICE, a rights-based research group, and Aid Accountability Group, a civil society alliance, at the National Press Club in the city.

They called on the government to reject destructive aid and formulate an independent economic policy instead of PRSP and to make all loan agreements public ensuring transparency and accountability.

http://www.thedailystar.net/newDesign/news-details.php?nid=126405

VOICE, a rights research organisation, on Sunday called upon the government to reject ‘destructive foreign aid’ that has crippled national policymaking by robbing it of ‘sovereignty and independence’.
The rights leaders, at a press conference ahead of the meeting of the Bangladesh Development Forum, insisted that the government should announce when it will stop receiving conditional external assistance and begin to prepare the national budget with domestic resources only.
They added that only 25 per cent of foreign aid and loans reached the target group while the rest went to auxiliary and support services including the fees of foreign consultants.
‘The people of Bangladesh are becoming more and more indebted due to the loans given by the World Bank and International Monetary Fund and thus have become more vulnerable to foreign manipulation,’ Ahmed Swapan Mahmud, executive director of VOICE, told reporters at the National Press Club.
He pointed out that the lender-driven Poverty Reduction Strategy had failed to reduce poverty — rather the percentage of the poor has increased in recent years.

Conditions for development loans must be made public

BDF won’t accommodate people’s voices or representatives: VOICE

Rights group VOICE, complaining that people’s voices will not be heard nor their representatives accommodated in the upcoming dialogue between the government and global lenders, has demanded that that conditions imposed for, and the expenditure pattern of, foreign aid-funded development projects must be made public.

Referring to the meeting of the Bangladesh Development Forum scheduled to be held in Dhaka on February 15-16, VOICE has called for a debate on the relevance of external loans, which should involve politicians, professional groups, businesspeople, civil society dignitaries, and representatives of local government and community organisations.

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina is expected to inaugurate the BDF meeting which will be attended by representatives of the Local Consultative Group, a forum of lending agencies and donor countries, and those of the newly emerging economic superpowers.
‘People from all strata of life do not have any access to the Forum although it demands greater participation of stakeholders,’ Ahmed Swapan Mahmud, executive director of VOICE, noted in a position paper titled ‘Destructive Aid and Bangladesh Development forum 2010’.

Subject : PRESS CONFERENCE

Title :Reclaim People's Power for National Development, Reject Destructive Foreign Aid

Date : 14 February 2010
Time : 10.30 morning
Venue : VIP Lounge, National Press Club, Dhaka

Speakers :

Organized by:

Aid Acountability Group
VOICE

VOICE has been participating in the 2010 Amar Ekushey Book Fair held in Bangla Academy, Dhaka that ended on February 28th after month long book fair. In the book fair VOICE participated with a number of 50 items of its publications  including books, reports, newsletters, posters and other publications. It also keeps books and reports from national and international organizations whom VOICE has been closely working with. The participation of VOICE in the Book Fair helped disseminating information valued by VOICE, more specifically around the issues of globalization, trade, aid effectiveness, ICTs and information rights, climate change, IFIs, food and agriculture and of politics. Participating in the book fair, VOICE takes the opportunity for  building wider constituency and raising critical awareness among the stakeholders including teachers, students, politicians, researchers, citizen actors, NGOs, activists, researchers etc, around the issues.