Against IFIs

Foreign Minister Dipu Moni on Saturday called for rationalisation of distribution of aid that many donors allocate based on political, economic and strategic interests.

She made the call while she was addressing as co-chair an interactive policy dialogue on quality and quantity of ODA for LDCs and their debt problem in Lisbon, says a press release.

She also called for improving quality of Official Development Assistance (ODA), and rectification of the huge imbalances in terms of ODA per capita among the least developed countries (LDCs).

Dipu Moni highlighted the concern of gradual decrease in grant in the ODA mix and underscored the need for minimising transaction cost of ODA and making ODA disbursement and delivery flexible and predictable.

On external debt situation, she underlined that diversion of money from poverty alleviation initiatives and programmes to service debts has its own economic and social implications.

She stressed the need for full and comprehensive debt relief measures for highly indebted countries and for a case-by-case debt relief for countries like Bangladesh.

The Aid Accountability Group, with assistance from the Reality of Aid Network, organized a multistakeholder consultation on the Joint Cooperation Strategy (JCS) in the context of aid and development effectiveness, 20 September 2010 in Dhaka, Bangladesh.

The JCS, signed by the Government of Bangladesh and 18 Development Partners (including ADB and WB apart from donor countries) on June 2010, is a strategy for signatories to work together in the spirit of PD and AAA, aiming to translate international commitments on aid into real actions for improved aid delivery and poverty reduction in Bangladesh.

Different positions were put forth during the consultation. According to Dr Qazi Khalikauzzaman (Chairman of Pally Karmasahayak Foundation), aid stands at less than 2 percent of the national budget but the conditionalities attached are unbearable and lead to worsening poverty.  This was supported by economist and Professor Anu Muhammad, who stated that a net foreign aid at 1b USD, 90% is spent on logistics, travel and consultancy fees. Instead, the country should concentrate on domestic resource mobilization and remittances.

The JCS itself declared that it was made ‘in order to implement our commitment made in Paris and Accra’ where the major part of these forums of including CSOs in the process was overlooked. Moreover, the JCS described a monitoring flow chart keeping Aid Effectiveness Working Group in the middle of Policy Making and Implementation. However not a single Working Group includes a single representative of CSOs in the process," said the speakers at the multi-stakeholders consultation on Aid Effectiveness on the Context of Joint Cooperation Strategy held in CIRDAP auditorium at Dhaka today, jointly organized by Aid Accountability Group (AAG) and The Reality of Aid Network.

Chairman of Pally Karmasahayak Foundation (PKSF) Dr. Quazi Khalikuzzama presided over the meeting. Former Finance Advisor Mirza Azizul Islam, eminent economist Professor Anu Muhammad, Joint Secretary of Economics Relations Division (ERD) Bijon Kumar Baishya, Former Secretary of Finance and Team Leader of Paris Declaration Evaluation-phase-2 Siddiqur Rahman Chowdhury, Representative of Reality of Aid Ava Danlog, Deputy Country Director of DFID Diana Dalton, European Union Attache of Aid Effectiveness Julia Jacoby, Women Leader Khusi Kabir and Ahmed Swapan Mahmud, Convenor of AAG were present among others.

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.

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.

An opinion sharing meeting held at press club in the capital on Sunday organized by different network of rights group criticized government policy that have created space of investment for the private sector, foreign companies in power sector. They mentioned that in view of other Asian country experiences it may create more public debts and increase disparity in society. The meeting was jointly organized by Action Aid, EquityBD, Jubilee South, SUPRO, MFTD, Unnayan Onneshan and VOICE.

Lidy Nacpil of Jubilee South narrated her experience from Philippines, and Sayed Aminul Haque of EquityBD gave analysis on Bangladesh situation in this regard. The meeting was moderated by Rashed Al Titumir of Unnayan Onneshan, while Md. Shamsuddoha of EquityBD, Faruque Ahmed from MFTD and Farjana Akther of VOICE spoke on the occasion.

PRESS RELEASE

[Dhaka, May 3, 2010] VOICE, rights-based research and advocacy organization based in Dhaka called for solidarity to observe the Asian Day of Action against Privatization of Essential Services. The Asia Pacific Movement on Debt and Development (APMDD) and the Campaign Network on the Right to Essential Services and Natural Resources (RTRS) declared May 4 as the Asian Day of Action Against Privatization of Essential Services while VOICE being its members called for strengthening civil society voices against blanket privatization of essential services including heath and education. The day of action coincides with the 43rd Annual Governors Meeting of the Asian Development Bank (ADB) in Taskent, Uzbekistan. The observation of the day aims at standing against the ADB’s role in privatizing water, power, and other essential services in the region.

Ahmed Swapan Mahmud, executive director of VOICE urges all sects of society to resist and oppose the imposition and financing of privatization of water and power and other essential services. He said that due to privatization process in Bangladesh, people have already been affected and the poor became the worst sufferers. He further added to stop financing private sector monopolization of
water, power, health and education sectors in Bangladesh.