VOICE News/Newsletters

VOICE published 5 briefing reports (4 in English and 1 in Bengali) on the topic of the ADB in Bangladesh especially for the National Consultation.

1. The ADB in Bangladesh: ‘Country Strategy and Programme’: A Corporate Bias
by Tanim Ahmed

Journalist Tanim Ahmed dissects the 4-year development plan proposed by the ADB, exposing the Bank’s clear corporate bias behind its claims of poverty reduction. Through trenchant analysis of their Bangladesh policy, Ahmed summarizes frankly their intentions in the poverty, governance, private sector, agriculture and natural resources, transport, energy and health sectors.

2. Water for Sale? Dhaka Water Supply and Sewerage Authority: A project financed by ADB for Privatization
by Tanim Ahmed

In this paper Tanim Ahmed delivers a detailed assessment of the ADB’s proposed privatisation of the water distribution system, starting with a well-constructed history of recent events in water rights. Ahmed breaks down the agenda behind their proposal, including conditionalities and their recommendations to DWASA.

Madrid, Spain, 3 May 2008 - Ahmed Swapan Mahmud
The Annual General Meeting of the Asian Development Bank's is currently being held from 3rd to 6th May 2008 in Madrid, Spain. The Bank has failed to meet its poverty reduction targets for more than four decades, leaving millions of poor in developing countries.
The Bank is emphasizing private sector development, to which it is allocating 50 per cent of its budget without considering the social protection and human security of the poor. Economic growth, environmentally sustainable growth and regional integration are now the priority areas, while the lending agency continues to ignore public service support.

ADB’s strategy for 2020 puts the private sector in control over a country, leaving public services open for the multinational corporations. Also, the Bank has put pressure on the government to cut down spending on public services, and has been advocating for blanket privatization and commercialization while the poor suffer the worst due to reduced state responsibility. Whom does the ADB serve? The corporate bias of ADB ensures private sector making profit over life, while millions of poor suffer from malnutrition and lack of proper access to land, water, and common resources.

A meeting was organized by VOICE and Borendra Unnayan Procesta (BUP), a local NGO on `Peoples Right to Information: IFI’s accountability’ on 17 March 2008 at the Rajshahi Gender Development Resource Centre (GDRC). The meeting was attended by NGO activists, journalists and different professional groups. Fayezullah Chowdhury, Executive Director of BUP, acted as a moderator and Ahmed Swapan Mahmud, executive Director of VOICE, presented as a key speaker at the meeting.

Ahmed Swapan Mahmud asserted that people have a rightst to access information and our present government has agreed about this issue in order to disseminate information. Financial institutions like the International Monetary Fund (IMF), World Bank (WB) and World Trade Organization (WTO) are not accountable to disseminate all information to the people. People have not even have the right to file a case against them. People in Rajshahi are not informed about the strategies of the projects implemented in their locality. People have no participation in the design of projects, which are made by consultants.

The Paris Declaration on Aid Effectiveness was endorsed on March 2nd, 2005, by more than one hundred signatories such as ministers, heads of agencies and senior officials, including all major donor and recipient governments. It presents a road-map intending to improve the efficiency of international aid. Along with giving the developing countries more power in the formulation and implementation of their policies, the Paris Declaration is based on 5 major principles: ownership, alignment, harmonisation, managing for results, and mutual accountability, that should, if applied, help achieve development outcomes that are more aligned with the developing countries' realities and needs.

For the first time, the Paris Declaration on Aid Effectiveness has been translated by VOICE into Bangla, so can now be easily spread amongst the Bangladeshi community.

Click below to access the full Paris Declaration, Bangla version.

64 International civil society organizations including VOICE stated to ADB Board of Directors in a joint statement to discontinue it's involvement with the Phulbari Coal Project, Bangladesh. The project has already raised serious concerns among the people about displacement, human rights violations, environmental degradation, as well as the violation of several ADB policies. The project is scheduled for approval by the ADB board on 3rd June 2008.

To read the full letter and the details and reasons behind the opposition to this project, download it below in PDF or Word format.

VOICE recently published three new English-language reports on the topic of international aid and its
consequences on the Bangladesh economy.

Read More...
Revealing PSI: People’s resistance against policy conditionalities of the IMF
Global Capital vs. Local Economy: Conditionalities of the IMF and Fiscal Reform
Breaking the Cycle of Neo-Liberal Economy: How the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund
Stand Against the People

A TOT (training for trainers) on Economic Literacy and Budget Analysis for Governance (ELBAG) was held in Dhaka, from February 24 to 28 2008. The TOT, organized by ActionAid Bangladesh, brought together many different NGO actors of Bangladesh, including VOICE. The main objective of the TOT was to start an ELBAG process in Bangladesh to promote greater social mobilization, and the bringing together of various groups to focus on areas such as economic literacy, budget analysis, public distribution and the functioning of local services. The TOT learning process focused on a participatory method, with group discussions on the local economy, the household political economy, aid regime and its implications on the structure of budget, budget analysis, etc, and various activities like a budget exercise. The main facilitators of the TOT were Ravi Duggal, consultant from India, Thao Hoang, Regional Coordinator for Governance, ActionAid Asia, and Asgar Ali Sabri, Sector Head for Social Development and Economic Justice, ActionAid Bangladesh.

VOICE already published, in June 2007, a Manual on Economic Literacy, to support the ELBAG process by making the economic literacy notions understood at the grassroots level.

VOICE, as a research organization, compiles and publishes several documents every year. These range from small pamphlets and info-briefs to detailed book-length documents, research and seminar papers, and annual reports. In addition, VOICE puts out two regular newsletters:

Counter-Hegemony, a bimonthly English-language newsletter with the latest updates on VOICE activities;

Golaghor ("seed house"), a quarterly newsletter on food and seed sovereignty issues in Bangla.

Download our complete catalogue here.

AMAR EKUSHEY BOOK FAIR (BOI MELA 2008)

VOICE regularly publishes a newsletter, "Counter-Hegemony," on the subjects of IFIs, globalization, social movements, trade, and social and economic justice issues. Its objective is to disseminate information in order to build awareness and solidarity for ensuring rights and economic justice, and aims to raise a voice for constructing a new world, challenging the so called mainstream development discourse and neoliberal economic order. This newsletter challenges and counters hegemonic approaches and promotes people's power and authority on the decision making process and on their own resources.
 
To subscribe, write to exchange.voice@gmail.com or use our contact form to let us know you're interested.
 
We invite you to send news, comments, and suggestions that could enrich our newsletter at the following address: exchange.voice@gmail.com

Conference on "The Changing Face of Global Development Finance"
Ahmed Swapan writes from Ottawa, Canada, February 2, 2008

A conference on "The Changing Face of Global Development Finance - Impacts and Implications for aid, development, the South and the Bretton Woods Institutions" has been held in Ottawa on February 1 and 2, 2008. The conference was co-organized by the Halifax Initiative and co-hosted by the Canadian Council for International Cooperation, The North-South Institute, and The Reality of Aid Network. Civil society organizations from the North and the South attended the two day conference that dealt with a number of sessions concerning the Bretton Woods Institutions.

The conference provided an overview of the current international financial system and its institutions, identified the shifts that are currently taking place, looked into the potential challenges, and examined the alternatives to the World Bank and International Monetary Fund.