Essential Services

[Voice, Mymensingh, 18 September 2008]

A dialogue on water sector transparency and accountability has been held in Mymensingh Pourashava auditorium organized by Voice, a Dhaka based research and advocacy organization. Mayor of Mymensingh pourashava, Advocate Mahmud Al-Noor Tarek presided over the occasion while Additional District Commissioner of Mymensingh Mohammad Mohsin attended as a special guest. Representatives from local government and engineering department, NGOs, CSOs, professional bodies, business communities, journalists, members and councilors of municipality attended the function. The dialogue was moderated by Ahmed Swapan Mahmud, executive director of Voice.

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 - By IFI Water Watch
Civil society organizations from Asia urge their leaders attending the 41st Governors’ Meeting to reject the pro-privatization and anti-poor Strategy 2020- the new long-term strategic framework of the Asian Development
Bank- which is part of the agenda of the meetings in Madrid, Spain, from May 3-6. Contrary to its corporate vision of ‘An Asia and Pacific Free of Poverty’, the Strategy 2020, which replaces the long-term strategic framework 2000-2015, will actually lead to increased poverty, debt, hunger and environmental plunder in the region.
The strategy aims to create a business-friendly environment and increase public-private partnerships to at least 30% of total activities by 2020. The strategy also aims to scale up private sector development and private sector operations to 50% by 2020 in core areas such as environment, finance sector development, regional cooperation and integration, education, and infrastructure (including water, sanitation and waste management).

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 Seminar was held yesterday afternoon (April 2nd, 2008) by VOICE at the International University of Business Agriculture and Technology (IUBAT) conference room in Uttara on the topic of “Gender Empowerment through Reflect Circles in Rural Bangladesh.”

Ahmed Swapan Mahmud, executive director of VOICE, and Parker Mah, VOICE ICT (Information and Communications Technologies) Intern, presented the seminar, which led off with an introductory speech by the Vice-Chancellor and Founder of IUBAT, Prof. M. Alimullah Miyan. The seminar culminated in the first-ever public screening of a new documentary production by VOICE, ‘Reflect Circles: Realities of Change,’ on the subject of their Reflect Circles.

VOICE operates 10 REFLECT circles in 10 separate village locations, all located in the Myemensingh area. REFLECT stands for REGENERATIVE FREIRIAN LITERACY through EMPOWERING COMMUNITY TECHNIQUES, an education method developed by Ahmed Swapan Mahmud and VOICE.

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 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.
 
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