Workshops

Workshop on “Governance Priorities to Sustain Growth in Bangladesh

organized by Unnayan Onneshan (8th December 2009)

 

 

A day-long workshop on “Governance Priorities to Sustain Growth in Bangladesh” (organized by Unnayan Onneshan) was held on Tuesday, 08 December, 2009 at the BRAC Centre Inn. Professor Mushtaq H. Khan (professor of Economics at the University of London and currently appointed a member of the Council of Experts on Public Administration (CEPA) of the United Nations.) was the Speaker whereas Mr. Rashed Al Mahmud Titumir was the moderator of the event.

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Midlevel government officials from different Ministries, along with governance specialists from international Organizations attended the workshop.

 

Mr. Titumir opened the workshop on the note of presenting alternative thinking towards sustainable growth in the context of instability. Mr. Khan made a presentation discussing the present governance policies followed in other countries as well as Bangladesh. He had rationalized that Bangladesh’s garment industry’s presence today is due to the accidental opportunity presented by the MFA quota system introduced in the late 70s. He had also added that clear property rights and rule of law should be prioritized to create good investment climate, as observed in India and China.   He argued that corruption was not only limited to developing countries like Bangladesh but remained a global issue. He had reasoned that corruption eradication was not possible in a short time span and that economic growth needed to be achieved amidst this corruption. Mr. Khan discussed different types of corruption rampant in Bangladesh and other countries and had suggested that rather than focusing on complete corruption eradication it was more effective to focus on certain segments of governance and reduce corruption tolerance in those sectors to ensure economic growth.

 

 The workshop was held in an interactive way where the participant exchanged their opinions. It was agreed that lower corruption tolerance should be gradually institutionalized in targeted government ministries. The Officials had voiced their appreciation for the workshop and had added that this form of dialogue should be continued and particularly targeted towards high level government officials and members of parliament who are generally responsible for enacting laws.

 

Climate Change and flow of environmental displacement

Interfaith Consultation on Climate Change

1-2 October, 2009, Bangkok, Thailand 

The purpose of this event is to discuss environmental protection and climate change and explore how respond to these challenges. This opportunity is to see how other communities are engaged and possibilities for multi-stakeholder cooperation. This consultation ia a follow up of the Uppsala Interfaith Climate Summit held in Sweden at the end of 2008 and a previous Asian resource Foundation (ARF) Responses to Climate Change workshop held in October same year. The current consultation aims to plan a more sustained and structured dialogue with other national and international initiatives towards greater cooperation for advocacy. Tahera Akter from Unnayan Onneshan took part in this consultation and presented her research paper on “Climate Change and Flow of Environmental Displacement in Bangladesh”. It is suggested through this paper to increase the coordination among the organizations to estimate the number of environmental displacement on different natural calamities so that proper policy guidelines can be adopted to protect the rights of displaced people and to include environmental displacement as one of the key negotiating topics in Copenhagen climate change talks (December, 2009).

 

JSAPMDD activities during the Bangkok Intercessional

September 27-October 6, 2009, Bangkok, Thailand 

The purpose of JSAPMDD events during UNFCCC climate change talks in Bangkok, 2009 is to substantiate Asian people’s solidarity on climate justice. A series of activities organized/co-organized by JSAPMDD is comprised of international strategy meeting on climate and finance, public forum on Ecological debt and climate justice, conference on power and water alternatives, action on ecological debt and climate debt, action on illegitimate debt and call for WB and ADB out of climate, international strategy meeting of the climate justice network and finally, people’s hearing calling for reparation for climate justice. Unnayan Onneshan has been an active participant in this campaign contributing it’s support to all actions set in. 

Some of the statements coming out from the meetings are set to continue the struggle and to mobilize for socioeconomic and climate justice for all. In this case, it is argued that IFIs (world banks, regional and national development banks) are responsible for current economic, financial and climate crises and they are using these crises to increase their lending and influence to maintain the status-quo as well as continue to fuel the climate crises by supporting extractive industries and other harmful industrial sectors. These institutions are selling market-based false solutions and pushing new loans on countries of the Global South to deal with a catastrophe they did not cause. 

False solutions include carbon markets, offsetting, nuclear power, monoculture agrofuels and tree plantations, mega-infrastructure projects, carbon capture and storage. Therefore, false solutions influence climate and social injustice and financial instability which are unacceptable.    So the campaign goes on IFIs and private corporations out of climate finance: reparations now!!! 

Also, the movement on debt and development during UNFCCC intersessional climate change talks demanded not to give WB and ADB any role in financing mitigation and adaptation programs, while it is raised that it would only put developing countries deeper into the debt making the climate crises worse. The movement signifies the issue to repay climate debt, while rich countries owe the poor a climate debt for excessive emissions (emission debt) and climate harms (adaptation debt).