ULAB holds 3rd annual confce

Leading civil society and NGO sector actors joined key government civil servants to address the sustainability challenge as it pertains to the concrete tasks of project design and implementation.

They were addressing the day two of the 3^rd Annual Conference for Sustainable Development, organised by the Centre for Sustainable Development, University of Liberal Arts Bangladesh.

 Dr. Saleemul Huq, Director, International Center for Climate Change and Development (ICCCAD) presided over a session where some of the country’s leading development experts discussed key issues surrounding the topic.

Discussants included Ms. Hasin Jahan, Country Director, Practical Action,Dr. Md. Khalid Hossain, Economic Justice and Resilience Programme Manager, Oxfam International, Mr. Ikramul H. Sohel, Programme Manager, Inclusive Market Development, Christian Aid and Mr. Sayeed Mahmud Riadh, Head of Programme, Coastal, Haorand Char Context, Concern Worldwide, Mr. Shah Sufi Md. MotoakkelBillah, Project Coordinator, Bikash Bangladesh and Mr. Salim Reza, Programme Manager, Pallisree.

Central requirements for project design and implementation included the need for new projects to be based on organisational learning and input from local partners who understand the needs of the communities they work with. The use of tools like priority ranking to prioritise project implementation was also found to be useful in development work. Most importantly, consensus of the panel’s practitioners was that there was a need for emphasis on soft interventions, including capacity building and awareness raising, if development interventions were to be truly sustainable.

Mr. Md. Anwar Hossain, Joint Secretary, Development Effectiveness Wing, Economic Relations Division (ERD), said that the government continues to value partnerships with NGOs and had already begun to pursue more “bottom up” approaches in its projects. Dr. MohammadAsaduzzaman, Professorial Fellow, Bangladesh Institute of Development Studies, discussed the specific time-horizon problem with climate change interventions, where the “pay-off” comes after decades, not five years.

Conference Chief Guest Mr. Abdullah Al Mohsin Chowdhury, Secretary, Department of Environment, Ministry of Forest, Environment and Climate Change stressed the need for collaborative sustainable development strategies across all sectors, including private, NGO and the government. Professor Carolyn Roberts, Professor of Environment, Gresham College, London, Dr. Sultan Ahmed, Director General, Department of Environment, Ministry of Forest, Environment and Climate Change, Mr. Md. Khurshid Alam, Assistant Country Director, United Nations Development Programme, Professor H. M. Jahirul Haque, Vice Chancellor, ULAB and Mr. Kazi Inam Ahmed, Member, ULAB Board of Trustees also spoke in the closing session.

 -rmc//