NGOs seek recognition of their contributions to development: Dr Debapriya

Dr Debapriya Bhattacharya, the chief of the committee on drafting a white paper committee on Bangladesh economy, on Monday said the non-governmental organizations (NGOs) want recognition of their contributions to the development of the country.

The NGO representatives sought the recognition at a meeting with the white paper committee at NEC Conference Room in the city’s Sher-e-Bangla Nagar area, BSS reports. 

Representatives from local and international development organizations participated in the meeting. “They (NGOs representatives) think the issue of recognition of the non-government development organizations to development needs to be considered with importance,” said Dr Bhattacharya at a press briefing after the meeting.

Raising the views of the NGO representatives, he said although the non-government development organizations have a big role in the government’s various previous and present initiatives, but they have no proper representation locally or nationally in the initiatives.

Since the condition of the people is now getting more miserable due to high inflation and other reasons, they think that the government support and its policy coordination are required to strengthen the role of non-government development partners to address the problems, he added.

Dr Debapriya, also a distinguished fellow at the Centre for Policy Dialogue (CPD), said NGOs want removal of institutional barriers, corruption for their activities as they are of the view that various institutional barriers and corruption in the government’s concerned institutions are among the biggest obstacles, which stand in the way to properly run the activities of the non-government development organizations.

The institutional barriers are intentional in many cases and the government policies and regulations become barriers in some cases, he added.

At that time, they also mentioned the specific names of the concerned institutions that oversee the non-governmental organizations, district administration and law enforcement agencies are among these organizations, he said.

The NGO leaders suggested ensuring proper government management and freeing the institutions from corruption, said the white paper committee chief, adding that the participants also questioned the role of Bangladeshi missions abroad.

Answering a question, Dr Debapriya said the meeting discussed that corruption takes place when a non-government development organization goes to get registration, renews its registration certificate and gets its projects approved by the institutions concerned.

More than one restrictive measure has been imposed recently against the non-government development organisations to limit their activities and role to raise voice in favour of the people, said Dr Debapriya, also the convener of the Citizen's Platform for SDGs. 

The meeting also discussed corruption in the digital disbursement of micro-credits as well as health, education and other allowances, he said.

Earlier in August, the interim government formed a 12-member committee, led by Dr Debapriya Bhattacharya, to prepare a comprehensive ‘white paper’ on the state of Bangladesh's economy.