CPD to celebrate birth centenary of Bangabandhu

The Centre for Policy Dialogue (CPD) this year will celebrate the birth centenary of Father of the Nation Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman and Golden Jubilee of Bangladesh’s Independence through various events.

This was decided by the Board of Trustees (BoT) of CPD at its 54th meeting in Dhaka on Monday. CPD will publish articles and organise events on these occasions, says a press release.

CPD’s research and outreach-related activities during July–December 2019 were presented at the meeting. The board expressed satisfaction over CPD’s various activities over this period. Some of the notable research during this period include—state of the Bangladesh economy in FY2019-20 (first reading); potential of personal income tax in Bangladesh; governance challenge of aid utilisation in Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) financing of Bangladesh; landscape of development finance flows and instruments and countries’ needs; paper on rethinking development effectiveness; four years of SDGs in Bangladesh; universal pension scheme framework for Bangladesh; and implications of Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) for Bangladesh.

CPD trustees were also informed about a number of important ongoing activities including effectiveness of social protection in delivering SDGs at the local level; youth perspective on effective, accountable and transparent institutions; strengthening capacity of the media in the SDG discourse; southern voice global report on state of SDGs; emerging labour standard demands in view of Bangladesh’s LDC (Least Developed Country) graduation and implementation of SDGs; and LDC graduation.

The board approved the CPD’s plan for research, dialogue, publication and outreach-related activities for January–June 2020. The meeting also approved the revised budget for the last six months of 2019.

Presided over by Professor Rehman Sobhan, chairman of CPD, the board meeting was attended by trustee members Khushi Kabir, coordinator, Nijera Kori;  M Syeduzzaman, former finance minister; Advocate Sultana Kamal, former advisor to the Caretaker Government and chairperson of TIB; Ms Rasheda K Choudhury, executive director, CAMPE; Dr Shahdeen Malik, eminent jurist; Dr Debapriya Bhattacharya and Professor Mustafizur Rahman, distinguished fellows, CPD; Dr Fahmida Khatun, executive director, CPD and member-secretary, CPD Board of Trustees. M Shafiqul Islam, director, Administration and Finance of CPD was also present at the meeting on invitation.