ERD takes move to form permanent consultative group of experts

The practice of dialogue and consultation is important for participatory and inclusive policymaking in a democratic culture. The Bangladesh government has developed a culture of consultation in the policymaking process in several sectors, which has become productive and useful for both the government and stakeholders. The pre-budget consultation by Finance Division and the National Board of Revenue (NBR) is well-acknowledged as a good practice in this regard. Considering its effectiveness and importance, this practice has been expanding in other sectors. The National Integrity Strategy (NIS) of the government, adopted for promotion of governance and integrity in its action plan, has encouraged similar practice of civil society and stakeholders' consultation by calling for 'creation of increased scope for interactions among the government and the civil society in the government's policies and other important programmes'.

Economic Relations Division (ERD) under the Ministry of Finance has undertaken an initiative of institutionalising the formal consultation process by forming a permanent consultative group of eminent experts. This initiative is expected to create a unique scope for engagement of eminent experts and civil society members in the public-sector policymaking process. The UNDP-funded Knowledge for Development Management (K4DM) project of ERD is facilitating the consultation process through formation of a consultative group and development of engagement modality of the group members. A series of dialogues will be organised with the group members in different thematic areas. ERD is interested to carry out the process and institutionalise the consultative group by its own resources even after the closure of the project.

ERD initiated the process by inviting nearly 100 eminent citizens having different backgrounds from the civil society and the academia individually. After acceptance of invitation by the eminent citizens, ERD organised a consultation meeting with them in June 2017 to finalise the Terms of Reference of the group. The name of the group was chosen as Consultative Group of ERD (CGE) and the members were divided in several thematic groups. The thematic groups would organise in-depth dialogues on each thematic area with participation of relevant government representative and stakeholders. The thematic areas have been selected mostly from different sectors of the Seventh Five Year Plan having relevance with ERD's working areas. The eminent experts welcomed the initiative and expressed their interest to work with the government. They found themselves honoured and empowered to be partners of the government's development process. Both the government and eminent civil society members anticipated that this would facilitate stronger relationship between the government and citizens as well as create opportunities for mutual benefits.

In the first meeting of the eminent persons' group, UNDP Country Director as a facilitator of the process congratulated the government of Bangladesh for engaging the eminent persons under institutional arrangement and thanked the civil society members for joining the group. Both the ERD and UNDP expressed that the eminent persons would generate new ideas and contribute towards formulation of new policy, which will add further value to the work undertaken by the government. It was also expected that wider views of the people would be communicated through the eminent persons as they have more interactions with different sections of the people. It was acknowledged that the consultative group can suggest what is more important for Bangladesh using the expertise and experience of working with the grassroots.

Importance of the civil society members and eminent experts are well-recognised in the democratic countries. Representatives from different professional groups are nominated as members of upper house of the parliament more specifically in the countries with bicameral parliaments as in the US, UK, Russia, Malaysia and India. The governments of those countries take the opportunity to hear from diversified groups in the parliament. Engagement of eminent citizens to get their in-depth views on aspects of policymaking and development are common practices in other democratic societies too.

The first dialogue of gender thematic group of CGE was held on November 19, 2017 at the ERD with its Secretary in the chair. The theme of the dialogue was "Societal and other related issues for the working mothers". Members of gender thematic group, senior researchers, academia and development practitioners from research organisations, universities and national and international NGOs as well as the government officials from relevant ministries and departments participated in the dialogue and shared expert opinion on the topic.

The experts underscored the need for enabling environment for working mothers for attracting more women in the labour market, which is critical for attainment of sustainable development goals (SDGs) and socio-economic development. They identified some of the most crucial issues for working mother in their workplaces as well as several areas for possible intervention. In the dialogue on working mother, the experts suggested to introduce paternity leave in both private and public sectors, introduce early childhood development services in day-care centres and expansion of separate transport for working women. The speakers also suggested establishing model day-care centres with trained operators in all divisional cities. They also drew attention of the university authorities both in public and private sectors to establish day-care centres on the university campuses. The gender experts also emphasised on gender need assessment in different sectors for developing appropriate policy and implementing programmes accordingly.

Attending the dialogue, the government officials expressed their agreement with most of the suggestions and the needs for intervention in the recommended areas. They found this as a very useful dialogue on the working women. The Director General of the Department of Women Affairs participated in the dialogue and got the chance to share different initiatives of the government undertaken for promotion of status of the working women.

ERD has initiated the process to communicate the recommendations to the concerned ministries, departments and other agencies to address the issues raised by the experts in the dialogue. ERD has a plan to publish the policy recommendations derived from the dialogues and disseminate among policymakers and stakeholders for consideration. What's not expected is, all of the recommendations will be implemented or the identified problems will be addressed instantly. But the consultation has created an opportunity for in-depth discussions on the contemporary social and developmental issues for identifying solutions and possible interventions from different corners. Availability of evidence and recommendations will influence the government policies in times. The non-governmental stakeholders will also find ingredients for their possible interventions from these dialogues.

Civil society is called the third sector of the society distinct from the state and business. The civil society not only identifies the development problems, but also can disseminate among people the government's roles and functions undertaken for the citizens. From the ERD's experience, it is evident that knowledge partnership with the eminent persons will help enhance interaction of the government officials with the think-tanks and experts. This will ultimately contribute to better understanding of officials on the development issues. Debates and dialogues on the policy and planning will help increase quality of decision making within the government organisations. Enhanced knowledge will help bring dynamism in implementation of policies and programmes too. Sharing and interaction with the civil society will enhance the image of the government as it will facilitate participatory decision making.

In the age of partnership, where diversified challenges and opportunities are emerging, the government can't work alone. Partnership and consultation with different stakeholders, particularly with the experts, is a must for withstanding challenges and harnessing opportunities. ERD's consultative group can be an example for other ministries to work with the experts and civil society opinion leaders.

Abu Shahin M Ashaduzzaman PhD, is  Project Manager, Knowledge for Development Management (K4DM) Project, Economic Relations Division, Government of Bangladesh; S M Morshed PhD, is National Communication Consultant, Knowledge for Development Management (K4DM) Project, Economic Relations Division, Government of Bangladesh.

[email protected]