BDF meeting suffered setback earlier

The meeting of the Bangladesh Development Forum (BDF) faced setback earlier also.
The important meeting, whose main goal is fundraising for much-needed infrastructural development, was set to take place after the lapse of five years. The last BDF meet was held in Dhaka on February 15-16 in 2010.
The meeting was last scheduled to be held in Dhaka on November 2-3 in 2011, which was later deferred following a request from the then World Bank (WB) Country Director Ms Ellen Goldstein.
Later, the ERD had decided to hold the pending BDF in the first quarter of 2012. This meeting also lost way in the Padma Bridge controversy, ERD sources said.
Officials said the meeting could not take place during the last few years because of government's 'problem' with some major development partners, especially with the World Bank.
"The government's latest move to cement the further deteriorating relationship following the January 5 election with donors through discussion tumbled down again," an ERD official said.
Officials said the draft seventh Five Year Plan (2015-2020) was regarded as the main document for discussion at the BDF meeting where the development partners were supposed to be briefed about government's long-term vision.
The goals, objectives and strategies identified in the seventh Five Year Plan on the country's economic and social development, climate change and governance, with a view to eradicating poverty, were also planned to be discussed at the meeting to work out ways for becoming a middle- income country by 2021.
The forum also was supposed to outline strategies for the implementation of the post-2015 sustainable development agenda. The strategies for the monitoring of development programmes and results management were also to be consulted with the development partners.
Usually, the Government of Bangladesh seeks necessary support and cooperation from the donors at BDF -- a gathering of the government and bilateral and multilateral donors who bankroll Bangladesh's development recipe.
Bangladesh needs financial support in increased volumes from the development partners in achieving cherished double-digit growth and cutting poverty down to 10 per cent by 2021.
At the last BDF meet issues like development strategies, governance and human development, energy and power, agriculture, food security and water resources, environment and climate change, transport and communications, and digital Bangladesh and ICT development were discussed in different working sessions.
The dev conclave had captured commitments in a 'BDF Agreed Action Plan' outlining 25 concrete actions for government to be supported by the development partners (a euphemism of the term donor).  
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