Govt to brief donors on six thematic areas

The government is set to brief the country's development partners on six thematic areas centering Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and Vision-2021 at a meeting of the Bangladesh Development Forum (BDF), slated for November 15-16, officials said.   
The thematic areas are agriculture, food security and climate change, infrastructure development, governance and development, health and quality education, social security, and mainstreaming gender in economic development.
In the BDF meeting, deferred several times since its last session on February 15-16, 2010, the government will also place a multi-billion dollar development plan before the foreign financiers aiming to graduate the country to the next higher stage.
Secretary of the Economic Relations Division (ERD) Mohammad Mejbahuddin in a recent letter to the ministries and the division heads said usually the discussions in the BDF meet focuses on policy adoption prioritising national development.
This year the meeting will be held in the wake of adoption of new global goals and keeping in mind the Vision of Bangladesh for the year 2021, he said.
"Some thematic areas have been considered based on Bangladesh's development strategy to discuss in the meeting," he wrote.
A senior ERD official told the FE that with transformation to SDGs from Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) and from the 5th Five Year Plan to the 7th Five Year Plan, substantial changes of policies are needed for development of the country.
The BDF meet will see the government's various plans being unveiled before the development partners for their consideration, he said.
According to the draft agenda, the ministry of agriculture in the first working session of the BDF meet will place a paper on agriculture, food security and climate change. The session will aim to identify the main thrust of a new food security policy, Country Investment Plan and highlight some of the key options for climate change adaptation in agriculture.       
Officials of the ministry of planning will brief the development partners on strategies for infrastructure development. Selected areas which are critical for economic growth over the next five years will be highlighted in the briefing. Areas like power and energy, road, railway, water transport and regional connectivity, and ICT will be discussed in the session.
The panellists will discuss how to ensure affordable, reliable, sustainable and modern energy for all and how to build resilient infrastructure, land and water transport, regional connectivity and accessible ICT.
The ERD will place a paper on strengthening partnership for effective development cooperation which will highlight about realising 17 SDGs at the national level and make the most out of domestic and external sources for development.
Measures to further strengthen governance, such as right to information, Annual Performance Agreement, national integrity strategy, domestic resources mobilisation and expectation from development partners in terms of synchronising with government priorities and monitoring and evaluation arrangements will be illustrated in the session.
Ensuring the commitment to inclusive, quality education, and health for all over the next five years will be explored in the briefing session to be organised by the ministries of health and education.
The challenges of public health and its mitigation measures for reaching national health target will be highlighted in the session which will also link quality life, skill and education with future employment opportunities for the youth.
The Cabinet Division will highlight measures for ensuring social security of people in a session in the meeting.
Officials said the government will apprise the donors about the 7th Five Year Plan which would require billions of dollars for supporting implementation of the projects aiming to country's graduation into a middle-income stage.
Earlier, the high-profile meeting on development funding was scheduled to be held in Dhaka on November 2-3 in 2011 but it was deferred following a request by the World Bank (WB) Country Director and then co-chair of the LCG Ms. Ellen Goldstein.
The ERD later decided to hold the pending BDF meeting in the first quarter of 2012. This meeting was also not held due to the Padma Bridge standoff with the World Bank, officials said.
Usually, the Bangladesh government seeks necessary support and cooperation from the donors at the BDF meet. Bangladesh needs financial support from the donors to achieve double-digit growth and cut the poverty rate to 10 per cent by 2021.
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