The Development Disaster: Waterlogging in the Southwest region of Bangladesh
IFI Watch Bangladesh, Vol.-3, No.- 2
The Southwest Coastal Region of Bangladesh, located at the mouth of the largest delta in the world is endowed with unique environmental nature, fertile land and other natural resources. Let, the region is suffering a development disaster due to the projects, financed by Asian Development Bank (ADB). But resilient people are mobilizing for the reversal.
Stakeholder Perceptions on the Aid Effectiveness of Multilateral Organisations
IFI Watch Bangladesh, Vol.-5, No.- 1
This Issue of IFI Watch contains outcome of a study conducted in Bangladesh as well as other five aid recipient countries include Ghana, India, South Africa, Tanzania and Zambia under a pilot project of the UK Department for International Development (DFID). The study was based on a survey to identify country's key stakeholders' views about the performance of multilateral organisations and their preferences for which organisations disburse promised additional aid in future. The six multilateral organisations that have been taken into account are: the Asian Development Bank, the European Commission, the Global Fund for AIDS, TB and Malaria, United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF), United Nations Development Fund (UNDP) and the World Bank.
Coal Policy and Concern over Future Energy Security of Bangladesh
IFI Watch Bangladesh, Vol.-5, No.-2
The present caretaker government has been decided to review the draft coal policy again, prepared in December 2007. The government wants to determine mining method according to the geological condition of respective coalmine. Open pit mining will lead to excess production of coal beyond country’s annual demand that will create pressure on the policy makers to give permission of export of coal. In the draft policy it has stated that if there is access production of high grade coking coal it can be exported in the form of coke- a solid material derived from coking coal. But minimum royalty rate has not been fixed in the draft policy. This issue of IFI Watch analyses the coal policy and offers some suggestion from people’s point of view.
Unkept Promises
Non-agricultural Market Access at the WTO: A Case Study of Apparel Trade of Bangladesh
The people of Bangladesh and their compatriots in other least developed countries were promised time and again including in Marrakesh, Singapore, Geneva, and Doha that they would enjoy better livelihood and the disadvantaged would be lifted out of poverty by "improving effective participation in the multilateral trading system" and trade ministers are "committed to addressing the marginalization of least-developed countries in international trade". The report provides an independent review of implementation vis-a-vis the commitments made in such gatherings as they again meet from December 13 to 18, 2005 to take decision on how the governments have lived up to their promises.
