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Policy Brief 2003
Policy Brief 2001
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In
its endeavour to stimulate the process
of policy dialogue among various
groups of stakeholders, the Centre
for Policy Dialogue (CPD)
initiated a programme on Preparation of Pre-Election
Policy Briefs. The purpose of the
Policy Briefs was to address issues
of urgent public concern where concrete
and doable policy agendas could be
identified for implementation within
the prevailing political configurations
in the country.
Preparatory
to the aforementioned initiative,
CPD carried out a series of
local and sectional consultations
during October-December 2000-three
in Dhaka and one each in Khulna,
Rajshahi and Chittagong. These consultations
sought to identify the major concerns
of various stakeholder groups as
regards critical developmental issues
facing the country so as to identify
appropriate areas for policy interventions
over the next five years.
In
order to prepare these Policy Briefs,
sixteen Task Forces, made up of
distinguished experts in the areas
relevant to the particular agenda,
were set up by CPD. Each Task
Force drew upon a wider body
of ideas on the specific concerns
of the Task Force, through the use
of the dialogue process, to enable
them to finalise their recommendations.
These recommendations were subsequently
incorporated in the final versions
of the Policy Briefs. A series of
dialogues were held in this
regard in Sylhet, Chittagong, Rajshahi,
Khulna, Comilla, Mymensingh and
Dhaka, in collaboration with two
of the leading national dailies
of the country -The Daily Star and
Prothom Alo.
| Goal
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-
Strengthened quality of, and
capacity for, participatory
policy formulation and
implementation in
Bangladesh.
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| Purpose
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- Improved
contribution of the civil
society to policy formulation
in the (pre-election) national
political process.
|
| Modality |
- Identification
of 16 strategic issues through
broad-based participation
in gender-sensitive regional
consultations.
- Practical
Policy Briefs drafted in
a consultative manner by
specialist Task Forces.
-
Validation of the Policy
Briefs through thematic
dialogues, primarily at
the national level.
-
Dissemination and outreach
programmes at national and
local levels to raise policy
awareness.
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In
continuance of this consultative
process, it was decided to organise
a National Policy Forum in Dhaka
on 20-22 August, 2001. The Policy
Forum provided a non-partisan
platform to bring together representatives
from the major political parties,
along with the best professionals
and representatives from civil society
to discuss policy alternatives.
The Forum contributed
towards the sustainability of the
democratic process as well as focusing
the attention of the principal political
parties on critical development
issues. It was expected that the
policy recommendations emerging
out of this Forum would find their
way into the election manifestos
of the major political parties,
and the election campaign where
the parties sought to mobilise
support for such policy reforms
throughout the country.
It
was also expected that the Policy
Briefs could be of practical use to
a newly elected government coming
to power, in guiding its executive
action. The Briefs
were also
designed to serve
the new parliament in setting agendas
for parliamentary debate through
access to a body of information,
analyses and policy options which
could be helpful in inspiring legislation
over the life of the next parliament.
CPD
also co-opted partner
organisations from civil society who
are involved in the areas relevant
to the work of the Task Forces to
collaborate in this Forum. These
organisations
provided CPD with active support
in the organisation of the National
Forum and in
making professional contributions
to the discussions. These partner
organisations also collaborated
with CPD in the final phase of the
exercise involving dissemination
and outreach programmes at national
and local levels to raise policy
awareness towards stakeholder constituency
mobilisation.
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