CPD considers establishment of domestic ownership over development agenda to be one of the most important prerequisites for successful implementation of policy reforms and good governance in the context of Bangladesh. CPD is of the opinion that proactive engagement of the civil society and stakeholders in the process of policy design and implementation could pay high dividends in terms of successfully addressing the developmental challenges in Bangladesh. Bangladesh’s major documents that review periodic economic performance include the World Bank’s Country Economic Memorandum (CEM), the response of the GOB to the CEM, and GOB’s Annual Economic Survey. However, the task of designing an endogenously derived independent review of Bangladesh’s developmental efforts demands much more. Such a review, which is governed neither by the need for self-validation, nor by the delimiting perspective of the CEM, was a novel idea in Bangladesh when it was first floated by the CPD in 1993 for bringing out IRBD. It was also a time when the civil society in Bangladesh was gradually beginning to emerge as a force to reckon with after decade long military rule. The emergent civil society also needed to make its presence felt by putting forward alternative policy suggestions. CPD accepted the challenge of preparing such an Independent Review of Bangladesh’s Development (IRBD) every year. It was decided at the very beginning that the underlying vision, design and execution of the IRBD would remain, from beginning to end, a home grown effort. |
