The revealed wisdom stemming from recent development experiences of many countries amply demonstrate that unless policy changes originate from domestic discourse and are designed with stakeholder participation, it is hardly possible to establish domestic ownership over the development agenda and ensure successful implementation of the developmental policies. Besides, the absence of informed policy discussion on important public issues severely jeopardize the credibility of public policies, limit their acceptability and undermine their efficacy. In order for policies to be democratically sustainable, it is important to recognise the need for making the process of policy formulation more inclusive. To ensure accountability and participation, it is essential to initiate a process of public consultation based on a more objective assessment of policy designs, their implementation and outcome, which is independent of the donors as well as the Government of Bangladesh (GOB). Such an exercise provides a basis for encouraging civil society as stakeholder to identify policy alternatives and to build up support for particular policy options. Such a process will serve to establish a degree of ownership over the policy agenda by involving representatives of the stakeholders along with policymakers in the design of public policy. Policies which originate from such a consultative process are likely to be more acceptable to the people of Bangladesh and are, thereby, likely to be more implementable. The Centre for Policy Dialogue (CPD) holds that an agenda of focused policy dialogues, organised in a non-confrontational environment is likely to bring to the surface a more consensual perspective to policy-making and would contribute towards good governance in the country.

It is of paramount importance to the sustainability of any programme of policy reforms in Bangladesh and indeed integral to the process of good governance to develop institutional mechanisms for educating the public on the significance of specific policy issues through a process of informed public debate. The principal objectives guiding the work of the Centre for Policy Dialogue is to contribute towards people's awareness about policy issues affecting their lives and the future of their country, and to create a national climate for public discussion of important policy issues with a view to building up broad-based support for such policies.  In order to achieve its objective, CPD has set itself the task to attain the following goals:

• To create a platform for public discussion of important national policy issues with a view to building up a broad-based support for such policies.
  
• To organise regular policy dialogues with participation from major stakeholders including policy makers, academics, experts, civil society, representative from business community, NGOs and other civil society groups and stimulate a culture of dialogue and discussion on various important development issues.
  
• To conduct in-depth research on critical development issues which could service the needs of an informed public debate.
  
• To raise policy awareness of young people in Bangladesh by conducting internship programme by creating opportunities to share their views, and by organising policy appreciation courses for them.
  
• To provide policy inputs to the principal decision-makers on the basis of research and dialogue outputs. 
  
• To enhance and stimulate endogenous capacity to design and implement domestic policy agendas with a view to generate a sense of ownership by encouraging research activities through grants and fellowships.
  
• To disseminate the revealed wisdom stemming from the dialogue discussion to a broad spectrum of civil society through active dissemination and networking activities.
  
• To undertake in depth case studies, including ‘investigative journalism', in order to generate first hand information on state of governance in particular sectors of the economy and bring the results of such investigation to public notice and subject these to public scrutiny and accountability.
  
• To generate information on public perception on issues of national, economic and social interest and on state of governance by conducting periodical public perception polls.