White Paper suggests hosting forum for sustainable development in 2025

The White Paper report has suggested the government convene a forum to have wide-ranging discussions with the four groups of international development partners in early 2025.

These groups are – (i) providers of external development finance, (ii) providers of preferential market access, (iii) hosts of Bangladeshi migrant workers, and (iv) foreign investors.

The Forum for Inclusive and Sustainable Development may be held in early 2025 in Dhaka. 

This would help the interim government articulate the medium-term development aspirations and the associated reform agenda of the country and mobilise financial and technical support in view of this.

A one-and-a-half-day of the platform may be organised by the government of Bangladesh led by the Office of the Chief Adviser, with the active participation of the Principal Coordinator for SDGs Affairs, with support from the ERD and in collaboration with the Local Consultative Group of the IDPs.

The proposed Forum for Inclusive and Sustainable Development will comprise government agencies, the four aforementioned groups of IDPs, experts, domestic investors, labour unions, CSOs and other relevant stakeholders.

The objectives of the forum will include the following.

i. To facilitate alignment of priorities of the IDPs with Bangladesh's current development aspirations.

ii. To enhance coordination between the Bangladesh government and the IDP as well as among the IDPs themselves concerning Bangladesh.

iii. To discuss the policy and reform outlook of the Bangladesh government with the IDPs.

iv. To identify measures to improve the effectiveness of development cooperation.

The report said the format of the forum should include an inaugural session with the keynote address by the Chief Adviser, sector/issue-specific roundtables, a feedback session, and a closure with the adoption of an outcome document.

The outcome document will lay out Bangladesh's future development cooperation agenda.