The New Nation - Internet Edition

Staff Reporter

Speakers at a national seminar on 'Aid effectiveness and the role of CSOs' urged to ensure transparency and accountability for proper use of the foreign aid.

Development organisation Voice in association with international networking organisation Reality of Aid organised the seminar at the National Press Club yesterday.

The speakers also expressed anxiety over the interference of the donors in the country like the World Bank (WB) and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) about the policy making of the country.

Professor Anu Mohammad of Jahangirnagar University participated at the seminar as the main discussant, while Antonio Tujan Jr, President of Reality of Aid, Omar Tareque Chowdhury, Deputy Director of Proshika, Ashraful Alam Tutu, Coordinator of CDP and eminent journalist Zafarullah Chowdhury also discussed at the seminar.

Professor Anu Mohammad also said that donor agencies were pressuring the government not to cancel the Phulbari coal mine project of the Asia Energy, which was opoposed by the people last year and at least seven people died while protesting. He said this focusing on a column by a WB consultant in Bangladesh Forest Cookson in The daily Star on September 5.

Ownership, coordination, permutation, development result and bilateral accountability are the five points by which the effectiveness of the aid could be ensured, Antonio Tujan Jr said.

Zafarullah Chowdhury said that to protect the sovereignty of the country from the donors interference the civil society should together in a greater extent Ahmed Swapan Mahmud, Executive Director of Voice moderated the seminar.