The New Nation - Internet Edition

Staff Reporter

The civil society members yesterday at a seminar demanded wider participation of the climate victims into Climate Change Trust Fund (CCTF), local climate fund management.

EquityBD and CSRL organised the seminar on "Government's Funding for Climate Change: Bureaucratic Ownership or Democratic?" at the National Press Club.

Md Shmasuddoha of EquityBD presented a keynote paper at the seminar which was moderated by Rezaul Karim Chowdhury.

The function was addressed, among others, by Lt Gen (Retd) Mahbubur Rahaman of BNP, Golam Mortoza of Shaptahik, Dr Rashid E Mahbub of National Health Right Campaign, Tusar Rahman of Citizen Rights Movement, Faroque Ahmed of Media Foundation for Trade and Development, Syed Mahbub Alam of WBB Trust, Nasimul Haque of CDMP-UNDP, Mohammad Ali of Bangladesh Trade Union Center, Zakir Hossain of Nagorik Uddogue and Ziaul Haque Mukta of Oxfam GB.

Mahbububur Rahman demanded participation of both ruling and opposition MPs at the fund. He demanded discussion on the issue in the parliament.

The speakers expressed worries on the transparency and accountability mechanisms in the implementation of CCTF by the Government saying that the fund is overwhelmingly controlled by Bureaucrats and Ministries.

They said there is no accountability of trust fund toward people in the present formation.

Saying that bureaucracy was a common feature in every state, they said the political leaders should have proper orientation, capacity and honesty to lead and guide bureaucrats in a proper way. Corrupt political process will enhance corruption of bureaucracy.

They emphasised on selecting NGOs based on a standard criteria prior to invite the project proposals.

They said that due to not having NGOs selection criteria around 5000 NGOs, most of them don't have prior work experiences in the relevant field, have submitted proposals for project funding.

They alleged that some NGOs had created a market for Dhaka based consultants earning money out of project proposal writing. Those virtually have little relation in field.