Dhaka, 7th July 2019: Around 700 local civil society and non-government organizations gathered to their National Convention for localization held on 6 July 2019 at Krishibid Institute in Dhaka to claim recognition as development actors of Bangladesh. The National Convention titled “Accountability and Localization for Humanitarianism and Development with Positive Engagement” was organized by Bangladesh CSO NGO Coordination Process with the assistance of COAST Trust and supported by Oxfam.
Dr. Quazi Kholiquzzaman Ahmad, Chairman of PKSF, said in his speech as the Chief Guest of the inaugural session that the need of local CSO and NGOs is indispensable for the country’s development.
The big event was a culmination process of last two years country wide process on uniting local CSO and NGOs for standing with self-esteem as the development actor of the country. The UN Resident Coordinator Ms. Mia Seppo have given inauguration speech while the concluding speech was given by Dr Atiur Rahman, Ex-Governor Bangladesh Bank. Ms Aroma Dutta MP, Mr. Gokul K Ghosh, Director NGO Bureau, Ms Saheen Anam, Manusher Jonno Foundation, Ms Phedra Moon Morris of Canadian Embassy and Mr. Ajmat Ulla, IFRC Country Representative were also present in the daylong convention and spoke in different sessions. There were participant delegates from ECHO/ European Union, USAID, DFID and other donor groups and I-NGO.
Apart from the inaugural and concluding session, there were three different sessions on accountability charter; charter of expectations with complementarity and inclusiveness with government, donors and INGOs; local NGOs’ contribution to SDG, vision 21 and 41. There were several international speakers including Mr. Pierre Hauselman from HQAI Geneva, Mr. Jeremy Wallard from ICVA Geneva, Mr. Nick Guttman from Christian Aid UK, Ms. Anne Street from Charter 4 Change and CAFOD UK, Ms. Nivedita Datta from VANI and Mr. Nila Madhab Prusty from HAI India, Ms. Anita Katakuzzy and Mr. Vincent Koch from Oxfam International. Mr. Jashim of ADAB, Mr. Rafiqul of FNB, Mr. Rafiqul of DUS, Mr. Nayeem Warha of Disaster Forum and Mr. AHM Bazlur Rahman of BNNRC moderated and spoke in different sessions.
Mr. Mostafa Kamal Akanda of COAST and Mr. Monjur Rashid of Oxfam placed the Charter of Self-Accountability that pledged the Local NGOs CSOs will be transparent and accountable to public and to their values related to right based approach. Mr. Barkat Ullah Maruf and Mr. Nayeem Warha read out the Charter of Expectations that demands from government on recognition of NGO work as development and not to shrink their space by any law or policy as they are serving the poorest. The Charter also demanded the INGOs should be limited only in monitoring and technical assistance instead of direct operation, treating equality in partnerships. The charter demanded from donors for investment in promoting the demands of accountability from bottom.
Ms. Mia Seppo said free and active civil societies are the indicators of a healthy participatory democracy and supportive environment of development.
Ms. Phedra Moon from Canadian Embessy urged all actors for dialogue on new draft social welfare law for better contribution to Development.
Ms. Aroma Dutta MP urged government to allocate fund from budget for local NGOs.
Mr. Atiur Rahman, the ex-Governor of Bangldesh Bank said by placing different promising figures of the country that local NGOs have to complement, collaborate with the government and should be innovative for new prosperous Bangladesh.
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4 July 2019, a seminar was organized on Quality and Accountability in Humanitarian Response: HQAI Approach at the capital’s BRAC Center Inn. National and international NGO representatives were present there and they emphasized ensuring the quality and accountability in humanitarian response programs. They said Government and NGOs take emergency programs instantly to ensure the dignity, rights and security of the people affected by crisis. As it takes in a hurry, there could be mistakes or negative impact to the people. If so, then the people affected by crisis could put at more risk or be affected. So, it is important to ensure quality and accountability in humanitarian response programs.

Panel discussants of the seminar were Md. Harun-Or-Rashid Mollah, Additional Secretary of the Department of Disaster Management, Government of Bangladesh, Khadadad Hossain form NIRAPAD Network, Dr. Ehsanur Rahman from NAHAB, Kazi Sahidur Rahman from UNRC, Khodadad Hossain Sarker, Advisor from NIRAPAD, AKM Musa from CONCERN Worldwide, Seakeb Nabi from Christian Aid, KAM Morshed from BRAC, Gowhar Nayeem Warha from Disaster Forum Bangladesh and Sajid Raihan from Start Fund Bangladesh. Pierre Hauselmann from Humanitarian Quality Assurance Initiative- HQAI gave the key speech of assuring quality and accountability in humanitarian response. HQAI, based in Geneva, is an independent audit organization that verifies worldwide the Core Humanitarian Standards-CHS in humanitarian response and issues certification. Rezaul Karim Chowdhury from COAST Trust moderated the seminar where Md. Iqbal Uddin shared COAST experience in certification process. Francis Atul Sarker from Caritas, Rafiqul Alam from Dwip Unnyan Sangstha and Fazlul Haue from Sajida Foudation also took part the discussion.

Pierre Hauselmann said, CHS has a 9 set of commitments, we, the humanitarian practitioners can use these as standards. HQAI has up to 90% subsidy option for conducting audit or small organizations can jointly apply for certification which will reduce the audit cost. Khodadad Hossain said, HQAI brings what benefits to the organizations, if we know we will be proactive more to go for certification. Fazlul Haue said achieving of certificate should be for strengthening the organizational capacity. Francis Atul Sarker said, we should show our accountability not only to our donors or government but also to the people, we work for. Sajid Raihan said, there are many certification system on standards but it would be good if one common standard is available and accepted by all.

Gowhar Nayeem Warha said, we should consider the environment while conducting the audit on CHS 9 commitments. Kazi Sahidur Rahman said about the legal acceptance of audit, accountability and transparency and GO-NGO Coordination. Dr. Ehsanur Rahman said, all NGOs are busy in Cox’s bazar Rohingya response but we should also be careful if any natural disaster happen. Shaken Nabi said, we should be more careful so that we could keep the HQAI certificate live. AKM Musa said, certificate is the motivation that recognizes we work for people affected by crisis. KAM Morshed said, we should consider the certification process as the means of efficiency, capacity building and achieving organizational mission.
Md. Harun-Or-Rashid opines about reduction of the audit fees so that more NGOs can come together under this certification. COAST Trust in cooperation with Sphere Community Bangladesh, NIRAPAD, NAHAB and Disaster Forum organized the seminar.
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Dhaka, July 3, 2019. CSO and NGO leaders urged UN agencies and INGOs to ensure their equal participation in selecting partnership in Bangladesh. They also demanded that, UN agencies and INGOs activities must be limited only in monitoring and technical assistance, they must refrain themselves from field operation. CSO and NGO leaders were talking in a press conference titled, ‘UN Agencies and INGOs Activities Must be Limited in Monitoring and Technical Assistance in Bangladesh. We demand equal participation for local CSOs to be in leadership in Development Efforts with Equal Participation’. They also opined that, equality-based partnership is essential for the survival and sustainable development of local NGOs.
Mr. AKM Jasim, Director of the Association of Development Agencies in Bangladesh (ADAB) Mr. Masuda Faruk Ratna, Coordinator of Dhaka Division’s BD CSO Process, Mr. ASM Badrul Alam, President of Bangladesh Krishak Federation, Mr. Mustafa Kamal Akand, Coordinator of BD CSO Process, Ferdous Ara Rumee, Assistant Director of COAST Trust, and local NGO representative and Shield Bangladesh Executive Chief Mr. Md. Mahbubul Alam Firoz were present among others.. Ferdous Ara Rumi presented the keynote paper at the press conference while Mustafa Kamal Akand moderated the event.
Badrul Alam said, we have created a forum called ‘Bangladesh CSO and NGO Coordination Process’ for implementing our expectations and commitment charter. Through which we will continue to campaign and negotiate to develop a sovereign, responsible and sustainable NGO sector. We wish we will cooperation from media.
Mahabubul Alam Firoz said, t Grand Bargain’s commitment was signed in Istanbul in May 2016. In this agreement, commitments on transparency, participation and localization are clearly mentioned. With almost all agencies of the United Nations, almost all donors and all networks of INGOs signed this agreement, but in reality we do not see any reflection of those commitments.
AKM Jasim Uddin said, many studies at the international level have mentioned that local NGOs can implement development and humanitarian activities with very low cost. Local initiative should be made more efficient by utilizing it more. Since the local NGOs respond fast and first to any crisis, their skills and capacity must be improved.
Masuda Faruq said, all the humanitarian and development organizations have to work in a coordinated manner, it can reduce repetition, can reduced management or logistics costs.
Mustafa Kamal Akand said, the United Nations agency and the INGOs should have their policy of partnership, and that partnership must be based on transparency and competition. The luxury and needs of the expenditure must be determined, to show complete transparency of the expenditure. For expenditure management expenditure, the expenses for the partners, expenditure for the local population must be shown separately.
The organizer informed that, a new coordination process has been started with the participation of the networks of NGOs and CSOs working for the development of Bangladesh. One of the major objectives of the coordination process is to promote CSO and NGOs sector as a third sector along with the government and private sector. The process is going to organize a National Conference on 6 July, where about 600-700 NGO and CSO representatives from all the districts of the country will join.
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Dhaka, 30 May 2019: Right Groups brought out a Human Chain in front of the National Press Club today demanding big polluters to be held accountable to protect the fish reserve and natural ecosystem of the Bay of Bengal and to exempt the poor and marginalized small scale fisher folk from the 65 days of fishing ban.
COAST Trust and Bangladesh Fish Workers’ Alliance (BFWA) jointly organized the protest event. Mustafa Kamal Akanda of COAST Trust moderates the speech session while it was concluded by Rezaul Karim Chowdhury, Chief Moderator of EquityBD and executive Director of COAST Trust. General Secretary of BFWA Mujibul Huq Munir presents the keynote speech while Barkat Ullah Maruf of COAST Trust, Badrul Alam and Rehana Akter of Bangladesh Krishok Federation spoke.
While presenting the keynote demands, Mujibul Huq Munir of COAST Trust said, small scale fisher folks who catch fishes from the sea with very small boats can’t harm the fish reserve or the natural ecosystem of the Bay of Bengal. They should have been exempted from the 65 days of fishing ban. But the big polluters who are the real threat for the sea and its biodiversity are hardly held accountable by the policy.
13 point recommendations is raised from the event on the issue of 65 days fishing ban that include: (1) small-scale and poor fisher folk should be exempted from the ban, (2) big polluters including oil spill, shipyards, plastic pollution, trawlers and pirates should be hold accountable to preserve the sea resource; (3) Minimum 8,000 Taka per fishing family should be given as compensation during the ban; (4) Foreign fishing boats and trawlers should be checked and stopped to enter into the Bangladesh territory during the ban; (5) All fisher folks should be registered and categorized and other demands.
Mustafa Kamal Akanda of COAST Trust said in his speech that 40 kg rice for 65 days of fishing ban as a compensation is a farce. Every poor fishing families should get at least 8,000 Taka per month during this fishing ban. He also said, fisher folks of Odisha and Tamilnadu are compensated 5,000 Rupees per month during this kind of ban period.
Rehana Akter, the vice president of Bangladesh Krishok Federation said, all the fisher folk including the poor fishing labours should be officially enlisted so that they could be easily identified for compensation to avoid corruption and duplication. She added, risk incentives and insurance for the sea going fisher folk should be introduced.
Rezaul Karim Chowdhury said while concluding the event, poor fishing community are only 4% responsible for the ecosystem destruction in the Bay of Bengal and they are the only sufferer of the fishing ban. The polluters of 96% including plastic pollution, shipyards, oil spill are hardly addressed. He added, The benefit of the ban will hardly serve them. We need poor-friendly policy to deal with this kind of issues.
Badrul Alam of BKF said, around 246 big fishing boats with trawl nets catch fish from the Bay of Bengal and they pull out everything from the ground under sea including smallest fish, flora and fauna. This normally should be fishing 40 meter deep sea, though they are taking advantage of low monitoring and fishing in the shallow area.
Barkat Ullah Maruf said in his speech, during the last 4 years 1.5 million liters of oil are spilled in the upstream of Bay of Bengal and every year 6 thousand ton of plastic waste are dumped into the Bay of Bengal from Bangladesh and India. To save the ecosystem of the Bay of Bengal, this should be addressed, not the ban for poor fisherfolk.
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