Dhaka, 12th April 2012. Today six civil society climate networks and eleven organizations has organized a human chain and rally in front of national press club. They have demanded there should not be any more fiduciary management role of World Bank in Bangladesh climate resilience fund beyond 2013, they also demanded an independent institution with democratic ownership for all climate fund management. They have also express worries that there is a conspiracy going to extend present role of World Bank in resilience fund until 2018.
The networks and organization who have organized the rally are, Bangladesh Poribesh Andolon (BAPA), Climate Finance Goverance Network (CFGN), Campaign for Sustainable Rural Livelihood (CSRL), Climate Change Development Forum (CCDF), Equity and Justice Working Group (Equity), Network for Climate Change in Bangladesh (NCCB), Arpon, Bangladesh Bhumihin Somity (BBS), Bangladesh Krishok Federation (BKF), Coastal Development Partnership (CDP), Centre for Global Change (CGC), Kishani Shoba, Manush Manusher Jonno, Media Foundation for Trade and Development (MFTD), OK Society, SDO, Sirajgong Flood Forum, Shurakka O Aggragoti Foundation (SAF) and Voice.
The rally was modarated by Mostafa Kamal Akanda of EquityBD, other speakers are Ahmed Swapan of VOICE, Prodip K Roy of OK Society, Subal Das of BBS, Zakir Hussein Khan of CFGN, Monsur Hallaz of NCCB, and Badurl Alam of BKF. The group has placed additional four demands in their written statement, these are (i) government must publicly clear on what is the service charge World Bank taking from the fund, is it 1 % as like as past commitment, or is it now 4 or 9 % as rumor going on, (ii) there should be full transparency of all resilience fund projects through website, (iii) what was the role of World Bank technical assistance in respect of capacity building of government as they were promised to build independent capacity to manage the fund in future and (iv) government must have political courage to get rid of bureaucrat and donor darling consultant nexus.
Group blame that government has fallen in the trap of this nexus so that World Bank role will be prolonged. The group has set examples of national institution like PKSF and IDCOL, they urged such an independent institution with democratic ownership is the best answer to manage climate fund. They define the democratic ownership means as with the participation of representatives from government and opposition party, climate victims, local government and media too.
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