The Centre for Policy Dialogue (CPD) decided in 2003 to reconvene the Citizen’s Task Forces (2001) which were set up with a view to provide inputs to the pre-election debates and to articulate a set of policy recommendations for the newly elected government.

The Policy Review initiative was launched at the time when the newly elected government was approaching the end of its second year in office. CPD reconstituted 17 Review Task Forces to revisit the recommendations of the Task Forces (2001) to provide useful feedback to the policymakers to facilitate necessary mid-course measures. Each of the Task Forces undertook a close scrutiny of the relevant government policies, initiatives, and promises. They also reviewed the 100 Days Programme of the government, national budgets for the fiscal years 2001-02 and 2002-03, sectoral policies and programmes, and carried out a major review of the new regulations, guidelines and allocative decisions.

In addition to these initiaties, the process also involved policy tracking and mapping exercises and key informant debriefing with Ministers and high level government officials. The Task Force recommendations were also expected to provide inputs to the Interim Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper (I-PRSP) being prepared at the time.

In implementing the policy review exercise, CPD has received support from many civil society organisations which took an active interest in the venture. In order to validate the recommendations of the reports prepared by the Review Task Forces (2003), Regional Consultations were organised in Chittagong, Khulna, Dhaka, Sylhet, Mymensingh, Rajshahi, Barisal, and Narayanganj. Local civil society leaders including public representatives, office bearers of professional and trade bodies, development practitioners, gender and environmental activists and grassroots representatives had participated actively in these consultations.

The exercise culminated in a three-day National Policy Review Forum held in Dhaka during June 3-5, 2003, which was held simultaneously in three different venues. The National Policy Review Forum was attended by about 1500 participants drawn from broad cross-sections of the Bangladesh civil society and the international development partners. The Prothom Alo and The Daily Star, two leading and influential newspapers of the country, actively collaborated with CPD in organising the Regional Consultations and the National Policy Review Forum. The draft reports of the Policy Review Task Forces were subsequently revised and finalised in view of the comments and suggestions received during the various consultations.

The present volume is a compendium of the final reports prepared by the 17 Policy Review Task Forces (2003). It is expected that policymakers, public representatives, policy activists, professionals, advocacy groups and conscious citizens having active interest in Bangladesh’s development will benefit from the wealth of information, critical analyses and revealing insights presented in this volume. It is hoped that, the volume will contribute to the cause of policy transparency and accountability which are so vitally important for sustainable economic development and democratic governance in Bangladesh.