CPD provided technical support to a Regional Knowledge Sharing Exercise on Population and Challenges in Selected Asian Countries was jointly organised by UNFPA-Dhaka and the Government of Bangladesh in technical cooperation with CPD. The Exercise was held during September 22-23, 2002 at the Dhaka Sheraton Hotel. Health and Family Welfare Minister of the Government of Bangladesh, Dr. Khandakar Mosharraf Hossain inaugurated the symposium as the Chief Guest with Mr. M. Fazlur Rahman, Secretary of the same Ministry in the chair. State Minister for Health Mr. Amanullah Aman, MP, UNFPA CST-Nepal Director Dr. Wasim Zaman, Principle Secretary to the Prime Minister Dr. Kamal Uddin Siddiqui were present as the Special Guests at this seminar. In his address as the Chief Guest of the inaugural session, Dr. Khandakar Mosharraf Hossain mentioned that such an exercise would help the participants including the policymakers in terms of attaining a better understanding of the underlying constraints in implementing different strategies. In this context, he said, there is a need to move away from narrow demographic agenda and broaden the discourse on population policy-making, the Minister added.
UNFPA Resident Representative in Bangladesh Ms. Suneeta Mukherjee delivered the welcome address when she said that the opportunity to have an informed discussion and knowledge sharing among the Asian countries would certainly

provide insights for the policymakers in terms of both taking concrete measures and addressing concerns under diverse circumstances . Titles of the three working sessions of the symposium were: Challenges of Demographic Transition, Rethinking Population Policies, Integrating Population Concerns in the PRSP. Population experts from six Asian Countries including Bangladesh conducted the three working sessions and the wrap-up session. A common observation of the paper presenters in different sessions was that lack of commitment and continuity in implementing health and population related programmes would seriously impede population management initiatives. They stressed on designing of pragmatic policies and efficient implementation of such programmes. The speakers pointed out that if the demographic bonus was to be realised on the ground in terms of accelerated economic growth and poverty alleviation, Bangladesh would need to put in place mechanism to raise capital and labour productivity through human resource development.
The seminar provided an opportunity to share country experiences and best practices in the area of population management. The seminar underscored the need for broadening the population discourse, examined the interface between the related variables and came up with a number of recommendations in the area of sustainable population development in the context of Bangladesh.

Research under SANEI-IV
The CPD Research Proposal on Trade Liberalisation and Bangladesh Agriculture: Impacts on Cropping Pattern, Resource Use Efficiency and Effective Incentives has been awarded by the South Asia Network of Economic Research Institutes (SANEI) at its fourth Annual Conference in Dhaka during August 28-29, 2002. The main focus of the study is to quantify the changes in cropping pattern in Bangladesh agriculture during the last two and half decades and determine the role of trade liberalisation and other factors to these changes. The study is expected to suggest some economically viable cropping patterns, zones and policy measures to maximise benefits from trade liberalisation and mitigate likely negative impacts through an effective research, development and policy intervention strategies. Work for the implementation of this study has already been initiated. CPD Research Fellows Dr. Uttam Kumar Deb and Dr. Ananya Raihan are carrying out the research.

Policy Briefs on
Free Trade Agreement

Under the CPD-CTPL programme on Trade Policy Analysis and Multilateral Trading Regimes. CPD has prepared a number of briefing papers focusing on probable free trade agreements of Bangladesh with different countries. The titles of the briefing papers are: Bilateral Free Trade Agreements in South Asia: A Comparative Reading of the Indo-Sri Lanka and the Indo-Nepal FTAs, Draft on South

Asian Free Trade Area Prepared by the SAARC Secretariat: Highlights of the Proposed Changes in the CPD Redraft, Bangladesh-US Trade Relations: Some Stylised Facts, Establishment of Bilateral FTAs with Nepal and Bhutan.

Child Labour Policy

The ongoing CPD programme on Child Labour Policy envisages a series of stakeholder dialogues to draw necessary inputs for the study. The first dialogue under the programme was held on September 26, 2002 at the CPD Dialogue Room. Chaired by CPD Executive Director, Dr. Debapriya Bhattacharya, the dialogue was attended by academics, researchers, representatives from different non-governmental organisations and development partner institutions working on the child labour issue. Dr. Sumaiya Khair, CPD Fellow and Associate Professor, Department of Law, University of Dhaka presented the keynote paper. The speakers at the dialogue highlighted the complexities linked to the child labour problem and put up a set of recommendations for proper rehabilitation of the child workers in the society.

IRBD

IRBD 2002, the seventh review under CPD's IRBD programme, is at the completion stage. The IRBD 2002 has two components - Part A focuses on the current state of the economy while Part B, the thematic part, focuses on the overarching theme of Dynamics of Labour Markets in Bangladesh and its Global Linkages and looks at the relevant issues from various perspectives. IRBD 2002 also contains a CPD Review of the PRSP Exercise in Bangladesh.