By the time of the 2001
National Elections, a decade after the process of
democratic renewal, CPD recognised that the policy
discourse needed to be reinvigorated by a fresh body of
ideas which could address the many problems which had
emerged during our decade of democracy. In this period
the political process had regrettably moved away from
serious policy debate on how to solve the myriad of
problems crying out for attention. A culture of
confrontational politics, leading to incendiary
rhetoric, had rendered parliament largely dysfunctional.
In order to refocus the
political dialogue on issues of public concern, CPD once
again sought to tax the patriotism and commitment of the
professionals of Bangladesh to see if they still
retained a shared optimism that our problems remained
solvable. The response to our efforts was overwhelming
and around 160 outstanding professionals volunteered
their services to work in the Task Forces. Whilst many
of the participants in the 16 Task Forces where alumni
of the 29 Task Forces of 1991, they were joined by a new
generation of professional talent who contributed their
labours to the sixteen Task Force of 2001 with no less
dedication. The recommendations of the draft reports of
the Task Forces were validated through several Regional
Consultations and were finalised through a National
Policy Forum held in August 2001. The influential
dailies Prothom Alo and The Daily Star joined with
CPD to make the outreach phase of the Policy Briefs
initiative a success.
In
June 2003 a three-day National Policy Review Forum was
organised by CPD to review the actions taken by the
parliament and the government based on the policy
recommendations.
CPD is planning to conduct
a similar programme in the lead-up to the next national
election.
