Demand to curb int’l organisations’ dominance in project implementation

In the second session of the Bangladesh Civil Society Organisations Process (BDCSO Process) second annual conference, speakers demanded that the colonial domination of international organisations be circumvented in project implementation.

The title of the second session was "Partnership and the process of building responsible local organisations". Around 250 people including 20 foreign guests participated in the online conference held on October 8, reads a press release.

It was said in the session that local non-government organisations and civic organisations believe in complementarity and participation of all, which requires egalitarian and sympathetic behaviour.

Ignacio Packer of ICVA, Switzerland, recalled the Partnership Principles established in 2007, "To ensure accountability, all NGOs, from UN agencies to NGOs, need to work with complementarity and a participatory attitude. This requires a sympathetic and egalitarian partnership."

Howard Mollet of Caford emphasised the importance of risk-sharing in the partnership, saying "the most important thing a local organisation can do is to establish a climate change or early warning system".

"Accountability and transparency must be at work, from top to bottom", said Nanette Antiquisa of EcoWeb, adding that "it is not right that only organisations working at the local level will be held accountable".

The conference was chaired by Shirin Haque of Naripokkho and conducted by Rezaul Karim Chowdhury, coordinator of BDCSO Process.

AKM Jasim Uddin of the Philippine's EcoWeb and A4EP, Morshed Alam Sarket of Popy and CDF, Abdul Awal of NRDS and Supro, and Md Asaduz Zaman Sheikh of Udayan Bangladesh, and many others joined the session.