Citizen鈥檚 Platform for SDGs, Bangladesh convener Debapriya Bhattacharya on Thursday said that there were no appropriate representatives to speak for the backward sections of people in the commissions formed by the interim government to make reforms in the country.
No improvement will be done to the backward sections of people even there are reforms, said Debapriya while speaking at the concluding session of a dialogue titled 鈥楾he National SDG Report (VNR) 2025: Addressing the Interests of LNOB Communities鈥�.
Citizen鈥檚 Platform for SDGs in association with the government of Bangladesh and the United Nations Development Programme organised the event at the Bangladesh-China Friendship Conference Centre in the capital Dhaka.
Lamiya Morshed, principal coordinator for SDG affairs of the Chief Adviser鈥檚 Office, Stefan Liller, resident representative of the UNDP, and Reto Renggli, ambassador of Switzerland to Bangladesh, also participated in the dialogue.
Debapriya, also a distinguished fellow of local think-tank Centre for Policy Dialogue, said that the main takeaways from the dialogue participated by many representing the backward sections of people was that somebody was ignored when he or she was measured.
He said that the backward sections of people should not accept election manifestos of the political parties unless those reflected the needs of education, health and economy of them.
Criticising the interim government for its gap between promise on reform and implementation, he said that change in the government did not mean change in governance.
He noted that the backward sections of people were still facing discrimination due to structural problems.
The dialogue began with the introductory remarks by Mustafizur Rahman, a core group member of the Citizen鈥檚 Platform, and also a distinguished fellow of the CPD.
CPD senior research fellow Towfiqul Islam Khan gave an overview presentation.
Lamiya in her speech said that the previous political regime did not show actual condition of the country鈥檚 overall development.
Observing that children, people with disabilities, national minorities, dalit and women are facing problems, she said that there were a lot of challenges to overcome those.
She hoped that the next report on SDGs would provide factual data on the voluntary national review.