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| Muhammad Yunus, Nobel Lecture, Oslo, December 10, 2006 (http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/peace/laureates/2006/yunus-lecture-en.html) . |
| “Poverty is a Threat to Peace” |
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| Current Hot Topics / Features |
| Bangladesh Awakening IFPRI film produced for the Bangladesh Food Security Investment Forum 2010. |
| Southern Promise IFPRI video produced for the Bangladesh Food Security Policy Workshop (Oct. 4-5, 2011). |
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| Welcome to Bangladesh Movie documentary provided by & copyright of: 1We - One World Experience |
| Easy Like Water A visionary architect is building floating schools to turn the front lines of climate change into a community of learning. |
September 9, 2018: Development without democracy is not sustainable
A Roundtable on “Development, Democracy and Good Governance” organized by The Dhaka
Forum (TDF), a non-political platform of cross-section citizens, lamented the gap between
development and democracy in Bangladesh. Speakers, including economists, former
bureaucrats, political scientists and good-governance campaigners, stressed the need for
strengthening the rule of law in the country and making the government institutions accountable
to achieve prosperity.
LEARN MORE --->
______________________________________________________________________
August 13, 2018: Original Plans for Express Bus Route Slashed
As reported by Tawfique Ali in the Daily Star, only 10 km of the originally planned 22 km Bus
Rapid Transit will be possible, and even those 10 km will not be finished before 2024. The rapid
bus service was much touted as a way to ease the capital's chronic traffic congestion. The
changed plans are mainly due to arbitrarily built flyovers, which block its proposed route, said
officials and transport experts.
LEARN MORE --->
______________________________________________________________________
August 8, 2018: UN wants tangible progress to improve conditions in Rakhine
The UNHCR (the UN refugee agency) and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP)
urged Myanmar authorities on August 8, 2018, to make tangible progress to improve conditions
in Rakhine State. The call came within two months of the signing of the tripartite Memorandum
of Understanding (MoU) between UNHCR, UNDP, and the government of Myanmar. In a joint
statement, the UN agencies said the Myanmar government's willingness to take the lead in the
implementation of this agreement is critical to creating conditions conducive for the voluntary,
safe, dignified, and sustainable return of Rohingya refugees.
LEARN MORE --->
______________________________________________________________________
July 31, 2018: Protests after a bus ploughed into a group of college students
Followed the death of two students on July 29, 2018, when a bus ploughed into a group of
college students waiting for transport on the Airport Road, student protest spread all over
Dhaka on July 31, 2018 (the third day of protests). Students staged roadblocks and sit-ins at
several major points. The protests appeared to be spontaneous and disorganized, and the
students did not appear to have any spokespersons or leadership.
LEARN MORE --->
______________________________________________________________________
Bangladesh development conference planned for March 2019 at Yale University
Bangladesh Development Initiative (BDI) is organizing an international conference to focus on
contemporary and relevant topics in Bangladesh today and in the next 30 years. Hosted in
partnership with Yale University’s South Asian Studies Council, the conference is scheduled for
March 22–24, 2019. All scholars and researchers are invited to submit extended
abstracts/papers and/or ideas for panels broadly related to the conference theme.
LEARN MORE --->
______________________________________________________________________
May 31, 2018: Tobacco 4th leading cause of deaths in Bangladesh
As reported by Manzur H. Maswood in NEW AGE, every year, more than 161,200 people of
Bangladesh are killed by tobacco-caused diseases, according to The Tobacco Atlas. Since
2005, tobacco remained the fourth leading cause of deaths and diseases in the country,
according to the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation, a Washington-based global health
research institute. The economic cost of tobacco use in the form of loss of productivity and
direct healthcare costs of smoking-related illness in the country is around US$1.9 billion or 1.4
per cent of Bangladesh’s GDP, according to an estimation of the World Health Organization.
LEARN MORE --->
______________________________________________________________________
May 13, 2018: SpaceX launches first satellite for Bangladesh
As reported by Marcia Dunn (Associated Press) in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, SpaceX lifted
Bangladesh’s first satellite into orbit on Friday, May 11, 2018, using an upgraded rocket
designed for dozens of repeat flights, including back-to-back, same-day launches. The rocket
soared from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida, into a hazy afternoon
sky, carrying a communication satellite named Bangabandhu-1, after the founding father of
Bangladesh.
LEARN MORE --->
______________________________________________________________________
Rana Plaza, five years on: safety of workers hangs in balance in Bangladesh
On April 24, 2018 (five years after the Rana Plaza building collapsed and killed 1,134 people),
the Guardian reporters Michael Safi and Dominic Rushe write that progress has been made but
fire safety initiatives are soon to end, unions are being stifled and wages are still the lowest in
the world.
LEARN MORE --->
______________________________________________________________________
April 7, 2018: China can play a significant role in supporting regional and sub-regional
cooperation initiatives
In an exclusive interview, Farooq Sobhan, President of the Bangladesh Enterprise Institute, told
Xinhua that major Chinese foreign policy initiatives seek to establish a win-win relationship
among the countries in the region and beyond. Trade facilitation, joint-venture mega
infrastructure projects, supported by the Belt and Road Initiative, can change the face of Asia
and can help eliminate poverty from the region.
LEARN MORE --->
______________________________________________________________________
March 16, 2018: Bangladesh has met criteria for graduation from the group of least-
developed countries (LDCs)
As reported by the Dhaka Tribune, the United Nations Committee for Development Policy (CDP)
announced on March 16, 2018, that Bangladesh has met all three criteria for graduation from
the group of least-developed countries (LDCs) to the developing one. The UN Committee
determines the graduation of a least developed country from the LDC category on the basis of
its meeting at least two of the three criteria: Gross National Income (GNI) per capita, Human
Asset Index (HAI), and Economic Vulnerability Index (EVI).
LEARN MORE --->
______________________________________________________________________
Previous Hot Topics
A Roundtable on “Development, Democracy and Good Governance” organized by The Dhaka
Forum (TDF), a non-political platform of cross-section citizens, lamented the gap between
development and democracy in Bangladesh. Speakers, including economists, former
bureaucrats, political scientists and good-governance campaigners, stressed the need for
strengthening the rule of law in the country and making the government institutions accountable
to achieve prosperity.
LEARN MORE --->
______________________________________________________________________
August 13, 2018: Original Plans for Express Bus Route Slashed
As reported by Tawfique Ali in the Daily Star, only 10 km of the originally planned 22 km Bus
Rapid Transit will be possible, and even those 10 km will not be finished before 2024. The rapid
bus service was much touted as a way to ease the capital's chronic traffic congestion. The
changed plans are mainly due to arbitrarily built flyovers, which block its proposed route, said
officials and transport experts.
LEARN MORE --->
______________________________________________________________________
August 8, 2018: UN wants tangible progress to improve conditions in Rakhine
The UNHCR (the UN refugee agency) and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP)
urged Myanmar authorities on August 8, 2018, to make tangible progress to improve conditions
in Rakhine State. The call came within two months of the signing of the tripartite Memorandum
of Understanding (MoU) between UNHCR, UNDP, and the government of Myanmar. In a joint
statement, the UN agencies said the Myanmar government's willingness to take the lead in the
implementation of this agreement is critical to creating conditions conducive for the voluntary,
safe, dignified, and sustainable return of Rohingya refugees.
LEARN MORE --->
______________________________________________________________________
July 31, 2018: Protests after a bus ploughed into a group of college students
Followed the death of two students on July 29, 2018, when a bus ploughed into a group of
college students waiting for transport on the Airport Road, student protest spread all over
Dhaka on July 31, 2018 (the third day of protests). Students staged roadblocks and sit-ins at
several major points. The protests appeared to be spontaneous and disorganized, and the
students did not appear to have any spokespersons or leadership.
LEARN MORE --->
______________________________________________________________________
Bangladesh development conference planned for March 2019 at Yale University
Bangladesh Development Initiative (BDI) is organizing an international conference to focus on
contemporary and relevant topics in Bangladesh today and in the next 30 years. Hosted in
partnership with Yale University’s South Asian Studies Council, the conference is scheduled for
March 22–24, 2019. All scholars and researchers are invited to submit extended
abstracts/papers and/or ideas for panels broadly related to the conference theme.
LEARN MORE --->
______________________________________________________________________
May 31, 2018: Tobacco 4th leading cause of deaths in Bangladesh
As reported by Manzur H. Maswood in NEW AGE, every year, more than 161,200 people of
Bangladesh are killed by tobacco-caused diseases, according to The Tobacco Atlas. Since
2005, tobacco remained the fourth leading cause of deaths and diseases in the country,
according to the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation, a Washington-based global health
research institute. The economic cost of tobacco use in the form of loss of productivity and
direct healthcare costs of smoking-related illness in the country is around US$1.9 billion or 1.4
per cent of Bangladesh’s GDP, according to an estimation of the World Health Organization.
LEARN MORE --->
______________________________________________________________________
May 13, 2018: SpaceX launches first satellite for Bangladesh
As reported by Marcia Dunn (Associated Press) in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, SpaceX lifted
Bangladesh’s first satellite into orbit on Friday, May 11, 2018, using an upgraded rocket
designed for dozens of repeat flights, including back-to-back, same-day launches. The rocket
soared from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida, into a hazy afternoon
sky, carrying a communication satellite named Bangabandhu-1, after the founding father of
Bangladesh.
LEARN MORE --->
______________________________________________________________________
Rana Plaza, five years on: safety of workers hangs in balance in Bangladesh
On April 24, 2018 (five years after the Rana Plaza building collapsed and killed 1,134 people),
the Guardian reporters Michael Safi and Dominic Rushe write that progress has been made but
fire safety initiatives are soon to end, unions are being stifled and wages are still the lowest in
the world.
LEARN MORE --->
______________________________________________________________________
April 7, 2018: China can play a significant role in supporting regional and sub-regional
cooperation initiatives
In an exclusive interview, Farooq Sobhan, President of the Bangladesh Enterprise Institute, told
Xinhua that major Chinese foreign policy initiatives seek to establish a win-win relationship
among the countries in the region and beyond. Trade facilitation, joint-venture mega
infrastructure projects, supported by the Belt and Road Initiative, can change the face of Asia
and can help eliminate poverty from the region.
LEARN MORE --->
______________________________________________________________________
March 16, 2018: Bangladesh has met criteria for graduation from the group of least-
developed countries (LDCs)
As reported by the Dhaka Tribune, the United Nations Committee for Development Policy (CDP)
announced on March 16, 2018, that Bangladesh has met all three criteria for graduation from
the group of least-developed countries (LDCs) to the developing one. The UN Committee
determines the graduation of a least developed country from the LDC category on the basis of
its meeting at least two of the three criteria: Gross National Income (GNI) per capita, Human
Asset Index (HAI), and Economic Vulnerability Index (EVI).
LEARN MORE --->
______________________________________________________________________
Previous Hot Topics