The key alphabet!
As a development professional working in the broad and key fields of Poverty Reduction and Rural/Agricultural Development for the last three decades, it has been a great pleasure for me to learn, share and work in association with major stakeholders including at least 25 overseas Professionals, Consultants and Expatriates in these lines. Undoubtedly, my learning has been immense and propitious and I was able to enrich my knowledge, expertise and professionalism significantly. Professionally I still have contact and communication with most of them electronically for obvious reason and quite often I read and review those professional exercises for both updating me and adapting to the current features of Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper (PRSP) aiming the set Millennium Development Goal (MDG) - an externally imposed Economic Strategy Plan for our agrarian economy devoicing peoples' participation.
However, during Eid holidays in order to recapitulate self professionalism, I have been reviewing my own reports and documents and found an interesting analysis on English alphabet 'P' illustrated by Ms Els Boerma, a Financial Analyst from The Netherlands with whom I worked for a month as Economist in the Bogra Metal Enterprise Development Project for Review, Evaluation and Impact Assessment to provide future directions of the financial support extended by the Royal Netherlands Government. This professional assignment was commissioned and fielded by the Royal Dutch Embassy in Dhaka in year 2000 and we were in Bogra for 11 days and stayed in Safe Way Motel. One evening during dinner the expatriate suddenly told me about the impetus of English alphabet 'P' in Bangladesh as follows and I was amazed to listen to her thematic connotations as she said in order of sequence of six 'P'.
P = You have a very big Population most of whom are:
P = Poor for both classified and unclassified reasons and for which you have--
P = Poverty as the national and priority problem and to redress it you have--
P = Policy/ Plan/ Programmes/ Projects aiming always--
P = Progress/ Prosperity for--
P = Posterity implying the future.
Appreciating her professional views and analysis of 'P', I asked her then why you and the donors support us in all aspects of our economic and social pursuits -- is it because we are Poor only and don't you have any interest at all? She remained mum for some minutes and later said it was a diplomatic question.
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