PM's empowerment model to lift billions

Foreign Minister Dr Dipu Moni, centre, speaks at a national consultation preparatory to the “International Conference on People's Empowerment and Development Model" in Cirdap auditorium in the capital yesterday. Photo: PID

The “People's Empowerment and Development Model”, proposed by the prime minister, aims at empowering billions of voiceless, marginalised and deprived people worldwide, said Foreign Minister Dipu Moni yesterday.
She was delivering her keynote speech at the national consultations preparatory to the “International Conference on People's Empowerment and Development Model” in Cirdap auditorium in the capital.
The UN General Assembly adopted the model after Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina proposed it in the assembly's 66th session.
“Any empowerment model which recognises that eradication of poverty and hunger, reducing inequality, mitigating deprivation and accelerating employment are essential for curbing extremism and terrorism must be on the right track towards human development,” she said.
Human development depended on education and the quality of life instead of solely relying on economic growth, stated a concept paper, “Accelerating Human Development”, on the model.
The paper's statistics stated that teaching staff numbers reached 13.57 percent at Bangladeshi universities while student enrolment at tertiary level increased by 3.51 percent between 1990 and 2010.
The paper, presented by Dr ATM Zahurul Huq, former chairman of University Grants Commission, also stated a rise in human development, primary and secondary school entrants, life expectancy, per capita income and literacy rate.
The lack of literacy, poverty and healthcare are the security threats of developing countries, not armed attacks, said Prime Minister's International Affairs Adviser Dr Gowher Rizvi, addressing as chief guest at the consultation's concluding session.
On eliminating terrorism, Farooq Sobhan, president of Bangladesh Enterprise Institute, said, “It is important to analyse why a terrorist becomes a terrorist.”
Militancy preys on deprived and aggrieved people and therefore eradication of poverty and hunger and reduction of social inequality are essential for human development, said the speakers.
The issue of efficient water management also came up in the myriad of topics discussed at the consultations, including eradication of hunger and poverty, creating employment, reducing social inequality and deprivation, and accelerating human development.
Discussants at the consultation included Foreign Secretary Mijarul Quayes, PM's advisers HT Imam and Dr Mudassar Ali, Principal Secretary to the PM Shaikh Md Wahid-uz-Zaman, Foreign Ministry Director General (UN) Saida Muna Tasneem, Cabinet Secretary Mosharraf Hossain Bhuiyan, Planning Commission member Dr MA Sattar Mandal, Senior Home Secretary CQK Mostak, Armed Forces Division Principal Staff Officer Lt Gen Abdul Wadud, Home Ministry Additional Secretary Kamaluddin Ahmed, Dhaka University Prof Amena Mohsin, Development of Biotechnology Environmental Conservation Executive Director Dr Ferdousi Begum and Bangladesh Agricultural Research Council Chairman Dr Wais Kabir.