Speakers at a consultation yesterday agreed to monitor closely the policies, projects and programmes of the Asian Development Bank (ADB) in Bangladesh.
They evaluated the recently drafted national action plan on climate change, says a press release.
The national action plan was drafted without any public participation especially the vulnerable communities.
The daylong consultation on 'Environment and Climate Change: Role of the ADB in Bangladesh' held at the auditorium of Campaign for Popular Education (Campe) in the city was attended by nearly 40 representatives from NGOs, civil society organisations, academicians, journalists and human rights activists.
The speakers demanded that international financial institutions (IFIs) and northern multinational companies should shed the climate hypocrisy if they want to consider impacts of climate change on people.
The event was organised by VOICE, a research and advocacy organisation based in Dhaka, and Manila-based NGO Forum on ADB, an international civil society network.
While inaugurating the consultation, Ahmed Swapan, executive director of VOICE, said that the climate change issue is related with neo-liberal economic policies pushed by northern donors and international financial institutions especially ADB.
He said that the transnational companies are the major culprits of the climate change.
While explaining the role of ADB in Bangladesh, Dr Avilash Roul of NGO Forum on ADB said that ADB must consider or review its future investment in energy and transport sector in Bangladesh to avoid its hypocrisy on climate change.
So far the ADB has lent the largest amount in the energy sector followed by transport and communication sectors in Bangladesh.
Roul also said that the ADB has not at all made the climate impact component prior to designing any projects in Bangladesh.
Waheeda Bashar Ahmed from Action Aid-Bangladesh suggested that any climate change strategy must involve vulnerable groups concern, which can't be compromised or negotiable.
Ziaul Haque Mukta, coordinator of Oxfam-International, Asgar Ali Sabri from ActionAid Bangladesh, Iqbal Hossain from Save the Children-UK, Md Hilaluddin from Angikar Bangladesh, Hosne Ara from VSO International, Zakir Hossain from Nagorik Uddog, Sajjad Ansari from In Search of Light, Shawkat Ali from SHARP, Abdul Jalil from CDP, Remuna Nurain from Bela and Hasan Mehedi from Humanity Watch also spoke on the occasion.
The consultation detailed out short-term and long-term strategies to work on climate change. There has been a strategy to bring media into the strategy on climate change in more concrete way.