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Launch
Alert
13 November 2012
It has been more than four months since the Think Tank
Initiative (TTI) Exchange in Cape Town on 18-20 June
2012. You may recall that at Cape Town we had a number of
very interesting Roundtables on “Hot Topics” and one of them
had been on the theme “Post-MDG”. Twenty
participants of the “Post-MDG” Roundtable decided to take
the discussion forward by launching an initiative styled as
“Southern Voice on Post-MDG International Development
Goals”. CPD
was entasked to
prepare a Concept Note in this regard and explore funding to
underwrite the proposed initiative.
In view of the above, a proposal titled “Post-MDG (2015)
International Development Goals: Perspectives of the
Southern Think Tanks” was prepared and was submitted by CPD
(Bangladesh) to TTI seeking
support under its Matching Fund Facility. IPS (Colombo), CEDRES (Burkina
Faso), SPDC (Pakistan), IPAR (Senegal), REPOA (Tanzania)
and NCAER (India)
associated themselves with the submission of the proposal. We
are pleased to note that TTI has rated highly our
proposal on Southern Voice on Post-MDG and has agreed to
co-underwrite the first phase of the proposed programme with
Matching funds.
In order to take the initiative to the next level, we would
now need to develop an agenda and a work plan of the
“Southern Voice on Post-MDG”. To this end, an
Expert Group Meeting is being convened in Dhaka on 11-13
January 2013. Besides the interested members of the TTI
network, UN officials and a number of experts having
demonstrated expertise on MDG-related issues will be invited
to the meeting. The meeting will define the larger set of
works to be undertaken by the initiative and reflect on
funding possibilities for the fuller programme.
As a part of the preparation for the upcoming Dhaka EGM, a
Webinar has been arranged, with the support of TTI (using
WebEx), on 22 November 2012 at 6.30 am EST (Ottawa). At
the planned Webinar, Dr Bhattacharya will introduce the
concept and activities proposed under the “Southern Voice on
Post-MDG”, a high profile speaker will be invited to speak
on the subject. The Webinar will allow to announce our
initiative to a larger audience. An
advisory regarding participation at the Webinar will
be circulated soon.
In addition, TTI has offered to create a
virtual platform for
the participating think tanks on post-MDG issues and to
provide a mechanism of interaction among the engaged
participants. A dedicated
web page on the initiative is being constructed on CPD’s
website (www.cpd.org.bd).
The proposed Dhaka meeting in January 2013 can thereby
provide a chance for participants to identify key
requirements for the web platform for serving wider
interest.
You will soon be invited to send in papers and
publications (having relevance to the post-MDG debates)
that you and your institute have already worked on/are
working on currently. This could be the first activity of
this collaborative effort.
This is an opportunity to thank
all who have
enthusiastically participated in conceiving the programme at
the TTI Exchange in Cape Town including the TTI colleagues
for their contribution in mentoring the incipient process.
Gratitude is extended to CPD colleagues for their support
and cooperation in this regard.
We have already received many expectant queries about our
interesting initiative and the expectation is growing. What
is now necessary is to give substance to the “Southern
Voice” and make it louder.
Looking forward to your valuable contributions.
Debapriya
Bhattacharya, PhD
Distinguished
Fellow
Centre for
Policy Dialogue (CPD)
Tel/Fax: +8802
9134438
E-mail:
debapriya.bh@gmail.com
Website: www.cpd.org.bd |
