FAO Bangladesh organizes consultation on Zero Draft of Environment Country Investment Plan

17/05/2015

Around 120 officials from the Government, development partners and research institutes participated in the consultation on the Zero Draft of the Country Investment Plan (CIP) for Environment, Forestry and Climate Change (EFCC), organized by the USAID-funded project contributing to “Strengthening the Environment, Forestry and Climate Change Capacities of the Ministry of Environment and Forests and its Agencies”, and held at the Hotel Pan Pacific Sonargaon, Dhaka, on 11 May 2015. The CIP identifies investments needed in programmes for the environment, forestry and climate change in order to ensure national sustainable development. The CIP is at an early stage of preparation, and the Zero Draft defined an investment Goal, an underlying conceptual framework and the overall scope of investments. When completed, the CIP will include also a results framework that will allow the Government to monitor investment flows, needs and progress towards major EFCC policy objectives.

Mr Abdullah Al Mohsin Chowdhury welcomed everybody to take part in participatory dialogues on the Zero Draft of the CIP, calling it a logical and systematic way to approach environmental challenges. He thanked FAO and USAID for their guidance and encouragement and stressed the need for all participants to give freely of their experience to help the Government develop the Zero Draft over the coming months into a document that will have real impact on the investment in Bangladesh’s environment sector.

Ms Ramona M. EI Hamzaoui, Director, Economic Growth, USAID, explained the CIP as a road map to coordinate programmes protecting the environment through prevention of pollution, developing clean and renewable energy or addressing various threats spawning from climate change. She mentioned that this is the first CIP in the world that is working on environment, forestry and climate change. This CIP is tackling a complex challenge in trying to interlink policies (plans, frameworks, conventions) – investments (both development partners, and government’s own financial resources) – and results (better resources management, reduced pollution, improved climate resilience). “Bangladesh ranked #1 in the Climate Change Vulnerability Index 2014, and experts believe that Bangladesh is unfortunately looking at more suffering, more damage, than any other country from the impacts of climate change by 2025. Only practical and implementable approaches with strategic coordination and funding can help Bangladesh achieve environmental sustainability”, she concluded.

Mr David Doolan, Deputy FAO Representative, underlined the importance of engaging with experts at different stages of consultation to take the views from relevant stakeholders, both at national and local level. “FAO is here to facilitate the development of what will be an important tool for the Government, but it must be grounded in reality, implementable, practical, and effective to delivervalue to all the parties”, he said. Mr Doolan described this and future planned workshops as contributing to the wider understanding of the concept of ecosystem services, which underpins the CIP and are central to the wellbeing of the people of Bangladesh.

The Zero Draft of the CIP was presented by Dr. Shahin Yaqub, International Consultant, FAO. This focused on proposing a robustly defined investment Goal for the CIP, four pillars of investments to reach the Goal, and an explanation of the investment logic underlying the CIP. This was followed by a plenary discussion in which feedback on the ideas proposed in the Zero Draft were overwhelmingly positive.

Participants then divided into four groups to discuss in detail each of the proposed investment pillars in the CIP framework. The groups were facilitated by Mr Marco Boscolo, Forestry Officer, FAO, Mr Yasmi Yurdi, Forestry Officer, FAO Office for Asia and the Pacific, and Mr Shahin Yaqub International Consultant, FAO. Numerous specific suggestions and ideas for future development of the CIP were expressed. Overall, participants praised the focus of the CIP on improving the provision of ecosystem services as key to advancing sustainable development. The event was closed by Mr. Colin Holmes, Environment Officer, USAID, commending the enthusiasm and lively participation from those attending throughout the session.