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21/01/2024

Economic institutions in Bangladesh must prepare themselves to operate within a more competitive and rules-based global trading environment, Zaidi Sattar writes

In the 21st century, the Bangladesh economy has emerged as a force to be reckoned with. It is filled with workers, farmers and entrepreneurs determined to reach lofty heights. The people – the Bangladeshi citizens – are the country’s principal resource. Half the population is below 30 years of...

14/01/2024

A policy briefcase on information flow, along with a focus on carbon reduction, trade regime and local governance; complied by WhiteBoard Editorial

Bangladesh’s Information Ministry is the apex policy-making body on issues such as broadcasting, the press and films. It formulates a range of communication and media regulations. It disseminates information, media briefs and unclassified data to the public and the international community.

01/01/2024

Sustaining Bangladesh’s garments industry demands a long-term solution-driven strategy, Sulav Chowdhury writes

The clothing, or ready-made garment, industry in Bangladesh is a breadwinner for the country. It has undergone a remarkable evolution from traditional production to embracing cutting-edge technologies. It has gone through a process of trial and error, transitioning from handmade clothing to mass pro...

27/12/2023

Bangladesh does not have a choice but to decentralise, Ahmad Ahsan writes

The answer to the title’s question is no. Let’s keep in mind that Bangladesh is the eighth most populous country in the world. It is also among the most densely populated, with 170 million people. It is unlikely that it can continue its high-income status development journey under a highly centr...

21/12/2023

Given Bangladesh’s expanding mobile and internet coverage, now is the time to focus on these small pockets where the internet is weak, Rafsanul Hoque, Tanvir Ahmed Mozumder and Afsan Chowdhury write

Bangladesh is experiencing a surge in information availability. There is a growing array of info-sources in the country. Social media platforms, in particular, are skyrocketing in popularity. They are the go-to info hub for Bangladeshis, spanning topics from politics to food. In 2022, Meta (the pare...

20/12/2023

Policy-makers should ensure that renewable energy is accessible, and barriers to investment should be reduced or removed, Muhammad Shafiullah and Tirtha Das write

The energy sector is a crucial pillar of any country’s economic growth. It powers industries, lights households and fuels mobility. Bangladesh’s economy has expanded rapidly since the 2010s, and an upward energy demand has fuelled this growth. The energy sector’s influence cascades through the...

19/12/2023

Bangladesh’s public-private partnership experience has reflected key challenges for both government and private players, Arunima Dutta Aurni writes

Since the 2010s, Bangladesh’s socioeconomic landscape has transformed significantly. Because of its burgeoning youth demography, the country has prioritised technology and infrastructure to sustain its development.

17/12/2023

Our December issue features Ahmad Ahsan on pragmatic decentralisation, Aurni Dutta on PPP agenda, Ratan Kumar Roy and SM Shameem Reza on media landscape, Rafsanul Hoque, Tanvir Mozumder and Afsan Chowdhury on new media trends and more.

Start reading here: https://whiteboardmagazine.com/issue-14/

05/11/2023

The essence of Bangladesh's Constitution can be realised only when it can bring about positive changes in the lives of the disadvantaged population, Shirin Sharmin Chaudhury writes

10 Jan 1972 ushered in a new chapter in the history of Bangladesh. The glorious return of Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, freed from Pakistan prison, to the soil of independent, sovereign Bangladesh, marked the beginning of a new era. The very day after he returned, Mujib set out to deliver the n...

30/10/2023

Disability needs political representation, Rejaul Karim Siddiquee writes

Disability prevalence data varies dramatically in Bangladesh. This is because there is no reliable data tracking mechanism for disability. Bangladesh’s latest decadal census, from 2011, reported disability prevalence at 1.4%—of which 1.3% was female and 1.5% male. Meanwhile, the Global Disabilit...

26/10/2023

Bangladesh can reach for some low-hanging fruits, certain regulatory improvements, to enhance its competition regime, Leni Papa, Pierre Horna and Md Azhar Uddin Bhuiyan write

Bangladesh has been heralded as a model of economic development and poverty reduction. The driving force has been the concerted effort between its government and the people. Small businesses, collectively termed ‘cottage, micro, small and medium enterprises’ (CMSMEs), have been the bloodline of ...

22/10/2023

The foremost challenge for Bangladesh’s power sector lies in demand forecasting, Mohammad Tamim writes

Today’s global energy use is 10 times greater than that in the early 1900s, when wood, coal and animal power dominated. The world has found a much more efficient fuel in oil. The rapid transformation from coal to oil post-World War II did not happen because of a shortage of coal but as a result [....

16/10/2023

Bangladesh should incorporate ‘counter-wildlife trafficking’ into the syllabus for law enforcement agencies, legal professionals and relevant university programmes, Craig Fullstone, Samia Saif and Nasir Uddin write

Wildlife trafficking has been a long-standing issue for Bangladesh. Yet it is a crime no one is talking about. The crimes range from Bangladeshi pirates killing tigers in exchange for arms, to human trafficking gangs using wildlife products as currency to bribe foreign officials.

08/10/2023

A policy briefcase on reorienting youth-approach, along with a focus on diplomatic engagement and labour rights; compiled by WhiteBoard Editorial

Bangladesh formulated its revamped Youth Policy in 2018. The policy was first formulated in 1983. It focuses on leadership abilities and fosters progressive youth. It was formed by taking the country’s youth bulge into consideration. It is curated to mould the next generation in alignment with the...

03/10/2023

The issue of vulnerability of people above the poverty threshold is a serious point often left out in Bangladeshi policy discourse, Ishmam Rayan Haq writes

Let’s start with understanding sufficientarianism. This is an idea related to distributive justice. Sufficientarian justice aims to make sure each of us has enough, establishing a threshold of sufficiency for basic needs. According to American political economist John Roemer, it is ‘the doctrine...

01/10/2023

A diplomatic protection law will allow Bangladesh to better regulate the conduct of foreign diplomatic agents in the country, Kawser Ahmed writes

To be able to analyse the international diplomatic relations of today, one needs to revisit the Cold War era of the 1960s. The Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties, popularly known as the VCLT, was adopted in 1969. It establishes principles for treaty formation, interpretation and termination, p...

30/09/2023

Bangladesh should look to the future and integrate the Commonwealth into its long-term foreign policy thinking, Sam Bidwell and Umran Chowdhury write

The Commonwealth is an association of 56 member countries, most of which are former territories of the British Empire. It is an intriguing paradox in the world. It is, often rightfully, asked whether the Commonwealth has delivered value to its member countries, and how it can continue to maintain it...

29/09/2023

Bangladesh should use international law as a practical tool to address climate change mitigation, Moin Ghani writes

Bangladesh is one of the most vulnerable states to climate change. It faces severe adverse weather conditions such as catastrophic cyclones, flash floods, increased salinity and unprecedented heatwaves. Despite its minimal contribution to global greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, of about 0.4%, Banglad...

26/09/2023

Bangladesh’s youth-related policies should promote the active inclusion of youth from all spheres of life, including in policy dialogue and parliamentary sessions, Rehnuma Karim writes

Adolescents make up a significant share of Bangladesh’s population. This age demography has created a ‘youth bulge’ in the country’s population pyramid. Those in the youth bulge will soon step into adulthood and contribute to the country’s development process at all levels. This makes Bang...

21/09/2023

Bangladeshi policy-makers should consider designing programmes that take into account individuals, families and communities to facilitate shifts in societal norms, Suruchi Sood and Astha Ramaiya write

According to a 2020 report by the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), globally around 20% of girls were married before the age of 18. South Asia alone accounts for 45% of these child marriages. UNICEF’s State of the World’s Children 2021 shows that around 51% of Bangladeshi girls were mar...

20/09/2023

It is high time for Bangladesh to adopt a gender-inclusive economy-wide wage policy with a minimum wage in different sectors, Syed Saad Hussain Gillani and Nazmul Avi Hossain write

2026 will be a watershed year for Bangladesh. This is when the country will graduate from the United Nations least developed countries list. In this endeavour, Bangladesh is focusing on socioeconomic policies as integral components of its development agenda. To address perennial issues of poverty, e...

17/09/2023

Our September issue features Rehnuma Karim on youth-engagement, Suruchi Sood and Astha Ramaiya on countering child marriage, Nazmul Avi Hossain and Syed Saad Hussain Gillani on labour market institutions, Sam Bidwell and Umran Chowdhury on a deal in The Commonwealth and more.

Start reading here: https://whiteboardmagazine.com/issue-13/

15/09/2023

Bangladesh needs to constitutionally recognise the special status of all its ethnic communities, Mohammad Shahabuddin writes

Let’s first unpack the notion of ‘ethnic’ in ethnic minorities. The term derives from the Greek word ethnos. The ancient Greeks generally used genos for the Greeks themselves in a restricted kinship sense. They used the term ethnos for the non-Greek ‘others.’

29/08/2023

Bangladesh would do well to study the link between WASH and VAW, Lua Yun Xin and Muhammad Shafiullah write

‘You just need to bear it,’ Salma’s parents told her when she sought to escape from physical abuse in her marital home. The social pressure Salma faced to not report the abuse she endured is alarmingly common in Bangladesh. In fact, almost three in four Bangladeshi women have experienced diffe...

27/08/2023

Ecosystems of advice as a conceptual framework need to be developed to understand Bangladesh’s local economic development, David Lewis and Rebecca Bowers write

What does ‘advice’ mean when it comes to the private sector, and more specifically small businesses? Advice can be crucial in driving an economy forward. In a growing country like Bangladesh, advice can contribute to local economic development. Unfortunately, advice for those leading small busin...

20/08/2023

Bangladesh’s development challenges and its drivers of development are both evolving at the same time, Sudipto Mukerjee, Robert Simpson, Tuomo Poutiainen and Subhra Bhattacharjee write

In November 2021, the Government of Bangladesh and the United Nations co-signed an important policy document: the United Nations Sustainable Development Cooperation Framework 2022–2026 (the CF for short). This was the culmination of a process that had begun nearly 10 months before. The outbreak of...

14/08/2023

For Bangladesh, tariff reforms will be critical to its trade policy, Zaidi Sattar writes

In the 21st century, the Bangladesh economy has emerged as a force to be reckoned with. It is filled with workers, farmers and entrepreneurs determined to reach lofty heights. The people – the Bangladeshi citizens – are the country’s principal resource. Half the population is below 30 years of...

10/08/2023

Bangladesh’s foreign policy has charted a course in the realm of foreign policy that has adhered remarkably to Mujib’s worldview, Mahmood Ali and Tahseen Ali write

As Bangladesh prepares to celebrate the birth centenary of Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, the revered founding father of the country, and as this youngest of the three post-Raj sub-continental nation-states approaches 50 years of independence, it is worth recounting the foreign policy vision of....

03/08/2023

Bangladeshi authorities can simply re-envision migration, Asif Munier writes

The title of this article is inspired by American author John Steinbeck’s famous novel Of Mice and Men. The plot of this novella captures the thesis for this piece. The two men in Steinbeck’s novella were migrant ranch workers, although from a different era, situated in a part of the world far a...

27/07/2023

Bangladesh can bridge the gap in human resources by formalising training and monitoring of unregulated health professionals, bringing them into the mainstream health system, Maliha Mannan writes

In an emerging economy, the increasing demand for medical services means innovation has to align with living standards and affordability. Bangladesh’s policy agenda follows its long-term goal of becoming an advanced economy by 2041, with health as a cross-cutting goal. The country’s five-year He...