Citizen’s Platform in 2024: A Year of Change and Promise

The year 2024 will go down in the history of Bangladesh marking not only regime change but also creating new opportunities. Citizen’s Platform remains embedded in this process of transformation, continuing its collective action and civic engagement to translate these opportunities into meaningful reforms, particularly favouring the interests of the disadvantaged citizens and communities of the country.

Here, we share some of the activities that kept us busy throughout this year.

“Our Students were Shot with Guns Bought with Our Tax Money”

Image Source: 1 August 2024, The Financial Express

Dr Debapriya Bhattacharya, Convenor, Citizen’s Platform and the Core Group Members of the Citizen’s Platform, Dr Iftekharuzzaman, Ms Shaheen Anam and Professor Mustafizur Rahman, actively participated in public demonstrations demanding the release of students and citizens unjustly detained during the anti-discrimination students’ movement. This marked a significant step for the Citizen’s Platform, demonstrating its commitment to not only policy advocacy but also direct action in defending universal human rights.

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National Budget FY2024-25 Ignored the Concerns of the Disadvantaged Citizens

In 2024, Citizen’s Platform conducted a nationwide pre-budget survey to understand the socioeconomic needs and expectations of the marginalised communities. The Platform collected budget-related recommendations from its partner organisations and also public opinion through various digital platforms. Citizen’s Platform compiled the recommendations and public opinion and developed a set of recommendations based on those. The recommendations were presented at a dialogue on 5 May 2024. As a follow-up, budget 2024-25 was analysed with the LNOB lens and presented at a post-budget media briefing on 10 June 2024.

Change in Government Does Not Necessarily Mean Change in Governance

Citizen’s Platform wrapped up the year with a strong demand for institutional reforms to empower citizens, particularly to strengthen the voice, participation and agency of the marginalised communities for ensuring democratic governance and accountability. The Citizen’s Conference titled ‘People-centric Reform for Good Governance: Aspirations of Disadvantaged Communities’, aimed to develop a governance model prioritising transparency, accountability, and inclusivity. Participants from issue experts, civil society actors, and disadvantaged communities shared their aspirations for a society that guarantees their rights, equality, and agency.

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The Ongoing Reform Process Must Reflect the Voices of LNOBs

The present government, emerging from a student-citizen uprising, has inherited an economy burdened with structural challenges, rising inequalities, and a lack of distributive justice. These had significant adverse implications for public finance management, external balance sustainability, and the human development status of disadvantaged communities. To address these challenges, the Interim Government established a 12-member committee on 29 August 2024 to prepare a White Paper on State of the Bangladesh Economy. The task was to be completed in three months.

Citizen’s Platform and its partner organisations played a pivotal role in mobilising grassroots voices as inputs to the work of the White Paper Committee, ensuring that diverse perspectives were reflected in the report the committee were preparing.  The committee incorporated the perspectives of the disadvantaged groups in the White Paper drawing upon the input provided by these groups. Indeed, insights and perspectives received from three public hearings held in Sylhet, Chattogram and Rajshahi have significantly shaped the development of the White Paper.

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High-Level Committee is Required to Reform Bangladesh’s Technical Education System

Bangladesh’s technical education faces a host of challenges including outdated curricula, inadequate facilities, and a shortage of skilled instructors. Findings from social audits conducted by CPD, in collaboration with Citizen’ s Platform and Eco-Social Development Organization (ESDO), in Panchagarh, Sunamganj, and Satkhira reveal a disconnect between training programmes and job market demands. It highlighted that 63 per cent of former TVET students earn less than BDT 10,000 per month. Societal stigma and lack of a centralised student database exacerbate the situation. Learnings from the local levels were later shared at a national conference.

VNR Should be a Proper National Document Not a Government Review Only

SDG review and Bangladesh’s VNR report 2025 could provide a good opportunity for assessing Bangladesh’s development track record. The period following ‘July-August Uprising’ presented an opportunity to rethink the traditional VNR process that tended to be more ‘government-centric’ rather than truly ‘national.’  Citizen’s Platform, through its year-long policy engagements, is continuing its efforts to ensure that disaggregated LNOB perspectives and concerns are reflected in Bangladesh’s VNR 2025. The Principal Coordinator for SDG Affairs also welcomed the initiative of the Citizen’s Platform to review the 17 Goals in collaboration with its partner organisations. To date, 43 organisations have joined the Citizen’s Platform to take forward this initiative.

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Citizen’s Platform’s Convenor at the United Nations As the ‘Pact for the Future’ is Adopted

On 22 September 2024, Dr Debapriya Bhattacharya, Convenor of Citizen’s Platform led the Bangladesh Government delegation as the Pact for the Future was adopted by the United Nations General Assembly.

Year-long Consultations and Meetings on Civic Space and Policy Activism

Throughout 2024, Citizen’s Platform continued its consultation process with key stakeholders – international development partners (31 January, 4 June and 03 December), private sector leaders (21 January), Core Group (15 January, 13 August), Partner Organisations and Supporters (17 January, 18 January, 11 March, 20 March, 14 August, 17 August, 17 October and 12 November). Also, a multi-stakeholder discussion on ‘Adaptive Practices of CSOs in Challenging Times’ was held on 4 March 2024. These consultations were crucial in designing, strategising and delivering the initiatives of the network in the backdrop of the evolving context of the country.

Civil Society Calls for Amendment to Dispute Resolution Board (Municipal Area) Act, 2004

To settle disputes at the municipal level, Citizens are required to go through court proceedings which takes an inordinate amount of time. They are more interested in resolving disputes through local government institutions instead of the court. If the law is suitably reformed, particularly the poor and the women stand to be benefited. In this regard, representatives of the Civil Society called for an Amendment to the Dispute Resolution (Municipal Area) Board Act, 2004 which would strengthen the local institutions and provide a faster and better service to the marginalised people at the local level.

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Knowledge Products by Citizen’s Platform Published from an International Publishing House

As part of its commitment to advancing knowledge and fostering meaningful discourse, Citizen’s Platform was proud to have its significant works published by Routledge this year. COVID-19 and Bangladesh: Inclusion, Disaggregation and Transition presents a comprehensive analysis of the socio-economic repercussions of the pandemic, particularly for the disadvantaged communities in Bangladesh. It delves into their coping mechanisms and identifies the broader implications for the nation’s development goals.

Available for free on Routledge’s open-source platform, this book is a rich resource material for policymakers, academics, and practitioners engaged in health and societal studies in Asia and across the Global South.

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Citizen’s Platform’s Policy Brief Series Towards a Different Bangladesh

In 2024, Citizen’s Platform published 11 Policy Briefs under the initiative “Citizen’s Agenda 2023: Towards a Different Bangladesh”. Through Countrywide interactions with spokespersons of key stakeholder groups, from 2022 to 2023, Citizen’s Platform identified 11 themes that called for urgent attention for immediate actions. Each of the Policy Briefs in the series has been prepared by a dedicated team of experts of high national and international repute.

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Networking, Outreach and Digital Presence

In 2024, Citizen’s Platform welcomed 16 new partner organisations, bringing the total to 150. During this period, all national dialogues and conferences were live-streamed on Citizen’s Platform’s Facebook, YouTube, and LinkedIn pages, attracting over 15,728 digital viewers. Additionally, more than 3,000+ participants attended these events in person, including over 1,500+ representatives from left-behind communities.

Citizen’s Platform has significantly expanded its digital presence, with an increase of 5,550 subscribers on YouTube, 1,271 followers on LinkedIn, and a growing engagement on Facebook with 28,684 followers. Amid a changing national context and evolving civic responsibilities, Citizen’s Platform remains steadfast in amplifying voices, advancing interests, and advocating for the rights of the disadvantaged citizens and communities across Bangladesh.

Programme Partners of 2024

Citizen’s Platform extends sincere gratitude for the unwavering support it has received from 88 organisations who joined us in our journey in 2024.

We wish all our partners and well-wishers a very successful and rewarding 2025.

Network Focal Point
Tarannum Jinan
tarannum@bdplatform4sdgs.net

Issue Editor
Rifat Bin Aowlad

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