The White Paper Committee members in October 2024, interacted with over eight hundred people at public hearings in Sylhet, Chittagong and Rajshahi. As is known, the White Paper Committee has been constituted by the Interim Government of Bangladesh to assess the state of the economy. The hearings were designed to solicit stakeholders’ perspectives, especially those of the “left behind” communities, regarding current economic challenges.

These dynamic public hearings, organised in collaboration with Citizen’s Platform for SDGs, Bangladesh witnessed the active engagements of social workers, human rights activists, teachers, entrepreneurs and business people, labour leaders and private development workers as well as leaders of different professional groups including journalists from the respective districts. Many of the participants opined that a sense of discomfort still prevails concerning free speech.

Key Messages

Public Hearing in Sylhet [October 2, 2024] suggested that in Bangladesh, over the last decade, bureaucrats have increasingly become politicians, while politicians have become businessmen. This has generated apprehension and mistrust about the system as a whole.

Public Hearing in Chittagong [October 5, 2024] revealed that citizens are worried that new “syndicates” may replace the old ones. It was also evident that all offices of the state viz. legislative, judiciary and executives have become embroiled in corruption. The discussion highlighted concerns about the appropriateness and efficacy of mega projects which have often been developed without inputs from local stakeholders.

Public Hearing in Rajshahi [October 9, 2024] exposed a unified sentiment emphasising that meaningful reforms cannot be achieved without addressing the problem of systemic corruption. This event underscored the critical importance of holding fair national and local elections to tackle structural challenges of development on a sustained basis.

Chair of the White Paper Committee, , Distinguished Fellow, Centre for Policy Dialogue (CPD) and Convenor of the Citizen’s Platform for SDGs, Bangladesh chaired all three public hearings. Distinguished members of the White Paper Committee, along with the Technical Support Team, joined the events.