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Consultations on nat'l policy review from April 26

STAFF CORRESPONDENT
Fresh grassroots consultations will start on April 26, 2003 under the Citizen's Initiative to review the recommendations made by the 16 task forces formed prior to election 2001.
The recommendations of the task forces were prepared through six regional consultations and later SEE PAGE 11 COL 7 FROM PAGE 1
finalised at a National Forum held in October 2001.
A meeting of the chairpersons and member secretaries of the task forces, held on January 14, 2003 at the Centre for Policy Dialogue (CPD) with Professor Rehman Sobhan in the chair, decided to undertake a new initiative to review the recommendations.
Two years after the elections, the task forces have been reconstituted to review the initiatives taken by the government to implement the recommendations of policy briefs prepared by the task forces before the election.
The newly constituted 17 task forces are on trade policy, financial sector, transport, education policy, information and communication technology, gender equality and women's empowerment, budgetary discipline and fiscal programmes, development and governance of the energy sector, administrative reforms, urban governance, rural economy, agriculture and non-farm activities, poverty eradication and employment generation, health and population policy, environmental policy, corruption, democratic process, and industrial policy.
Members of the task forces, numbering 215, include eminent specialists, business leaders and representatives from civil society and grassroots organisations. Till now
these task forces have met in about 40 meetings to discuss the draft task force reports.
The CPD, the Prothom Alo and The Daily Star have supported this national initiative and are facilitating the consultation process. The first dialogue on foreign trade, financial sector and transport will be held in Chittagong followed by consultations in Sylhet, Rajshahi, Barisal, Dhaka, Mymensingh, Narayanganj and Khulna.
Local elected representatives, civil society leaders, grassroots organisations, specialists and journalists will participate in these regional consultations where the various draft task force reports would be presented.
The policy review initiative is aimed to provide an opportunity to the civil society to voice its concerns and interests. It is also expected to help the government to make mid-course corrections and take up new initiatives.
The completion of the regional consultations will be followed by a National Policy Review Forum 2003 on June 3-5, 2003 on the eve of the presentation of the national budget for 2003-2004. The national forum will finalise the final recommendations of the task forces.
National Policy Review Forum 2003
Organised by the Centre for Policy Dialogue (CPD) in association with the Prothom Alo and The Daily Star