The Institute of Governance Studies (IGS), BRAC University in collaboration with Central Procurement Technical Unit (CPTU) of the Government of Bangladesh and UK based the Chartered Institute of Purchasing and Supply (CIPS), designed a comprehensive course on procurement for the government officers of Bangladesh.
Being part of this program, IGS will be delivering the CIPS programmes in Bangladesh, with the first group of 20 participants in 4 July, 2010. IGS and CIPS in this regard have arranged ToT from 11-19 June at the JATRI venue at Karwan Bazar, Dhaka. This one week extensive training workshop covered five important modules at level-4 diploma on purchasing and supply issues. Initially twenty six participants attended the training program. After a rigorous test and evaluation process twenty trainees have been finally selected for delivering lectures for the CIPS Level four courses in Bangladesh.
IGS conducted a pilot study in June 2010 on the Local Governance Support Project (LGSP) of LGD, Ministry of LGRD & Cooperatives titled, “Community Awareness and Participation in LGSP”. The government implementing 5-year (Jul. 2006 – Jun. 2011) LGSP project in all 4498 unions in phase by funding direct bloc grants to union parishads aiming decentralization of power by ensuring peoples participation. IGS studied the awareness of people about the project, quality, extent of participation, leadership and management, transparency in the process, information disclosure, outcomes, challenges and way forward for the project. During the study, IGS conducted nine FGDs and eight in-depth key informant interviews with UP members and chairmen, cross-section of people, and civil society members in four unions under Naogaon district.
Journalism Training and Research Initiative (JATRI) of IGS organized a roundtable discussion titled ‘Role of Women in Local Governance from Media Perspective' on 13 June, 2010 at JATRI conference room. Ajoy Das Gupta, Chief, Editorial Section, The Daily Samakal presented a survey result which was conducted on elected women representatives of 329 upazilas among 481 upazilas of the country. Dr. Shirin Sharmin Chaudhury, Honorable State Minister, Ministry of Women and Children Affairs was present at the discussion as the chief guest and Dulal Chandra Biswas, Director General, Press Institute of Bangladesh (PIB) was present as the special guest. Addressing as the chief guest, Dr. Shirin Sharmin Chaudhury stressed the importance of women participation in local government. The program was moderated by noted media personality Muhammad Jahangir, and Jamil Ahmed, Head of Program, JATRI, inaugurated the session. Dr. Sanaul Mostofa, Director, BRAC School of Business, Moqbul Ahmed, Director NIMCO, Gazipur and Savar upazila vice-chairman Rina Parveen and Rokeya Haq also spoke at the roundtable. Journalists, academics, researchers, representatives from civil society also took part in the open discussion.
JATRI organized Training on Storytelling for women journalist from 21-23 June 2010 at JATRI training classroom, Karwan Bazar. Renowned journalists Muzammil Husain Monju, Editor, The Daily Adhinayak; Mohammad Sanaullah, Head of News and Program ABC Radio; along with Mir Masrurzaman, Joint News Editor, Channel—I, Zahid Reza Noor, Deputy Feature Editor, Prothom Alo and Zahid Hossain, Media Component Manager, PROGATI, facilitated the training course along with JATRI training team. The objective of the training course was to strengthen the quality of news writing/reports by the Bangladeshi media and introduce participants to alternative, more creative forms of storytelling that better engage readers, viewers and listeners. 21 Women Journalists working in print and broadcast media. Certificate giving ceremony held on 23 June 2010, Mr. Moazzem Hossain, Editor, The Daily Financial Express was the chief guest of the ceremony. Dr. Sanaul Mostafa, Director, BRAC Business School chaired the closing program.
JATRI conducted a Training Course on “IP Based Telecommunication System” on 28 June, 2010 at JATRI premises for the journalists who covers telecommunications beat. The objective of the workshop was to discuss the Internet Protocols System which is the most disserving issue in the telecommunication arena. Technical Specialists on latest IP communications Mr. Sumon Ahmed Sabir, Managing Director, BDCOM Online Ltd. was present as the Lead Facilitator. The course used innovative methods and approaches, multimedia and hands on training. 20 mid and senior level journalists from print and broadcast media participated in the training course.
The Affiliated Network for Social Accountability in South Asia Region (ANSA-SA) based in IGS & the Global Partnership Fund (GPF) organized a workshop on 'Strengthening Monitoring and Evaluation for Good Governance and Social Accountability projects' in Jaipur, India from June 1-3, 2010. The workshop was hosted by CUTS International, a partner of ANSA. Around 40 delegates from eight countries participated in the workshop.
Director of IGS, Barrister Manzoor Hasan, visited Maldives from June 15-16 2010 in order to provide technical assistance to the Maldives government regarding their assessment on the compliance and gap analysis on the United Nations Convention against Corruption (UNCAC). During this period he provided methodological support from the experience of the Institute during such an assessment done by the government of Bangladesh and the Institute of Governance Studies jointly in 2007-2008.
The Director of IGS also visited Katmandu, Nepal on invitation from the Centre for Constitutional Dialogue (CCD) (Support to Participatory Constitution Building in Nepal - SPCBN), UNDP, from 20 to 24 June 2010. The purpose of the visit was to (I) participate as a resource person in a number of workshops organized by CCD (ii) meet with SPCBN staff on the future of CCD and (iii) review certain documents on Nepal’s transition towards a federal system of government.
The visit was organized in view of developing a longer term relationship between the Institute of Governance Studies and the CCD and identifying possible contributions to the process of transition and implementation of the new constitution and the establishment of a federal state structure.
