Campaign 2007

On 18 December 2007 COAST Trust and Equity and Justice Working Group jointly organized a press conference on "Commercialization of Climate in UN Climate Conference in Bali and Ignoring the interest of LDCs " at reporters Unity, Dhaka. In this Press conference COAST and EJWG has present there position paper on review of Bali conference on climate change .
Md. Shamsuddoha, Secretary General of Equity & Justice Working Group (EJWG) presented the key note paper and Mr. Rezaul Karim Chowdhury Executive Director, COAST Trust and Convener of EJWG moderated the conference. Mr. Shahdat Islam Chowdury(Mintu) ,Mustofa Kamal member of EJWG and Director of DCI Fakrul Ferdos was present there on the conference.

Salauddin Bablu senior reporter of The Daily Inquilab , Tanim Ahmed Assistant Editor New Age, Jhumur Bari of ETV who were covering the Bali conference at Indonesia and Mr. Amanur Rahman of Action Aid were presnt in the press conference and shared their experiences.

Download the Position Paper, Press release, Media Coverage and Photos.

Download the audio of FM Radio: Liston an exclusive interview with  RadioToday about Bali UN Climate Change Conferenc of Mr. Rezaul Karim Chowdhury .
Online Media Coverage:

COAST Trust and Equity and Justice Working Group organized Jointly a press conference on  inauguration of a new  Booklet for " Climate Change impact and Disaster Vulnerabilities in the Coastal Areas of Bangladesh " at reporters unit, dhaka. Dr. Ibrahim, Dr. tofayl Ahammed, Dr. Fardusi Begum inauguration the book .

In this Press conference COAST and EJWG has present there position paper on climate change impact , there demands and some recommendation. Member of Equity & Justice Working Group AHM Bazlur Rahman presented the key note paper.

Download the Bali Declaration on international Financial Institution, Booklet , Position Paper, Press release, Media Coverage and Photos.

At afternoon: A Humain Chain is organize by EJWG and COAST font of National Parliament House. ( click on image to view in large)

Please Click on link below to view the interview of  Rezaul Karim Chowdhury Executive Director, COAST Trust and Convener of Equity & Justice Working Group and member of the GCAP-Bangladesh coalition with  Business Mirror, a newspaper  in the Philippines.

24 Nevember 2007: A seminar Before Bali conference 2-14th December’07

COAST Trust and Equity and Justice Working Group, in association with 31 coastal NGOs in Bangladesh, organized a seminar “Risk of Climate Change: Loss Compensation” at National Press club . This seminar is objectively organized to discuss 'climate change risk and loss' in Bangladesh, raise mass awareness on climate change impact and demanding compensate  on the eve of UN CoP 13 to be held in Bali from 2-14 December, 2007. Renowned economist Dr. Quazi Khalikuzzaman, also one of the lead authors of IPCC recent assessment report, country's climate experts, policy makers from the mainstream political parties, civil society groups participated in the seminar and call the global leaders to keep on KYOTO commitment. The speakers pointed that Bangladesh is no way responsible for global warming but would face severe consequences like permanent inundation of country's 17 percent land area, 50 percent reduction in national agricultural production etc which certainly will slow-down country's economic growth and MDG achievement. . In this perspective, speakers in the seminar demanded compensation of climate change loss of Bangladesh from the countries who largely are responsible for carbon emission and global warming.

In relation to this seminar, COAST and EJWG has developed 6 policy briefs for educating and sensitizing mass people on the climate change impact. Md. Shamsuddoha, Secretary General of Equity & Justice Working Group presented the key note paper and Mr. Rezaul Karim Chowdhury Executive Director, COAST Trust and Convener of Equity & Justice Working Group moderated the seminar.

Banar for Bali conference 2-14th December’07

Download the Power Point Presentation (Bangla) , Power Point Presentation (English) , Press release and Photos. .

1	Factors of Climate Change: Global Warming is theMajor Ground	Download
2	Measures to Combat Climate Change: the Kyoto Protocol	Download
3	Increasing Salinity Threatens Productivity of Bangladesh	Download
4	Salinity Threatens the World Heritage: The Sundarban of Bangladesh	Download
5	Sea Level Rise and Environmental Refugee in Bangladesh	Download
6	Climate Change and River Erosion in Bangladesh	Download

Online Media Coverage :

We demand Right based food security, Not Import & Market Dependencies

Dhaka 25th October: Equity and Justice Working Group (EJWG) and World Rural Women’s day observence National Committee organized a seminar at National Press club Conference hall demanding “Nature and Right based Food Security ”. Speakers in the seminar argued that the present concept of food security only tries to ensure food avilability through liberalizing market and importing food grains which could not ensure food security for all. And this concept of food security considers food mere a commodity not as the rights of people. People from different sectors participated in the seminar and discussed on the topic. Secretary of EJWG Mr. Shamsuddoha presented the keynote paper and challenged the present concept of food security and proposed alternative options for rights based food security. Member of EJWG Mr. AHM Bazlur Rahman moderated the seminar. Country's renown agriculture economist Dr M A Sattar, Samsuzzaman Dudu and Dr. Abdur Razzak of agriculture secretary of BNP and Bangladesh Awami League respectively, Dr Zafarullah Chowdury of Gono Shyasta commented and discussed on the keynote paper.

Among other participants Executive Director of COAST Mr. Rezaul Karim Chowdhury, Executive Director of Rupantar Mr. Rafiqul Islam Khokan, WRWD national committee chairman Mr. Shwapan Guho and  Secretary General & Executive Director of Pradip Mr. Shahdat Islam Chowdury(Mintu) sopke in the seminar.

Please download the Position paper, Pressrelease, Presentation, Media Coverage.

At afternoon: a Cultural program is organize by Rupantar cultural team  in font of National Parliament House. ( click on image to view in large)

click on image to view online Video

Online media coverage :

Not the growth only: Equity based redistribution of income by state also a necessary for poverty eradication

Dhaka 17th October: Today on the eve of world poverty eradication day and with the call from Global Call on Action Against Poverty (GCAP) a stand up program and a  rally have been happened in Muktangoon, Paltan, Dhaka, organized by EJWG. The group took the above as slogan, with this view  Zaid Iqbal, Sahadat Islam Minto, Shasuddoha and Rezaul K Chowdhury of the group spoke at the occasion. They criticized the growth biased poverty reduction approach of the government which is being promoted by the IFIs and being increasing inequalities. Media coverage of the event is attached here.

Online media coverage :

Dhaka, 06 October 2007.  Equity and Justice Working Group –EJWG, has organized roundtable discussion on ‘Accountability of ODA Use and Indebted Bangladesh’ at the CIRDAP Auditorium, Dhaka, basically to initiate a policy discourse for demanding the debt cancellation of Bangladesh. In each year Bangladesh pays US 715 dollars to its foreign creditors as debt service, which is more than the country’s annual health budget. During 1980s an individual owed around Tk 4000, now it has been increased to Tk. 10,500. Alternatively annual ODA is decreasing gradually. The speakers says the loan conditionalities of the IFIs is limiting state investment in the public service sector like education, health, communication etc which is leaving poor out of these services and increasing social and economical inequalities. In these circumstances, Bangladesh would not be able to achieve MDGs Goal; the speakers at the seminar express their worries. Bangladesh needs US 7.5 billion dollars a year to finance the implementation of MDGs but the amount of ODA is 1.4 billion dollar a year, which is a huge shortfall of the requirement. Therefore, Bangladesh requires exclusively grant based finance and 100% debt cancellation.

Mr. Mahmudur Rahman Manna, Organizing Secretary of Bangladesh Awami League, Ex Parliamentarian and Ex Army chief Maj. Gen (Rtd) Mahbubur Rahman and Tasnim Rana of BNP,  Jatiya Party policy maker and ex-parliamentarian GM Quader, Worker’s Party leader Rashed Khan Menon given speech in the seminar Mr. Don van Luijn of Oxfam Novib gives a speech on globa perspective of debt cancellation thereby releasing resources for essential services.   

Mr. Rezaul Karim Chowdhury and  Md Shamsuddoha respectively Convener and General Secretary of EJWG presented the keynote paper in the Seminar and Mr Rafiqul Islam Khokon and AHM Bazlur Rahman respectively from RUPANTAR and BNNRC moderated the seminar.    

Please download the Position paper, Pressrelease, Presentation, media coverage .

Online media coverage :

Dhaka  29th September 2007. Today women activists from 64 districts gathered in a conference room of national press club with the invitation of National Committee on Observation of WRWD, the meeting was chaired by Swapan Guha of RUPANTOR. Representative from different districts on observation of the day gave speech and elaborated their different program during the week; the programs are seed fair, rally, popular cultural program, prizes to rural women for seed preservation and seminar. Five briefing papers and one leaflet will be supplied from the national committee. In national level there will be a national seminar on food sovereignty in the morning of 25th October and in afternoon there will be a popular cultural festival with seed fair in national martyr monument at Dhaka University campus. The meeting decided to press the demand of employment guarantee scheme with the provision of 50% a must for rural women, revival of BADC for promotion of local seeds, inclusion of community and farmers right in draft bio diversity protection act and inclusion of individual food rights in the constitution. The observation committee is being backed by EJWG. Note that, this is the 12 year of observation of WRWD by this committee in countrywide.

Dhaka 10th September 2007 Equity and Justice Working Group (EJWG) has organized a press conference in National Press Club, Dhaka, demanded reconsideration of PSI agreement with IMF mission at present who is visiting Bangladesh. They also demanded transparency of all the agreement with IFIs (international financial institutions) in here. They said, it is due to the credibility and relevance crisis of the IMF globally, to save herself IMF looking for PSI (policy support instrument) agreement with government of Bangladesh, they are desperetly looking for this opportunity in the absence of parliament. On behalf of the group Rezaul Karim Chowdhury read out a written statement and Aminur Rasul, AHM Bazlur Rahman, Sahadat Islam Mintu and Mostafa Kamal Akanda answered different questions of the participants. Please find the press release and media coverage .