Source of funding shrouded in mystery :Most think-tanks fulfilling foreign agendas  With the source of funding remaining highly 'mysterious' there seems to be lack of transparency in financial matters of most so called think-tanks as they work more for themselves and their financers than the country and people. Talking to The Bangladesh Today, some top brasses of some think tanks gave no information about their source of funding and some said that they are receiving money from different donor agencies and running these organizations. But some experts alleged that the country's think-tanks are running on foreign funding and working to fulfill their foreign agenda instead of ensuring the interest of the people. Besides, they also came down heavily upon the members of civil society as they (civil societies) are running these think tanks taking money from different donor agencies and implementing the agenda sets by these agencies. Asked about purposes of civil society, DU teacher Prof Atiqur Rahman of the dept of Social welfare alleged that the so called think tanks are serving the interests of their financers. "Donor agencies are purchasing members of civil societies paying money to serve their purposes. The civil society works for implementing agenda of different aid agencies and they often criticize the government and political organizations" "The donor agencies are causing a great damage to our economy and the country through these think tanks. They are influencing the government to formulate policy as per their wishes. Our government should stop taking donations from these donor agencies. We need to be self reliant nation by utilizing our local resources." he said. He also demanded transparency and accountability of the source of funding of these think tanks. "These think tanks will have to make public their source of money." Another DU teacher Prof Rubayet Ferdous of the dept of Mass Communication said, "In some cases, the think tanks are helping the government in formulating policy, but they should bring transparency and accountability about their source of income and how these funds are being spent." Asked about the purposes of Center for Policy Dialogue, a leading think tank of Bangladesh, an official said, "The main objective of the CPD is to meet the growing demand that originates from the emerging civil society for a more participatory and accountable development process." In response to a query, he said the CPD is being run by its trustee board. "The members of the civil society have some responsibilities towards the country. CPD seeks to address this felt need by way of organising multistakeholder consultations, by conducting research on issues of critical national and regional interests, through dissemination of knowledge and information on key developmental issues, and by influencing the policy making process in the country." But he refused to give details about their source of funding. Meanwhile, Transparency International of Bangladesh (TIB) Chairman Prof Mozaffer Ahmed said, "We are working on different issues including corruption of different government and non-government sectors. TIB works for bringing transparency and accountability in government." "We receives fund from some donor agencies like DFID of UK, SIDA of Sweden, SDC of Switzerland and Danish embassy." Prof Mozzafer said responding to a query about their source of funding.Talking to this correspondent, General Secretary of Shujon, a local think tank, Badiul Alam Majumder gave some mysterious information about the organization's source of funding saying, "We are running our organizations by ourselves and some of our friends are assisting us in running the organization by providing funds to us." http://www.thebangladeshtoday.com/leading%20news.htm#lead%20news-01 |
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