IUCN Bangladesh Country Office, Dhaka, 10 December 2006 (IUCN)

The National Capacity Self-Assessment (NCSA) is a project of the Ministry of Environment and Forest, being implemented with the technical assistance of IUCN Bangladesh Country Office. This project aims to identify priority capacity needs of the country to realize the three major global conventions, namely Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD), Conventional to Combat Desertification (CCD) and United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). Towards this, enabling activities are being carried out across the environmental sector to formulate a country-driven strategy and action plan. The initial step towards the preparation of NCSA document was to determine the methodology and this was accomplished through the inception workshop. Four major Thematic Groups (TGs) and nine sub-groups were formed on the basis of thematic profiles discussed at the workshop.

The TG on ‘Mitigation, Kyoto Protocol – Mandate and Elements’ within the purview of UNFCCC held its first meeting on the 2nd of November 2006 at IUCN Bangladesh to discuss the major issues and actions. The meeting was attended by 10 experts, identified in the inception workshop and facilitated by Dr. Ainun Nishat, Country Representative, IUCN Bangladesh. The Project Manager, NCSA provided a brief introduction to the meeting and this was followed by a presentation by Mr. A. H. M. Maqsood Sinha, Executive Director and Mr. Iftekhar Enayetullah, Director of Waste Concern. Their presentation titled ‘CDM Opportunities in Bangladesh’ was based on the thematic paper prepared and distributed to the participants prior to the meeting and the TG discussion largely centered on it. Capacity enhancement for understanding the CDM project life cycle at both private and public levels came up as one of the major suggestions of the meeting.

The TG meeting on ‘Bioprospecting and Access and Benefit Sharing (ABS) Issues’ within the Convention on Biological Diversity was held on 28th November 2006 was facilitated by Country Representative, IUCN B. Dr. Abdur Razzaque, Member Director (Crops) of the Bangladesh Agriculture Research Council (BARC) prepared a thematic paper and this was circulated amongst the 13 participants who attended the meeting. Some of the major capacity building needs identified at this meeting were with respect to market opportunities and export/import procedures, involvement of the private sector and dispersion of knowledge, as opposed to knowledge monopoly within the scientific community. 

On 29th November 2006, the TG meeting on ‘Addressing Capacity Needs to Implement CBD 2010 Countdown (including NBSAP, 4th National Biodiversity Report of Bangladesh to CBD, GTI, SBSTTA, etc), was held at IUCN B. Dr. G. P. Das, Country Coordinator of Agricultural Biotechnology Support Project (ABSP) II Project was designated to prepare and present the theme paper, which was discussed by the 17 participants. The utilization of national training institutes such as Public Administration and Training Center, National Academy of Education and Management, Bangladesh Academy of Rural Development, Rural Development Authority and Bangladesh Institute of Administration and Management for Human Resource Development was one of the major recommendations of this meeting.

The TG meeting on ‘Adaptation, Implementing NAPA-Five Year PoW on Adaptation (including access to LDC fund, special CC fund, KP adaptation fund, GEF-RAF, GEF special fund for strategic priority on adaptation etc), was held on 30th November 2006 at IUCN Bangladesh. Mr. Md. Reazuddin, Director (Technical) of the Department of Environment prepared a paper on this topic and presented it to 21 experts who attended the meeting. A number of innovative ideas emerged from the discussions such as levying international air taxes, networking of specialists and three rosters for the three Rio conventions and exploring the private sector as potential donors.

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Notes to editors 

For more information or to set up interviews, please contact:

• Mahbubur Rahman Masum , IUCN Bangladesh Comminication Officer, Tel: +880 2 989 0395; Fax: +880 2 989 2854;
  masumiucnbd.org; Web: http://www.iucnbd.org/

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More information available at: http://www.iucnbd.org/

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