Citizen’s Platform for SDGs, Bangladesh on Sunday pointed out that there are four major concerns in the current fiscal year (FY22) from the perspectives of the Leave No One Behind (LNOB).
These are: support, vaccine, inflation and recovery preparation, said Dr Debapriya Bhattacharya, convenor of the platform at a virtual media briefing on Sunday morning.
The title of the briefing is ‘Delivery of the National Budget 2021 in the Context of the Pandemic: Ensuring Interests of the Disadvantaged People.’
Regarding the support, he mentioned that ‘expanding the fiscal transfer and food support, and ensuring their proper delivery by upgrading the database and engaging the community-based (non-government) actor’ are necessary now.
He also stressed on bringing the people of disadvantaged communities under the national vaccination programme on a priority basis in partnership with the private development organisations and public bodies working with them.
In this connection, he appreciated the government’s move for mass vaccination campaigns to expedite the process of maximum vaccination as fast as possible.
He, however, cautioned that the ‘unthinking, unprepared and uncoordinated approach’ has created chaos and confusion among the general people and so the government need to act as per its capacity.
Presenting the keynote at the briefing Dr Bhattacharya, also a distinguished fellow of Centre for Policy Dialogue (CPD), further added that keeping the food prices (inflation) low and stable by strengthening public procurement mechanism, open market sale (OMS) operation and expanding food-for-work (FFW) programmes are very important.
The economist also argued that another major concern is the pro-LNOB preparation for post-Covid recovery particularly for mopping up drop-outs, averting underage marriage, and preventing child labour.
LNOB is the central, transformative promise of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and its Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). In Bangladesh, the citizen platform is working from the perspectives of the LNOB which means the inclusion of marginalised and vulnerable groups of the society in the development process.
