SANEM SDG Centre and SANEM Political Economy Centre invite everyone to join a webinar titled “Devising a Participatory Approach for Effective Policy Making in the Power and Energy Sector”.

The last time Bangladesh had a policy for the crucial power and energy sector was in 1996 titled “National Energy Policy”, however, the ground-level reality is that this policy remained broadly unimplemented. An effort was made to update NEP in 2004, however, that was not approved. In 2008, we saw a policy document for Renewable Energy development, the implementation of which broadly remained questionable among the stakeholders. Although we have had a host of master plans in the power and energy sector, their alignments have gone under scrutiny of experts due to a lack of robust policy backing. It is now a crying need to have a comprehensive coordinated visionary policy document ensuring participation from the relevant stakeholders, which integrates the whole sector in line with the overall economic growth and sustainable development goals. This absence of a cohesive policy framework and arbitrary decision-making has led to inconsistencies and inefficiencies in the sector’s development. Moreover, the decision-making process has predominantly not included domestic public opinion, civic consultation, and scholarly intervention, leading to a disconnect between policy outcomes and the needs and expectations of stakeholders.

In this context, SANEM SDG Centre and SANEM Political Economy Centre are jointly organizing a webinar titled “Devising a Participatory Approach for Effective Policy Making in the Power and Energy Sector” on July 01, 2024, from 3:00 PM to 5:00 PM on Zoom Platform.

This webinar seeks to address these issues by exploring participatory pathways for effective policymaking in the power and energy sector. It will serve as a platform for dialogue and collaboration among stakeholders, including government officials, industry experts, academics, and civil society representatives.

The webinar will be moderated by Dr Sayema Haque Bidisha, Professor of Economics at the University of Dhaka and Research Director, SANEM. The panelists of the webinar are, Mr Dipal C Barua, Founder & Chairman, Bright Green Energy Foundation, Mr Md. Shahriar Ahmed Chowdhury, Assistant Professor, United International University (UIU), Barrister Md. Khalilur Rahman Khan, Secretary (Deputy Secretary), Admin and Law, Bangladesh Energy Regulatory and Dr Sakib Bin Amin, Associate Professor, Department of Economics, North South University. The panel discussion will be followed by an open discussion.

SANEM invites academicians, experts, development practitioners, policymakers, students and all interested individuals to participate in the event.
To participate, kindly fill up the following Google form: https://forms.gle/cHbUnLYHZyAbRLjMA

Details of the seminar will be informed through email to those registered.