Centre for Policy Dialogue

The Centre for Policy Dialogue (CPD), established in 1993 by Rehman Sobhan, its Founder chairman, with support from leading civil society institutions in Bangladesh, is mandated by its Deed of Trust to service the growing demand originating from the emerging civil society of Bangladesh for a more participatory and accountable development process. CPD seeks to address this felt-need from the perspectives of marginalised stakeholders, by way of organising multistakeholder consultations, by conducting research on issues of critical national, regional and global interests, through dissemination of knowledge and information on key developmental issues, and by influencing the concerned policy making processes.

CPD strives to bridge the gap between empirical research and policy advocacy through a sustained effort in public policy analyses. Over the past eighteen years CPD has emerged as Bangladesh's premier civil society think-tank, and has established its credibility as one of the very few platforms in Bangladesh where civil society organisations, stakeholder groups and political parties, often with diverse views and perspectives, are agreeable to sit around a dialogue table, and conduct an informed discussion about key issues of developmental concern and interest.

Over the years, CPD has evolved into a South Asia centre of excellence and has attained credibility as a distinguished focal point for issues relating to the least developed countries (LDCs).

The Centre was recognised as one of the top 228 leading think-tanks by the first global Go to Think Tank Survey in 2007, and was selected for support under the Think Tank Initiative through a globally competitive process.

CPD is an independent think-tank with local roots and global outreach. CPD focuses on frontier issues which are critical to the development process of Bangladesh, South Asia and LDCs in the present context, and those that are expected to shape and influence country's development prospects from the medium-term perspective. CPD's current programme portfolio includes research activities, holding of dialogues, publication and dissemination, and networking-related initiatives. CPD strives to enhance national capacity for economy-wide policy analyses, foster regional co-operation, and addresses issues which relate to Bangladesh's effective integration into the process of regionalisation and globalisation.

CPD activities also focus on challenges for regional co-operation and integration in South Asia. Moreover, CPD engages its capacity to analyse and highlight factors affecting socioeconomic progress in the LDCs. CPD has been organising Indo-Bangladesh dialogues on a regular basis where high level policymakers and representatives of key stakeholder groups of the two countries discuss issues of bilateral interest. CPD is also actively involved in the Kunming Initiative which strives to foster co-operation among Bangladesh, China, India and Myanmar. Among other things, CPD regularly organises international fora of the civil society organisations to advance the interests of the LDCs in the UN, WTO and other multilateral institutions.

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