An in-country assistance programme was recently carried out in Bangladesh with collaboration between Programming Division of Bangladesh Planning Commission and LEDS Global Partnership (LEDS GP). Under this programme, Mr. Thomas Peterson, President and Chief Executive Officer of the Center for Climate Strategies (CCS), USA, visited Bangladesh from 19-23 March, 2017, as a climate expert. The broad objective of the visit was “to identify gaps and challenges in implementing Bangladesh’s Green growth strategy and provide suitable recommendations to overcome it”.

During his visit, the expert met high level government officials of Bangladesh and some key stakeholders. The visit was aimed at helping Bangladesh Planning Commission in defining next steps and developing a framework to overcome the identified challenges like capacity gaps, technology requirements and financing, being faced by the country in developing and implementing a Low Emission Development Strategy (LEDS) or a Green Growth Strategy.

Dr. Nurun Nahar, the Deputy Chief of Programming Division of Bangladesh Planning Commission was coordinator of the programme in Bangladesh. On behalf of Asia LEDS Partnership Secretariat, ICLEI South Asia’s Bangladesh country office assisted the Programming Division and CCS to facilitate their meetings.
Through this visit, Mr. Thomas Peterson from CCS has conducted a series of high-level meetings with the representatives from key government ministries, government agencies and key financial institutions, including the Ministry of Environment and Forests, Programming Division and General Economic Division of Planning Commission, Economic Relations Division of Ministry of Finance, Energy and Mineral Resources Division, Power Division, Roads and Highways Division, Department of Environment, Sustainable and Renewable Energy Development Authority (SREDA), Dhaka North City Corporation as Sub-national level City Government, Bangladesh Bank, USAID, Winrock International, and International Centre for Climate Change and Development (ICCCAD) as the key technical institutions working with the government.

The visit concluded with a half-day workshop on 23 March 2017, jointly organised by the Programming Division of Bangladesh Planning Commission, USAID and ICCCAD, with the aim of sharing LEDS concepts, process and tools in the national planning system, outcomes of the visit and its findings. The workshop was chaired by Md. Syeedul Haque, Chief of the Programming Division. Dr. Saleemul Huq, Director of the International Centre for Climate Change and Development (ICCCAD). Mr. Thomas Peterson discussed about the LEDS action planning and planning processes and presented some key challenges from his visit to the site.
Further, the CCS, through LEDS GP, will provide a report with recommendations that will highlight actions and framework for an integrated and robust approach to LEDS/Green Growth.