Research & Advocacy

 

At the moment, ICA Bangladesh is conducting a researching on religious militancy and terrorism, being funded by the government. The research is aimed at finding out underlying reality of terrorism, which will provide reliable tool for policy making.  In addition, ICA Bangladesh are doing research and advocacy concerning HIV/AIDS, deforestation and so forth.

 

This is a small research project supported by the Government of Bangladesh’s Social Science Research Council to investigate the nature, extent and causes of religious militancy, to identify the militant and terrorist groups and to recommend practical policy measures to address the problem of religious militancy and terrorism in Bangladesh. Adopting secondary analysis including newspaper content analysis, case studies, expert interviews and consultation workshop using ToP methods, the research findings will be concluded and disseminated.

The study is completed and for viewing the final draft report, click here.

 

Micro-action HIV/AIDS projects – trim tab, key stone species and tipping point projects in addressing HIV/AIDS in doing small or micro initiatives were in three Districts-Dhaka, Tangail and Chandpur. The projects are targeting barbers, sex workers, clients and brokers of brothels, tribal population, students, garment worker.

A national workshop on the underlying causes of forest degradation and deforestation in Bangladesh was held on 10 May 2008 at VIP Lounge, National Press Club, Dhaka organized by the Institute of Cultural Affairs (ICA) in cooperation with the Global Forest Coalition GFC, the Netherlands funded by the Finnish Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs followed by a roundtable discussion.

TIB Trustee Board Chairman Professor Muzaffer Ahmed was present in the inaugural session as chief guest. Professor KAM Saaduddin, former Dean of the Faculty of Social Sciences of the University of Dhaka chaired the session. Professor Dr. A I Mahbub Uddin Ahmed of the Department of Sociology, University of Dhaka. Professor Dr. Niaz Ahmed Khan, Department of Development Studies, University of Dhaka moderated the roundtable discussion. Philip Gain, Executive Director, Sehd, Farid Uddin Ahmed, Executive Director, Arannayk Foundation, Syeda Rizwana Hassan, Executive Director, BELA, Iqbal Ali, BEISP and Dr. M Asaduzzaman, Research Director, BIDS were special discussants in the roundtable discussion.

Two research teams led by Dr. A I Mahbub Uddin Ahmed, Professor, Department of Sociology, University of Dhaka, Dr. M Nazrul Islam, Professor, Department of geography and Environment, Jahangir Nagar University has conducted three research studies on three major forest areas - Mangrove, Saal and Chittagong Hill Tracts reserve forest during February-April 2008, based on which a key note paper was presented in the main workshop. Earlier a discussion meeting on the research findings was held on 8 May 2008 to prepare the keynote paper at Baton Rouge, Gulshan. 

The discussion meeting was participated by 30 experts from 3 universities – University of Chittagong, University of Dhaka, Jahangirnagar University, 4 NGOs – Arannayk Foundation, BELA, TMSS, ICA. At 430pm the team leader of the project Dr. Mahbub Ahmed and project coordinator Md. Azizur Rahman briefed about the objectives of the workshop and findings of the study to media representatives at Dhaka Reporters Unity in a press conference. The main goal of the national workshop is to increase the level of awareness of the underlying causes of deforestation and forest degradation amongst policy makers, the media, NGOs, indigenous peoples and other stakeholders and to propose pathways and actions to address the underlying causes.

A total of 100 participants including representatives from NGOs, civil society organizations, forest users, indigenous people, universities, forest research institutes, electronic media, print media, Indigenous People, and the government bodies attended the meeting. The workshop generated the fact that the scenario of deforestation in Bangladesh is very alarming and the underlying causes are manifold. The study also identified the main actors involved in the process and recommended effective measures to address the underlying causes of deforestation and forest degradation in Bangladesh.

More than 30 print and electronic media disseminated the ICA’s national workshop on the underlying causes of deforestation and forest degradation in Bangladesh. See the report at http://www.globalforestcoalition.org/reports/national/115