The Centre for Policy Dialogue is a non-governmental think-tank of Bangladesh, and has been identified as one of the leading think-tanks of the world by the think tank survey conducted by the Foreign Policy Research Institute in Philadelphia, USA.[1]
The CPD, established in 1993 by Professor Rehman Sobhan with support from leading civil society institutions in Bangladesh, is mandated by its Deed of Trust to service the growing demand that originates from the emerging civil society of Bangladesh for a more participatory and accountable development process. CPD seeks to address this felt need by way of organising multistakeholder consultations, by conducting research on issues of critical national and regional interests, through dissemination of knowledge and information on key developmental issues, and by influencing the policy making process in the country.
In the process, CPD strives to bridge the gap between empirical research and policy advocacy through a sustained effort in public policy analysis. CPD endeavours to create a national environment conducive to open public discussion on important policy issues with a view to ensuring domestic ownership over the policy agenda and also building a broad-based support for such policies.
Over the past six years, CPD has emerged as Bangladesh's premier think-tank and has established its credibility as one of the very few places in Bangladesh where the governmentand opposition political parties agree to sit around the dialogue table and conduct an informed discussion with the civil society.
CPD's civil activitism in policy-related areas is operationalised through various means which are implemented through concrete initiatives. These include:
>Knowledge generation through research and analysis, creation and management of data and information base.
>Policy awareness raising through dialogues, networking, information dissemination and mobilising support of the civil society.
>Policy influencing, at both national, regional and international levels, by involving policymakers in the dialogue process and by contributing to preparation of global policy documents and national policy briefs.
>Capacity building, by way of organising policy appreciation workshops for policy-makers and other important stakeholder groups
According to the organization, the key personnel are the following:[2]