Danish government yesterday signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with the Transparency International Bangladesh (TIB) to continue its support for TIB’s core programme under the Building Integrity Blocks for Effective Change (BIBEC) project for the 2017-2021 period, reports UNB. Danish Ambassador in Dhaka Mikael Hemniti Winther and TIB executive director Dr Iftekharuzzaman signed the deal on behalf of their respective sides, said a TIB media release.
Senior officials of the Danish Embassy in Dhaka and TIB were present at the signing ceremony held at TIB head office. Under the agreement, the TIB will receive Tk 22 crore in two phases - the ongoing BIBEC phase of 2017-2019 and for the post-BIBEC phase of 2019-21.
Winther said this grant as part of the Framework Agreement of the Danish government with Bangladesh government represents its commitment to pursue development engagement with Bangladesh.
He said the embassy was happy to continue to support TIB’s efforts to promote better governance and counter corruption in Bangladesh, which the Danish government considers indispensable for further progress in effective poverty reduction and meet the sustainable development goals (SDGs).
Dr Iftekharuzzaman said the project to be implemented under this partnership will help strengthen the institutional, legal and policy structure for accountable governance as well as deepen and widen the social movement against corruption here. TIB’s ongoing core project BIBEC (Oct 2014-Sept 2019) aims to build and strengthen a series of mutually supportive and reinforcing integrity blocks to effectively promote better governance and reduce corruption. BIBEC’s objective is to promote a more enabling environment for reducing corruption with twin objectives to advocate for strengthening laws, policies, processes, practices and oversight for improving governance in targeted institutions and sectors; and to accelerate people’s demand for good governance and to strengthen citizens’ capacity to challenge corruption.