Message General Economics Division, Planning Commission of the Government of the People’s Republic of Bangladesh has prepared the National Sustainable Development Strategy 2010-21 (NSDS) to address a critical development aspiration of our time. We need to balance economic, social and environmental requirements of development in order to ensure “the needs of the present generation are met without compromising the ability of the future generations to meet their own needs.” Despite our past achievements, a large population is still in poverty, unemployment and underemployment rate is still high. This strives achieving high growth so urgent that it is easy to downplay the right of the next generation to natural resources. But a large and growing population living in a relatively small geographical area which is increasingly pressurizing our environment – air, water and soil, dictates the urgency of sustainable development in the country. NSDS fulfils the twin objectives of formulating strategies to meet the challenges of economic, social and environmental sustainability faced by the economy as well as meeting international obligation of our country to global sustainable development principles and agenda. Meeting the sustainable development challenges will need raising the awareness and understanding of people of the challenges and coordinated efforts at the local, regional, national and global levels. The time frame of NSDS coincides with the Perspective Plan of Bangladesh 2010-2021which guides the economy towards its transition to a middle income economy by early next decade of this millennium. The Planning Commission will need to take necessary measures to mainstream the strategies of NSDS into national development planning processes. I hope people of our country will cooperate with each other in the best interest of their own and future generations to chart the sustainable development path as expressed in the Rio+ 20 outcome document “The Future We Want for All”. This will help transform our country into “Sonar Bangla”, the ever- cherished dream of our Father of the Nation, Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman and maintain it for future generations. Joi Bangla, Joi Bangabandhu May Bangladesh Live forever Sheikh Hasina 1 Air Vice Marshal (Retd.) A. K. Khandker Minister Ministry of Planning Government of the People’s Republic of Bangladesh Message I am very happy to see the culmination of preparation of the National Sustainable Development Strategy (NSDS) document. Achieving sustainable development is one of the many challenges confronting the country in its attempt to attain the middle-income country status by 2021. This NSDS has been formulated to guide the country to face the challenge for sustainable economic growth with environmental safety and ensuring social justice. The vision of the strategy, which has been developed through extensive consultation with the stakeholders, is “achieving a happy, prosperous enlightened Bangladesh which is free from hunger, poverty, inequality, illiteracy and corruption and belongs completely to its citizens and maintains a healthy environment”. The strategy is based on the long term development vision of the government, the Sixth Five Year Plan FY 2011-FY2015, the Perspective Plan of Bangladesh 2010-2021 and other existing plans, policies and strategies of the government. The strategy highlights the need for population planning to maintain a balance between population, development and environment. This has been prioritized as slowing the growth of population will contribute to the health of the environment and efforts to increase the standards of living not just for present generation, but also for the future generation. I am extremely grateful to our Honourable Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina for giving her valuable time in reviewing the document and making very important suggestions in improvement of the document. I am also grateful to my cabinet colleagues especially Minister for Finance, Minister for Agriculture and Minister for Environment and Forest for their constructive suggestions at different stages of preparation of the strategy document. The strategy document has been prepared through extensive consultation with ministries, development partners, academia, researchers, civil societies, think tanks and NGOs. I thank all of them for their active participation in the process of formulation of the strategy. I especially thank Ministry of Environment and Forest and Department of Environment for their valuable cooperation and contribution in the process. I congratulate the officials of General Economics Division (GED) of the Planning Commission for undertaking this challenging task of preparing the strategy document in time. It is worth mentioning that GED has also prepared the Sixth Five Year Plan and the first Perspective Plan in recent past. Their effort is therefore worth lauding and commendable. Finally, I sincerely hope that all the Ministries and our development partners will adequately consider the NSDS while developing their future development programmes. I am confident that through proper implementation of the strategy, we shall be able to achieve the sustainable development path for the country which will lead us to ‘Sonar Bangla’, the dream of our Father of the Nation, Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman. Air Vice Marshal (Retd.) A.K. Khandkar Minister for Planning 2 Preamble The National Sustainable Development Strategy (NSDS) has been prepared to meet the formidable environmental challenges that Bangladesh faces in the way to development. The challenges arise when the country’s development efforts and made without proper recognition of consequential environmental impacts which lead to degraded agro-ecosystem, rivers and wetlands, coastal environment and urban environment, degradation and depletion of ground water , deforestation and desertification in different parts of the country. Equally and perhaps more important are the challenges arising from global climate change induced by the production and consumption patterns of other countries especially the developed and fast growing developing countries that exert multiple impacts on our development. Apart from the domestic exigencies, NSDS fulfils Bangladesh’s commitment to the international community to formulate and implement a sustainable development strategy addressing environmental issues. A draft NSDS was prepared by the Ministry of Environment and Forest with support from United Nations Environment Program (UNEP) and was placed before the Cabinet Committee meeting on 14 September 2009 for approval. After threadbare discussion the committee decided that NSDS would be updated with recent data and information and modified in light of the relevant government documents including the Election Manifesto of the present government, MDGs, PRSP, Perspective Plan and 6th Five Year Plan. The task of updating and modification of NSDS was entrusted to the General Economics Division of the Planning Commission. The International Wing of General Economics Division carried out the task under close guidance of the Member, GED. The International Wing have consulted all relevant documents and data sources in its efforts to update and modify the draft NSDS. A multilayered consultative process has been followed to receive valuable inputs from experts, representatives of relevant ministries/divisions/agencies, civil society representatives and officials of planning commission. The document has benefitted enormously from the comments of Honourable Prime Minister and Members of the Cabinet in exclusive meetings on the document. I should say, the final document is a reflection of the collective wisdom of the nation. The NSDS (2010-21) has identified five Strategic Priority Areas along with three cross-cutting areas with a view to achieving its stated vision and addressing long-term sustainability issue of productive resources. The strategic priority areas include sustained economic growth, development of priority sectors, social security and protection, environment, natural resources and disaster management. The three cross-cutting issues that will support the sustainable development of priority areas include disaster risk reduction and climate, good governance and gender. The Sustainable Development Monitoring Council will be the apex body to monitor and evaluate the progress of implementation of NSDS. The formulation and elaboration of NSDS has benefitted from a number of persons. I am grateful to all of them for giving their valuable time to share their wisdom with GED. The foremost of them is Minister of Planning, Mr. A. K. Khandker, M.P, who took deep interest in NSDS and provided policy guidance to its preparation. Honorable Finance Minister Mr. Abul Maal Abdul Muhith M.P, Honorable Agricultural Minister Begum Matia Chowdhury M.P, Honorable Economic Affairs adviser to the Prime Minister Dr. Mashiur Rahman and Honorable Forest and Environment Minister Dr. Hasan Mahmud M.P provided guidance, suggestions and inspiration while we prepare the documents. 3 The implementation of NSDS will be carried through different projects/programmes of concerned ministries/divisions/agencies which will be undertaken in the remaining period of the 6th Five Year Plan. The main burden of implementation will, however, fall on the 7th Five Year Plan (FY2016 - FY2020) period which will need to take due consideration of the strategies formulated in NSDS. Prof. Shamsul Alam, Ph.D Member General Economics Division Planning Commission 4 TABLE OF CONTENTS Contents Page