ADPC attended a meeting on the Collaborative Action towards Societal Challenges through Awareness, Development and Education (CASCADE) held in the Maldives at the end of July.

The partner institutes from seven countries under the CASCADE program, namely Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka presented their national position papers on the societal challenges as identified under CASCADE. Major challenges identified in most of the countries were related to health, food security, climate action and secure societies.

The purpose of the CASCADE project is to prepare the ground for future programs to target South Asian countries to promote bi-regional coordination and cooperation. CASCADE aims at identifying global challenges and research priorities and raising awareness on research and innovation towards building mutual understanding on how to address common global societal challenges.

Working towards a sustainable and successful Bangladesh

ADPC also presented the national position paper for Bangladesh based on its findings from a situational analysis carried out using interviews and focus group discussions as well as from secondary data.

“Bangladesh’s performance in achieving the Millennium Development Goals is unparalleled in comparison to other neighboring countries. However, most of its health, education and social welfare related achievements are offset by its political instability,” says Technical Officer
Dr. Rishiraj Dutta from ADPC.

Bangladesh is struggling to tackle its economic
challenges such as secure, clean and efficient energy, and smart, green and integrated transport.

“Capacity building of government agencies therefore is essential in charting sustainable development for Bangladesh considering the challenges faced by the country,” Dr. Rishi comments.

The CASCADE program is organized under the European Union’s Seventh Framework Programme for Research and Technological Development (2007−2013). ADPC is one of the regional partners for the South Asia program.