The Government of Denmark signs cooperation agreement with TIB

Ambassador H.E. Mikael Hemniti Winther of the Kingdom of Denmark signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Transparency International Bangladesh (TIB) to continue supporting the core programme of TIB under the project titled “Building Integrity Blocks for Effective Change” (BIBEC) for the period 2017-2021.

The MoU was signed by Ambassador Winther and Dr. Iftekharuzzaman, Executive Director of TIB. Senior officials of the Embassy of Denmark (EOD) and TIB were present at a simple ceremony held at TIB head office. Under the MoU TIB will receive Taka 22 crore in two stages – the on-going BIBEC phase of 2017-2019 and for the post-BIBEC phase of 2019-21.

The Danish Ambassador reiterated that this grant, as part of the Framework Agreement of the Government of Denmark with the Government of Bangladesh, represent the Danish government’s commitment to pursue development engagement with Bangladesh. He said that 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 to meet the sustainable development goals (SDGs). Thanking the Ambassador, and through him the Danish Government for the generous support, Dr. Zaman hoped that 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 in Bangladesh.

TIB’s ongoing core project BIBEC (October 2014 – September 2019) aims at building and strengthening 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.

BIBEC is supported jointly with the EOD by DFID of UK, SIDA of Sweden and SDC of Switzerland. DFID, EOD and SIDA have been supporting the TIB since 2002, and SDC from 2009.