The Governance Innovation Unit of the Prime Minister's Office and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), in collaboration with Centre on Budget and Policy, University of Dhaka organized the Dhaka Divisional Consultation on National Governance Assessment Framework (NGAF) on 13 January 2021, at the Bangabandhu International Conference Center (BICC).

The divisional consultations were organized in each division and one additional in Rangamati to collect qualitative and quantitative data on governance and explore possible solutions at the divisional level. Dhaka Division consultation was part of the series consultation. 

Dr. Gowher Rizvi, Advisor to Prime Minister on International Relation Affairs, attended the event as the Chief Guest. He said "Government is the guarantor of social justice; therefore, governance is an indispensable element to ensure the equitable share of people's access and opportunity" He also underlined that the NGAF should reflect national aspirations and aim to improve citizens' quality of life.

Sudipto Mukerjee, Resident Representative of UNDP Bangladesh, in his remarks said, "NGAF is a nationally owned, participatory framework built on an "all-of-society" approach which is integrated within a larger, cohesive process of monitoring development progress in Bangladesh." He stressed on UNDP's strong commitment to continue its support to the government in developing the tool like NGAF to capture priority areas for policy action, gather citizen's aspirations, and help the policymakers design more comprehensive policy agendas.

Dr. Ahmad Kaikaus, Principal Secretary to Prime Minister, said, "Bangladesh is unique in many ways both historically and culturally. Thus, the state of governance in Bangladesh should be assessed with reference to country context. Any imposed framework might not be adequate to capture the actual situation of Bangladesh." He further said, "the NGAF is a home-grown framework developed by local experts while maintaining global comparability which can provide useful information for the government to work on the betterment of peoples' lives of this country."

The event was also attended by, Professor Dr. Kazi Maruful Islam and Professor Dr. M Abu Eusuf of University of Dhaka, Radwan Mujib Siddiq, National Consultant and Ashekur Rahman, Assistant Resident Representative of UNDP Bangladesh. Dr. Mohammad Abdul Latif, Director General of the GIU, closed the event by congratulating all participants for their contribution in the group work and expressed gratitude for completing the questionnaires.

The NGAF is a country-contextualized governance assessment apparatus that aims to create an inclusive and peaceful society with greater access to justice for all and effective, accountable and inclusive institutions at all levels. The NGAF will help to track the government's progress in the trajectory of a Five-Year Plan and support the SDG monitoring and reporting responsibilities. The framework, supported by UNDP and relevant institutions, has five thematic areas, eighteen sub-themes, and sixty-four context-relevant indicators for Bangladesh.