The 4^th edition of the Bangladesh Capacity Building Program was held from March 5-9^th at the KDI School. Designed for the students of Institute of Governance Studies (IGS) at BRAC University & civil servants from Bangladesh, the week-long program was aimed at helping the participants increase their understanding of development policy making & change management strategies.

The program consisted of three main components: (a) presentations on economic development & change management  (b) site visits to relevant institutions (c) cultural activities.

Thought provoking lectures were delivered throughout the program by the KDI School faculty that included Prof Joon-Kyung Kim, Prof Dong-Young Kim, Prof Seung-Joo Lee and Prof Stanley Sakai.

The program ended with certificate presentation ceremony and a closing speech by Prof Rizwan, Director, Institute for Governance Studies, BRAC University. He emphatically shared that the capacity building program has been able to inculcate a new spirit & enthusiasm in the government officials from Bangladesh. Learning from the Korean development experience, participants from the past three batches of the capacity building workshop have gone back to Bangladesh with a ‘can do’ attitude and this has been the real success of the program.

After the closing ceremony the Globe caught up with Prof Joon-Kyung Kim, Director, Development Research & Learning Network and asked him about his views on the the potential of the KDIS-BRAC Univ partnership.

Globe Team How would you describe the last 5 days of the Capacity Building Workshop? Has the program met your expectations?

Associate Dean Kim Through this program, KDI School’s mission is to build capacity in developing countries. The idea is not to glorify what Korea has achieved but share the lessons to give hope to other countries who are trying to grow. Last week has been wonderful; from the initial feedback I have received it does look like we have delivered another successful program

Globe Team The capacity building program has been running successfully since 2007. What’s next? How do you see the program growing in the next few years?

Associate Dean Kim We are trying to expand the program to a more intensive 2 week format with more batches and also add newer themes such as Leadership, Conflict Resolution, Social Development etc. We have discussed many ideas with the BRAC team on this visit and hopefully we will be able to raise more funding to implement these new ideas to scale up the program

With a solid foundation built in the last 5 years of collaboration, the KDIS-BRAC partnership is truly at an inflection point. We foresee a great opportunity for reverse learning as well, whereby Korean experts/students can learn from Bangladesh’s development experience. In the near future we hope this partnership can enable Korean students to avail exchange opportunities at BRAC University and learn from BRAC’s immense experience in micro-finance, social entrepreneurship, education & public health.

By Manish Joshi (2012 MPP, India)