by DeltaCAP team | Aug 22, 2018
On 5 th August 2018, DeltaCAP team members discussed the Delta Centre with Prof Jamilur Reza Choudhury, VC of
the University of Asia Pacific and Chair of the Technical Advisory Committee of BDP2100 in the midst of.
other pressing issues (student protests). While considering himself as a not too active
player (you know, when you come towards sunset in a cricket match, you wind down playing, as you
know you have to stop soon), we benefitted a lot by listening to his carefully chosen words regarding the
Bangladesh Delta Plan 2100 and a Delta Centre for training and knowledge dissemination. Prof. Choudhury mentioned
various points in which the development of BDP2100 was containing elements and concepts that are
new to the country, and which need time to land and be used. Capacity to do so needs to be created. In
his words, the advice is ‘gather and disseminate the knowledge on BDP2100’ as well as ‘use a
sustainable operational model to do so’.
In the picture, from right to left: Catharien Terwisscha van Scheltinga, WUR, Prof Jamilur Reza
Choudhury, UAP, Prof Shah Alam Khan, BUET, Kousik Ahmed, WUR/IWM.
by DeltaCAP team | Jul 15, 2018
A team of World Water Academy (WWA), Netherlands, will visit Bangladesh from 17-23 July, 2018 on a mission to discuss possible business/operational models for a Delta Centre. Ms. Agnes Maenhout (Director, WWA) is going to lead the mission with a mission member, Mr. Johan Oost (Project Manager, WWA). The objectives of this mission are to analyse current practices of training centres in Bangladesh with similar scope in the same and/or other domains in relation to their operation/management structure, and business model, etc.); to know about the level of education of professionals working in the field of water management in Bangladesh with the (future) needs, demand aligned with supply (offerings of vocational trainings) and experiences with life-long learning; and to assess the sustainability of the Delta Centre in the longer term after the completion of DeltaCap Project (2016-2020) with an appropriate business model. Through this mission of the WWA team, Delta Centre is expected to be benefited as being a self-supportive Training Institute to share the knowledge and skills through development and delivery of trainings. As the parts of this mission, the WWA team will attend various meetings with the institutional focal points, partners, stakeholders, and implementing agencies, and will also visit several training centres in Dhaka.
by DeltaCAP team | Jul 1, 2018
Under the umbrella of Bangladesh Delta Plan 2100 a raft of projects ranging from building heavy infrastructure, improving community resilience to building institutional capacities and planning of land use will be implemented. These projects require diverse professional expertise at various stages of planning such as planning, design, construction, operation and maintenance of the projects in the coming 2 decades. DeltaCap has conducted a first needs assessment using a simple assessment tool to facilitate discussions among the stakeholders. Over the past 6 months discussions were held among various stakeholders of BDP2100 using the tool. In addition, specific inputs were sought from high level stakeholders such as General Economic division of Planning Commission (GED), Bangladesh Water Development Board (BWDB), Local Government Engineering Department (LGED) and Water Resources and Planning Organisation (WARPO) to complement this assessment. Specific inputs were obtained through one to one interviews.
In parallel with the activities mentioned above, DeltaCap has started discussions with the staff of the Dutch Delta Commissioner and the Director of the Dutch Flood Protection Program (as being one of the program which runs under the umbrella of the Dutch Delta Program), Mr. Richard Jorissen (see picture), on the capacity needs for the Dutch Delta Program. Questions which are central in the discussions are: What are the capacity needs? What tools/methods have been used to arrive at an assessment and how is capacity development being organized/who is responsible for capacity development within the program?
The ultimate aim of these discussions is to explore whether there are lessons to be learned for both countries and to identify opportunities for future collaboration in this specific area.
The findings of the above are currently being analyzed and will be captured in a report which will be discussed in the forthcoming DeltaCap management meeting to held in Dhaka in September 2018.
Photo: Meeting with ir. Richard Jorissen, Director Dutch Flood Protection Program and dr. Mohan Radhakrishnan (DeltaCap) and prof. Chris Zevenbergen (Deltacap)(29 June 2018)
by DeltaCAP team | Jul 1, 2018
