DHAKA, Dec 03, 2024 (BSS) - The Bangladesh Institute of Development Studies (BIDS) is set to host its four-day flagship event, the Annual BIDS Conference on Development (ABCD) 2024, on December 7-10.

The theme of the conference is "Equality, Opportunity, Freedom, and Dignity: Restructuring Institutions for Equitable and Sustainable Development."

The conference will take place from December 7 to 10 at Lakeshore Hotel in the capital.

The aim of the conference is to provide a platform for the dissemination of research conducted by national and international scholars and engage wider communities on contemporary development issues and debates, said a press release.

 The conference will feature a total of 30 papers, 2 keynote addresses, and 12 public lectures from Bangladesh and abroad, encompassing various themes such as economic and social reforms agenda, poverty, equality, agriculture, food security, living conditions, inflation, urbanization, education, health, energy, firm, environment, public debt, child marriage, credit, food system transformation, and so on.

Dr Wahiduddin Mahmud, Adviser of the, Ministry of Planning and Ministry of Education, will grace the event as the Chief Guest in the inaugural session of the conference.

He will also give a special address titled “On Equality”. The inaugural address, “The Middle-Income Trap” will be presented by Indermit Gill, Chief Economist of the World Bank Group and Senior Vice President for Development Economics, along with Somik V. Lall, Director, World Development Report (WDR) 2024.

BIDS Director General will deliver the opening remarks, “Introducing the Theme of Interconnectedness: Equality, Opportunity, Freedom, and Dignity.”

 The public lectures will cover issues like ‘Agenda for Economic and Social Reform’ by Rehman Sobhan, Chairman, Centre for Policy Dialogue; ‘Corporate Agriculture by M. A. Sattar Mandal, Professorial Fellow at BIDS; ‘Structural Transformation and its Effect on Growth and Poverty’ by Jessica Leight, Senior Research Fellow at IFPRI; ‘Building Resilience among the Poor: Lessons from the Field’ by Yasuyuki Sawada, Former Chief Economist at Asian Development Bank and Professor at the University of Tokyo, and others.

 Keynote addresses titled ‘Equality and Opportunity’ by Ravi Kanbur, T.H. Lee Professor of World Affairs, International Professor of Applied Economics and Management, Professor of Economics, Cornell University and ‘Can Bangladesh Renew its Elite Bargain for Development?’ by Stefan Dercon, Professor, Blavatnik School of Government and the Economics Department, University of Oxford, will be held on day 1 and day 3 of the conference, respectively.

 There will have academic sessions on BIDS Works on Technology, Supply Chain and Employment in Firms, Education and Health, Macro Energy and Environment, Credit Agricultural Productivity and Land Use.

Apart from these, the other academic sessions include Poverty in Bangladesh based on HIES 2022 by Word Bank, Agriculture and Food Security by IFPRI, Research Methods on Poverty, Vulnerability and Poverty Dynamics, and Dignity of the Excluded by the University of Bath.