On March 18, 2024, the Department of Public Administration of Bangladesh University of Professionals arranged an online class on “Achieving SDGs: Challenges and Opportunities in Bangladesh.

Ferdous Jahan, Ph.D. was the keynote speaker. Besides this Dean of FASS, the Dean CML, the Chairman, Faculty Members of Public Administration, the students of 3^rd year, and students pursuing an M.S.S in Public Administration attended this online class. The class was conducted through an online meeting platform named Zoom.

About the Keynote Speaker: Dr. Ferdous Jahan is a Senior Social Development Specialist at the World Bank working in the Europe and Central Asia region.  She provides operational (environmental and social policies), gender, and citizen engagement support to World Bank projects and serves as the Social Sustainability and Inclusion (SSI) Global Practice coordinator for Turkiye. Before joining the World Bank in 2019, Dr. Jahan was a professor of Public Administration at the University of Dhaka. She taught courses on sustainable development, governance, comparative public administration, and development project management at the University of Pennsylvania, the University of Dhaka, and BRAC University. She is also an expert in program evaluation and operational/policy research. She has worked for ADB, FCDO, EU, and UN Systems on many occasions and her work experience covers regions of East Africa, East Asia and the Pacific, South Asia, and Europe and Central Asia.).

Dr. Ferdous Jahan explained SDG goal no 16 (Peace, Justice, and Strong Institution) thoroughly as it is most relevant for the academic discussion for the Department of Public Administration. Dr. Ferdous Jahan has analyzed the development trends and scenario of Bangladesh from the birth of this country. She has presented how Bangladesh has managed to have stable economic growth as well as how it has absorbed the shock of the COVID-19 pandemic positively. She has also discussed the determining areas of the perspective plan 2021-2041 as well as talking about the 8th-year five-year plan. The 8^th Five-Year Plan specifies the following four priorities, they are 1) Building stronger institutions (local government, the urban institutions, NBR), 2) Enhancing the implementing capacity of public institutions and ministries to become more efficient and responsible while providing service to people, 3) A stronger policy focus in income inequality, 4) A strong focus on implementing delta plan. She has clarified the linkage between SDG goal no 16 (Peace, Justice, and Strong Institutions) and the 8^th Five-Year Plan. During this seminar Dr. Ferdous Jahan also talked about the perspective plan, it has four institutional pillars such as governance, democratization, decentralization, and capacity building which also can be aligned with SDG goal no 16. She has explained the Governance Innovation Unit (GIU) can take a significant role in building a strong and peaceful public institution. She also emphasized informal institutions and their role in building strong, peaceful institutions. At last Dr. Ferdous Jahan discussed the role of the Anti-Corruption Commission and the Nation Human Rights Commission to fulfill SDG goal no 16. After an hour of informative discussion by Dr. Ferdous Jahan the students, and faculty members have also shared their views about the SDG goals and its achievements in Bangladesh.