A two-day workshop titled “Election Commitments, Reforms and Fact-checking” began on Sunday in Dhaka.

The event has been organised by the Citizen’s Platform for SDGs in association with the Economic Reporters’ Forum (ERF), with support from the Embassy of Switzerland in Bangladesh and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP).

The workshop aims to serve as a capacity-building initiative to strengthen reporting on reforms and governance at the grassroots level. Around 35 journalists from television, newspapers and online media from across the country participated in the first day of the programme.

On the opening day, Tarannum Jinan, Network Focal Point of the Citizen’s Platform and Senior Administrative Associate at CPD, welcomed the participants and facilitators.

Introductory remarks were delivered by Doulot Akter Mala, President of the Economic Reporters’ Forum.

Dr Debapriya Bhattacharya, Distinguished Fellow at CPD, outlined the objectives of the workshop, what participants can expect, and the critical role of journalists in covering reform and election commitments.

Professor Mustafizur Rahman, Core Group Member of the Citizen’s Platform and Distinguished Fellow at CPD, along with Md. Rifat Bin Aowlad, Dialogue Associate at CPD, and Zarin Tasnim, Executive Associate to the Distinguished Fellow at CPD, were also present.

Over the two days, participants will be introduced to the Citizen’s Platform’s newly launched “Bangladesh Reform Tracker” and provided with tools to improve reporting on reform-related issues.