A national seminar on monga, jointly organized by the Institute of Microfinance (InM), and the Palli Karma-Sahayak Foundation (PKSF), was held at the PKSF auditorium, PKSF Bhaban, Agargaon, Sher-E-Bangla Nagar, Dhaka, on 2-3 January 2008.
Dr. A.B. Mirza Md. Azizul Islam, Honorable Advisor for Finance, Planning, Commerce, and Post and Telecommunication, Government of Bangladesh, inaugurated the seminar as the Chief Guest. Dr. C.S. Karim, Honorable Advisor for Agriculture, Forestry, and Fisheries and Livestock, Government of Bangladesh, was present at the occasion as a Special Guest. Dr. Wahiduddin Mahmud, Chairman of InM and PKSF, and former Advisor for Finance and Planning, Government of Bangladesh chaired the session.
The seminar has disseminated the findings of a study on monga, a near-famine situation that comes about every year during the Bengali months of Ashwin-Kartic (September-October) in northwestern part of Bangladesgh (Greater Rangpur). The study findings were presented and discussed in six business sessions, each having a separate theme.
Five broad themes such as vulnerability of households, their coping mechanisms of monga, voices from the field, institutional interventions for monga mitigation, impact of PKSF’s PRIME (Programmed Initiatives for Monga Eradication) intervention were presented successively in five sessions. In the sixth and closing session, major policy implications were discussed.
