A roundtable discussion on “Rural Land Market in Bangladesh: A Situation Analysis” was held on December 3, 2014 at the Daily Star Centre jointly organized by Manusher Jonno Foundation (MJF), Uttaran and CARE Bangladesh with financial support from European Union (EU). The purpose of the roundtable was to share the preliminary findings of the survey done to explore land market situation in Bangladesh. The survey was an output of EU’s ‘Access to Land Programme’ in Bangladesh emphasizing ‘land record digitalization’ with the government and civil society. This supplement contains the summary of the survey findings, key discussions and debates generated in the roundtable.

Shaheen Anam, Executive Director, Manusher Jonno Foundation chaired the roundtable. Rina Roy, Director, Manusher Jonno Foundation facilitated the open discussion session. Professor Abul Barkat, study team leader, Chief Adviser, HDRC, and Professor, Department of Economics, University of Dhaka, shared the preliminary study findings on ‘Rural Land Market in Bangladesh: A Situation Analysis’.

Mr. Abdour Rouf, Deputy Secretary, Ministry of Public Administration, Professor M M Akash, Department of Economics, University of Dhaka and Mr. Shamsul Huda, Executive Director, ALRD provided expert opinions on shared findings.

Mr. Pasi Rajender, Operations Manager & Senior Capacity Building Specialist, Project Technical Assistance Team-PTAT, Mr. Shahidul Islam, Director, Uttaran, Ms. Julia Jacoby, Project Manager, Governance & Human Rights, Delegation of the European Union to Bangladesh, and Mr. Murad Bin Aziz, Governance Coordinator, Extreme Rural Poverty Programme, Care Bangladesh shared their opinions as designated speakers

Mr. Rezaul Karim, Land Settlement Adviser, Char Development and Settlement Project-IV (CDSP-IV), Ms. Mitali Nusrat Parvin, Executive Director, Onneyshan and Mr. Mannan Bhashani, Executive Director, Social Progress Services (SPS) speak in the open discussion session. A Good number of civil society representatives particularly knowledgeable on land rights issue also were present in the roundtable.