Bangladesh Unnayan Parishad

The Bangladesh Unnayan Parishad (BUP) is a non-profit research organization devoted to the promotion of basic as well as action research on environment, development and socioeconomic sector. In the field of independent development research and dialogue activities, the BUP has played the pioneering role in Bangladesh. When it was established in 1980's, it was virtually the first of its kind in the country and represented a new vision. It has conducted many seminal research works on key national development issues and played a key role in popularizing roundtable discussions and dialogues on important issues of policy relevance. It also pioneered public opinion research in Bangladesh, initiating the activity in 1994.

The BUP is well-established as a leading think-tank of Bangladesh. Its research areas include a wide range of issues relating to sustainable development, covering social, economic, environmental, climate change and cultural aspects of development efforts. It has also earned wide recognition for its planning forum which organizes policy debates on not only national issues but also regional and international issues. The vision that inspirits BUP's work is the vision of Bangladesh as a democratic, economically self-reliant, just, and vibrant society in which every citizen will have access to opportunities for achieving their full human potential in an environment of individual and collective security. Internationally, it envisages a sustainable and equitable global order as the collective broader goal of humanity. In pursuit of this vision, its mission is to generate ideas, policy directions and field level activities through research and dialogue on a continuing basis towards fostering a people-centred culture of development.

The BUP has been involved, since 1990, in research and advocacy activities on a wide range of water, environmental and climate change issues in relation to Bangladesh, South Asia, and also in wider context. The BUP has participated in pioneering research on water sharing issues among the Ganges-Brahmaputra-Meghna (GBM) regional countries. A number of books have been published on the basis of regionally cooperative research, in which experts from Bangladesh, India, and Nepal have worked together. The first book on climate change implications for Bangladesh was published by the BUP. The research was completed in 1994, and was published by Kluwer Academic Publishers, The Netherlands in 1996: The Implications of Climate Change and Sea Level Rise for Bangladesh. The BUP has, in cooperation with institutes from Nepal and India, conducted a major study on Community Approaches to Flood Management. A flood management manual was prepared within the scope of the study which was successfully field tested.