The word 'panos' means torch or beacon in classical Greek. Globally and within nations, Panos works to ensure that information is effectively used to foster public debate, pluralism and democracy.

It tries to make sure that those who have most to win or lose from these debates – the most marginalised people in these societies – have their voices heard in the public arena.

Panos works with media and other information actors to particularly focus on amplifying the voices of the poor and marginalised.
enable developing countries to shape and communicate their own development agendas through informed public debate.  We

Panos South Asia has its headquarters in Kathmandu (Nepal) with country offices in New Delhi (India), Colombo (Sri Lanka), Karachi (Pakistan), and Dhaka (Bangladesh). The regional office in Kathmandu was established in 1997,the India office in 2000, the Sri Lanka office & the Pakistan office in 2004.The Bangladesh office opened in 2005 as also the North-East project office in Guwahati. We moved south to Chennai in July 2006, to establish our Globalisation Project office. Recent developments include the addition of new programme staff and the creation of a state-of-the-art media centre in Kathmandu.

Panos South Asia’s vision is to make our societies inclusive, democratic and just. We seek to renegotiate power through the media by enabling diverse opinions, ideas and theories to be included in the debate on governance and development.

The Institutes aim in particular to:

• Encourage and develop innovative information and communications activities and techniques to enable marginalised groups and communities to play an active role in development debates and to foster more democratic societies;
• Stimulate and inform public and policy debate, and to provide authoritative, accessible information on key development and environment issues;
• Support the development of a genuinely plural media, and to contribute to the creation of legal and regulatory environments which nurture development of free, democratic and plural media.
• Provide support and encouragement for both mainstream and alternative media in covering issues of most concern to the poor and marginalized;
• Increase the capacities of media, NGOs and other civil society organisations in developing countries to analyse key environment and development issues for themselves, and to subject national and international policy to a more rigorous, informed and constructive analysis;
• Enable other information actors to communicate the results of this analysis to a wide public, especially via radio and the vernacular press;
• Develop with NGOs and media mechanisms for communicating more effectively the aspirations and perceptions of people outside the political elités, and to inject these ideas into national and regional decision-making processes;
• Research and work to strengthen the presence of women in the media/communications fields, with particular emphasis on development and environment communication;
• Provide information channels for South-South and South North communications.

Panos Institute Bangladesh
Flat 2A, Rahbar Tower, Ring Road
75-76, Janata Cooperative Housing Society, P.S. Adabor, Mohammadpur
Dhaka 1207, Bangladesh
Tel.: +88- 01714238702,01714134554