“Invest, young people will take care of the rest”, said State Minister for Youth and Sports Zahid Hasan Russell, MP while emphasizing the necessity for hands on-the-job training in Bangladesh. He was addressing as the Chief Guest at the celebration of 10 years of STAR (BRAC’s Skills Trainings for Advancing Resources) project held at BRAC Centre, Dhaka.

“Bangladesh Government is investing in skills development of youth and taking different initiatives. Government and non-profits. Government and NGOs can work hands on hands to reach out to youth who are in needs of education or technical training”, he added.

The on-the-job training programme is a solution to unemployment and poverty for the out of school adolescent and youth, said Asif Saleh, Executive Director of BRAC.

He noted that this programme is even more effective in terms of creating employment for the female participants.



Also present as special guests were, Md Nuruzzaman Sharif, ndc, Director General and Joint Secretary, Bureau of Non-formal Education (BNFE), Dr Md Omar Faruque, Director General and Additional Secretary, Directorate of Technical Education, Dr Md Alfaz Hossain, Project Director, Comprehensive Village Development Program (CVDP).

The training has more positive impacts on girls than boys: Effect on girls’ savings was 6 times higher than that of boys, employment among unmarried women increased by 43%, reduced chances of early marriage by 62% amongst female participants and subsequently delayed early childbirth.

In 2012, BRAC, UNICEF, ILO and Bureau of Non-Formal Education (BNFE) launched the Skills Training for Advancing Resources (STAR) as part of the Basic Education for Hard-to-Reach Urban Working Children (BEHTRUWC) project. The training builds on the traditional “Ustad-Shagred” (Master-Apprentice) model, where out of school adolescent and youth are placed as apprentices with local businesspersons known as Master Craft Persons. Over the years, STAR has demonstrated its success in providing an alternative learning pathway by training over 120,000 young people, especially in reaching around 60% girls who had no other learning options.

As the training is aligned with market-driven skills needs and the National Technical and Vocational Qualification Framework (NTVQF), graduate apprentices can go on to acquire Recognition of Prior Learning (RPL) certification, and eventually better-paid jobs, in the formal sector as well. STAR has also been recognized as one of the top 10 global solutions for youth by the Generation Unlimited.

BRAC has stepped up the implementation of its policy to use environment-friendly materials. The organisation now stops using PVC banners and all other one-time campaign materials made of plastics as part of its environ-friendly policy.

A memo signed by Asif Saleh, executive director, BRAC Bangladesh, was circulated internally for all its staff. The policy will be in effect from tomorrow Monday, 1 November 2022.

This initiative is a part of the organisation’s effort to curb its carbon footprint through environment-friendly measures. BRAC has formulated its strategy and infrastructural targets to reduce carbon emission across all its offices. The measures in this regard include - stop using of all one-time campaign materials such as one-time PVC banners and replacing those with cloth and other environment-friendly materials. The initiative also includes stop using of one-time plastic bottles, bags, spoons, straws and other materials/utensils in all events of BRAC, and ensure use of environment-friendly materials as much as possible for all organisational purposes.

A close monitoring system has also been put in place to ensure rigorous policy and strategy implementation.

BRAC’s first initiative in this regard was brought into effect on 1 November 2019, under which use of one-time plastic bottles was forbidden at all BRAC offices.

The post-pandemic world will see a robust rebuilding if the governments, non-governmental and private actors, innovators, social and mass media and community join hands in well-coordinated efforts to address the inequalities pervasive throughout the communities across the world and that aggravated during Covid-19.

These views came at a 2-day (12-13 October) conference titled “Frugal Innovations Forum” (FIF) hosted by BRAC. With 200 participants and over 40 speakers from the Global South countries, FIF 2022 comprised one daylong field visit and two days of panel discussions, presentations and workshops.

BRAC, one of the largest development organisations in the world, is hosting the Frugal Innovation Forum for the last seven years to facilitate the exchange between the social innovators around the world, especially those from the Global South, and other actors. This year, the FIF’s focused theme “The Future of Development in a Post-Pandemic World” highlighted the topics ranging from financial inclusion and education to healthcare and beyond.

Dr Shamsul Aam, state minister, Ministry of Planning; Dr Lilly Nicholls, high commissioner of Canada to Bangladesh; Anir Choudhury, policy advisor, Government of Bangladesh/UNDP; Rani Yan Yan, Chakma Rani (Queen), Chittagong Hill Tracts; Kamal Quadir, chief executive officer, bKash; Hillary Miller-Wise, deputy director, Global Growth and Strategy, Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation; Zaved Akhtar, CEO, Unilever Bangladesh Limited; Yasir Azman, CEO, Grameenphone Ltd.; and Md Mahbub ur Rahman, CEO, HSBC Bangladesh; were among the distinguished guests at the different sessions of the 2-day event. Members of the senior management from BRAC also addressed the audience at the event.

State minister for planning Dr Shamsul Aam in his speech today (closing day) focused on the government’s proactive actions to mitigate the impacts of climate change in Bangladesh. He said, “we are increasingly prioritising actions to build our resilience, while we are at work in finding nature-based solutions to address the adverse situations triggered by climate change.”

Speaking on how the lessons learned during the pandemic can be utilised in the post-pandemic time, Anir Choudhury policy advisor of Government of Bangladesh/UNDP said, “we have three takeaways from the pandemic, which are:

• data collaboration is possible between government, telcos, NGOs, private sectors, which enabled unprecedented response
• distributed delivery models through remote diagnosis, wearable technology, community health workers are key in delivering health care to the community
• WhatsApp bureaucracy is real that made major decisions possible without letters, meetings, Zoom calls just by discussing and deciding in real time on a chat forum”

Eminent economist and chairperson of BRAC Bangladesh Dr Hossain Zillur Rahman emphasised that solutions to the challenges in the Global South should be ground-up, gender intentional and based on people’s lived experiences, which is the key takeaway of the 2-day Frugal Innovation Forum. “To make meta-transformations, the world of policy and non-state actors cannot speak in different languages,” he further added.

Speaking on the closing day, Asif Saleh, executive director, BRAC, highlighted BRAC’s future role in the new normal era. “BRAC will continue to stay relevant. With the changing nature of society and country, different types of problems will be emerging. We look at ourselves as part of the solution ecosystem with the government, private sector, development partners and social entrepreneurs. BRAC will be doing exactly what it has been doing. We are working side-by-side with the governments, private sectors and change-makers both nationally and globally. Because beautiful things can happen when all of us work together.”

Experts, activists call for stronger collaboration to transform gender stereotypes

“We have a force in our country that is vehemently against gender equality. In Bangladesh, women have indeed achieved much progress, but they will still have to go a long way. But their journey is fraught with many hurdles. They will have to reach that state where they will claim their right to make decisions about their own life. It’s the family who has to stand beside their women and children in their fight to progress in life, but in our society our families are ridden with patriarchal values. We have to relentlessly work to transform this value system,” said Dr. Dipu Moni, minister for education and lawmaker, at a roundtable discussion today, Monday, 10 October 2022 organised at BRAC Centre in the capital.

BRAC organised the event on the occasion of International Girl Child Day to be observed tomorrow. The education minister was present at the event titled “International Girl Child Day dialogue on ‘Youth attitude towards gender norms’” as the chief guest. Asif Saleh, executive director, BRAC, chaired the programme.

The youths of Bangladesh, popularly termed as ‘population dividend’, currently make up more than half the population of the country and as such are the prime actors, sometimes prime victims also, in terms of the country’s scenario of gender equity and gender-based violence.

Recognising this crucial role of the youth, BRAC conducted a study on the youth perception towards gender norms in Bangladesh and shared the findings of the study at an event.

Special guests were Rasheda K. Choudhury, former adviser to Caretaker Government and present executive director, Campaign for Popular Education (CAMPE); Farida Pervin, director general, Department of Women Affairs, Ministry of Women and Child Affairs; Professor Nehal Ahmed, director general, Directorate of Secondary and Higher Education, Ministry of Education; Professor Dr. Mahjabeen Haque, Department of Educational and Counselling Psychology, Dhaka University; Professor Dr. Mizanur Rahman, former chairman of Bangladesh Human Rights Commission and at present teaching at Dhaka University; Dr. Fahmida Khatun, executive director, Center for Policy Dialogue (CPD); Syeda Rizwana Hasan, executive director, Bangladesh Environment Lawyers’ Association (BELA); and Korvi Raksand, founder, Jaago Foundation. KAM Morshed, senior director, Advocacy, Innovation & MEAL, BRAC, also spoke at the event. Nobonita Chowdhury, director, Gender Justice and Diversity, and Preventing Violence against Women Initiative, BRAC, moderated the dialogue.

Professor Dr. Mahjabeen Haque, Dr. Mohammad Salim Chowdhury and Dr. Md Azharul Islam jointly conducted the study titled “Exploring attitude towards gender norms among the youth population in Bangladesh”, the findings of which were shared at the dialogue by Dr. Mahjabeen Haque. The study was conducted among 2,790 men and women of age group 18-35 years, with around 50% male-female participant ratio, from altogether eight districts covering eight divisions.

Overall, the findings reflected a deeply rooted psyche favouring male control and male supremacy among the participants. Some of these responses are:

• 75% believe a wife needs not earn if her husband earns enough to run the household;
• 82% believe girls should not speak loudly;
• 73% think the male has the final say for large family expenses;
• 62% believe that it’s the girl’s family that should have the final say whether she should have higher education or not;
• Participants who went to Madrasa showed less sensitivity to gender-equal lens than those who went to Bengali medium institutions.

CAMPE director Rasheda K Chowdhury said, “Bringing overnight change in the youth psyche is not possible. It will take time. Also we have to bring changes in the education curriculum to reflect the national achievement of our women. We have to read about Nishat Mazumder also besides Tenzing Norgay and Edmund Hillary as the celebrated climber of Mt Everest.”

Former BHRC chair Professor Mizanur Rahman said, “If the rule of law is weak in ensuring equity in other areas of life such as distribution of wealth it will never help in achieving gender equity. Investment has to be made in education to promote gender equality among the young population. Involvement of any religious institutions to promote domestic violence is a despicable act and a violation of human rights.”

DG for Directorate of Secondary and Higher Education Professor Nehal Ahmed said, “We have taken initiatives to bring changes in the curriculum promoting gender equality learning for students. We hope the new curriculum will positively contribute in transforming gender norms among the young population.”

Department of Women Affairs DG Farida Pervin said, “The ministry of women and children affairs is working towards the empowerment of women with a focus on social and behaviour change communication. The ministry operates over 6,000 adolescent clubs down to the union level each of which have 20 girls and 10 boys as members. The government also launched the Joy mobile app with an aim to help women and children in emergency situations whenever they face violence.”

Jaago Foundation founder Korvi Raksand said, “Gender stereotyping starts at a very young age when girls are bought dolls and boys are bought guns. So it’s not an easy task to change the mindset of the youth. It’s important to focus on primary education and involvement of parents too.”

CPD ED Dr Fahmida Khatun said, “A large number of women who earn an income do so from working in the informal economy. We must consider how to bring women from informal to formal sectors. Education, skills and access to finance are important factors to ensure that women go ahead in life.”

BELA ED Syeda Rizwana Hasan said, “I believe we have an inner sense of respect for women but we could not nurture it. The state must take an initiative to cultivate a culture which promotes respect for women and gender equality.”

BRAC ED Asif Saleh said, “Bringing change would need us to work with those who can deliver the learning. We need to work with the cultural, media and publishing sectors. Moving towards gender equality is essentially a political and power struggle. Even if there has been a change in political commitment, there is a need for norm change. This is why we have planned to create a movement called shomotontro, (a system of equality) where we want to involve leaders from all sectors. We have to work towards solving the practical realities of why women don’t get involved in professional activities.”