The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) Bangladesh presented six of its projects at an exhibition held at the IDB Bhaban in the capital’s Agargaon area, yesterday.
The projects were showcased in seven different stalls titled: “Innovative, Transform, Serve,” “Finding Justice,” “Breaking Silence,” “Learn Early, Save More Lives,” “Secured Tenures” and “Of Forest, Fish & Fruits.”
Among them, the Breaking Silence programme was an initiative started in collaboration with the Brave Men Campaign, involving young men. School-going male students, aged between 12 to 15 years, were particularly motivated to break their silence on violence against women in the community.
A diary titled “Brave Men Diary,” was given to each student to write a piece about his mother titled “My Mother.”
This activity was geared to developing the students’ understanding of the role of mothers in households, to instil a sense of responsibility in them to assist and to understand the role of men in society. It was started in 2012.
Dr Syed Saikh Imtiaz, associate professor of the Department of Women and Gender Studies of the Dhaka University, was the first to initiate the programme.
He said: “Around 50% of the students partake in least one activity in their households and 90% of those show positive attitudes towards women.”
The Finding Justice or Judicial Strengthening project was initiated in January 2012. A website (www.bdcourts.gov.bd) was launched providing information on the cases in the courts in Dhaka, Kishoreganj and Rangamati. Mediation programmes were also launched in different upazilas of the country. Around 13,000 cases were resolved through this project in 2013.
Md Rafiqul Islam, research assistant under the a2i programme of the prime minister’s office, said: “The programme was initiated to give policy advice on ICT to government officials. Having ICT courses in education and providing multimedia classrooms was a goal of this programme.”
Kausik Das, monitoring officer of the Comprehensive Disaster Management Programme Phase II, said: “Anyone can get weather reports by dialling 190941 numbers from any cell phone operator. This aims to further reduce Bangladesh’s vulnerability to adverse natural and anthropogenic hazards and extreme events, including the potentiality of the devastating impacts of climate change.”
The Community Based Adaptation to Climate Change through Coastal Afforestation (CBACC-CF) project got started in 2012 and focused on reducing the risk of climate change induced damage to human and economic development in the coastal areas of Bangladesh.
It resulted in livelihood diversification for over 85,000 people through training in plantation techniques and management and cash-for-work programmes.