Christian Aid Bangladesh organized the close-out event of a three and half year long project - Empowering Left Behind Minority Communities to Effectively Participate in the Development Process of Bangladesh (ELMC) on Tuesday.
The event portrayed the journey of the project in empowering the minority communities of Bangladesh.
It shared the collective learnings and best practices of the project by presenting a strategic roadmap for minority rights advocacy. The roadmap emphasized the need for continued advocacy and resource mobilization—funding and programmatic direction—by the policymakers, academicians, government officials, donors etc. to build on the project's foundations, said a media release.Christian Aid had been implementing a 42-month ELMC project Co-funded by the European Union in partnership with – Bandhu Social Welfare Society, BLAST, Nagorik Uddyog and WAVE Foundation in 8 districts i.e. Rajshahi, Naogoan, Sylhet, Moulvibazar, Habiganj, Khulna, Jashore, Satkhira along with Dhaka city.
This project aims to directly reach over 600,000 people from marginalized communities and over 1.8 million people indirectly. The target groups of this project are Dalit, Hijra, Ethnic Minority specifically plainland Adivasi and people with disability (PwD), it added.
Among the distinguished guests present at the event, Shaheen Anam, executive director, Manusher Jonno Foundation, strongly voiced the challenges that the Civil Society Organizations face during NGO Affairs Bureau registration and the need for assistance for these small community-based organizations.
Charles Whitney Ambassador & Head of Delegation, European Union was present at the event and talked about how the vision that the ELMC project worked on that motivated the Civil Society to raise their voices on minority rights issues.
He also added that the European Union is encouraged to support such initiatives more in the future.
The event concluded with a multi-stakeholder dialogue aimed at presenting and validating the roadmap for enhancing the participation of marginalized communities followed by Nuzhat Jabin, Country Director of Christian Aid Bangladesh giving the closing remarks.
Key takeaways for each stakeholder group were discussed, followed by the project impact video showcasing the work done for minority rights across the Rajshahi, Khulna, and Sylhet divisions. Partner organizations also had the opportunity to display their achievements.
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