DEMOCRACY & POLITICAL EMPOWERMENT:   

Strengthening local governance is a priority to government of Bangladesh. Till today, various legislations have been reformed and enacted. This has given an opportunity for organizations working on strengthening governance and social accountability. The 2009 pourashava act given people to participate, involve in planning and budgeting. More importantly, this legislative reform has enabled local citizens to voice out concerns in union parishad (UP) issues directly creating a formal basis for institutionalizing social accountability within UP governance. However, there are constraints. Local elected bodies (LEBs) are less aware of their roles and being transparent. Citizens are not satisfactorily informed and engaged with UPs in participatory planning and budgeting. Citizens also have difficulties accessing resources, services from various line departments, civil society organization (CSOs) and private sector service providers. The participation and representation of marginalized women remains unsatisfactory.

In this context, it is important to ensure the voices of the poor and marginalized women. To address these constrains Rupantar has been implementing projects in 8 districts under governance and democracy programs in rural, semi-urban and urban areas. These districts include Khulna, Bagerhat, Satkhira, Jashore, Chuadanga, Pabna, Barishal and Pirozpur with grant support from Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC) and Democracy International (DI). The democracy and governance program aims at improving capacity of the local elected bodies for providing better services to the citizens. The objective of the program is to increase local level governance, transparency and accountability through participation of people and promote grassroots women leadership.

1. Project name - APARAJITA-Political Empowerment of Women –Khulna

Goal:

Aparajita project contributes to equal participation, representation and leadership of women within local governance.

Stakeholders:

  • Youth
  • Local elected bodies
  • Government officials
  • Political leaders and
  • Women leaders.

Name of the donor:

SDC/Helvetas Swiss Intercooperation

Major activities:

  • Mobilizing Aparajitas through remote communication support
  • Training of 1,352 Aparajitas on women political empowerment
  • Support to 1,260 women leaders (WL) for peer teaching and learning
  • Gender and women political empowerment (WPE) sensitization orientation for 836 elected male representatives
  • Orientation of 3,609 youth (Female- 1,581 and Male-2,028) on promoting improved gender equity and family governance.

FD- 6

Working Area:

Districts : Khulna and Bagerhat
Upazilas: 11 upazilas

Beneficiaries:

2,193,492, (f: 1,079,417, m: 1,114,075).
Direct:1,352 and indirect: 2,192,738

Project Coordinator:

17
Subol Kumar Ghosh
Cluster Programme Coordinator
Cell: 01710-775301
Email:subol@rupantar.org

2. Project name - Promoting peace and justice -Khulna

Goal:

Improved delivery of legal aid through formal justice system and increase citizen access to legal rights.

Stakeholders:

  • Adolescent
  • Local elected bodies
  • Government officials and
  • Religious leaders.

Name of the donor:

Democracy International (DI)

Major activities:

  • Orienting 1,880 members of district, upazila and union level legal aid committees on different legal aid support
  • Facilitating 6,016 beneficiaries to improve understanding of legal rights and responsibilities through courtyard meetings
  • Ensuring active participation of 655 beneficiaries in public hearing

Working Area:

Districts : Khulna
Upazilas: 5 upazilas

Beneficiaries:

2,445 (f: 978, m: 1,467);
Direct:
1,870 and Indirect: 517,672.

Project Coordinator:

6
Anup Ray
Project Coordinator PPJ-Khulna
01712-977734
anup@rupantar.org

3. Project name - Promoting Peace and Justice -Jashore

Goal:

Improved delivery of legal aid through formal justice system and increase citizen access to legal rights.

Stakeholders:

  • Adolescent,
  • Local elected bodies,
  • Government officials and
  • Religious leader

Name of the donor:

Democracy International (DI)

Major activities:

  • Orienting 1,880 members of district, upazila and union level legal aid committees on different legal aid support
  • Facilitating 6,016 beneficiaries to improve understanding of legal rights and responsibilities through courtyard meetings
  • Ensuring active participation of 655 beneficiaries in public hearing

Working Area:

Districts : Jessore
Upazilas: 5 upazilas

Beneficiaries:

41,635 (f: 16,654, m: 24,981);
Direct: 5,035  and Indirect: 36,600.

Project Coordinator:

13
Md. Rabiul Islam
Project Coordinator PPJ-Jashore
01787-191978
babu@rupantar.org

4. Project name - APARAJITA- political empowerment of women -Barisal

Goal:

Aparajita project contributes to equal participation, representation and leadership of women within local governance.

Stakeholders:

  • Youth, local elected bodies,
  • Government officials,
  • Political leaders and
  • Women leaders.

Name of the donor:

SDC/Helvetas Swiss Intercooperation

Major activities:

  • Mobilizing Aparajitas through remote communication support
  • Training of 682 Aparajitas on women political empowerment
  • Support to 1,034 women leaders (WL) for peer teaching and learning
  • Gender and women political empowerment (WPE) sensitization orientation for 300 elected male representatives
  •  

FD- 6

Working Area:

  • Barishal in 4 upazillas,
  • Jhalokathi in 3 upazilas and
  • Pirojpur in 4 upazilas

Beneficiaries:

2,493,667 (f: 1,496,200, m: 997,467);

Direct: 754 and Indirect: 2,492,913

Project Coordinator:

14
Rabeya Bosri
Cluster Programme Coordinator
01727-308665
rabeya@rupantar.org

5. Project name - Promoting participatory engagement to strengthen governance

Goal:

Integrity and responsiveness of local government institutions (Khulna City Corporation) strengthened through active citizen engagement.

Stakeholders:

  • Citizen leaders
  • Elected representatives
  • KCC officials
  • Service providers
  • Community people,
  • Citizen, poor and marginalized
  • Journalist and community people.

Name of the donor:

The Asia Foundation

Major activities:

Working Area:

  • Districts : Khulna
  • Upazilas: Khulna city corporation

Beneficiaries:

182 (f: 73, m: 109),

Direct: 132 and Indirect: 50

Project Coordinator:

12
Kartick Chandra Roy
Project Manager 
01712-686876
kartick@rupantar.org

6. Collaboration, awareness, research, and education (CARE) for promoting NIS (National Integrity Strategy) and upholding SDG

Goal:

To initiate and sustain the collaboration among the potential anti-corruption entities within the country.

Stakeholders:

  • Civil society leaders

Name of the donor:

International Republican Institute (IRI)

Major activities:

  • Consultation meetings and network coordination meeting

FD- 6

Working Area:

  • Districts : Khulna
  • Upazilas: Khulna city corporation

Beneficiaries:

Project Coordinator:

7
Ashim Ananda Das
Project Coordinator
01711-841274
ashim@rupantar.org