Rupantar has worked at the frontline of Bangladesh's peacebuilding landscape for over a decade. Rupantar's work reaches the country's most vulnerable and hard-to-reach populations like religious and ethnic minorities, marginalized communities, and residents of remote and underserved areas, including the Chittagong Hill Tracts and Cox's Bazar. Through this work, Rupantar has turned fragile, at-risk communities into resilient, tolerant societies.
Its approach is rights-based, gender-responsive, and rooted in deep grassroots trust and locally owned leadership. Rupantar pairs this with rigorously evaluated programming to prevent violent extremism, strengthen social cohesion, and safeguard civic and democratic space for youth, women, and minority communities across the country.
Rupantar applies a holistic, rights-based strategy shaped by over a decade of field learning, grounded in local ownership, gender equality, and conflict sensitivity.
All interventions are designed and adapted around a human rights-based approach and strict do-no-harm and non-partisanship principles, protecting the safety and neutrality of communities and frontline staff alike.
Capacity, leadership, and decision-making are progressively transferred to local civil society partners, community platforms, and grassroots structures designed to remain active well beyond any single funding period.
Mass awareness campaigns, cultural events, and sports engagement that make peacebuilding accessible and participatory for all segments of society.
Structured inter-generational and inter-faith dialogue, gender-responsive facilitation, and dedicated space for religious and ethnic minorities and marginalized groups to rebuild trust and strengthen civic space.
Developing and disseminating alternatives to extremist messaging, in print, broadcast, and social media, rooted in local languages and lived realities.
Trained community whistleblower and monitoring networks, anonymity protocols, and referral pathways that safeguard vulnerable individuals and de-escalate tension before it turns into violence.
Structured engagement with religious leaders, teachers, law enforcement, and local government as champions of tolerance, the rule of law, and inclusive governance.
Leadership training, vocational and soft-skills development, and standing civic platforms that turn youth, including young women, into peace advocates and civic actors rather than at-risk populations.
Rigorous, gender-disaggregated monitoring and learning, including internationally validated research, that keeps programming accountable, adaptive, and responsive to a fast-changing context.
Systematic, evidence-based monitoring of online harms, hate speech, and disinformation, paired with digital literacy training for youth.
From founding Bangladesh's first nationwide public mobilization against violence in 2014 to safeguarding democratic space through three national electoral cycles, each engagement has built on the last.
As part of its peace and harmony campaign initiative, and in response to Bangladesh's 2013-14 political unrest, Rupantar facilitated the formation of the Stop Violence Coalition (SVC), a coalition of 16 civil society organizations, launching the Social Harmony Campaign (Oct-Nov 2014), Bangladesh's first nationwide public mobilization against violence, and the coalition's founding project, "Stop Violence - Build a Peaceful Nation," designed to equip citizens to voice their concerns to duty-bearers. SVC went on to build capacitated District and Sub-district Forums across all divisions of Bangladesh to address local, context-specific drivers of violence, with the network's broader engagement objectives supported by UNDP and a range of like-minded partners, establishing Rupantar as a national convener on peacebuilding well before Preventing Violent Extremism (PVE) became a mainstream donor priority in Bangladesh.
Implemented the Preventing Extremism through Active Community Engagement (PEACE) Consortium (GCERF-funded, consortium-led) across Khulna, Satkhira, Rajshahi, Chapainawabganj, and Dhaka to build community resilience against extremism. An eight-year continuous engagement, among the longest-running PVE partnerships GCERF has supported in Bangladesh, reflecting sustained donor confidence in Rupantar's consortium leadership and local accountability.
Built a 496-member Youth Forum network, engaged 1,384 people directly and over 5,300 through community pot-song outreach. Positioned youth as community "whistle-blowers and watchdogs" against radicalization; 151 religious leaders and senior citizens joined youth-led inter-generational and inter-faith dialogues, committing to support the Forums' anti-extremism work.
Delivered in Ukhia Upazila, Cox's Bazar, to ease tensions between Rohingya refugees and host communities following the 2017 influx and strengthen local resilience. Reached 6,000 host community members across Rajapalong and Palongkhali unions, forming traffic management, drainage, and monsoon-preparedness committees, and extending Rupantar's social cohesion approach to Cox's Bazar areas.
Delivered in Bagerhat. The resulting Central Youth Campaign Group drew leaders from 9 municipal wards to run awareness campaigns on peace and tolerance in local educational institutions.
Delivered in 3 Rajshahi schools. The program united School Managing Committees, teachers, parents, and students around a joint action plan for harmonious relationships, engaging 30 students, 25 teachers, and 25 parent representatives in each school.
Designed as a randomized controlled trial with NYU and NORC at the University of Chicago, training 1,260 students across 7 universities. The trial design compared a placebo curriculum against two tolerance treatments, one professor-led and one peer-led, generating rigorous, independently verified evidence on which messenger most effectively shifts youth attitudes toward tolerance.
Co-organized Bangladesh's first National PVE Conference jointly with the Counter Terrorism and Transnational Crime Unit of Dhaka Metropolitan Police, supported by USAID's Obirodh: Road to Tolerance Program and the UNDP. Brought together law enforcement, government, and civil society on a single national platform, reinforcing Rupantar's credibility as a trusted, neutral bridge between grassroots communities and state security actors.
Strengthened 10 CSOs and 10 district platforms and directly engaged 1,340 youth. Delivered through a volatile period marked by communal violence, including the 2021 Cumilla-linked attacks, the project's counter-narrative and interfaith work directly addressed live flashpoints and seeded what later became the Social Cohesion Network.
Trained 46 Youth Panel members in Khulna and Rajshahi who built two active online communities countering hate speech and disinformation. Panel members received four expert-led trainings (UNDP, UNOCT, SecDev, Facebook, ULAB) and ran the Facebook groups Digital Bridge of Resilient Youth and PRIME, sustaining regular online monitoring and cross-platform coordination.
Partnered with SecDev on continuous social media monitoring to identify online harms and extremist narratives. This standing partnership gives Rupantar an ongoing, evidence-based early-warning lens on digital radicalization trends, feeding directly into the design of newer programs such as ASTHA.
Leading the ASTHA Project, a multi-partner consortium reaching 373,965 people to safeguard tolerant, peaceful democratic space, detailed below. Scaled Rupantar's model to 147 sub-districts of 18 districts, embedding social cohesion safeguards directly into three national electoral cycles.
Rupantar founded and serves as Secretariat of the Social Cohesion Network (SCN), a platform dedicated to preventing violent extremism and strengthening social cohesion. Originally established as the Stop Violence Coalition and later recognized National PVE Network, SCN today unites 41 civil society organizations across 27 districts.
With the support of the Embassy of Switzerland in Bangladesh (SDC), Rupantar has led a consortium of five Bangladeshi organizations, ASHIKA Development Associates, Democracywatch, GRAUS, Sabalamby Unnayan Samity, and Trinamul Unnyan Sangstha, delivering ASTHA across 147 sub-districts of 18 districts in seven divisions of Bangladesh since 2023. Guided by a Human Rights-Based Approach, the initiative safeguards tolerant, peaceful democratic space by empowering civic activists, youth, women, minorities, and marginalized groups across six operational clusters nationwide.
In 2018-19, with the support of the Danish Refugee Council (DRC), Rupantar delivered a host community outreach project in Ukhia Upazila, Cox's Bazar. The project eased tensions between Rohingya refugees and host communities and strengthened resilience at the center of a protracted humanitarian crisis. It improved host communities' access to basic social services, built their capacity to cope with shocks, and strengthened coordination with local government and the humanitarian response system.
Demonstrated that structured community ownership directly strengthens host communities' capacity to anticipate, cope with, and recover from shocks.
| Timeline | Project / Initiative Name | Supported by | Geographical Coverage | Key Objective / Focus |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2014 | Stop Violence Coalition | UNDP | Nationwide, all divisions (District & Sub-district Forums) | Founding of SVC and the Social Harmony Campaign; equipping citizens and duty-bearers for non-violent conflict resolution |
| 2016–2024 | Preventing Extremism through Active Community Engagement (PEACE) Consortium | GCERF | Khulna, Satkhira, Rajshahi, Chapainawabganj, Dhaka | Community resilience against violent extremism |
| 2017–2018 | Community and Youth Action against Radicalization and Extremism in Khulna (CYARE) | Democracy International | Khulna (Rupsha, Fultola, Dighalia, Batiaghata) | Youth-led counter-extremism, inter-faith and inter-generational dialogue |
| 2018–2019 | Engaging School Communities to Promote Harmonious Relationship | USAID (Obirodh: Road to Tolerance Program) | Rajshahi (3 schools) | School-based tolerance and harmonious relationship building |
| 2018–2019 | Campaign for Promoting Peace and Tolerance | Canadian High Commission | Bagerhat | Youth-led awareness campaign on peace and tolerance |
| 2018–2019 | Host Community Outreach Programme | Danish Refugee Council (DRC) | Ukhia Upazila, Cox's Bazar | Host-refugee social cohesion, protection, and resilience |
| 2019–2021 | National Youth Leadership Training | USAID (Obirodh: Road to Tolerance Program) | 7 universities nationwide | Randomized controlled trial (NYU/NORC design) on tolerance curricula for youth |
| 2019 | National PVE Conference | Co-organized with CTTCU, Bangladesh Police; supported by USAID's Obirodh: Road to Tolerance Program and UNDP | Dhaka (national) | National platform linking law enforcement, government, and civil society |
| 2020–2022 | CSO PVE Capacity Building in Bangladesh and Sri Lanka | European Union / Helvetas | Bangladesh (Rajshahi & Rangpur divisions, 10 districts) | CSO and district platform capacity building, counter-narrative work |
| 2020–2021 | Partnership for a Tolerant, Inclusive Bangladesh (PTIB) | UNDP | Khulna, Rajshahi | Online counter-narrative and digital literacy for youth |
| 2024–2026 | KIRON | SecDev | Nationwide (digital) | Social Media monitoring of online harms and extremist narratives |
| 2023–2026 | ASTHA Project | Embassy of Switzerland in Bangladesh | 147 Upazilas of 18 districts, 7 divisions | Tolerant, peaceful democratic space; minority protection |