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State and Peoples Responsibility to Secure Citizens Rights on Public Services

May 3, 2013 BIAM Foundation Auditorium, Dhaka

Strengthening NSAs to claim rights and services for extreme marginalized and socially excluded communities of Bangladesh

House 4, Road 3, Block I, Banani, Dhaka 1213, Bangladesh Phone : +880 2 8813607-9, 8824440 Fax : +880 2 8817402 www.oxfam.org/bangladesh, www.oxfamblogs.org/bangladesh, www.twitter.com/oxfaminBD

State and Peoples Responsibility to Secure Citizens Rights on Public Services

Strengthening NSAs to claim rights and services for extreme marginalized and socially excluded communities of Bangladesh

Preface
Oxfam has been working in Bangladesh targeting the vulnerable, marginalized, economically, socially & geographically excluded women and women . With aim to change their life, a project titled Strengthening NSAs to claim rights and services for extreme marginalized and socially excluded communities of Bangladesh has been implementing in Kurigram, Chittagong, Noakhali, Laxmipur, Naogaon, Dinajpur, Shariatpur district. The project implemented to facilitate a comprehensive community development approach, which creates social and economic opportunities for the targeted population to identify and bring about changes in their socio-economic status. The overall objectives is to strengthen civil society and community-based organisation to enable the most vulnerable, marginalized, economically, socially & geographically excluded women and men to have sustainable access to essential services and economic opportunities. A community development Organization has been facilitated named UDC(Unit Development Committee) to lead the development initiatives and to make the unified voice. Through the capacity bulidning process, a community voice also been promoted to ensure the access to rights and services for marginalized. the community people are now aware and claim for the government services. Local implementing partners (ZIBIKA, Pollisree, BITA, BSDO, SDS) has promoted the NSA ( Non State Actors) members as supporter for UDC people. The project has contributed improving the confidence, skills and leadership in local decision-making processes, access to services and ability to make service providers accountable. Last year and this year also the National Level Convention organized to approach the issue State and Peoples Responsibility to Secure Citizens Rights on Public Services. The event organized aiming to make policy planners more sensitive, supportive following in national policy framework to protect the rights of poor, marginalized and excluded peoples. Quality primary education, access to agriculture services and access to employment the recommendation points following documented through the study on these issues. The recommendation gathered from local level public hearing and district level round table meeting. Along the consensus of six hundred participants, 21 points of declaration for the future programmimg of community development in good governance . Oxfam will hand over the points of declaration to the policy makers and relevant ministries to consider for policy reformulation. We also believe that not only government but Oxfam and the local organization will adopt in their future action plan. We hope the policymakers would come forward in taking necessary action for smooth implementation of the quality primary education, agriculture and employments related activities of the government under the countrys existing policy. Furthermore, The document will be used for future organizer of national level convention emphasizing the rights and entitlements.

Reporter Md Monir Uddin Reporting Team Kohinur Akter M Zahid Hossain Tareque Mohammad Gaddafi Apurba Chakrabarty Mohammad Moshiur Rahman Translated by Md Mahmudul Hasan Edited by Afroza Sharmin Md Mozahidul Islam Coordination Anik Asad Design & Printing redline Copyright NSA Project, Oxfam Published June 2013

Anik Asad

Program Coordinator Oxfam

Contents

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Technical Session
SESSION-1 Open Discussion Speech of Panel Discussants Recommendations SESSION-2 Open discussion Speech of panel Discussants Recommendations SESSION-3 Open Discussion Speech of Panel Discussants Recommendations

Inaugural Session
Welcome Speech Keynote Paper Presentation Speech of the Marginalized Representative Special Guests Speech Chief Guests Speech Speech of Chair of the Convention

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CLosing Session Annex
Speech from the Organizer Speech of Marginalized Representative Special Guests Speech Presentation of Declaration Paper Speech of the Chair Cultural Programme Invited Guests and Participants Programme Schedule Position Paper Second Convention Declaration Convention 2013 Preparatory Committees Gallery

Introduction
Organizer Convention-2013: Arrangement Process Specific Objectives of the National Convention Some Remarks on the Convention

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Introduction

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Bangladesh has achieved tremendous successes in various sectors, specially in public health, disaster preparedness and resilience, education and many other important sectors within 43 years after the independence. These achievements are really encouraging forces for the nation. Apart from the government, many non-government organizations also have significant contributions to these achievements. Oxfam has also participated actively in the development process of Bangladesh as a development partner. But still 31% people live below the poverty line in Bangladesh, a country of enormous potential. A major portion of the population is extremely poor, marginalized and socially deprived and neglected. They are forced to live with poverty for various reasons. The government, in particular, the local government is implementing various social safety net programmes for those who are in extreme poverty so that they can lead their life in a better way. There is lack of such initiatives in the rural areas. Lack of coordination and absence proper management to identify the exact target group of beneficiaries still exists among the implementing agencies. Despite law, policies and budget allocations are in place, the access of poor and marginalized people to the public services especially in agriculture, youth development, primary education and health are yet to reach to satisfactory level due to lack of good governance, irregularities and politicization in the administration. Considering this reality, Oxfam along with its five partner organizations has been implementing the project Strengthening NSAs to claim rights and services for extreme marginalized and socially excluded communities of Bangladesh in seven districts (Dinajpur, Kurigram, Naogaon, Shariatpur, Noakhali, Laxmipur and Chittagong) since 2010. The project aimed at minimizing

the gap between service providers and service receivers, establishing effective bridges and empowering the marginalized people to realize their rights. Oxfam is implementing its activities in phases to that end. Placing a charter of priority issue consisting of the demands of poor and marginalized people to the policymakers in the government-level is one of the objectives of the ongoing project. A set of recommendations based on prevailing reality and steps for improvement from the current situation were upheld through the national convention. The Convention held on May 3, 2013 for the second time. The first Convention was held on January, 2012. Mr. Enamul Haque Mostafa Shaheed, MP, Honorable Minister, Ministry of Social Welfare, who was Chief Guest of the Second National Convention, expressed his solidarity with the demands placed by the marginalized people and presented through the convention. He has made a commitment to increase the social safety net programmes allocation by 10% on behalf of his ministry. The participants including special guests, civil society representatives, UDC-NSA representatives and journalists from print and electronic media also expressed their solidarity with this event. A day long convention organized following the human chain, press conference, rally and cultural programme. At local level also organized by partner organizations - BITA (Noakhali, Laxmipur and Chittagong City Corporation), BSDO (Naogaon), Pollishree (Dinajpur), SDS (Shariatpur), and ZIBIKA (Kurigram) including campaign, human-chain, press conference, rally and cultural programmes.

> Organizer

> Convention-2013: Background Process

This national level convention has been organized as a national level advocacy following the project planned activities. This years convention theme is State and Peoples Responsibility to Secure Citizens Rights on Public Services. Agriculture, employment and primary education were the three key issues discussed
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The main activities implemented were also surveyed on agriculture, employment and primary education and record through report cards and represented through the public hearing in union and upazila levels. Roundtable discussions were held in seven districts following the recommendations came from the public hearing. Local elected bodies and officials of different concerned government agencies and the policy makers of the district participated in the roundtable discussion and took the possible action to implement at their levels. Besides, three experts conducted a research on agriculture, employment and primary education separately and the key notepaper was developed by Oxfam as an organizer to focus and present the findings of the research before the policymakers. District level press conference were held in seven district as pre convention campaign to highlight the event and issues to ensure the participation of community people, civil society, local government, government actors and media as well. Following the district level event , a central press conference were held on 27 April at National Press Club, Dhaka with the participation the Print and electronic media, civil society, representatives of local level organization and Oxfam official. Anik Asad, Convener, National Convention Working Committee presented the press briefing on behalf of organizer. Abu Sayed Khan, managing editor was the chief guest in this conference.

> Specific Objectives of the Convention

To bridge the gap between of UDC-NSA members (voice of marginalized) and policymakers To show the model of UDC-NSA members and their effective coordination with the service providers in national level To focus the demands of marginalized and socially excluded people in the essential services of the government and social safety net programmes To highlight the recommendations in overcoming existing challenges and realities and ongoing situation in different important sectors like agriculture, primary education and employment To develop the declaration paper for the future development work as well as review the progress of the first national convention Participation of 350 UDC members of union, upazila and municipality areas and non-state actors Participation of civil society forum members from seven districts. The forum members are working voluntarily for establishing the rights of the marginalized Presentation of three key note papers on primary education, employment and agriculture services Participation of around hundreds development practioners, researchers, academicians and civil society representatives and the representations of marginalized people. 21-point of declaration adopted on behalf of the rights of the marginalized.

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Programme Schedules

> Some points on the Convention

The daylong programmes comprised of three sessions. In the inaugural session, there was a welcome speech on behalf of Oxfam, presentation of keynote paper, speeches of the representatives of the marginalized, special guests and chief guest. The Inaugural session ended through the remarks of the chair of the event. Three technical sessions were conducted on three different issues. Experts discussed the issues and the representatives of marginalized people also took part in the sessions. In the closing session, the points discussed in the open discussion and the recommendations of the technical session were focused and 21-point declaration following the recommendation also declared. A colorful cultural function was followed by the closing session by Jagoroner Gan
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Inaugural session

Oxfam and Bangladesh have a proud relationship that has been built over 42 years, and last year it was a great honor for us to receive the friends of liberation war honor award from the president, his Excellency and the honorable prime minister, for the remarkable contribution to the independence of Bangladesh. So, we are now working for making a coordinated social development means so that a positive change can be done in the socio-economic sector through creating scope for the targeted group. different sectors with the coordination of government and non-government organizations. At the end, the country director of Oxfam conveyed thanks to five partner organizations of Oxfam, civil society representatives and European Union for their support in the development of poor people.

Mr. Enamul Haque Mostafa Shaheed, MP, Honorable Minister, Ministry of Social Welfare, attended the inaugural function as chief guest while Managing Editor of the Daily Samakal Abu Sayeed Khan and former Adviser to the Caretaker Government Rasheda K. Chowdhury attended as special guests. Country Director of Oxfam Gareth Price-Jones on behalf of organizer attended the inaugural session. Chairman of Dhaka School of Economics Dr. Qazi Kholiquzzaman Ahmad presided over the inaugural session while a NSA member from Naogaon attended as representatives of marginalized people.

> Presentation of Keynote Paper

Programme coordinator of Oxfam and convener of second national convention-2013 Anik Asad presented the keynote paper in the inaugural session. The aim of the event and the background in brief also presented through the keynote paper, arrangement process of the convention and expectation of the organizer from the convention were highlighted. The presentation declared the recommendations on agriculture, primary education and employment and the initiatives of the community people.
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> Opening Remarks

Country Director of Oxfam Gareth Price-Jones delivered the welcome speech. In his speech he conveyed thanks to all especially the minister on behalf of the Oxfam. He mentioned that Bangladesh has made significant development and growth in

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> Speech of the Chief Guest

Enamul Haque Mostafa Shaheed, MP, Minister of Social Welfare Ministry Addressing the opening session as the Chief Guest, the Social Welfare Minister urged all NGOs to work coordinately to have greater development impact. He said, NGOs like Oxfam have been contributing to the development of the country since the independent of the country. But lack of coordination among non development organizations; we as a nation are still lagging behind. Coordination of work will also avoid duplication. He also said his ministry could coordinate the works. The minister also said that his government had ensured food security for the people and now people are not starving to death anymore. The government has introduced 17 allowances for the underprivileged people and soon the amount of allowances will be increased by 10 percent, he informed. He remarked that the government had been undertaking different development programmes for the underprivileged section of the village communities but it is not possible for the government alone to remove poverty from the country. So, all the development organizations should come forward in assisting the governments effort to reduce poverty rate. He pledged the audience to take effective steps in implementing the recommendations coming from the convention. There are lots of works of government and non-government organizations happening in the field levels for the underprivileged people. But it is tough job for us to evaluate the works as we have no any coordinated report in hands. I request the Oxfam to inform the government about the roadmap of coordinated works of government and non-government institutions. Oxfam can extend its cooperation to the government evaluating the distribution of the allowances and proper implementations of the social safety net programs and other government services.

> Speech of the Representatives of Marginalized People

Ajit Kumar Shil, NSA member of Naogaon delivered his speech as a representative of the marginalized. He said, UDC members have been working for ensuring the government services available at union and upazila levels for the poor people with the cooperation of NSA (Non-State Actors). We have been successful in helping the poor people to get VGF, VGD and old allowance. But, we have been facing challenges in getting access to the government services. He demanded inclusion of the UDC and NSA members in the Union Parishad Standing Committees.

Abu Sayeed Khan, Managing Editor of the Daily Samakal, said, As a country, we have made significant development after the liberation but at the same time disparity have been increased between the poor and the rich and rural and urban. In his opinion, education, health and other services of the government have been turned into commodities and the people those have ability to buy these commodities can have access to the government services. As per constitution, there is special allocation for the people living in char, indigenous and It is necessary to give importance to other minority community but no practical the agriculture sector of haor regions implication is seen accordingly. He strongly and provide training to the farmers recommended bringing change in policy considering high yield in six months making level to remove the irregularities. Let us work all together to remove the poverty and make a country for all Rasheda K. Chowdhury, former Adviser to the Caretaker Government Addressing the inaugural session, Rasheda K Chowdhury emphasized the utilization of the religious institutions through modernizing the academic curriculum and also said this sort of issues should also be proposed through the recommendations. She also put emphasis on making special arrangements for indigenous children to have the education in their own language. There must be the accessibility of disable children to the educational institutions and opportunity for the readmission of the dropped out students, she added recommending that government should make sure the enrolment of transgender and Dalit communities in main We dont allocate 2% of the total stream of education. budget on skill development All the successes will be in vain if the Right works. Then, how can we develop to Education Act is not in place and it must skill manpower be circulated through the website,. She said the government has policy for skill development and employment opportunity.

Dr. Qazi Kholiquzzaman Ahmad said only the people working in the field levels and stakeholders of development can understand whether the development is taking place or not in the field levels. The people who are living below the poverty line do not know the reason about why they are poor. So everybody should be aware about their rights. Only we can say it is real development when the number of enlistment in safety net reduced. It is not true that money is the main factor to lead the development in the agriculture, education and employment sector. 50-60 million people are still very poor in Bangladesh, despite all the efforts done by NGOs. Bangladesh has achieved success in many sectors and the rural economy is a real boost, he added. He also expressed the solidarity to the proposal of the minister for the coordination of government and NGO works. If we want development in agriculture sector, we must ensure the development of the agriculture, farmers and labours all together. If we can ensure sufficient number storehouses of agricultural products, easy loan, timely food processing and stop irregularities in the transportation sector, then it is possible to ensure the fair price for the crops. On other hand, we need to implement the education policy for the development in this sector,
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> Speech of President

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Speech of Panel Discussants

Open discussion was followed by the speech of panel discussants.

Technical Sessions
After the inaugural session, the technical sessions on agriculture, employment & primary education were held at a time. In the technical sessions, keynote papers on the respective issues were presented by experts and it was followed by open discussions of panelists. Details about the three separate technical sessions are given bellow.

Farhad Nur, Deputy Director of Youth Department, Noakhali said, Unemployment has turned to disaster in our country. Government and non-government organizations should come forward to provide training and create employment opportunities for this large number of youth people Based on the demand of locality, youth development department provides trainings on 40 subjects having minimum educational qualification of class five. The youth development department now provides loan facilities to the landless people if their grantors are government job holders and high schools teachers. The district level youth department provide residential training and allowances to the trainees in some cases. But most of the trainees are interested to get job instead of being self-employed

> Session : 1
Topic: Youth access to skill based training for exploring employment opportunity. Monisha Biswas, Manager (Policy & Advocacy) of Oxfam, moderated the session and project manager of BITA Mrinmoy Mohajon presented the keynote paper. Panel discussants were- Forhad Nur, Deputy Director of Youth Development Department, Noakhali. - Rubana Haque, Managing Director of Mohammadi Group - Khawza Moinuddin, President of Economic Reporters Forum - Shishir Datta, Executive Director of BITA - Parvin Halim, member of district civil society forum, Laxmipur - Abdur Rouf, Executive Director of BSDO At the beginning of this session, the presentation focused on the objectives, methodologies, study area and recommendations of the issue of access to training opportunity.

Parvin Halim, Member, Civil Society Forum, Laxmipur She said except computer training no other training programme is effective in terms of quality. We need training for food processing. In Laxmipur district as there is availability of soybean, nut, hilsha fish and coconut training can be introduced for processing these food items, Shishir Dutta, Executive Director, BITA There is no alternative but to ensure employment for the unemployed youths. Most of the youths do not know about the services available for them in government and non-government organizations. So, we should introduce a separate website for the youth and organize campaign and youth festival for promoting the youths. He further said, We do not consider age 18-24 for the development. We should formulate youth development policy to make a platform for them. Rubana Haque, Managing Director, Mohammadi Group In city training is provided to 30 workers at a time and cost of BDT 20 thousands to BDT 30 thousands. There are two types of training: equipment training and awareness training. Oxfam can target 50 to 100 garment owners and factories to train the workers under public private partnership. After providing training, the garments owners can recruit the trained workers in their factories to fill the shortage of skilled workers. The session moderator Monisha Biswas emphasized the need for making manifesto for the youth and female activists of political organizations. She also said youth are main active working force of the nation. So, we the people engaged in development works should think about how to employ this workforce for the development of the country.
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Open Discussions

After the presentation, all were welcomed to participate in the open discussion. A number of participants expressed their opinions in the discussed issues. Participants of the project areas shared their experience and placed recommendations.

Were working with the people those are extreme poor and have no lands. They need capital to do something after receiving training from government and non-government institutions. Documents of land ownership need to submit to take loan from youth department. So, the loan policy should be changed -Jalil, Shariatpur. Generally the trained people are provided with sewing machines after training completion but due to lacks of coordination people of some areas enjoy the facilities and some are ignored. The benefit will reach to the majority of people if the coordination can be developed among organizations- Md. Sirajul Islam, Kurigram.

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> Session : 2
Topic: the existing opportunities and challenges of agriculture extension services of the marginalized farmers. Kamrunnesa Nazly, Policy Officer of Oxfam moderated the second session and Senior Policy Specialist of BRAC Halim Mia presented the keynote paper. Panel discussants were-Dr. Gul Hossain, Agriculturalist -Mozibur Rahman, Executive Director, Shariatpur Development Society -Rowshan Ara, UDC member, Shariatpur. The objectives, study methodologies and recommendations in the issue were highlighted with a power point presentation.

Open Discussion

Then the open discussion was facilitated to gather the participants views. The paper presented recommendations also reflected through the participants views who are involved in agricultural activities and the governments agricultural services in the seven districts. The participants placed recommendations based on experience to overcome the existing problems in agriculture sector.

Recommendations
To undertake different sorts of campaigns in the mass media and development organizations for bringing positive changes in the mentality of youths To make information available to the youths for the employment opportunities To form a policy which facilitate the youths organizations to be registered with different government agencies including youth development department like the social welfare department To make trainings arrangement by utilizing local resources and considering the context of locality To increase allocation and ensure distribution of national budget for the youth according to their numbers To develop communication and coordination among the organizations providing training and employment opportunity To make special training programmes for garment industry To make arrangement of trainings in ward and village level with the support of local organizations to ensure access to pubic services In Shariatpur district, there are 18 thousand hectors of lands. But due to rampant installations brick kilns at the district the quantity of cultivable lands are reducing fast. So, we must have to take initiative to ensure the use of cultivable lands only to cultivate and stop using for other purposes. It is also necessary to introduce the insurance system for the crops and facilitate participation of women in modern cultivation system - Rowshan Ara Begum, UDC member of Shariatpur

Speeches of Panel Discussants

Agriculturalist Dr. Gul Hossain in his speech focused different irregularities in the agriculture sector. He said the government should increase allocation for the agriculture sector and take necessary steps so that the people do not use the lands in non-agricultural purposes. He stressed on the need for bringing amendment to agriculture policy-1999. We should give attention to the greater interest of farmers for their production and take initiative to give recognition to the women as a farmer Dr. Mahbub Kamal put emphasis on different existing government facilities in agriculture sector and expressed his commitment about considering the recommendations of this daylong event.

To advocate for making manifesto for the youth male and female activists of each of the political organization To introduce separate youth campaign, festival and youth website

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> Session : 3
Topic: Primary education and implementation gap in relation to its practices in rural Bangladesh. There is insufficiency of subsidy in agriculture. We have to work for the timely distribution of subsidy to the farmers, Mozibur Rahman emphasized on the participation of women in agriculture sector. Only the participation of men in the agriculture sector is not sufficient for its development. Women participation also needs to be ensured in the full production system to accelerate the development Moderator Kamrunnesa Nazly summed up the discussion reminding that agriculture is the driving force of countrys economy. So, the development of agriculture and protection of farmers rights are needed to ensure overall development of economic sector. She urged the government to take immediate steps for overcoming the existing challenges. She termed the development agriculture is the development of the country. Project Coordinator of Oxfam Saikat Biswas moderated the session and Professor of Dhaka University Dr. Sourav Sikdar presented the keynote paper. The panel discussants were -Dr Mahbub Ahsan Khan, Associate Professor of International Relation department of Dhaka University -Samir Ranjon Nath, Head of Education & Research department of BRAC -Rasheduzzaman Babu, Member, Civil Society Forum, Kurigram -Manik Chowdhury, Executive Director of ZIBIKA, Kurigram. At the beginning of the session, the keynote paper highlighted the objectives, methodologies, study area and recommendations of the research paper on quality primary education.

Recommendations
To take effective initiatives for the development of farmers lifestyle and increasing the subsidy in agriculture sector To take legal steps for checking the use of lands in non-agriculture purposes To modernize the irrigation system and introduce multiple crops system To ensure reasonable price for the harvested crops and build storehouse for preserving the crops To arrange training for the farmers about the modern cultivation system

Speeches of Panel Discussants

Dr. Mahbub Ahsan Khan remarked on the ratio of students and teachers. The ratio should be 1:30 according to enrolment in the urban and rural educational institutions. He also added that even after enrolment students are not regular due to shortage of infrastructural facilities. Rasheduzzaman Babu said, We must identify the vested participants of education sector and ensure quality education by resolving the existing problems, If we want to ensure quality primary education we have to work together to improve the top to bottom management

To implement the agriculture policy-1996 and agriculture extension policy To use compost fertilizer instead of chemical fertilizer in the lands and strengthen the campaign in this regard To bring change in the agriculture policy for upholding the interest of sharecroppers To take initiative to organize the farmers To ensure participation and recognition of women in agriculture sector.

We have to ensure equal allocation in rural and urban education and equal distribution of education tools in the educational institutions,

Manik Chowdhury said, Government should increase the salary and other benefits of the teachers and ensure it that the teachers are providing quality education to their students. He also focused on the irregularities in the teacher recruitment. However, as a guardian we have to look after the activities and education system of our children Samir Ranjon Nath said, We must remove diploma diseases from the education system and implement education policy as well as strengthen monitoring in the educational institutions,
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Open Discussion
After the discussions by panel discussants, the participants welcomed for the open discussion. Mahbuba Islam from Dinajpur, Ahsanullah Ismailee, Dinmoni Tikka, Nur Bakht Mia and Shahnaj Begum from Shariatpur took part the open discussion and shared their recommendations. Moderator Saikat Biswas concluded the session with the request of written recommendations from the participants, who could not share for time limitation. He thanked the participants to share their views and opinions.

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Closing Session

Recommendations
To ensure quality primary education and reduce dropout rate by providing the students and teachers with all facilities To increase the coverage of the stipends To activate the school management committee and PTA To ensure recruitment of quality teachers in primary school To identify the educational institutions of risky areas and relocate them to safer place.

Professor MM Akash of the Economics Department at Dhaka University presided over the session while Director General of Primary Education Shyamol Kanti Ghosh and Executive Director of BELA Syeda Rizwana Hasan attended the session as special guests. Programme Manager of Oxfam M.B Akhter on behalf of the organizers and Runa Begum, UDC member of Dinajpur addressed among others. M.B Akhter delivered speech on behalf of the organizer at the beginning of the session. He remarked on the objective of this convention. Our aim to reach to the policy level with the findings and recommendation to make the change, He also added that political philosophy needs to follow for the development as it is a political process.As an organization Oxfam always try to focus on what have done rather than focusing on what have to do. We have been working to make active citizen, Addressing three topics of discussion, he emphasized to create awareness of mass people and to play role of active citizen. I think the government relationship with the people will continue our development work for the marginalized in future, he added.

There is lack of transparency in distribution of allocation for the primary education. Subsidy is provided in agriculture sector but we have to think about our preparation to produce food till 2050. We are not yet much aware of the wage discrimination of men and women and in rural and urban.

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Runa Begum, UDC member & representative of marginalized As a voice of the marginalized she said, We the poor and marginalized people are being organized with the assistance of NSA project. Weve already achieved success in organizing the poor people and claiming the rights. We are now enjoying the services available for us in different government agencies,

Convention Declaration
Executive Director of Pollisree, Shamim Ara Begum presented a 21-point as convention declaration. The convention declaration was accumulated following the local level findings and recommendations of three technical sessions.

Speech of Special Guest

Director General of Primary Education Department Shyamol Kanti Ghosh in his speech highlighted the dropout rate and said according to the school-based census-2011 the dropout rate is now 29.7%. To maintain quality education we need quality teachers as well as regular presence of students in schools. He added it is possible to ensure quality primary education if the teachers and students, school managing committee, local people and public representatives play their respective role. Addressing the session Sayeda Rizwana Hasan appreciated the initiatives of NSA project for increasing the access of poor people to basic government services and social safety net programmes. Awareness of the people and regular service of government bring the transparency. So, the process of creating awareness among the poor people will sustain because of its effectiveness to ensure transparency and accountability of the government. She said the education works as a main force to make moral and social values.

Speech of Chair
As chair of closing session Professor MM Akash said it is quite impossible to ensure the rights of quality education unless education system makes equal for all. Education system is quite different based on the strata of our society. He expressed his solidarity with the demand of increasing subsidy for the agriculture sector and recommended to prepare a list of poor farmers to ensure the facilities of subsidy to right persons. Food storage at each village and introduction of e-marketing system are important. In that case computer would be used to communicate with agro processor. An integrated marketing system will be developed this way. Class system of the country should be changed. But we have to work for getting rid from the poverty with our own organizational capacity. In this process the organizations can help but not the means of dependence.

Oxfam has been working with the local government through this project. It is a way to reach the national level and policy reformation easily.

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Invited Guests and Participants

Annex

Over five hundred guests including journalists, UDC-NSA members, members of Upazila/Municipality Development Committee, Members of District Civil Society Forum, volunteers, cultural activists were attended the Second National Convention. Honorable Social Welfare Minister was present in the convention while high officials of the government, representatives from local and international organizations were also attended the program. The guests had a very active participation at different group discussions as well the main program organized by Oxfam as part of the convention. They contributed their valuable feedback, comments, and opinion in different part of the programme. A brief profile of the invited guests are given bellow:
Guest Inaugural Session
Chief Guest Chair Special Guests

Number
Female Male Total

Comment
Enamul Haque Mostafa Shaheed MP Dr. Qazi Kholiquzzaman Ahmad
Honorable Minister for the Ministry of Social Welfare

Convenor Representative of Marginalized

Chiarman, Dhaka School of Economics Rasheda K. Chowdhury Former Advisor to the Caretaker Government Abu Sayed Khan Managing Editor, Daily Samakal Gareth Price-Jones Country Director, Oxfam Anik Asad, Convenor Working Committee Second National Convention 2013 Ajit Kumar Shil NSA Member, Naogaon Moderator: Monisha Biswas Policy Advocacy Manager, Oxfam Keynote Paper Presentation: Mrinmoy Mohajan Project Manager, BITA Moderator: Quamrunnesa Nazly Policy Officer, Oxfam Keynote Paper Presentation: A Halim Mia Senior Policy Specialist, BRAC Moderator: Shaikat Biswash, Project Coordinator, Oxfam Keynote Paper Presentation: Dr. Sourav Sikder Professor, University of Dhaka

Technical Session

Session : 1 Session : 2 Session : 3

Chair Special Guests Speech of organizers Convention Declaration Representative of Marginalized

Professor MM Akash University of Dhaka Shaymol Kanti Ghosh Director General, Directorate of Primary Education Sayeda Rezwana Hasan Executive Director, BELA M.B Akhter Program Manager, Oxfam Shamim Ara Begum Executive Director, Polissree Runa Begum UDC Member, Dinajpur
Participants: ICDDRB, BRAC, UCEP, University of Dhaka, BELA, Legal Aid, IPDS, Wave Foundation, JTS, Abohoman, AKK, Manab Kallyan Sangstha, Nari Moitry, CCDB, MASH, BIDS, MMS, Gono Shochetonota, SSW, Poush, ZIBIKA, KAPENG Foundation, Jahangir Nagar University, SDS, BITA, BSDO, UDC, NSA, Upazila/Municipality Development Organization, Pollisree, District Civil Society Forum,

Closing Session

Representatives from National and International organizations BSDO BITA Pollisree 18 45 37 13 19 23 41

Members of UDC, NSA, Upazila/Municipality Development Organization. Representatives of Co-organizers and NSA program Members of UDC, NSA, Upazila/Municipality Development Organization. Representatives of Co-organizers and NSA program Members of UDC, NSA, Upazila/Municipality Development Organization Representatives of Co-organizers and NSA program Members of UDC, NSA, Upazila/Municipality Development Organization Representatives of Co-organizers and NSA program Members of UDC, NSA, Upazila/Municipality Development Organization. Representatives of Co-organizers and NSA program

65 110 44 47 42 81 60 61 30

Cultural Function
After the completion of inaugural session, technical sessions and closing session the cultural function was held at the same venue with the performances of patriotic songs and dance Jagoroner Gan.

ZIBIKA Shariatpur Development Society Oxfam Volunteers

Members of different programmes, Oxfam Bangladesh Students of Jahangirnagar University

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Programme Schedule

Keynote Presentation Panel Discussion

: A Halim Mia, Senior Policy Specialist, BRAC : Dr. Gul Hossain, Agriculturist : Mozibur Rahman, Executive Director, SDS : Rawshan Ara, UDC member, Shariatpur

09:00-09:30 Venue

: Registration of the participants Moderation

> Inaugural session 09:30-11:30

: Shahid A K M Shamsul Haque Khan Memorial Hall (Main Auditorium) BIAM Foundation Chief Guest : Mr. Enamul Haque Mostafa Shahid, MP Honorable Minister, Ministry of Social Welfare Chair : Dr. Qazi Kholikuzzaman Ahmed Chairman, Dhaka School of Economics Special Guest : Rasheda K. Chowdhury Former Advisor, Caretaker Government : Abu Sayed Chowdhury Managing Editor, Daily Samakal Address of Welcome : Gareth Price-Jones, Country Director, Oxfam Representative of Marginalized : Ajit Kumar Shil, NSA Member, Naogaon Presentation of Position Paper : Anik Asad, Convenor, Working Committee Second National Convention 2013 11:00-11:30 : Tea Break

: Quamrunnesa Nazly, Policy Officer, Oxfam

Session : 3
Subject Venue

: Primary education and implementation gap in relation to its practices in rural Bangladesh : Shahid AKM Shamsul Islam Khan Memorial Hall (Main Auditorium) BIAM Foundation : Dr. Sourav Sikder Professor, University of Dhaka : Samir Ranjan Nath, Head of Education and Research Department, BRAC : Dr, Mahbub Ahsan Khan, Associate Professor IR, University of Dhaka : Manik Chowdhury, Executive Director, ZIBIKA : Rasheduzzaman Babu, Member Civil Society Forum, Kurigram : Shaikat Biswash, Project Coordinator, Oxfam : Lunch break

Keynote Paper Presentation Panel Discussants

> Technical Sessions 11:30-1:00

Session : 1
Subject Venue Keynote Paper Presentation Pannel Discussant : Youth access to skill based training for exploring employment opportunity : Meghna Hall (4th Floor) : Mrinmoy Mohajan : Farhad Nur, Deputy Director Youth Development Directorate, Noakhali. : Khawaja Mainuddin, President Economic Reporters Forum, : Shishir Dutta, Executive Director, BITA : Abdur Rouf, Executive Director, BSDO, : Monisha Bishwas, Manager Policy & Advocacy, Oxfam : Access to agriculture extension services the marginalized farmers : Mahabub Kabir Memorial Hall (3rd Floor) Moderation 1:30-2:30

> Closing Session

Chair Special Guest

2:30-4:30
: MM Akash, Professor, Department of Economics, University of Dhaka : Shaymol Kanti Ghosh, Director General Directorate of Primary Education : Sayeda Rizwana Hasan Executive Director, BELA : M.B Akhter, Program Manager, Oxfam : Shamim Ara Begum Executive Director, Pollisree : Jagaroner Gaan

Representative of Marginalized : Runa Begum, UDC Member, Dinajpur Speech of organizers Presentation of Convention Declaration Cultural Program

Moderation

Session : 2
Subject Venue

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Background

Position Paper

Bangladesh, as an independent state, had started its journey in 1971 through a prolonged nine-month war against the sacrifice of lakhs of martyred freedom fighters. The ultimate goal of the liberation war was economic emancipation, removal of discrimination from the society and establishment of a developed and humanity-enriched society. Forty-three years passed after the countrys liberation. During this long period after the countrys independence, we have many achievements and we are very close to some achievements in different sectors including agriculture, garment, manpower export, foreign currency, women policy and women empowerment, health infrastructure, education policy etc. Apart from the achievements, we have many limitations in fulfilling the basic rights of people especially health, education, agriculture, employment and social safety net programmes. In section-15 of our Constitution it mentioned about fulfilling the basic rights of people, The states main responsibility shall be gradual development of production force through acceleration of planned economy and development of peoples lifestyle through improving their material and cultural accesses so that the subjects mentioned below can be ensured for the citizens: (1) Ensure the basic rights of people including food, clothes, shelters, education and health; (2) ensuring employment and wage rights (3) rights of rest, recreation and leave (4) rights of getting social safety facilities from government including financial and others assistance in case of poverty of unemployment, disable, widow and old age. This means the state has shouldered the responsibility of fulfilling the basic rights of people. However, despite taking so many initiatives by the state more than 31% people of the country are now living below the poverty line and half of them are extreme poor, those are deprived of the their basic rights. Due to limitations of states capability and weakness in implementing the policies, the governments services, in many cases, not reached to the doors of marginalized community. Besides, there are some limitations in taking initiatives for raising the demands of getting information regarding the quality governments services in the country.

project in seven districts of the country with an aim to ensure accessibility of poor people to the government services. Under the project Oxfam is working for preparation of report card by organizing the local poor people, monitoring and evaluating governments services through mass dialogue and conducting dialogue in presence of the representatives of local government institutions, local administration, policy makers and activists in the field levels. Through this effort, Oxfam and its five partner organizations have organized the convention in national level with a view to focus the recommendations and reach from local to the national level. We have organized the first convention in 2012 with the recommendations to focus the implementation of government services in the field level and the actions to overcome the problems and bottlenecks. In the first national convention, we had focused on the recommendations related to the existing situation, challenges and the action forward in implementing agriculture, health and social safety net programmes. Total 22-point of demand declared before the government to ensure the agriculture, health and social safety net services for the people. In this convention, the assurance received from the ministires and relevant government department. The outcome of national convention has been reflected in the regular health services and the increased the agriculture officers significantly. The real beneficiaries of VGF and VGD programmes are now being selected, quality in primary education and employment of youth have also improved significantly. For continuing these improved services, we have organized this years national convention on three public interested subjects - agriculture, quality primary education and employment to draw the attention of policymakers on these subjects.

Existing Scenario of Services in Field-Level: Based on Peoples Observation Primary Education

Initiatives taken by Oxfam and its five partner organizations

In this circumstance Oxfam with the funding of European Union and in association with its five local partner organizations is implementing NSA

Primary education is one of the main services provided by the government. Despite having infrastructure of primary education from local to national level and introduction of new education policy still there are many problems that have been prevailing in the primary education sector. Many years have passed after the independence but primary education for all children is still hard to reach by the poor people. The major problems in primary education sector are mentioned bellow: Lacks of infrastructure, furniture and other equipments including chair, table and bench in most of the primary schools Teachers problems: there are limitations of skill development and training programmes for teachers Weakness in government monitoring system for ensuring quality education and existing problems to ensure the perfect ratio of teachers and students Training problem: There are lot of limitations to formulate training curriculum for producing quality and skilled teachers to ensure quality education for the children

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Lacks of motivational and recreational activities in the schools to draw the attention of children to learn There is record of hundred percent admissions in the beginning of academic year but it cannot be maintained and the drop out recorded. Lack of physical, mental and social activities in the schools Geographical location and disaster risk: To continue the educational activities, location of school is an important aspect

Employment

It is very much necessary to gain success in agriculture sector for the food security and overall development of a country. The use of modern technologies, chemicals and pesticides has increased significantly in the agriculture sector over the years. Apart from these, subsidy in fertilizer, card for the equipments for the farmers and bank account opening paying 10 taka also played significant role in increasing the production of crops. As a result, the country is moving forward to be the self-reliant in food production. However, there are many weaknesses in the agriculture sector. The marginalized farmers do not get the agriculture card for services and fair price of their yield of crops. Most of the time production cost of rice, paddy and vegetables is higher than the sale prices. There is no significant initiative from the government to check these anomalies prevailing in agriculture sector. The existing agriculture policy is also not suitable for the marginalized farmers. The major problems of agriculture sector are mentioned bellow: The general and poor farmers do not get the benefit from government services in agriculture sector and the services of government for the poor farmers are not sufficient Most of the farmers do not know about their agriculture related rights and information Irrigation facilities under government initiatives and supplying of quality seeds are insufficient compared to the demand Assistant Agriculture Officers are not regular in field visit at Union level Most of the Unions do not have the required Agriculture Officers and the monitoring system of high officials is also not satisfactory. Most of the time the farmers do not get fair price of their harvested crops and government has no initiative to ensure fair price for the crops There is no initiative from government to preserve the agriculture products As the commercial agriculture has been prioritized in the existing agriculture policy, the general farmers are not benefitted for the agriculture policy.

Agriculture Services

A large portion of our population is comprised with young men and women. For utilizing this young population in the stream of development it is very much necessary to transform them into skilled force. But as a developing country we have many problems that need to be resolved. The problems now persisting for the youth community to get access to skill development training programmes are mentioned below: In the National Women Development Policy-2011 it is said to remove the discrimination between the men and women but in reality women still need permission to go out even for work. There is no reflection of the policies mentioned in the 6th five-year plan in the economic development of women Through survey, it is the findings that youth women generally look after the younger brothers and sisters and do household works Early marriage of daughters after completion of primary education is still a common problem all over the country. Discriminative attitude towards the women has long been persisting in the society. Lacks of educational qualification of youth is one of the major barriers for their development. Access to employment is experienced limited for this. Young men and women are having the problems of training and employment opportunities There is yet shortage of training institutions for giving skill based trainings to the vast youth community Lack of proper monitoring for the youth employment Evaluating the above mentioned problems it seems that it needs to ensure proper implementation of the services, required amendment to the policy, and formulation of new policy and the implementation of new policy.However, a number of recommendations have come up from the countrywide campaign on demands to ensure citizens rights to the government services, which conducted from April 15 to 25, focusing on opinions of local government representatives, journalists, civil society and poor people as well as from three separate researches on three service sectors. The recommendations have been accumulated on the rights and entitlements of marginalized. Three issues have been covered and being declared on behalf of National Convention organizer. To ensure similar quality infrastructure at all primary schools across the country for ensuring better and quality education facilities for the children especially for those are indigenous, lives char lands and geographically vulnerable areas.. To ensure required equipments, teachers and quality teaching so that the each of the children can have access to quality education

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To take the necessary action to reduce the dropout rate and to introduce stipend for the student. To increase subsidy on quality seeds, fertilizers, irrigation facilities and other agriculture inputs and equipments, fix fair price for the harvested crops, take steps of preserving food grains and other agriculture products under the government initiative, ensure the rights of poor farmers and provide training on modern technologies. To ensure regular field visit of Agriculture Officers at Union, Upazila and District levels and ensure monitoring the field level activities by high official To take initiative for the recognition of women as labour and ensure the equal wages. To increase the capacity of Youth Development Department for ensuring introduction of more skill based trainings and for creating employment opportunities for young men and women and maintain quality of mobile training and increase its time period To give the marginalized, poor and socially excluded young women and men priority in receiving the existing services of the Youth Development Department and flexibibility in trainnes selection To arrange long term loans for the trained youth, both men and women, so that they can be self-employed To arrange strong monitoring to see whether the main objectives of the projects are being implemented and initiate evaluation for the next course of action to ensure transparency and accountability in all phases of the implementation process.

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Declaration

National Convention on the Role of State and People to Ensure Public Services and Civic Rights
Honorable Chair, chief guest, special guests and representatives of the civil society came from various regions and grassroots-level, I express heartfelt gratitude to you all from the organizing committee of the Convention. We have almost reached to the concluding part of the second national convention organized by Oxfam and five partner-organizations. Ensuring accessibility of poor and marginalized people to public services is one of the objectives of NSA (Non-State Actors) Project under which we work at the field-level. We have followed a number of continuous process to achieve the objectives,these are data collection on existing ituation regarding accessibility of poor and marginalized people to public services, monitoring based on reality and prepare an objective report on that, etc. Then we have organized meeting with the concerned government departments and various stakeholders at union, upazila and district levels based on the findings and recommendation to exchange the views. These works have already been completed in the entire project area and efforts were there to find out possible solution and take pragmatic steps to that end. We have been carrying out these activities since 2010 and many successes have already been achieved. But in that case, it is our experience that solution is not always possible locally in many cases. In that case, attention of policymakers at the national level is a must to bring the desired solution. Considering that necessity, we have organized 2nd national Convention based on the successes of our first Convention. As part of the daylong programme, there were three separate important sessions, specially for the greater interest of poor and marginalized people. In the sessions, experts, development activists, grassroots-level representatives, and civil society members also
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Government and others concerned to ensure the rights of people

This is not expected for all of us that we are still in poverty in the prolonged period after the country independence. It is the first and prime responsibility of the government to overcome this situation. So, the state and its policymakers should come forward in taking necessary action for smooth implementation of the quality primary education, agriculture and employments related activities of the government under the countrys existing policy. We also request the civil society, media and all other stakeholders to work for bringing required change in the implementation of government services and policy making. On behalf of Organizer Anik Asad
Program Coordinator, Oxfam Convener, Working Committee, Second National Convention-2013

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have discussed on the related issues and expressed their opinion. In many cases, we have got a good number of recommendations from the three sessions. On behalf of all the participants , we are declaring the 21-point of demand incorporating those recommendations accumulated at the union, upazila, district and issue-based survey for ensuring quality primary education, employment and the agricultural services for all following the accessibility of poor and marginalized people. We hope that the declaration that has been adopted here will be placed before the ministries and the concerned government after the completion of the Convention. The 21 points of demand focused on ensuring the agriculture Services and Quality Primary Education and the accessibility of Youths to Employment through Capacity Building Training in line with the Constitutional Rights

officials and regular field visits by the agriculture officers at union, upazila and district level. Ensure recognition through equal wages and rights for the female workers in agriculture sector. Ensure government supports like subsidy distribution to the poor and marginalized farmers for agriculture inputs instead of allocating it in general for all farmers. Ensure rights of general and poor farmers in availing of government supported irrigation facilities and getting quality seeds. Introduce Cooperative-based marketing system with the government support and arrange preservation of agriculture products including cold-storage facilities.

Quality Primary Education:

To ensure similar quality infrastructure at all primary schools across the country for ensuring better and quality education facilities for the children especially for those are indigenous, lives char lands and geographically vulnerable areas.. To ensure required equipments, teachers and quality teaching so that the each of the children can have access to quality education To take the necessary action to reduce the dropout rate and to introduce stipend for the student. To activate school management committee and PTA so that local people can play direct role in ensuring standard primary education. Ensure trained and skilled teachers in all the primary schools to ensure childrens physical, mental and social growth. Shift the educational institutions to safe places identifying the infrastructural and visible risks so that educational activities can be kept uninterrupted during any natural disaster.

Youth Access to Employment:

Expand the initiatives of Youth department and serve through temporary training and increase duration of mobile training. To consider services for marginalized and poor youth on priority basis in the ongoing activities and programmes of the Government Youth Development , and if necessary, make flexibility in selection criteria Ensure primary capital for creating self-employment opportunities for the trained youths, both men and women, with easier conditions and long-term repayment system through installments. Ensure regular monitoring by the authorities concerned whether the objectives of the programmes are being implemented and evaluate those on regular basis for the formulation of future action and ensure the transparency and accountability in each stage of implementation process. To take initiatives for the employment of skilled men and women under the public-private partnership.

Establish Youths Clubs to encourage forming youth organizations so that the youths can take part in educational discussion and income-generating activities. To take initiatives for mass awareness programmes across the country to bring about changes the negative perceptions in terms of employment. To introduce special training programmes for the poor, marginalized and tribal inhabitants as per the government policies and laws.

Agricultural Services:
Fix up fair prices of agricultural products, increase the storing agricultural products, ensure government subsidy for quality seeds, fertilizer and other agricultural inputs including irrigation facility. Ensure rights of general farmers providing them with the required trainings for cultivation though advanced technologies. Ensure monitoring of the concerned departments activities by the senior

On Behalf of the organizar of the Second National Convention

Executive Director Pollisree

Shamim Ara Begum

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Advisory Committee
M.B Akhter Shishir Dutta Abdur Rouf Samim Ara Begum Manik Chowdhury Md. Mojibur Rahman

Preparatory Committees
Sub-Committee

Program Manager Executive Director Executive Director Executive Director Executive Director Executive Director

Oxfam BITA BSDO Pollishree ZIBIKA SDS

Invitation and Reception

Shaikat Bishwash Assad Rauf Md. Abdul Quayyum Ujjal Azim Afroza Sharmin Convener Member Member Member Member

WORKING Committee
Anik Asad Md. Abdul Quayyum Shaikat Biswash Quamrunnssa Nazly Ujjal Azim Ashish Kumar Bokshi Afroza Sharmin Md. Mozahidul Islam Shibani Gain Shamim Ara Popy SM Jashim Uddin Ataur Rahman Mrinmoy Mohajon Abdur Rahim Farhana Haque Masudur Rahman Ratan Ahsan Ullah Ismaili Rasheduzzaman Babu Convener Member Member Member Member Member Member Member Member Member Member Member Member Member Member Member Member Member Second National Convention 2013, Working Committee Coordinator, Media & Communications, Oxfam Project Coordinator, Oxfam Policy Officer, Oxfam Project Officer Technical Officer, FSTP, Oxfam Program Officer, Oxfam Program Officer, Oxfam Project Manager, SDS Project Manager, Pollisree Project Manager, Zibika Project Manager, BSDO Project Manager, BITA Noakhali Civil Society Forum Dinajpur Civil Society Forum Naogaon Civil Society Forum Shariatpur Civil Society Forum Kurigram Civil Society Forum.

Food, Transportation, Equipment & Logistic

Md. Mozahidul Islm Ashish Kumar SM Jashim Uddin Ataur Rahman Convener Member Member Member

Media, Printing, Publication & Branding

Md. Abdul Quayyum Md. Mozahidul Islam Convener Member

Study & Research

Afroza Sharmin Quamrunnesa Nazly Member Member

Program Moderation & Documentation

Shaikat Bishwash Ujjal Azim Convener Member
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