October-December 2019
Editorial: Strengthening Capacity
Editorial: Strengthening Capacity
Capacity strengthening is fundamentally a process by which individuals and organizations acquire new skills and knowledge; or improve the existing ones that are required to do their jobs competently. To speak simply, capacity strengthening improves performance and enhances the ability of an individual or an organization to function more professionally and continue to stay relevant within a rapidly changing environment. We know that strengthening the capacity of an individual or an organization recognizes the existing capacity of connecting the DOTS within and outside the organization.
As a social development organization, BCCP believes in strengthening capacity holistically, and as a part of its efforts, BCCP offers various trainings and workshops to enhance organizational as well as individual capacity, including the ‘Advances in Strategic Communication Workshop’, which is a flagship program of the organization to develop future leaders in the field of Strategic Communication in Bangladesh.
BCCWG became as an effective SBCC platform to bring continuity and consistency
BCCWG became as an effective SBCC platform to bring continuity and consistency -Bugum Reena Parveen, Additional Secretary (PHWH), HSD, MoHFW
“The Behavior Change Communication Working Group (BCCWG) made a significant contribution and became as an effective GO-NGO platform by sharing, coordinating and collaborating to bring continuity and consistency in the SBCC interventions planned and implemented under HPN programs.” While making this comment Begum Reena Parveen, Additional Secretary (PHWH), HSD, MoHFW and Chairperson of the meeting also emphasized the use of ICT in further multiplication of the effect of SBCC in HPN sector.
This meeting was also attended by Mr. Nitish Chandra Sarker, Additional Secretary, FW&ME, MoHFW; as co-chairperson of the meeting. Dr. Ashrafunnesa, Director, IEM welcomed the participants of the meeting. Member units of the group under the MoHFW attended the meeting were; LHEP, BHE, IEM, NTP, NNS and Development Partners and NGO attendees were from USAID, Concern Worldwide, INCA, Sisimpur and the Plan International. The meeting had 5 presentations from NNS, Plan-International, INCA, BHE and IEM.
The meeting decided that, reviewing progress of NGO mapping to support activation of the SBCC committees at the district and upazila level found not yet completed, as only few NGOs have responded it, will now be supplemented by a GoB circular on this issue across GoB and NGO fields.
Updates and plan for HPN SBCC annual monitoring report collection, compilation and publication have been agreed on to get rolled over.
Change of holding of the BCCWG meeting’s sequential interval period to reduce to 2 months from 3 months has reasonable grounds but should be considered to apply it for only unavoidable situation not as a common practice.
On the other hand, Friendship-Bangladesh have been accepted as a member of the BCCWG. This meeting has formed a 7-member committee to conduct an assessment to find the non-active NGO/NGOs. The meeting ended up with a decision to encourage the Member organization’s Best Practice and Success Stories in order to present in the BCCWG meeting for scaling up and replication.
Procurement contract should aim at improving quality of lives
‘Procurement contract should aim at improving quality of lives’
Md. Ali Noor, Director General (Additional Secretary) of the Central Procurement Technical Unit (CPTU)
A convening committee for launching the full-fledged Bangladesh Government –Tenderers Forum (BGTF), to build a professional relationship between government procuring agencies and private sector tenderers, has been constituted.
The Central Procurement Technical Unit (CPTU) of IMED, Ministry of Planning, organized a meeting on October 27, 2019 (Sunday) to form the convening committee at the auditorium of the Roads and Highways Department at Tejgaon in Dhaka.
Md. Ali Noor, Director General (Additional Secretary) of the Central Procurement Technical Unit (CPTU) as the chief guest spoke at the meeting where a 15-member convening committee of the Bangladesh Government-Tenderers’ Forum (BGTF) was formed.
Abdus Sattar, Executive Engineer (Procurement) of the Local Government Engineering Department (LGED) has been elected convener while Kazi Mozaharul Haque, Managing Director of Mozahar Enterprise elected member secretary of the committee. Kazi Sayeda Momtaz, Senior System Analyst of the Roads and Highways Department (RHD), Engr. Khalid Hossain, Managing Director of Spectra Group have been elected co-conveners.
The BGTF was formed in order to expedite implementation of public procurement in right quality and develop professional relationship under the conditions of contracts between tenderers and procuring entities.
Shish Haider Chowdhury, Director (Training and Coordination), CPTU, IMED and Procurement specialist of the World Bank Kamruzzaman Ahmed were present as special guests.,
Mosta Gausul Haque, Principal Project Management Consultant, DIMAPPP, CPTU, spoke at the programme. Khadija Bilkis, Senior Deputy Director, BCCP made a presentation on various aspects of BGTF. Md. Shafiul Alam, Senior Communications Consultant, CPTU, IMED moderated the workshop.
Md. Ali Noor said, while any tenderer signs a deal with a procuring entity for any work, the tenderer becomes part of the government’s development programme. Both sides are equally important in the implementation of public procurement. The aim of any procurement contract should be to ensure the quality of the lives of people through proper implementation, he added. The government will soon float international tenders through e-GP and necessary documents for this have been prepared. Through e-GP, the government has so far saved funds worth US dollar 600 million from 2012 to 2019, he added.
The objectives of the BGTF is to create scopes for dialogue between the two parties to remove any confusion arising out in public procurement r through dialogues and discussions.
Bangladesh Centre for Communication Programs (BCCP) facilitated the meeting and formation of the convening committee of the forum. The committee will work for formally launching a full committee of the BGTF.
The BGTF will act as a central body of the 64 Government-Tenderers Forums (GTFs) to create scopes for officials of procuring entities and tenderers to discuss public procurement issues for proper execution of the contracts awarded to the tenderers.
The BGTF has been formed as part of the ongoing activities for institutionalizing (Government-Tenderers’ Forum-GTFs) at district levels under the Digitizing Implementation Monitoring and Public Procurement Project (DIMAPPP) being implemented by the CPTU with support from the WB.
A seamless coordination between MoHFW, HPN units, NGOs and DPs requires for SBCC program implementation and monitoring
A seamless coordination between MoHFW, HPN units, NGOs and DPs requires for SBCC program implementation and monitoring
- Begum Reena Parveen, Additional Secretary (PHWH), HSD, MoHFW
“A unified and seamless coordination between MoHFW, Health, Population, Nutrition Units, NGO and DPs becomes an important issue in achieving HPNSP goals and targets through appropriate program implementation and monitoring following the National SBCC Strategy.” While mentioning this in the 2nd meeting of the National HPN SBCC Strategy Implementation and Monitoring Committee, Begum Reena Parveen, Additional Secretary (PHWH), HSD, MoHFW and chairperson of the meeting underscored the need of this meeting.
Among others this meeting was attended by Director-IPHN, Director-HEU, LD-LHEP and Chief-BHE. Other units represent; MoLGD, DG-NIPORT, DGDA, MIS-DGHS, MIS-DGFP, PHC, CDC, NNS, Directorate of Mass Communication, CCSDP, CBHC, DSCC, DNCC and the Deputy Secretary (PH-2), HSD, MoHFW. Development Partners and NGOs represents; WHO, UNFPA, USAID and Ujjiban.
While reviewing the work progresses of last meeting it made a note of satisfaction that 80% of the progresses could have been achieved following the last meeting’s decision. In discussing over the meeting agenda, discussions mostly focused on the key findings of Ujjiban SBCC Baseline Survey. The meeting comments that the findings of survey could have been better utilized understanding the HPN knowledge and practices of the underserved areas. The study findings over the better HPN knowledges of males compare to females requires in-depth inner views about the reason of this unusual findings. People’s health behavior and practice requires repeated pursuance with consistency and univocal messaging. Future SBCC studies can introduce factors impeding people’s behavior and practice over level of learnings from repeated and consistent messages. Need to introduce NCD related behavior and practice of the people as it has now become the deadlier cause of deaths.
The meeting determined some activities as next steps these were,
- A concept notes on a national level survey for assessing the impact of SBCC attaining HPNSP indicators.
- NIPORT will consider to introduce SBCC indicators in the BDHS survey.
- A curriculum will be developed to provide a cascaded model of leadership training/workshop at the divisions, district and upazila level.
- A guideline be developed for activation of National to Upazila level SBCC committees and on attaining support of the development partners consortium in effective way.
- Initiative will be taken in establishing a cell/desk at the HSD of the MoHFW to increase SBCC leadership capacity of the PH wing.
Mr. Nitish Chandra Sarker, Additional Secretary, FW&ME, MoHFW; the co-chairperson of the meeting thanked the meeting attendees for their presence and Ujjiban for their continuous TA in this program intervention.
Student & Police Engagement - Sylhet Student Leadership Development Workshops
The young generation of a nation is an asset of the society. Bangladesh is no exception. Oftentimes in our country social changes are brought about by the youth. So, it is important to ensure that they do not fall into the pitfalls of violent extremism. A way to change these existing practices is to motivate the police force as well as the students of our country to learn to work together to establish a peaceful civil society. The development of this police-student relationship can give us a light of hope to stop the young generation from being involved in extremist ideologies and activities.
Bangladesh Center for Communication Programs (BCCP) implemented the” Student & Police Engagement – Sylhet Student Leadership Development Workshops” in Sylhet from January to December 2019 with the support from a local organization “Institute of Development Affairs (IDEA) in Sylhet. The program was aimed to strengthen the relationship between students and the police, shape the mindset of university students, encourage capacity building, create a communication network, develop future civic leaders, support multiculturalism, provide skills to develop career and also promote peaceful resolution of conflicts, among other things.
The objective of the program was to conduct a series of theme-based workshops as below
1. Role of youth & Patriotism
2. Inter-faith dialogue & International relations
3. Communicating Your Message & Peaceful Disagreement/Discussion
4. Policing in Bangladesh & Reporting Crime
5. Contemporary social issues & Involvement in community service
6. Responsible Use of Social media & Bringing change through non-violent Means
Through the participation of the series of theme-based workshops along with other campus based and community based activities students & polices built a friendly relationship ; enhanced the leadership capacity of public university students with the aim to provide participants with the skills sets for entering the workforce, such as communication skills, leadership skills, interpersonal skills and they also gained knowledge specially the themes on Interfaith Dialogue, Radicalization, etc. which made them share their concerns about social issues, such as the risk of recruitment and radicalization among the peers and community people.
BCCP implemented the program with 150 students selected from three selected universities/college–
1. Shahjalal University of Science and Technology (SUST), Akhalia, Sylhet
2. Murari Chand College (MC College), Tilagor, Sylhet
3. Metropolitan University (MU), Zindabazar, Sylhet
30 police members were nominated by Sylhet Metropolitan Police (SMP) as participants for the workshops and other activities with the students.
The Community based outreach events were organized in the community of the three institutions’ catchment areas with support from the respective Councilor. The objective of the event was to build relationship and network among the community.
The activity “Youth Summit” was implemented with the objective to foster inspirations and commitments generated through the workshops and share/expand it further with guidance and support from the distinguished guests; to create a network whereby all SLDW participants from the three institutions shared their ideas and plan activities by establishing a forum.
During the implementation of the above said activities police participants were present with the student participants in all the activities in the campus and in the community and also improved their relationship in the campus and community and had a strong networking among them.
The activity approach gave the students and police participants a raw skeleton as to how important it is to prevent violent extremism and how it can be done. The theme-based workshops dealt with all the concepts step by step which enlightened them thoroughly. The fact that the police and students were brought under the same platform allowed them to spend quality time together as acquaintances and slowly develop friendships which could be great assets to reach our goal.
Inception meeting held on ‘Consultancy Services for Development of Communication and KM Strategy and Outreach Plan for SREDA’
The inception meeting of the project on ‘Consultancy Services for Development of Communication and Knowledge Management Strategy and Outreach Plan for SREDA’ was held on December 05, 2019 at the Board Meeting Room, SREDA, IEB Building, Ramna, Dhaka. This project was awarded by GIZ in November 2019. The meeting was attended by eighteen participants including Mr. Siddique Zubaier, Member (EEC), Ms. Salima Jahan Member (RE), Md. Kowsar Ali, Member (Finance), Mr. Niaz Rahaman, Secretary, SREDA, Md. Rezaul Hoq, Director and other officials from SREDA and three professionals from GIZ & five professionals from BCCP assigned for the task.
Mr. Md. Helal Uddin, Additional Secretary & Chairman, SREDA chaired the meeting. Chairman, SREDA expressed his gratitude and sincere thanks to GIZ and BCCP for their utmost efforts to head on with the development of Communication and Knowledge Management Strategy and Outreach Plan for SREDA assuring to provide best possible support from SREDA in accomplishing the assignment successfully within given time.
Mr. Siddique Zobair, Member (Additional secretary), EEC, SREDA welcome the participants and explain the requirement in respect of communication and knowledge management approach and outreach plan to attain sustainable use of renewable energy, and increased reliance on energy conservation and efficiency of the organization. He mentioned that SREDA has identified goal, mission & vision of the Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency Programme, so he impulses to facilitate developing appropriate messages, audience segmentation and choosing media and channel.
Mr. Zobair introduces Mr. Niaz Rahman, Secretary, SREDA as the Coordinator for this assignment and Mr. Muhammad Hasnat Morshed Bhuyan, DD (Solar), Mr. Shamim Anowar, AD (L&P) and Engr. Toufiq Rahman, AD (S & L) as focal point from their respective unit of RE, Advocacy and EE. He expressed his expectation of highly standard strategy and outreach plan to attain the goal of SREDA as the BCCP is a strategic communication organization has a long experience in developing communication & knowledge Management strategy and development of messages and materials. The BCCP focal person for this assignment Mr. Dipak Kanti Mazumder shared the technical approach and work plan in the meeting. SREDA Officials including GIZ representatives put forward their comments and feedback on the work plan. The meeting was ended with few key decisions on facilitation on the development process of formulating new communication & knowledge management strategy and outreach plan for SREDA.
As part of the assignment BCCP will conduct one brain storming session and organize 3 days training on basic Strategic Communication theory, skill, design thinking and organizational communication for SREDA officials.
Unlocking Economic Potentials of the South West of Bangladesh through Gender Sensitive Infrastructure and Logistic Service.
BCCP provide technical services for the study “Maximizing the Benefits of Regional Connectivity: Enhancing Women’s Access to Cross Border Transport and Logistics Services”. The objective of the assignment was to understand the specific transport, trade and logistics interventions needed to enhance women’s access to cross border transport and logistics services. The assignment aims to provide a thorough understanding of barriers that women face in benefiting from regional integration in Bangladesh. The study was initiated by World Bank Group, Washington DC.
A qualitative research approach (FGD and KII), have been used to evaluate Border haat; ‘Purba-Srinagar boarder haat’, Feni and ‘Tarapur-Kamalasagar border haat’, Brahmanbaria, a transboundary trade infrastructure between Bangladesh and India and secondly; explore the scope of potential export-oriented value chain (Cut flower, Mango, Fisheries) of southwestern districts. The geographical coverage of the study was Jashore, Jhenaidah, Chuadanga, Brahmanbaria and Feni district. On the request of the Government of Bangladesh, World Bank considers to finance improvements to the Western Economic Corridor, a major trade and transport route that connects Bangladesh and India. The development of this proposed economic corridor is considered to be an opportunity to unlock the economic potential of the south west. The duration of the study was August 10, 2019- September 06, 2019.
BCCP has been awarded a project: Review of In-service Training
BCCP has been awarded a project titled Review of In-service Training that began from November 04, 2019. The key objective of the assignment is to develop of guidelines for FP related In-service training for each cadre, training plans and capacity building of training institutes to offer FP-IST. The project is supported by IntraHealth International, Inc., a subgrantee of Shukhi Jibon Project of USAID. In this connection, a consultative meeting on Standards and Guideline of Family Planning In-service Training (FP-IST) was held at the Conference Room of National Institute of Population, Research and Training (NIPORT) on 15, December, 2019. The objective of the meeting is to share the preliminary findings of FP-IST mapping, obtain recommendation on development of guideline for FP-IST. Mr. Susanta Kumar Saha, Director General and Additional Secretary was present as Chief Guest and Mr. Md. Matiar Rahman, Director (Training), NIPORT and Additional Secretary was present as Chair and Stumble Mugore, Senior Technical Adviser, IntraHealth International Inc. was present as special Guest. Based on the recommendations of the Consultative Meetings a draft outline of FP-IST Guideline prepared. A total of 20 participants from DGFP, DGHS, NIPORT, MFSTC, MCHTI, FWVTI, Dhaka, Shukhi Jibon, USAID Ujjiban SBCC Project were present in the meeting.