Active Citizens Achievers’ Summit
2 - 3 March 2012
British Council, Bangladesh
Background:
British Council is the UK’s international cultural relations body, connecting UK to the world and the world to the UK. The aim of our work is to build a world in which people seek to understand cultural differences and the intention and outcome of our encounters with other perspectives and cultures at home and overseas is a deepening of trust and mutual understanding within individuals and their communities at local and international level.
The Active Citizens programme, launched by British Council in Central & South Asia (CSA) in 2009, focuses to develop a network of Active Citizens who are learners, actors and influencers in their communities, promoting international and intercultural trust and understanding. These young leaders have an increased understanding of, and engagement with, local and international social development networks and promote the value of intercultural and international dialogue in community participation. The programme is running in 22 countries including Bangladesh Pakistan, India and Sri Lanka in this region. The programme has generated two well received research reports, one each in Pakistan & Bangladesh on trends and issues of young people in these countries and is planning on launching two more in India and Sri Lanka. These reports titled Next Generation Reports highlight an urgent need for creative opportunities and platforms for young people in this region where they could engage in meaningful social action and dialogue in order to become effective leaders in their communities, nationally and globally.
The project was launched in Bangladesh in 2009 in partnership with The Hunger Project Bangladesh. Five other organizations Human Development Organization (HDO), Democracy Watch, Centre for Communication and Development (CCD), Young Power in Social Action (YPSA), and Shushilon joined in this project as partners in 2011. Capacity building training and Social Action Projects (SAPs) are the two critical components of this project beside policy dialogue and international networking.
Through this project we have brought together innovative UK and regional partners to develop approaches and content to cover leadership, communication, advocacy, citizenship, volunteerism, social action project delivery, fund-raising, entrepreneurship, partnership and network building. We have delivered more than 300 trainings in 80 Communities around Bangladesh to provide leadership trainings to more than 10,000 young people aged between 15-25 years.
A large percentage of these young people have engaged into more than 500 community based Social Action Projects addressing their local priorities and with community influencers engaged from all generations. Over the last three years we have provided opportunities to around 50 young Bangladeshis to take part different international exchange and conferences which has helped them understand different culture better and value differences. This has initiated intercultural dialogue in forums and communities, developed new relationships and understanding of young people’s roles as ‘global’ citizens.
Objectives:
The broad objectives of the event are to
1. Showcase young people’s achievements under project over the last three years
2. Interact with the national and international sector specialists and policy makers through thematically focused seminars and
3. Celebrate young people’s success with a wider audience
Showcase of Social Action Projects
The best Social Action Projects among the 500 will be showcased in the summit through a Social Action Fair. The projects addressed areas including educating the elderly, promoting better sanitation practices, creating awareness on social issues such as dowry, early marriage, violence and sexual harassment of women and establishment of various skill development clubs including English Language and debate clubs.
The achievers will be chosen through a selection process across the country. They will part of the Social Action Fair and will have the chance to interact with national and international sector specialists and policy makers in thematically focused seminars. The hard work of the young people will be recognized through Social Action Projects Awards at the closing ceremony of the event.
Thematically focused Seminars
The summit will explore four thematically focused areas through interactive plenary sessions by engaging 16 sector specialists and 150 young people over the course of two days. The themes are structured in a way to encourage a flow of discussion that aims to arrive at solutions and insightful recommendations. The thematically focused sessions are:
1. Role of internet and mobile with a focus to social media in promoting youth engagement
2. Democratic engagement of youth
3. Global Citizenship
4. Youth and Community Development
Meeting the Policy Makers
Active Citizens will get an opportunity of meeting two lawmakers and be part of a dialogue session with them. The topic of discussion is ‘Politics: from youth’s and the lawmaker’s perspectives’. We will invite two sitting lawmakers of the current Parliament to participate in an interactive session with the young people to explore the current state of politics and young people’s perspectives.
Participants’ Profile:
Young People: Active Citizens programme participants across Bangladesh
Government representatives
Sector specialists on Global Citizenship, human rights, youth development, intercultural dialogue and community development
Civil society partners involved in Active Citizens Programme
Participants work together through local learning, joint social action projects and international exchanges with other Active Citizens' communities, and global civil-society conferences.
Then Programme is delivered in partnerships with local civil society organizations across the world. Since the inception of the Programme in Bangladesh in 2009-10, it was contextualized and delivered through The Hunger Project Bangladesh. From this year onwards another five organizations came on board to deliver Active Citizens in different parts Bangladesh - Centre for Communication and Development (CCD), Democracywatch, Human Development Organization (HDO), Shushilan, Young Power in Social Action (YPSA). There are two main areas of the Project:
Training
Upgrading knowledge of young leaders and volunteers about local community and networks, their understanding of sustainable development (including global interdependency and global citizenship) and effective working with diversity, project planning and implementation skills.
Social action projects
Participants together plan and implement projects to improve their community. This takes place under the guidance of experienced community mentors.
Exchanges with international communities
Exchange visits between Bangladeshi and UK communities encourage intercultural dialogue, develop approaches to tackling shared problems and promote global citizenship.
International conferences
These allow participants from all over the world to showcase best practice, share ideas on projects and strategies for participation and establish sustainable international professional networks.
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BY SHARING IDEAS AND EXPERIENCES WITH DIFFERENT GROUPS WITHIN AND OUTSIDE THEIR COMMUNITY, PARTICIPANTS CONTRIBUTE TO INTERCULTURAL DIALOGUE AND GLOBAL CITIZENSHIP. |
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Participants become global citizens who can communicate effectively across cultural and other boundaries. They return to their communities empowered to work with others in tackling the global challenges of the 21st century. Every participant increases his or her profile as a global citizen. They have:
1. A stronger sense of their own identity through engagement with other cultures
2. An increased understanding of how their local community works and its link to the rest of the world
3. A sense of commitment to improving society through sustainable initiatives
4. Greater respect for other and an ability to work effectively with difference
More than 7,000 young people in Bangladesh have already received the opportunity to take part in Active Citizens Project bringing them into a global network already covering 36 countries.
Participating regions include South Asia, Middle East, Sub-Saharan Africa and Europe. This year we hope that another 4500 young people will get the similar opportunity and be part of the Global Network.
Active Citizens project of British helps young Bangladeshis to become global citizens though learning and sharing with young people from other countries and in the process mobilizing them into community development activities.
Training of New Facilitators – British Council organized two Trainings of Facilitators for new Facilitators in the Active Citizens Project in July and August. These Trainings were conducted by Master Trainers from UK, Pakistan and Bangladesh. There are now more than 150 active Facilitators under the Programme who will now roll out Active Citizens Youth Leadership Trainings at various communities around the country. Apart from these, two facilitators also travelled to Mumbai in July to receive the Facilitators Training in a regional event which included participation from India, Pakistan, Afghanistan and Srilanka.
Community Level Training: Following the Facilitators Training, the facilitators go back to their communities and provide training to young people between the ages of 15-29 and explore identity, culture, dialogue, citizenship and social action planning. In 2011-12 approximately 4500 young people will be trained through six partner organizations. So far 578 young people from 15 communities in 14 districts of Bangladesh have been trained and the rest will be trained by December 2011.
Social Action Project: Following the Community Level Training, young people are encouraged to take up community based social action projects to make a positive impact through voluntary work. The facilitators, local mentors and partner organization staff provide continuous support to the young people to deliver these projects. We expect approximately 200 youth led social action projects will be implemented in 2011-12. Following the trainings, 34 Social Action Projects have already started in 15 communities.
For more information please contact us.
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