“Fostering Rights and Empowerment Among Most Marginalized Adolescents and Children with Disabilities in Bangladesh”

The Programme Implementation Committee (PIC) meeting for the European Union (EU) Funded Project named “Fostering Rights and Empowerment Among Most Marginalized Adolescents and Children with Disabilities in Bangladesh” in partnership with the Ministry of Women and Children Affairs (MoWCA) and Ministry of Social Welfare (MoSW), coordinated by UNICEF, has been held in a hotel of Dhaka on 30^th of November 2023.

The meeting was chaired by Ms. Rowsan Ara Begum, Additional Secretary of MoWCA. Among others present were Mr. SM Latif, Joint Secretary and Project Director of Accelerating Protection for Children (APC), MoWCA; Mr. Lablur Rahman, Joint Secretary and National Project Director of Child Sensitive Social Protection in Bangladesh (CSPB), MoSW; Enrico Lorenzon, Head of Governance, EU; Natalie McCauley, Chief of Child Protection, UNICEF; and Elisa Calpona, PhD, Child Protection Manager and lead for European Union funds for child protection program in UNICEF Bangladesh.

The EU representative, Mr. Enrico, spoke with great enthusiasm about the project, calling it a flagship project of the EU. As quoted by an external evaluation conducted last year, he lauded the project's many achievements and successes, including its impressive ability to reach an astounding 15 million children by 2023, providing 26 million essential services to both children and parents through child protection community hubs and sports, wherein  2021 it was roughly 141,000 children. In addition, Elisa Calpona mentioned how this program has been shifted from NGO to direct implementation by the government as a community-led approach.

The project directors from MoWCA and MoSW reiterated the Bangladesh government's steadfast commitment to ensuring project sustainability and protecting children's rights, preventing them from any violence and harmful practices. Mr. SM Latif expressed gratitude to UNICEF, the EU, MoSW, MoYS and all partners present at the meeting on behalf of the chair, and then closed the meeting.