On 17th April, UNFPA Bangladesh Office and JOICFP organized the first meeting with the National Project Advisory Committee (NPAC) for the Movah! Project in Bangladesh for orientation to the UNFPA Asia Regional Adolescent Sexual and Reproductive Health (ASRH) Project (RAS5R205).

The committee consists of the Department of Youth Development (DYD), Ministry of Youth and Sports, the Directorate of Secondary and Higher Education, Ministry of Education, the National Youth Forum (NYF), NEARS (Network for Ensuring Adolescent Reproductive Rights and Services), UNFPA Bangladesh, and JOICFP.

DYD is the main implementing agency, especially at the community level, and has been conducting advocacy activities under the UNFPA Country Program since 1995. Also, NYF will participate in national and regional advocacy activities, and 16 members, including six youth members, attended the meeting.

During the meeting, JOICFP gave a presentation on the overall project framework, the roles and function of NPAC were discussed, and suggestions for future activities as well as areas to be dealt with in the Movah! Project were put forward.

All concerned agencies and youth representatives attended
the first project orientation meeting at UNFPA Bangladesh office

Key Points

1 Strengthening the framework and mechanism for horizontal collaboration and knowledge sharing.

There are already many agencies working for ASRH in Bangladesh, and the country has good practices and experience, but greater dissemination would benefit both national and regional activities. Therefore, a key aim of the Movah! project is to link existing activities, which can horizontally link concerned parties.

2 Strengthening behavior change communication

For example, knowledge and practice are not necessarily linked, with HIV/AIDS awareness being high but condom usage being very low, and the regional project is expected to address this.

3 Expanding target beneficiaries

DYD have identified youth clubs in each local project district, and youth leaders have been trained to raise ASRH awareness in the community on special occasions such as World Population Day. However, action needs to be considered to reach early adolescents (10 – 17 years old) as they have been left out of youth club activities due to the definition of ‘young people’ in Bangladesh being 18 – 35 years old.

NYF is developing regional level advocacy and collecting ‘voices of youths’ to be delivered, following on from the Approduction training in Cambodia. (see eNEWS April 2005). It is also collecting voices of youths from DYD model project sites.

In both Bangladesh and Cambodia situation analysis will be conducted, and each country will develop country specific strategies and activities based on the analysis results.