Carter Center_GWG_Program overview_Dec 2019
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Presentation on Carter Center's activities in Bangladesh to the Bangladesh Gender working group (GWG) in Dec 2019
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Carter Center_GWG_Program overview_Dec 2019
- 1. Advancing Women’s Right of Access to Information in Bangladesh Sumana Sultana Mahmud Chief of Party The Carter Center, Bangladesh
- 2. Project Duration- August 29, 2016 – September 30, 2019 October 1, 2019 – September 30, 2021 Program Locations: Dhaka Khagrachari Old Area Sylhet Rajshahi New Area Satkhira Rajshahi Satkhira Sylhet Khagrachari Dhaka
- 3. Program Locations: Rajshahi Satkhira Justification • Previously done survey in this areas (Rajshahi and Khulna) • Minority (Plan land adibashi concentration is high) • Target population plain land Adibashi and Dalit community (low preference group) • We have done assessment before taking the decision. Some findings- Low literacy rate, not aware about their rights, land less, no knowledge or less understanding of the government facilities, access to government facilities is not significant • Target to achieve SDG goal (no one left behind)
- 4. Gender Study 1. Tested the hypothesis that women do not access information with the same facility as men 2. Identified the cultural, structural and legal barriers that women face 3. Determined women’s most critical information needs. Conducted in 6 districts: Dhaka, Khagrachari, Khulna, Rajshahi, Rangpur, Sylhet Included interviews with 128 community leaders, 81 experts, and 264 public officials and men/women in 49 non-participant observation agency locations
- 5. Gender Study Primary Obstacles • Illiteracy • Lack of awareness: do not know where to go/how to ask for information • Cultural constraints • Time and Mobility Information Needs • Education • Land/Property • Income Generation
- 6. Advancing Women’s Right of Access to Information in Bangladesh (2016-2019) Government Partners: • Cabinet Division • Information Commission • Various Line Ministries • Local Governments Civil Society Partners: • Manusher Jonno Foundation • Institute of Development Affairs (IDEA) • Management and Resources Development Initiative (MRDI) • Trinamul Unnayan Sangstha (TUS) • Institute of Governance and Development, BRAC University • Dnet
- 7. Advancing Women’s Right of Access to Information in Bangladesh (2019-2021): Government Partners: • Cabinet Division • Information Commission • Various Line Ministries • Local Governments Civil Society Partners: • Institute of Development Affairs (IDEA) • Trinamul Unnayan Sangstha (TUS) • Dnet • New partners yet to finalize
- 8. Advancing Women’s Right of Access to Information in Bangladesh: Objective 1 Right to Information Working Groups Targeted Awareness Raising Campaigns Celebration of International Right to Know Day Policy Recommendations
- 9. Advancing Women’s Right of Access to Information in Bangladesh: Objective 2 Gender Sensitization and Awareness Raising RTI Intensives and Capacity Development Creative Mechanisms for Information Dissemination
- 10. Advancing Women’s Right of Access to Information in Bangladesh: Objective 3 Awareness Raising in Local Communities Capacity Development for CSOs
- 11. Advancing Women’s Right of Access to Information in Bangladesh: Objective 3 Tottho Bondhus, Changemakers, and Support Hotline Engaging Youth Online Requests
- 12. Advancing Women’s Right of Access to Information in Bangladesh: Preliminary Endline Survey Analysis• Increase in respondents in Khagrachari and Sylhet indicating that women can access information with same facility as men, but decrease in Dhaka 93% of respondents indicated women are filing more information requests than they were 3 years ago Of those respondents who participated in programming, 5% had filed an information request prior to programming, whereas 22% indicated they had filed an information request after programming Of the 22% who filed information request following programming, 65% said that they shared the information with their families and communities
- 13. Advancing Women’s Right of Access to Information in Bangladesh: Preliminary Endline Survey Analysis From baseline, increase in respondents that indicated legal and social norms promote and protect women’s right of access to information, but higher increase around legal norms than social Perception of family member support decreased from baseline to endline Yet perception of influential community members support increased When asked about RTI capacity of government (primary and mass education, secondary education and land), increase in indicators such as procedures for response and understanding women’s need for information and responding to women’s requests
- 14. Advancing Women’s Right of Access to Information in Bangladesh: Lessons Learned Identifying and highlighting champions Clear commitment from government partners Support for local government Importance of multiple engagements and contextualized interventions Secondary impacts (agency and voice) Diversity of information interests Importance of engaging youth Information is transformative
- 15. Advancing Women’s Right of Access to Information in Bangladesh: New activities as following • RTI Intensive training for the government officials • Gender training for the government officials • School awareness program • Awareness and capacity building of the teachers and local government officials • RTI working group meeting at national, district and Upazila level • Courtyard meeting • School Campaign • Capacity development of CBO and CSO, youth leaders • Bootcamp
- 16. Women and the Right of Access to Information Awareness Program
- 17. Women and the Right of Access to Information Awareness Program Sylhet
- 18. Women and the Right of Access to Information Thank you
Editor's Notes
- RTI Working Groups Initially, the Center wanted to create a working group to consider issues around women’s ATI. However, a national RTI working group (RTI WG), led by the Cabinet Division and comprised of a number of government ministries, and district advisory committees already existed, but were not fully functional. CD invited the Center to put forth its ideas. In January 2018, and based on the Center’s proposal, the Cabinet Division agreed to restructure the national and district RTI working groups. in May 2018, the Cabinet Division issued a Government Gazette on the revision of the working groups/committees on the right to information implementation and monitoring, with a special focus “to ensure women’s right to information and activities at the Upazilla, District and Divisional levels.” The working groups expanded to include female elected members at all levels, as well as selected civil society organizations working on the right to information were invited to participate. The committees are now meeting more regularly, the Cabinet Division has made its commitment to women’s right of access to information clear to all local government officials, and gender responsive approaches and capacity building can be furthered. Targeted Awareness Raising Campaigns As a means of influencing those persons identified as obstacles, the Center worked with the Information Commission, RTI Working Groups, and school children in Khagrachari and Sylhet to design campaign In coordination with the Information Commission, Deputy Commissioner of Sylhet, and the RTI WGs of all four administrative levels in Sylhet, the Center held a half-day meeting for the RTI WG members in Sylhet to contribute slogan ideas for the campaign Additionally, the Center worked with 50 students in Sylhet – from class seven to 10 – to design a visual component. After receiving an overview of the right to information, students created posters reflecting what they understood it to mean. Of the 50 pictures submitted, the Center chose three, and paired them with slogans identified either by the students or the RTI WG. The Center received permission from both the Government of Bangladesh and the Information Commission to include their logos with USAID, The Carter Center and local partners. The Center’s women and access to information program is considered the first in which the Commission and the Cabinet Division/Government have allowed their logos to be used, demonstrating a remarkable commitment to these efforts. Using these materials, the Center hosted events in Khagrachari and Sylhet. These events included the use of street drama groups to present skits, encouraging community members to actively participate, and facilitated open discussions around women’s right of access to information. Celebration of International Right to Know Day The Center worked closely with the Information Commission and others to use the day to focus more specifically on women’s right of access to information. In 2017 and 2018, the Center designed posters with the information commissions which spoke to women’s ATI and fit within their theme. Over both years, 110,000 posters were printed and distributed across all 453 upazilas in Bangladesh. In 2018, the Center supported the production of a TV spot, which told the story of a young woman using the right to information in her village to ensure that selected female elders were receiving the benefits to which they were entitled. The Ministry of Information then supported the broadcast of this spot on various channels across the country.
- Photos: Left: Women participate in a exercise during gender sensitization in the Khagrachari RTI Intensive (If I were a man, Because I am a woman…) Right/Bottom: Members of the Perachara Union Parishad body pose after a capacity development training in Khagrachari By the Numbers: 1,400 civil servants includes duplicates – so it’s individual training sessions The 13%, 64% and 33% numbers are district averages from respondents to the RTI Intensive pre and post surveys Gender Sensitization and Awareness Raising Across activities, the Center and our partners worked with government officials and key civil servants to raise awareness of women’s right to information in Bangladesh and improve their understanding of the unique obstacles that women face This work was at both the national and local levels Working in close coordination with the Cabinet Division, conducted gender sensitization for high level officials of relevant ministries in Dhaka In Khagrachari and Sylhet, the Center provided similar awareness-raising sessions for members of the RTI working groups, as well as day-long gender sensitization events for key civil servants TUS and IDEA conducted similar work in the districts Focusing on the local level in specific upazilas, TUS and IDEA were able to work with an extensive array of local government partners, many of whom participated in multiple events. These activities included small meetings of various stakeholders at the union parishad and upazila level, where TUS and IDEA raised awareness of women’s right to information and developed a feedback loop, sharing women’s concerns, experiences and information needs directly with key government officials. Also included information fairs with information officers from the district level and community members RTI Intensives and Capacity Development In Dhaka, Khagrachari and Sylhet, the Center conducted a series of two-day RTI Intensive trainings for government officials from relevant line ministries, as well as one-day refresher events We trained over 115 government officials form relevant ministries on paper and digital records management practices, proactive disclosure requirements and exemptions, the state of women’s access to information in Bangladesh, and ways in which ministries could be more gender sensitive in providing women information. Approximately 35% of the participants were female. Events were facilitated by both domestic and international advisers. At local level, TUS and IDEA conducted capacity development work with members of union parishad bodies, providing an opportunity for individual ministry representatives to understand access to information in its large overarching context. Creative Mechanisms for Information Dissemination Sought to identify creative ways to improve women's access to information In Khagrachari, even when women could get to government offices, they didn’t know who to seek out to request information. TUS worked with local government officials to create and display name tags for designated information officers to make it clear for women entering the offices. In both Khagrachari and Sylhet, partners worked with local government to design and display 16 information billboards – 10 in Khagrachari and 6 in Sylhet With IC support/coordination, piloting Dnet RTI Online Tracking System (RTIOTS) – which allows women or others to file an information request online and track it through the process of receipt and response
- Photos: Left/Bottom: A courtyard meeting in Khagrachari Right/Top: Awareness raising event with district level information officers in Sylhet. By the Numbers: 95 CSOs/CBOs includes both awareness raising and capacity development activities Awareness Raising in Local Communities TUS and IDEA created small groups of community women in their working areas, usually of 10 women. (480 women total) Over the program period, they held 400 courtyard meetings. Each meeting followed a structure and identified continued information needs from the community that the women could obtain and share back with others. Through these meetings, women were able to obtain information that directly impacted their lives – allowing them to procure identification cards, access allowances they were entitled to, enroll in vocational training opportunities or enroll their children in schools, request technical assistance, etc. Together, TCC, MJF, MRDI, TUS and IDEA designed and printed 172,000 printed awareness raising materials (easy to understand guides, stickers, posters, etc.) that were distributed in program areas throughout programming. (these are separate from the IRTK Day materials) Worked with local government as mentioned above on the billboards, which were viewed by tens of thousands of people, using conservative estimates. MRDI and IDEA both created radio programs, including drama, interviews, jingles and PSAs that were broadcast on Bangladesh Betar throughout the country, and were interactive with listeners. MRDI had over 4,000 individuals respond to their quizzes in total. Capacity Development for CSOs Program partners conducted capacity development trainings which were attended by approximately 75 organizations across the three program districts. Of those 75, In total, MRDI, TUS and IDEA conducted ongoing capacity development trainings and provided technical assistance and guidance to 15 CSOs in the three districts. MJF additionally did ToTs ad refreshers in each district.
- Photos: Left/Bottom: A woman in Khagrachari transfers notes from a courtyard meeting to a request for information. The Center’s Tottho Bondhu helped her file this request for information. Right/Top: Participants of MRDI’s Boot Camp complete a group exercise. Tottho Bondhus, Changemakers and Support Hotline Engaging Youth In 2019, MRDI, TUS and IDEA began activities working directly with youth and school management committees. TUS and IDEA worked with union parishad chairmen and members to identify young leaders between the ages of 16-30 in their local communities that had achieved at least a secondary education level. They created upazila level groups of 12-24 youth members who received intensive training on the right of access to information and how it can be used to further informed decision making and transform women’s lives and communities In Khagrachari, for instance, members of these youth groups filed 65 information requests the same month that they had received training, showing that with sufficient awareness and capacity, there is a genuine interest and need for public information. In addition to assisting these youth groups, TUS and IDEA worked directly with teachers and members of school management committees to develop their own capacity to use the right to information to help their students and students’ parents, as well as provide guidance on how the right to information can be better taught in schools. In Dhaka, MRDI held a large, multi-day “residential” RTI Boot Camp for 42 young women participants from Dhaka, Khagrachari and Sylhet Over the course of three days, the training included 16 sessions of various formats, including games, debates, use of songs and theater, video viewing, group work, participatory discussion and lectures, to learn about, become familiar with, and gain practical experience using the RTI Act Groups were assigned to enable participants to share comparative experiences from their own lives as well as learn from each other throughout the course of the training. Toward the end of the training, the groups created workplans for how they will use their right to information moving forward to empower themselves as well as their communities Finally, MRDI conducted awareness raising sessions in four schools, two each in Dhaka North and South, reaching a total of 465 female students.
- Endline Notes (for Laura, not all for speaking out loud) : 147 of the 300 respondents were original baseline survey respondents Analysis is ongoing, so these results are preliminary. Endline measurements show increases in responses, fairly consistent responses, and sometimes negative responses. The Center is considering conducting focal groups and key informant interviews based on the findings to understand these changes in greater qualitative detail.