On 16th February 2023, the Bangladesh Festival of events kicked off with the Module 2 of the Bridge CRPD-SDGs Bangladesh national cycle, with enthusiastic participation from diverse constituencies of persons with disabilities from 17 districts of Bangladesh and facilitators from Bangladesh, India and Mongolia, comprised of Bridge CRPD-SDGs alumni.
The Bangladesh Festival events will also include a workshop on the SDGs Report Writing (22 and 23 of March), a workshop on Disability-Inclusive Social Protection, and a workshop on Inclusive Education (both from the 24 to 26 of March).
Since 2020, IDA and partners have actively invested towards the reinforcement of the Bengali OPD movement with a series of workshops on the Global Disability Summit (GDS) consultation, the CRPD review, Bridge CRPD-SDGs cycle as well as with the Inclusion Works project, part of the Disability Inclusive Development consortium project led by Sightsavers and funded by the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office (FCDO).
This Bridge cycle is jointly supported by Transforming Communities for Inclusion (TCI), IDDC members, including DPOD, Sightsavers Bangladesh, CBM Global, ADD International, Light for the World (LFTW), and Humanity and Inclusion (HI), and the DID Project; funded by FCDO.
On the first day, Amba Salelkar, on IDA’s behalf, formally opened the Festival with welcoming message and recognising the hard work of participants during Module 1 and 2 as well as the robust support from partners. She was followed by remarks from Ayon Debnath, from Sightsavers Bangladesh, that recounted Sightsaver’s relationship with IDA both globally and in Bangladesh, who was followed by Esrat Jahan, on behalf of Humanity and Inclusion (HI) Bangladesh, that reflected on the importance of engaging persons with disabilities to have a wider inclusion approach in the development agendas.
Later, facilitators collected and debriefed on the participant’s expectations followed by a presentation on the agenda of the week. Then facilitators along with participants set the ground rules. The first day’s session was particularly focused on recollecting the participant’s knowledge of CRPD from module 1 through engaging participants in a “hotball” exercise. Facilitators wrapped up the day by summarizing the core aspect of CRPD including the necessity and purpose of the Convention, the general principles, and the difference between immediate and progressive realization.
The participants will also be joined by two observers in the first few days of the training: Johannes Trimmel, Programme Director, Disability Inclusive Development, Sightsavers, and Yuta Momose, Junior Social Protection Policy Officer, ILO Geneva.
Additional resources:
1. Call for applications
2. Agenda
3. List of participants
