Leadership Development Program (LDP) Quarterly Report

The program aims to increase capacity and participation of citizens in democratic processes and enhance community development in Bangladesh. The LDP is guided by two integrated programmatic objectives: (1) to build the capacity of community leaders to become change agents for democratic processes and development; and (2) to build the capacity of youth to become change agents for democratic processes and development. The LDP training program consists of a three-phased approach to leadership development, which includes Community Leaders Trainings, Youth Leadership Trainings, and a cycle of trainings that cover Appreciative Community Mobilization, Participatory Community Appraisal, Youth Action and Advocacy, Community Development Issues and Initiatives, Youth Informed Citizenship, Democracy and Good Governance, and Communications and Leadership Skills. During the second quarter of program year 2, the core program activities included revising the training manuals, facilitating a Training of Trainers (TOT) session for Implementing Partners (IPs), and conducting field-level trainings. Progress was made in the LDP and Ministry of Youth and Sports' (MoYS) Department of Youth Development (DYD) collaboration, with two coordination meetings held to solidify the relationship between the DYD and Counterpart's Youth Leaders. The LDP also created a "bank" of CVs for internship placements, which have been placed in various development organizations. An LDP blog was created to be used by LDP leaders as a portal for sharing their stories, best practices, observations, and opinions on how to increase youth engagement and outreach. Exposure visits for LDP leaders were conducted to build social capital and strengthen ties among neighboring communities. The Monitoring and Evaluation (M&E) team conducted annual focus group discussions in two divisions to gather feedback from participants from program year 1 on LDP trainings and to get a qualitative perspective on the results achieved by the leaders and the challenges they faced. The team also conducted periodic training monitoring visits and attended external workshops on M&E and ICT. The LDP continues to promote gender equity by ensuring at least 40% participation of women in all activities and providing a gendered lens to leadership training curricula. The LDP Gender Action Plan was updated, and gender mainstreaming workshops were conducted for project staff. Gender programming initiatives included video conference call sessions between Rajshahi and Mymensingh district leaders to celebrate International Women's Day. The political climate of Bangladesh has improved significantly since the national elections took place on January 11, with a reduction in blockades and strikes and overall tempering of anxiety from the populace. Many activities and site visits that were postponed last quarter due to ongoing blockades and violence were performed this quarter, and LDP is back on track with the work plan schedule.