Leadership Development Program Quarterly Report 3: April 1, 2014 –June 30, 2014

The goal of LDP is to increase capacity and participation of citizens to effectively and actively engage in democratic processes and enhance community development in Bangladesh. This goal is framed 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. Counterpart-Bangladesh's LDP training program consists of a three-phased approach to leadership development, wherein leaders are trained in the following cycle of trainings: Community Leaders Trainings, Youth Leadership Trainings, Phase I - Appreciative Community Mobilization and Participatory Community Appraisal, Phase II - Community Development Issues and Initiatives and Youth Informed Citizenship, and Phase III - Democracy and Good Governance, Communications and Leadership Skills. The core program activities in the third quarter of program year (PY) 2 included conducting the Phase II training of trainers (TOT) for LDP's five implementing partners (IPs), finalizing PY 1 Community Development Grants, conducting both the Phase I and Phase II field trainings, forming Union Development Forums, conducting Gender Mainstreaming and networking workshops for all LDP IPs and with the support of other USAID Democracy and Governance (DG) partners, conducting an ICT training for 24 LDP youth leaders of Dhaka division, and launching the LDP project blog. This quarter a great deal of progress was made between LDP and the Department of Youth Development (DYD) as LDP collaborated at the upazila and district levels in a variety of capacities: from the DYD providing assistance to LDP leaders in forming union development committees to DYD officials directly facilitating LDP youth Phase I and II youth trainings in all eight LDP PY2 working areas in the presence of LDP IPs. The Monitoring and Evaluation (M&E) team conducted an M&E and Management Information System (MIS) workshop for the M&E Officers and Project Coordinators of all 5 IPs. The M&E team is also working on modifying the PMEP's indicator descriptions along with the program team. The team also conducted a field visit to Bandarban in Chittagong to monitor the training activities of Toymu. Since its inception, LDP continues to promote gender equity by ensuring at least 40 percent participation of women in all activities as well as providing a gendered lens to leadership training curricula. With that aim, a workshop was organized on June 15-16 for increasing awareness and understanding regarding gender-based violence for our IP trainers. During this reporting period, political tensions present in previous quarters had eased, and there were no adverse effects on program activities. However, a proposed foreign donation regulation act put forth by the NGO Bureau incorporated some clauses that impede upon the normal flow of NGO activities, particularly NGOs working in the Chittagong Hill Tracks (CHT) area. The law introduced two new bureaucratic hurdles, the Ministry of the Chittagong Hill Tracks Affairs and Chittagong Hill Tracks Regional Council will now control and monitor NGOs' works in CHT area. One of the LDP implementing partners, Toymu, has already experienced lengthy delays before it was given approval to implement activities during the organization's wait for project registration and fund clearance. An additional clause imposed to appoint a foreign specialist or consultant may hamper NGOs to meet quality works because it gives the NGO Bureau greater power over the NGOs in the country and how they implement their work. LDP and Counterpart will continue to monitor the progress of this draft law and its potential impediments to our and our partners' work. The training of trainers (TOT) for Phase II - Community Development Issues and Initiatives, and Youth Informed Citizenship - trainings took place from April 25-30 at the CSS Ava Center in Khulna where 43 training officers (32 male, 11 female) from Democracywatch, MKP and Wave Foundation attended. DYD's district and Upazila level officers from Khulna and Jessore also attended the TOT and shared detailed information on government youth policy and development with TOT participants. Due to political unrest and delays in NGO Bureau registration, the two IPs Toymu and YPSA had fallen behind in implementing activities compared to the other IPs. Because they are not on the same Phase of training as the others, a separate round of TOTs for Phase II was organized from May 31-June 4 at Hotel Media International, Cox's Bazaar for 17 training officers (11 male, 6 female) of Toymu and YPSA. The first two days of the TOT focused on the Community Development Issues and Initiatives manual and covered the role of the Union Parishad in community development.