An advocacy workshop on strengthening social protection held

On 23 May 2024, an advocacy workshop was held with the participation of Cox's Bazar local government, district administration, and officials of district-level govt. departments, NGO representatives, journalists, successful women entrepreneurs, and civil society representatives on strengthening social protection through transformative changes in the role of women in Bangladesh under the project Crafting Future: Addressing Sustainable Livelihoods, Social Cohesion, and Gender Inequality through Integrated Community Led Action & Hope Illuminated Emergency Preparedness through Lighting. Mukti Cox’s Bazar has been implementing this project with the technical help of Oxfam Bangladesh with the funding of OHK and OAU. In this workshop, Jobayda Akter, Head of Field Office, Oxfam in Bangladesh-Cox’s Bazar; Abu Morshed Chowdhury, President- Cox’s Bazar Chamber of Commerce and Industry; Jahanara Islam, Chairperson, Cox’s Bazar Women’s Chamber of Commerce and Industry; and Shiuli Sharma, Executive Director-Jago Nari Unnoyon Songstha were present as the special guests. Khairul Islam, Director-Monitoring and  Evaluation, Sujit Kumar Bhowmik, Director-Human Resource and Administration, Tanusri Das, Safeguarding Focal (acting), Dipa Somaddar, Advocacy officer and adhere staff of Mukti Cox’s Bazar were also present there. The workshop was presided by Bimal Chandra Dey Sarker, the Chief Executive-Mukti Cox’s Bazar. He extended floral greetings and warmly welcomed the guests and the participants. In his welcoming speech he said that Mukti Cox’s Bazar has been supporting women empowerment, economic inclusion, and capacity building through vocational and technical training, developing women leadership, and creating alternative income generation for over 28 years. In addition to that, Mukti Cox’s Bazar is relentlessly working to engage women in the mainstream of the development activities through providing traditional sewing and handicraft training as well as motor driving training and helping women to fulfill their dreams of becoming entrepreneurs. The special guest Abu Morshed Chowdhury says in his speech that the desired goal of women empowerment has not yet been achieved. He emphasized on providing capital and support in formulating effective plans including the production and marketing of the products by analyzing the market needs at local & national levels and building capacity of women for economic inclusion to meet the challenge of sustainable development goals, vision-2041. In the speech of the special guest Zobayda Akter, Head of Oxfam in Bangladesh Cox’s Bazar office, said that Oxfam implements integrated and risk-analyzed safe programing in empowering women through livelihood, leadership, social protection, and involvement of men. She also spoke about joint networking and advocacy between Oxfam and Mukti Cox’s Bazar with the local government and administration to increase women’s employment and economic empowerment and women leadership in Cox’s Bazar. Bulbul Akter and Shakila Akter said, among the successful women entrepreneurs, “After the loss of our husbands, our financial condition became too fragile to support our children with other family members. At that dire time, with the training, materials and financial support from Oxfam and Mukti Cox’s Bazar, we got involved in income generating activities. Now, we are self-reliant.” Besides selling hats in the local markets and in Cox’s Bazar, they are now supplying hats to Pakistan with the help of the exporters. Moreover, they have been imparting sewing and handicraft training to the rural women at local level.  Among the participants in the workshop, the official of District Animal Resources office, representative of Women Chamber of Commerce, Official of Cox’s Bazar Municipality, and journalist Nupa Alam addressed the topic. The special guests Shiuli Sharma and Jahanara Islam in their speech gave direction that the women themselves should come forward for women empowerment and make themselves competent and skilled to survive in the competitive market by ensuring the quality of products. In the closing speech, the Chief Executive of the organization said, “Mukti Cox’s Bazar has already created 200 entrepreneurs and currently 73% women staff are working in the organization.” He urged all participants to work together for the sustainable economic inclusion of women through collective efforts in empowering women and wrapped up the workshop by expressing his gratitude to all.