Aware that life posits itself with an array of adversities, and armed with the inner strength, people living in poverty bring about change in their lives as an individual and as a group, and in the process encourage everyone. The inner strength, the will to survive creates something as powerful as hope. This photo-book named ‘People Power’ briefly captures that hope. In this photo-exploration, we have attempted to celebrate the contributions of the common people in Bangladesh towards developing a better world – a world that we believe is possible through realisation of the power in people. The publication marks the 30th anniversary of ActionAid in Bangladesh.

We endorse the UN Global Call on Youth and encourage national and international stakeholders to continue upholding the World Programme of Action for Youth (WPAY) and to partner with young people in its implementation. We firmly believe that the promotion of youth as agents of social change and in positions of leadership will yield the highest return on investment – the nation’s development. Read the ‘stories of change’ to get a glimpse of where we can go together.

At ActionAid Bangladesh ‘stitching the change’ for rights of people marginalised due to power imbalance and identity politics is the motivation and drive that kept this organisation running for 3 decades. In this report, we attempt to capture the year past with the ‘prouds’ and ‘sorries’, and provide an overview of the work of ActionAid Bangladesh in 2013.

‘Learning Document Series 14-15’ is fifth in the annual series that ActionAid Bangladesh has been producing since 2009. The underlying purpose of LDS is to portray rights-based alternatives and development practices facilitated by ActionAid and its partners for wider upscale and replication

Education is critical to human development, enlightenment and emancipation. It is a powerful vehicle for securing social justice. Education is a fundamental human right, the responsibility of the state and a core element of national development policy. Securing the right to education is key to enabling people to secure other basic rights. This article is a critical analysis on how the draft education law 2013 to look into how much inclined it was to protect the right of education of citizens.

This report is developed on information from a phone-survey on 278 deceased garments workers who left behind children.

ActionAid Bangladesh, with the support of partner organizations, launched the LEADR Project (Liberation and Empowerment: Attaining Dignity and Rights for Sex Workers and their Children in Bangladesh) in December 2011. This project has been funded by AECID (Agencia Española de Cooperación y Desarrollo) and its core goal is to promote the rights of this segment of society in order to improve their wellbeing and prevent human trafficking.

In 2012, we spent a significant time for creating understanding on our new Country Strategy Paper (CSP-IV) and developing programmes in line with the document. Substantial amount of time was also invested in change management process and capacity building of the staff and partners on new CSP and HRBA programming approach. We worked with excluded people and individuals living in poverty and their organisations, movements to build active agencies so that they can lead their own social change process. Our core constituencies were spread across age, sex, location and diverse categories of exclusion. Also, to support people’s action as part of solidarity, we worked with state and non-state actors and institutions.

Many of us at the country office and friends in the rural areas contributed in this second issue of the e-magazine. We are more than happy to be able to get to you people’s stories from the grassroots – people who are constantly bringing change in their lives.