Staff Reporter :
Education and Cultural Society (ECS) and Rotary Club of Gulshan Tigers jointly organized a policy cafe titled “Centering Young People as Agents of Change: Lessons from Bangladesh” on the Learning and Action Alliance for Girls’ Agency (LAAGA) Case Study at the M. A. Latif Auditorium at the University of Dhaka on Tuesday.
Atenea Rosado-Viurques, Research Associate of Center for Universal Education was the keynote speaker, and Kazi Nasrin Siddiqa, Founder President and Executive Director of ECS, chaired the policy café and presented the context and outcomes of the research and moderating the panel discussion.
The Policy Cafe began with a welcome address by the Master of Ceremonies (MC), Mahbubur Rahman, Executive (Program &Research) of ECS. Atenea highlighted the mission, vision, principles, and commitment of the LAAGA members and its research initiatives in her speech.
The panel discussion featured LAAGA members Samyukta Subramanian from Pratham Education Foundation, India, and Arundhuti Gupta from Mentor Together, India, along with Dr. Tania Haque, Professor, Department of Women &Gender Studies, University of Dhaka, Mohona Hossain, Staf Reporter at The Business Standard, and Anindita Pal, a student representative of the University of Dhaka.
The panelists discussed the importance of working with marginalized girls, centering young people’s voices and experiences, and initiatives to promote girls’ agency.
At the end of the policy cafe, Professor of University of Dhaka, Department of Microbiology Dr. Manjurul Karim, Knowledge Management & Communication Specialist Ms. Shusmita Khan, District First Lady (2023-2024) Farhana Parveen Zaman Natasha, and Former Vice Principal of Viquarunnisa Noon School and College Samira Bari, U.S. Department of State Alumni, and the Vice President of ECS spoke on different significant issues related on girls’ rights, empowerment, and initiatives for creating an environment for girls to support them in exercising their own agency.