Goals and Objectives

The overall goal is to strengthen the capacity of civil society organizations (CSOs) and community-based organizations (CBOs) to empower marginalized communities, particularly women, living in and around Key Biodiversity Areas (KBAs) in Moulvibazar, Bangladesh, ensuring their voice, representation, and access to rights and services.

The primary objectives are to enhance civic engagement and advocacy and develop a National Coordination and Knowledge Sharing Platform (NACOKSP) to facilitate collaboration. Furthermore, the initiative aims to build the capacity of local Civil Society Organizations (CSOs), Community-Based Organizations (CBOs), Women's Rights Organizations (WROs), youth, and ethnic minorities. These efforts are strategically focused to promote gender equality and climate justice, while continuously working to ensure sustainability and scalability of all interventions.

Background

Marginalized communities living in and around the Key Biodiversity Areas (KBA) of Moulvibazar, Bangladesh, face severe socio-economic challenges and structural exclusion from opportunities. These populations, particularly women, are disproportionately vulnerable to the devastating impacts of climate change, such as flash floods, while grappling with extreme poverty, high rates of child marriage, and limited access to decision-making power. While local organizations strive to support them, they often lack the necessary resources and capacity to advocate effectively for these rights. It is therefore crucial to empower these civil society entities to address rights violations and bridge the gap between these communities and essential government services.

To provide a feasible solution, Dnet is implementing the Nagarik Shamannay project to strengthen the capacity of local Civil Society Organizations (CSOs) serving KBA-dependent communities. This is an initiative to enhance civic engagement, ensure gender rights and climate justice, and establish a platform for sustainable advocacy and accountable governance for the most vulnerable populations.

Approach

In alignment with the project’s goal of strengthening civil society capacity in and around the Key Biodiversity Areas (KBAs) of Moulvibazar, Nagarik Shamannay adopts a participatory, community-driven, and systems-strengthening approach to empower marginalized communities, particularly women, youth, and ethnic minorities, to exercise their rights and access services. The project places strong emphasis on gender equality and climate justice, ensuring that communities living around environmentally sensitive regions are equipped to advocate for their needs.

To achieve its objectives, the project prioritizes meaningful engagement with local CSOs, CBOs, women-led organizations, and youth groups through structured capacity-building initiatives. These groups are supported to improve their organizational strength, advocacy skills, and understanding of social accountability tools so they can effectively raise community concerns and influence public service delivery.

A major component of the project is the development of the National Coordination and Knowledge Sharing Platform (NACOKSP), a GIS-based digital platform designed to connect civil society organizations, government stakeholders, and community members. This platform will serve as a hub for information, service mapping and knowledge exchange. It will contribute to reducing the fragmentation among civil society networks and improving collaboration at both local and national levels.

The project’s approach strengthens civic engagement through a bottom-up model where community voices form the foundation of all advocacy efforts. Beginning at the grassroots level, citizen groups, women’s collectives, youth representatives, and local CSOs/CBOs first identify their priority concerns and develop unified positions on gender equality, climate vulnerability, and challenges faced in KBA-dependent areas. These locally generated insights and community-led agendas are then taken upward to wider platforms, first through coalition meetings, and subsequently through district-level advocacy dialogues and public town halls. By ensuring that advocacy begins at the community level and moves progressively toward national influence, the project creates an enabling environment where citizen-driven priorities meaningfully shape government decisions and public service delivery.

By integrating capacity development, digital innovation, civic engagement, and multi-stakeholder collaboration, Nagarik Shamannay aims to establish a sustainable ecosystem where empowered citizens and strengthened civil society organizations work collectively with beneficiaries and government actors. This approach not only enhances access to services but also contributes to long-term resilience, inclusive governance, and improved quality of life for KBA-dependent communities.