Nobo Jatra Youth Fellowship Program

The Nobo Jatra Youth Fellowship Program (NJP-YFP) is an opportunity for youths, ages between 18-35, to grow as leaders and agents of change. They will be empowered to be a part of adolescent and youth conversations at community and policy levels, providing suggestions and inputs and will help to make the right decisions that shape the community lives they belong to. Youth and Youth women from NJP- Youth Information Centers (YICs) are participating in intensive, in-person learning through the attachment of a mentor and continue their learning through mentorship meetings and individual learning assignments. The Fellowship program is for a 4 months commitment.

NJP works to ensure that the local community people have developed their capacity to identify their challenges and address them through strong and productive integration with the local government, private sector market actors and related service providers. The focus on the priorities of the local community regarding different socio-economic, health as well as food and nutrition security challenges and opportunities and empowerment, however, has not yielded the desired social and economic transformation. In fact, the dismal domestic youth employment has heightened migration, lowered local economic productivity, and increased dependency.

The project focuses on social and economic empowerment, envisions an enterprising Southwestern Bangladesh where every youth and youth women have opportunities for a prosperous future, and aims to:

• Promote inclusive social and economic growth
• Strengthen governance of inclusive ecosystem
• Strengthen community engagement for enhanced livelihoods

Addressing these targets, NJP established Youth Information Centers (YIC) which are supporting the rural community to accelerate their social security, employment, businesses, and other local entrepreneurs and enterprises. In linking the grassroots community, the private sector, and the government-level engagements, the YICs program would help community champions and social innovators to organize advocacy campaigns and nurture an empowered mindset in the Southwestern Bangladesh.

NJP believes that the immense potential for economic growth can be harnessed through power devolution. The growing talent, passion, and energy of youths is a tremendous resource-base for the development of the local community. Moreover, youth engagement is very limited due to the lack of a common platform which erodes the youth’s ability and is a barrier to their own improvement. Besides, youth’s weak participation and their counter-productive attitude have also tarnished the community and government’s perception. Finally, the trust deficiency hinders youth-community and youth-government collaboration for sustainable economic growth.

Addressing the local issues, NJP has been enabling youths to collaborate with the government and other private sector organizations for skills development, employment, apprenticeship, starting social enterprises, and drawing the attention of the authorities.

The NJP-YFP selected young professionals and students, both male and female for four months to build their technical and adaptive capacities, skills to research and understand the underlying reasons. During the past years, NJP has developed the capacities of 20 Youth Information Centers for the youth to engage meaningfully with the public and private agencies and has supported their community.

The NJP Youth Fellowship Program (NJP-YFP) is designed to strengthen the earlier process and organize a pool of champions and changemakers with a key motive of “My Community, My Responsibility.” NJP will partner with a facilitator to identify and apply innovative methods of organizing and strengthening the champions to conduct research to find evidence for addressing social and economic challenges and strengthen governance.

The fellowship program has been initiating in collaboration with Bangladesh NGOs Network for Radio and Communication (BNNRC).

The objectives of the Youth Fellowship Program (NJP-YFP) program are:

• Promote domestic youth employment
• Strengthen youth-government policy collaboration
• Develop evidence-based advocacy practices with the local and sub-district authorities and power structures
• Address local social and economic challenges to improve sustainable market-driven livelihood and drive positive social change.

This initiative will become an active platform for the local community (especially students and young professionals) in the Southwestern region. The Fellows will take the leadership role in addressing local challenges. The Fellowship will be built on local socio-cultural and political context that will teach the youth public speaking, collaborative work, and adaptive leadership.  The NJP-YFP is aiming to address the following thematic issues:

• Climate Change and Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR)
• Climate Smart Agriculture and improved livelihood
• Women’s Economic Empowerment through Agri-based Income Generation Activities
• Digital presence and marketing of local products in the national and international markets
• Youth Education, Training, and Apprenticeship and Employment
• Governance reform for positive social change

The fellow will conduct research on the factors that could significantly affect sustainable growth of the entrepreneurs’ ventures. The research will highlight how certain policy interventions may help entrepreneurial ventures grow and aid in the creation of local employment opportunities.

• Adaptive Leadership Development and Capacity Enhancement
• Fellows will participate in the public discourse.
• Equipping NJP Fellows with technical tools and contextual knowledge, the following capacity enhancement support will be provided:

• Introductory orientation on governance and legislation process of local area
• Orientation on scientific methodologies for undertaking engagement activities
• Effective communication, presentation and relationship building skills
• Writing skills for reports, briefs, peer-reviewed journals, and media outlets

Project duration: 4 months (January 20, 2022 – May 19, 2022

 

For more information on the project

Contact:
Mark Manash Saha
Coordinator,
BNNRC, Dhaka
Emails: bnnrcpc2@gmail.com, mark@bnnrc.net.