Young Bangla Network Meeting 2016 Held

Young Bangla Network Meeting 2016 Held

Young Bangla and its secretariat, Centre for Research and Information (CRI), organized its two-day long Network Meeting 2016 at Santoor Restaurant, Dhaka on 16 and 17 May.

The meeting was attended by the various awardees of Joy Bangla Youth Award 2015, interns of the Vision 2021 Internship Programme, members of the extended Young Bangla network and public and private sector partners of the youth platform.

The objectives of the meeting included assessing the work done under the platform for the welfare and development of youths of Bangladesh in the last one year, taking feedback from the young achievers and change makers related to their various activities and discuss a roadmap for the future activities and focus of the Young Bangla platform.

Day 1
The first day started with the session titled “Strengthening the Network: Within & Beyond)”. During this session, a presentation was made on behalf of Young Bangla as to what has been done for strengthening the Young Bangla network so far. The participants gave their feedback, recommendations and suggestions on boosting Young Bangla membership and support base as well as new methods for identifying new young achievers and youth leaders. Following the discussion, an action plan was drafted to strengthen the network till holding the next Joy Bangla Youth Award scheduled for 2017.
The second session was titled “Earning Recognition and Inspiring Others” where a presentation was made on the initiatives taken so far to showcase the achievements and potential of the Young Bangla members and awardees. Suggestions and recommendations were taken from the members themselves for further improvement in methods and modes of showcasing and publicizing their work following a brainstorming and group work exercise.
The last session of the first day focused on “Organizational Development”, where discussions were held regarding the organizational issues of Young Bangla members, including finding possible solutions to organizational development barriers. In particular, advice and guidance was provided on such issues as legal framework, registration, enlistment etc.
The highlight of the session was the special appearance by Mr. Nasrul Hamid, Honorable State Minister, Ministry of Power, Energy and Mineral Resources and Trustee of CRI. He talked very candidly and frankly with the participants, listened carefully to their problems and assured of taking every possible measures to address those problems.

Day 2
The second day started with the planning of a special “Let’s Talk” on the Young Bangla journey to be held in the near future. A brainstorming group exercise was conducted regarding the suggestions and recommendations of the participants as to how to fully utilize the special Let’s Talk to further the aims of Young Bangla.
Following this exercise, a special discussion was held on launching awareness campaigns on nationally significant topics. Every participant came up with three suggestions for priority areas where such social awareness campaigns could focus. The top two areas suggested by the participants was stopping violence against women and children and saving youths from the fatal and destructive curse of drugs.
Suggestions were also taken from the participants regarding an upcoming publication of Young Bangla. Guidance was also given to the participants regarding documenting their achievements, activities and recognition in audio visual format for ultimately helping the objective of showcasing themselves.
The last session was held on “Exploring and Consolidation on Partnership with Government and Private Sectors”. The session was attended by private and public sector partners of Young Bangla, including Aamra Technologies, Microsoft Bangladesh, Gemcon Group, YCDF and e-shop project of ICT Division. In this session, the current level of private sector engagement was discussed along with exploring how to further strengthen partnerships with more private sector entities.
During the two days long meeting, Young Bangla gave several presentations and documentaries to make the sessions more interactive. Participants were also provided with the draft National Youth Policy and asked to discuss the draft with their constituents and come up with any relevant feedback and/or suggestions in this regard. Mr. Nasrul Hamid also asked the participants to provide a brief report of the electricity situation from their localities across Bangladesh.
The two-day long event ended with a high note of optimism and renewed pledge of the youths to work for the development not only of their own communities but also the nation as a whole.

Leave a Reply