Project profile — Empowering Women and Girls through Education and Skills in the Chittagong Hill Tracts

• Bangladesh (100.00%)

• Education, Level Unspecified: Teacher training (11130) (18.00%)
• Basic Education: Primary education (11220) (10.00%)
• Secondary Education: Vocational training (11330) (25.00%)
• Population Policies/Programmes And Reproductive Health: Population policy and administrative management (13010) (10.00%)
• Human rights:
Human rights (15160) (9.00%)
Ending violence against women and girls (15180) (28.00%)

• Gender equality (principal objective)
• Environmental sustainability (cross-cutting) (not targeted)
• Participatory development and good governance (not targeted)
• Trade development (not targeted)
• Biodiversity (not targeted)
• Climate change mitigation (not targeted)
• Climate Change Adaptation (not targeted)
• Urban issues (not targeted)
• Desertification (not targeted)
• Children's issues (principal objective)
• Youth Issues (principal objective)
• Disability (significant objective)
• Indigenous Issues (principal objective)
• ICT as a tool for development (not targeted)
• Disaster Risk Reduction(DRR) (not targeted)
• Nutrition (significant objective)

The project aims to address barriers that hinder the demand for and access to education for girls, adolescent girls and women in the Chittagong Hill Tracts (CHT) region in south-eastern Bangladesh. The CHT is a multi-ethnic, conflict-affected region where poverty and cultural norms severely restrict access to basic education and employment for girls and women from both indigenous and settler populations. The project addresses the barriers through support to 300 pre-primary and primary schools, serving approximately 20,000 students, and through skills training. Activities are designed to provide inclusive, gender- and environmentally-responsive education at the pre-primary and primary levels; and increase access to gender-sensitive, demand-driven technical and vocational education and training for adolescent girls and women, including those with disabilities. The project aims to improve the retention rates for approximately 12,000 girls and adolescent girls; strengthen the knowledge and skill levels of approximately 900 teachers; and enhance employment opportunities for approximately 1,000 adolescent girls and women.

The expected outcomes for this project include: (1) improved provision of accessible, safe and inclusive education and learning for girls and adolescent girls in primary and secondary levels; (2) improved provision of quality gender- and environmentally-sensitive education and teaching by education actors in the Chittagong Hill Tracts; and (3) increased provision of gender-sensitive technical and vocational education and training for adolescent girls and women.

Results achieved at the end of the project (May 2023) include: (1) 100% of surveyed girls feel safe at school, compared to 52% at the beginning of the project in 2019; (2) 300 schools received supplementary gender-responsive teaching materials to challenge gender stereotypes and promote inclusivity. Also trained 2,323 teachers (more than twice the original target of 900 teachers) to apply the material and methods; (3) accredited 45 informal schools funded by the community (18 junior high schools and 27 high schools) in CHT to become government-funded schools.

• Proactive disclosure