Project profile — Gender-Responsive Skills and Livelihoods in Cox’s Bazar

• Bangladesh (100.00%)

• Basic Education: Basic life skills for youth (11231) (23.00%)
• Secondary Education: Vocational training (11330) (43.00%)
• Other Social Infrastructure And Services: Employment policy and administrative management (16020) (34.00%)

• Gender equality (significant objective)
• Environmental sustainability (cross-cutting) (significant objective)
• 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 (not targeted)
• Youth Issues (significant objective)
• Disability (significant objective)
• Indigenous Issues (not targeted)
• ICT as a tool for development (not targeted)
• Nutrition (not targeted)
• Disaster Risk Reduction(DRR) (not targeted)

The project aims to address the livelihood challenges of host communities and Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh. The project focuses on the challenges women, youth, persons with disabilities and other vulnerable groups face. The project contributes to alleviating tensions between both communities. Also, It seeks to identify strategies to implement and expand activities for Rohingya refugees, particularly women, to keep their hopes on a sustainable return to Myanmar while being productive and having a purpose in Bangladesh. The project consists of two different components: to improve the resilience and self-reliance of Rohingya refugees, especially women, youth, and people with disabilities; and to strengthen the economic empowerment and economic participation of members of the host communities in Cox’s Bazar, in particular adolescents and youths, women and persons with disabilities. To enable a system change, the project works with multi-level stakeholders, including business owners, management committees, training service providers, teachers, parents, trainers and community leaders, among others. Project activities include: (1) increasing access to education and providing technical skills training based on needs assessments to Rohingya refugees, especially women and youths; (2) providing and facilitating opportunities to skills training graduates; (3) providing pre-vocational training on literacy, numeracy and life skills to refugee adolescents and youth with a specific focus on girls and women; (4) developing high potential tourism destinations in collaboration with government and market actors; (5) promoting self/wage-employment and entrepreneurship opportunities in and around the selected tourists’ destinations, with priority given to women’s economic opportunities; (6) building gender-responsive and eco-friendly community-based tourism developed, including initiatives by local women and girls, through improved competencies, infrastructure and services; and (7) increasing production and productivity of agricultural products promoted complying with the supply requirement of the camps. This project is jointly implemented by the International Labour Organization (ILO), the United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR), the International Organization for Migration (IOM), the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) and BRAC.

The expected outcomes for this project include: (1) improved transferable skills of Rohingya refugees in preparation for voluntary repatriation and sustainable reintegration through a gender-inclusive approach in alliance with Myanmar’s skills development system; (2) improved access to opportunities to utilize technical skills and enhance livelihoods and self-reliance of Rohingya refugees, including women, adolescents and youths; (3) improved expansion and growth of enterprises, business and employment opportunities in growth-oriented, employment-intensive sectors and value-chains in Cox’s Bazar; (4) ensured women, people with disabilities and youth in Cox’s Bazar have quality-assured skills in demand on the labour market; and (5) ensured Cox’s Bazar District Administration Office, in collaboration with the private sector and workers’ organisations, effectively manages and monitors the district’s skills and livelihood programmes .

Results achieved as of December 2023 include: (1) provided training to 200 Rohingya youth on adult literacy, numeracy, and English language to prepare them for vocational skills training and eventual graduation into the labour market; (2) supported 4,295 Rohingya youth to complete training in accredited technical and vocational skills, including agriculture. Among them, 378 skilled graduates established agricultural self-employment; (3) enabled 778 graduates to find employment; (4) supported 102 Rohingya adolescents and youth to join a pre-university bridging program. This allowed improved access to higher education and higher-level skills under the auspices of UNHCR and Bard College, USA; (5) supported 21,022 adolescents and youth (52% women) to participate in prevocational training courses by BRAC and CODEC. They assessed 16,997 people (89% women), and 14,617 (83% women) achieved minimum passing scores in all subjects; (6) provided prevocational training courses to 900 Rohingya adolescents and youth (32% women) in Bhasan Char; (7) provided vocational skills training to 80 youth to improve self-reliance, resilience, and livelihoods; (8) provided training to 3,000 households (100% women) in food security, including on vegetable cultivation for subsistence and commercial production; (9) enabled 297 households to acquire an average of 0.1 acre of land each for commercial vegetable production. This allowed them to earn an average monthly income of BDT?5,634 ($65 Canadian) from sales; and (10) engaged 200 households (100% men) in fish farming, producing 13 metric tons of fish, while 10 households participated in poultry rearing, earning an average monthly income of BDT 6,356 ($73 Canadian).

• Proactive disclosure