Project profile — Lifting Healthy, Empowered and Protected Girls and Women in Cox’s Bazar (LEAP)

• Bangladesh (100.00%)

• Basic Education: Basic life skills for youth (11231) (24.51%)
• Basic Health: Health education (12261) (14.73%)
• Population policy and administrative management:
Population policy and administrative management (13010) (10.00%)
Reproductive health care (13020) (24.01%)
• Women's rights organisations and movements, and government institutions:
Women's rights organisations and movements, and government institutions (15170) (13.25%)
Ending violence against women and girls (15180) (13.50%)

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

This project aims to advance the realization of sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR) of adolescent girls and young women in Cox's Bazar host communities and refugee camps. Project activities include: (1) organizing young married women’s groups and training them on gender equality and inclusion, SRHR, mental health support, protection and decision-making; (2) training members of men’s clubs on gender equality and inclusion, SRHR, sexual and gender-based violence (SGBV) and mental health; (3) training facility and community-based service providers on gender- and adolescent-responsive and inclusive service delivery and referral on sexual and reproductive health (SRH), SGBV and mental health; (4) refurbishing and equipping government and partner health care facilities and supplying them with job aids and logistics to provide gender- and adolescent-responsive and inclusive SRH, SGBV and mental health support services; and (5) identifying, local women’s rights organizations and linking them with local young women’s groups and adolescent girls’ groups for collective local action on gender equality, SGBV, SRHR, mental health and harmful traditional practices. LEAP targets marginalized groups in Rohingya camps and host communities facing multifaceted dimensions of exclusion. LEAP aims to directly reach more than 79,000 people, including 49,873 women and girls, in four unions (the lowest administrative unit) in Ukhiya and Teknaf subdistricts, seven unions in Ramu subdistrict, eight unions in Cox’s Bazar Sadar subdistrict and two Rohingya refugee camps (for 7,000 of these women and girls).

The expected outcomes for this project include: (1) improved individual and collective agency and resilience of adolescent girls and young women to exercise their sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR); (2) strengthened health systems to provide gender- and adolescent-responsive and inclusive SRH, SGBV and mental health and psychosocial support services to adolescents and young people, particularly girls and young women in Cox’s Bazaar; and (3) enhanced capacity of local stakeholders to advocate for evidence-based and accountable gender- and adolescent- responsive and inclusive SRH and SGBV services and policies.

Results achieved as of March 2024 include: (1) reached 140,630 people to prevent, respond to and end sexual and gender-based violence (SGBV). This includes child, early and forced marriage and female genital mutilation; (2) provided sexual and reproductive health services, including modern methods of contraception to 5,062,010 persons ( 4,166,433 women and 895,577 men); (3) trained and mentored 6,300 adolescents (ages 10 to 19), 2,100 young married women, 2,550 local women power holders, and 1,620 men’s clubs through the “Champion of Change” program. The training covered life skills, sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR) and SGBV; (4) provided 50 adolescent girls with access to Girls Out Loud, an online safe space designed to enable free expression and knowledge exchange on SGBV; (5) trained 438 religious leaders on gender equality, SRHR, and SGBV backed by religious references; (6) trained 369 facilities and community-based service providers (230 women and 139 men) on gender and adolescent responsive and inclusive (GARI) service delivery, referral on SRHR and SGBV, mental health and psychosocial support services; (7) trained 84 SGBV case workers on GARI, SGBV response including case management, the policy support system, referrals, and gender-based violence information management system; and (8) provided 20,181 SGBV survivors with dignity kits.

• Proactive disclosure