An alternative model styled as “Budget Olympiad” was developed to popularize the budget discourse among the young people. Budget Olympiad is mainly a national level contest among young people and students to popularize and stimulate the national budgetary issue. After participating in the contests at local level and regional level, the qualified participants gather at National level to take part for final event. The winners are awarded as budget campaigners to move onward with their knowledge and concerns of budget literacy.

ActionAid Bangladesh organized a tax tribunal in 2018 to mobilize people around the issues of dependence of indirect tax as a key source of revenue which is a burden for the poor and corporate tax avoidance; and initiate a dialogue among stakeholders to demand progressive tax policies.

Taking the momentum of November 30, 2017- declared as Tax Day by the government of Bangladesh, a two-week action was planned at the local and national level around corporate taxes and its roles as a key source of revenue to fund public services. The core objectives of this campaign were to raise awareness and generate discussion around issues related to corporate tax avoidance, illicit financial flow and harmful tax incentives, role of corporate taxes as an alternate mechanism of revenue generation vis-à-vis indirect taxes such as VAT. The main demand was “Halt corporate tax avoidance and generate revenue from corporate taxes.”

Omar Faruque Rayhan (20), popularly know as Rayhan lives with his family of 6 at Porabosti, a slum in Dhaka. While growing up, Rayhan witnessed and learned the culture of Porabosti, a society where people believe in religious and social taboos, and was not sensitised about gender equality.

Apia Marandi (19) and Shikha Hasda (21) from Damkura Union, Poba Upazilla in Rajshahi District work as volunteers with MAASAUS under Bangladesh Firestarter Initiative (BFI) since 2016. Being indigenous community, previously, they were unaware about the opportunities provided by local administrations

The current Rohingya population taking refuge in Bangladesh amounts to over 1 million, with the majority comprising women and children. They are one of the most vulnerable groups of people deprived of basic human rights in the world today.

ActionAid Bangladesh (AAB) & Global Rights Compliance (GRC) along with Awaj Foundation and Safety & Rights Society initiated this project between 1st April 2015 to 15 March 2016 with a budget of GBP 117959 in order to Increase state, corporate and trade union understanding and uptake of the UNGPs in the garment, leather and tannery sectors. This project leads to increased accountability and reduced violations of human rights in businesses in Bangladesh.

Since August 2017, violence in Myanmar’s Rakhine state has forced over 690,000 Rohingya people to flee their homes and cross the border into Cox’s Bazar in Bangladesh, where 200,000 refugees had already been living for 25 years. According to the UN, this is ‘the fastest growing refugee crisis in the world. At present, there is no reliable plan for the refugees’ safe return home and they are entirely reliant on humanitarian assistance to survive.

Rohingya refugees are reported to have been physically and mentally traumatized by the violence, including sexual and gender-based violence. ActionAid Bangladesh (AAB) is specifically working to ensure the rights of women and children, and safeguarding them against the trauma of the crisis by building Women Friendly Spaces (WFS) and child-friendly corners as part of the WFS.

About 65 million people in the world today are refugees or forcibly displaced according to UNHCR. The reality is grave for a person seeking refuge in another country, who do not have any guarantee of coming back to their own land, which they use to call home once. Kutupalong in Bangladesh is the largest refugee camp in the world right now, sheltering over 800,000 displaced citizens of Myanmar, the majority of which are minors.