As ActionAid, we work towards a world free of poverty and injustice, and strive to ensure resilience for the most marginalised – particularly for the poor, women and girls – in a disaster-affected world. The World Conference on Disaster Risk Reduction currently being held in Sendai, Japan, has a special implication globally in this regard. An ActionAid delegation is here, in Japan, doing all we can to influence the agenda and the outcomes of the conference to ensure adequate support for women’s resilience.

This background paper compliments ActionAid’s internal position on youth and the Post-2015 development agenda. It provides case studies that showcase the approaches and roles young men and women can take in implementing and reporting on the targets and indicators of the Post-2015 development goals. This paper aims to strengthen the argument for why young people should be engaged in holding their governments to account on the delivery of the Post-2015 development agenda. It does this by providing ideas and approaches on how youth–driven participatory monitoring and tracking at community level can ensure the Post-2015 agenda is rooted in processes that actually empower communities.

Aware that life posits itself with an array of adversities, and armed with the inner strength, people living in poverty bring about change in their lives as an individual and as a group, and in the process encourage everyone. The inner strength, the will to survive creates something as powerful as hope. This photo-book named ‘People Power’ briefly captures that hope. In this photo-exploration, we have attempted to celebrate the contributions of the common people in Bangladesh towards developing a better world – a world that we believe is possible through realisation of the power in people. The publication marks the 30th anniversary of ActionAid in Bangladesh.

We endorse the UN Global Call on Youth and encourage national and international stakeholders to continue upholding the World Programme of Action for Youth (WPAY) and to partner with young people in its implementation. We firmly believe that the promotion of youth as agents of social change and in positions of leadership will yield the highest return on investment – the nation’s development. Read the ‘stories of change’ to get a glimpse of where we can go together.

I recently attended a dialogue on Tax Redistribution and Education Financing. The outcome of the dialogue was pretty inspirational. The National Front of Teachers and Employees (NFTE) and Initiative for Human Development jointly organised the dialogue session on September 17at the National Press Club marking the Education Day supported by few other organisations including ActionAid Bangladesh.

The multi country initiative on Water Commons to strengthen people’s perspective just concluded in Kathmandu on 31st. It was looking for the rights of the river and humans, the stories of people living in and around the river basin. We aspire to bring the human touch and make the reality understood by ourselves and all those around us. It was an attempt to perhaps re-imagine rivers beyond industrial development and growth lenses and view it from the social, cultural, political dimension along with the economic growth

Credit Line: Hasan Mahmud and Asmaul Hosna Supporting Editor: Martin Brehm Christensen Standing in a crossroad We stand in the middle one of the biggest and busiest crossroads in Dhaka city with crowed traffic all around us. We are able to induce the liable police officers to grant us 30 seconds to perform our tax power flash mob. The pressure is on, and we are ready to strike. The cars, the CNGs, the rickshaws and the busses are lined up in all four directions like Olympics like predators ready to attack.

At ActionAid Bangladesh ‘stitching the change’ for rights of people marginalised due to power imbalance and identity politics is the motivation and drive that kept this organisation running for 3 decades. In this report, we attempt to capture the year past with the ‘prouds’ and ‘sorries’, and provide an overview of the work of ActionAid Bangladesh in 2013.

Dr. Babatunde Osotimehin, Executive Director of the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), first introduced the proposal for a youth standalone goal at the International Conference on Family Planning in Addis Ababa (Ethiopia) in October 2013 focusing on the need for investment in the capabilities of adolescents and youth for a greater return in the sustainable development of nations.

Such was the case on 24 February, when Activista members from all over Bangladesh gathered at Gonoshastha Kendra, Savar, to attend the first Youth Convention hosted by ActionAid. Since it was my first time at such a conference without any friends, I expected nothing but chaos and feeling left out.

‘Learning Document Series 14-15’ is fifth in the annual series that ActionAid Bangladesh has been producing since 2009. The underlying purpose of LDS is to portray rights-based alternatives and development practices facilitated by ActionAid and its partners for wider upscale and replication

It has been nearly 15 years when Bangladesh was identified as the country worst vulnerable to climate change and natural disasters, with metrological agencies and experts foreseeing that the country would face the worst climatic disasters in the next 20 years. Their prediction was partly right. Bangladesh did face several catastrophic natural disasters like Super Cyclone Sidr, Cyclone Aila and devastating flood of 2004 over the last 15 years. The damage the calamities caused to the country was colossal. The cyclone in 1991 claimed the lives of some 138,000 people, while Sidr killed 3447. But these subsequent disasters could not put the people of this country on back foot. Every time they turned out to be more resilient. After every disaster, the people of the affected communities turned around, stood hand in hand, and shoulder to shoulder to get back to normal life. For the rescue-workers, it was always a big surprise the way the community people tackled the disaster.