Workshop on Comprehensive Sexuality Education
UBR Alliance Bangladesh and RHRN Bangladesh jointly organised a workshop titled ‘Making Voice on Comprehensive Sexuality Education (CSE)’ on 13 February 2019 at Innotel Hotel, Banani. The objective of the workshop was to make strong allies with actors from all sectors for mainstreaming Comprehensive Sexuality Education. The workshop was divided into two panel discussions.
The first panel discussion titled ‘Address the Gap and Barriers’ was moderated by Ms Rokeya Kabir, Executive Director, Bangladesh NariProgati Sangha. The panel members addressed the fact that while dealing with Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights, more attention is paid to reproductive health, while the topics of sexual health, sexual rights and reproductive rights are ignored, suggesting that women in the society are no more than producers of children. Dr. Ikhtiar Uddin Khandaker, Head of Health Programme, Plan International, said that SRHR must be addressed in schools via the curriculum, as well as with the help of extra-curricular activities.
The second panel discussion titled ‘Way Forward and Collaboration’ was moderated by Dr Noor Mohammad, Executive Director, Population Services and Training Centre. In the discussion, Arnob Chakrabarty, Managing Director, RedOrange Media and Communications, said that before approaching the government with a policy advocacy strategy, we ourselves must have a clear picture of Comprehensive Sexuality Education, and in order to achieve that, we must address SRHR terms and deal with SRHR vocabulary in one language. Share-Net Bangladesh is currently developing an app that will translate all SRHR words from English to Bangla to help people use the right vocabulary. This will enable policymakers to coordinate and raise their SRHR concerns in front of the government with one voice.
Both the discussions ended with interactive sessions where guests from different organisations like BBC Media Action, UNESCO, Simavi and Bandhu gave their opinions, suggestions and recommendations to the panel.