Municipal leaders emphasize showcasing sanitation-related best practices and peer learning focusing on gender, equity, and social inclusion

The Gender, Equity, and Social Inclusion (GESI) Unit of the Municipal Association of Bangladesh (MAB) gathered to promote integration and inclusion in sanitation during the Chittagong Regional Council of the MAB. The session highlighted the major roles of GESI Unit members in promoting inclusive sanitation at the city, national and regional levels.

On 11 January 2023, an ITN-BUET representative facilitated a technical session on ‘sharing roles and responsibilities for Gender, Equity and Social Inclusion Unit’ targeting the Unit’s members and other general members of MAB. The GESI Unit members opined to showcase their best practices and learn from each other using the platform.

The session discussion focused on the responsibility of the GESI Unit to analyze different policies of MAB, ensure gender and other aspects in different project documents and promote these issues in different decision-making and knowledge platforms.

The GESI Unit is designed to have 25 members, including a Chair and a Member Secretary. The members include MAB members and a few selected officials from municipalities. A total of 15 GESI Unit Members attended the session and shared their experience.

As a planned activity, ITN-BUET would organize an orientation workshop on CWIS for GESI Unit members. ITN-BUET shared the workshop outline and distributed a Training Needs Assessment form among the participants during the technical session. 

Mr. Dewan Kamal Ahmed, President, MAB and Mayor, Nilphamari Municipality, was the Chief Guest of the Workshop. Md Khaled Hossain Yead, Secretary General of MAB and Mayor of Madaripur Municipality, Yasmin Sultana, Member Secretary of GESI Unit and Panel Mayor of Narshingdi Municipality, and Hazi Md. Abdul Gani, Vice-President of MAB and Mayor of Savar Municipality, attended the event as special guests.

Ms. Makfie Farah, Knowledge Management Specialist of ITN-BUET, facilitated the session. Around 80 participants attended the session, including mayors, panel mayors, and executive engineers from different municipalities.