Participatory learning and exchange process for local human rights organizations, Bangladesh

October 2019

That was the focus of a learning process in September in Dhaka, the capital of Bangladesh. On behalf of the German development agency Bread for the World and a local human rights network, I led a participatory workshop. Participants included various local human rights groups, activists and student groups from the Chittagong Hill Tracts (CHT) in Bangladesh.

A new perspective …

The goal of the learning and exchange process was to discuss and get a nuanced understanding of CHT’s and Bangladesh’s current complex political and socio-cultural developments and challenges. Various practical analysis tools were presented, discussed, questioned and transferred to the current social and political situation in CHT. Some participants found the technique of the “Forum Theater” particularly exciting and useful. It is a method of the Theater of the Oppressed. Forum Theatre helps to transform questions of social inequality, discrimination and oppression in a playful planner.

… on new and old conflict dynamics.

The different analytical tools also allowed to discuss new and different perspectives on known and recent political developments. It was less about right and wrong, but learning to understand why someone might come up with a very different perspective than myself.

Learning and exchange process

The next year and the further political development will show how the results of the workshop will be implemented in practice.