Our mission in Bangladesh

Established in March 2013, the FES Bangladesh Office has almost completed the first decade. In the last ten years FES Bangladesh built strong partnerships with the government, the trade union movement, civil society, think tanks, academia, and media. Local partnership based on mutual trust and respect has become the strength of FES Bangladesh's works and campaigns. FES Bangladesh is advocating for policy changes in three priority areas: Futures of the Labour Movement, the Economy of Tomorrow and Geopolitics and Geoeconomics. Gender has been a major cross-cutting issue while implementing all those joint projects with the partner organisations.

The FES team discusses these issues concerning developments in Bangladesh, regionally as well as globally. It aims to link debates worldwide and create opportunities for stimulating exchanges on multiple levels to foster regional and global alliances. The goal is to create platforms for effective innovative ideas and to shape transformation processes in a rapidly changing world.

The thematic areas are closely interlinked. Therefore, a key objective is to break boundaries and build bridges between various actors. In this line, FES Bangladesh address these futures nationally and through the global FES network. Capacity building of partners and stakeholders, policy recommendations, platforms for discourses and dialogues, research opportunities and publications are a few tools which are used to implement projects depending on the concept and context

Youth has always been the central engagement area for FES Bangladesh. Fellowship awards are provided targeting two different groups. The Academy of Work (AoW) fellowship enables emerging young leaders from the trade union movement to build their capacity in the field of industrial relations, the economy and decent work along the global supply chain. The Economy of Tomorrow (EoT) Fellowship encourages young researchers to analyse the existing challenges Bangladesh's economy faces and to participate through bottom-up policy approaches.