[{"bbox": [98, 153, 695, 179], "category": "Text", "text": "(3) To contribute to transforme harmful social and gender norms."}, {"bbox": [97, 206, 1133, 366], "category": "Text", "text": "Under its first component, the proposed Action will contribute to the effective implementation of the 2009 High Court Directive on sexual harassment and the formulation of appropriate laws to address GBV in the public and workplace, in particular the Sexual Harassment Act pending for adoption since 2010. It will also advocate for gender-responsive budgeting, by working with elected officials at Union, Upazilla and District level. In addition, the Action will aim at repealing discriminatory provisions from the existing laws in accordance with the Rape Law Reform Coalition's 10 point demands."}, {"bbox": [97, 392, 1133, 525], "category": "Text", "text": "Under the second component, the Action will work to improve the access to integrated support by strengthening the local government's referral linkages with multisectorial essential services, in line with the 'Essential Service Package'⁴. The Action will also engage with local police and in particular the Bangladesh Police Women Network. This would translate into increased safety of women and increased confidence of women to report incidents, easy availability of support services to report and deal with incidents."}, {"bbox": [97, 551, 1133, 681], "category": "Text", "text": "Finally, under the third component, the Action will aim at raising behaviour change awareness and understanding of GBV, including among men and boys. It will strengthen the capacities of 400 RMG factories, 450 secondary schools, 10 universities and the transport sector to prevent, report and respond to GBV, in areas where GBV and sexual harassment rate is comparatively higher. It will contribute to greater understanding and more support for victims and survivors."}, {"bbox": [97, 709, 1133, 908], "category": "Text", "text": "Overall, the Action will contribute to the achievement of the SDGs and, in particular, SDG 5 (gender equality), SDG 10 (reduced inequalities) and SDG 16 (effective, accountable and inclusive institutions). Additionally, it applies the Leaving No One Behind Principle underpinning the SDGs by including strategic interventions to improve inclusion of services for women with disabilities and other groups living in vulnerable situations who experience sexual harassment. The Action is also aligned with the **EU Gender Action Plan III 2021 – 2025 to achieve a gender-equal world, in particular the thematic area of engagement 'Ensuring freedom from all forms of gender-based violence'**."}, {"bbox": [85, 955, 322, 986], "category": "Section-header", "text": "# 2 RATIONALE"}, {"bbox": [85, 1021, 234, 1047], "category": "Section-header", "text": "## 2.1 Context"}, {"bbox": [97, 1067, 1133, 1332], "category": "Text", "text": "During the last decade, **Bangladesh has witnessed a remarkable economic and infrastructural growth**, with significant progress in human development⁵ and on poverty and inequality reduction (with a Gini Index of 32.4), which made it to graduate from its status of Least Development Country (LDC), with a delayed effect as of 2026.⁶ In the field of gender equality, Bangladesh is internationally recognised for its **solid progress in reducing the gender gap** and has positively experienced an increased participation of women in education and employment⁷ in recent years. In 2022, Bangladesh led regional performance with over 69% of its gender gap closed and consolidated its position as the top performer in the South Asian region and ahead of all other countries in Asia. In Bangladesh, women hold 20.9% of parliamentary seats, 50.6% of women have reached at least a secondary level of education⁸ and female participation in the labour market stands at 34.9%, which is higher than the South Asia average of 23,6%.⁹"}, {"bbox": [85, 1404, 1143, 1448], "category": "Footnote", "text": "⁴ The Essential Services Package is a guidance tool identifying the essential services to be provided to all women and girls who have experienced gender-based violence, prepared by UN Women, UNFPA, WHO, UNDP & UNODC."}, {"bbox": [85, 1448, 1143, 1491], "category": "Footnote", "text": "⁵ Its gross national income per capita increased by about 252% between 1990 and 2021. Human Development Report data centre, Bangladesh. Available at: https://hdr.undp.org/data-center/specific-country-data#/countries/BGD"}, {"bbox": [85, 1493, 1098, 1515], "category": "Footnote", "text": "⁶ The country is in the medium human development category and ranks 129 out of 191 countries and territories with an HDI of 0.661.4."}, {"bbox": [85, 1515, 1143, 1581], "category": "Footnote", "text": "⁷ World Economic Forum, Global Gender Gap Report 2022. Bangladesh ranks 71st among 153 countries and first among seven South Asia countries. The GGGR ranks countries based on their progress towards closing the gender gap across four thematic dimensions: (i) Economic participation and opportunity, (ii) Educational attainment, (iii) Health and survival, and (iv) Political empowerment."}, {"bbox": [85, 1581, 1143, 1624], "category": "Footnote", "text": "⁸ Girls' education has been prioritised for the last two decades. Gender parity in access to education in both primary and secondary levels was achieved well ahead as part of the Millennium Development Goals (MDG)."}, {"bbox": [85, 1624, 536, 1646], "category": "Footnote", "text": "⁹ Human Development Report 2021/2022, Table 5, page 29."}, {"bbox": [1038, 1682, 1143, 1706], "category": "Page-footer", "text": "Page 4 of 27"}]