A Training of Trainer (ToT) was organised by the British Council from 6 - 9 December 2017 under the project PRODIGY. Promoting Democratic Inclusion and Governance through Youth (PRODIGY) is a project of the British Council which aims to increase peaceful and meaningful civic participation in local governance and to create a more inclusive society by promoting accountability, transparency, inclusivity and social cohesion as well as upholding pluralism and valuing difference in perspectives.

Under this training 16 project staff members from the implementing partner organisations were selected and participated in this training. The training programme aimed to address current global concerns and thus, heavily focused on identity and culture, conflict and resolution, pluralism and social harmony. Grant management was also another vital part of the training agenda. Through this session, participants have developed both their content knowledge and facilitation skills.

The ToT was riddled with interactive exercises including question-answer rounds, peer sharing and open discussion, role play and brainstorming session on interesting issues. This unique set of training methodologies was designed to help participants develop a better understanding of conflict resolution process, communal harmony and social cohesion. As a result, the participants are now more confident to deliver training using the improvised training toolkit. They will pass on their learnings as a master trainer in different communities of Dhaka, Khulna and Rajshahi divisions. They will play the role of a master trainer to cascade those learnings among 800 young people community and will also support them to develop social action projects. Consequently, about 800 youth leaders will be trained on the training modules in 25 respective project locations. As a result of the training, youth leaders will focus to promote social cohesion through some of their social action projects aimed at building bridges across social, ethnic and religious divides.

Social action projects are non-profit ventures, which are carried out by individuals or groups of people working together to bring about social changes that will benefit communities or the society. Through the social action projects, youth leaders will promote social networking and interactions between people of communities with different values and beliefs. These projects will promote stronger social cohesion which will enable community people taking a stand against all sorts of racism, prejudice and intolerance.