The short scoping mission to the Royal Netherlands Embassies in  Bangladesh aimed at informing the process of selecting and identifying a knowledge network or organization in the field of SRHR that can operate as Share-Net Bangladesh. In the coming months a process will be launched in which this will take place.  During this mission in which two intensive conversations were held with the SRHR specialist in the embassy it became clear that in Bangladesh at the moment about 30.000 organizations are operational that work in the field of SRHR or related areas.

Moreover, in Bangladesh many networks exist and a coordinated action has to evolve around a special focus or theme such as private sector and SRHR. In Bangladesh the Netherlands focus on child marriage, adolescents and unintended pregnancies and there is a clear need to link to the private sector.

In Bangladesh the focus of the Netherlands SRHR development cooperation is mainly focused on SRHR and gender.  In general there seem to be a lot of activities going on in Bangladesh. In the interviews with the embassy and others the focus was mainly on sexual and reproductive health and rights.

Besides this sector there is a lot of work going on in the field of HIV and AIDS, vulnerable populations such as sex workers and IDUs and work around rural development, gender and gender based violence, this has not been covered in this mission. For Bangladesh there is a need that a consultant consults with the identified networks in the field of SRHR to set an agenda for  priorities and knowledge gaps.

The next step in this process will be a more comprehensive assessment of the SRHR situation on the basis of the findings of this mission.