Association for Integrated Development-Comilla (AID-COMILLA) is a national level development organization founded in 1997. We are providing long-term development support and carried out a wide range of development activities such as combating gender based violence, Rohinga Response at Coxsbazar, agriculture market linkage, value chain, assist farmers in smart agriculture, formation of farmers cooperatives, Combating Gender Based Violence, livelihoods, emergency response, justice, human rights, child development, education, prevention of child marriage, countering violent extremisms, countering gender based violence and much more including CSO women leaders development in term of  good governance, empowerment of women, access to justice, disaster risk reduction initiatives and humanitarian response for affected communities in regions such as Rangpur, Rajshahi, Khulna and Chottogram for more than 26 years, We have successfully assisted in meeting the social and economic needs of the most vulnerable and marginalized; responded to the fight against violent extremism, CGBV, women leadership development, emergency needs of people and communities displaced by conflict and disasters; exposed and challenged the root causes of poverty, and supported the building of local agency.

Experience in leading of research/development projects (Multi Country):

In 2015-2018 we lead a project titled Post Harvest Loss Assessment funded by ARF/NOW Government of Netherlands. Our partner was Natural Resource Institute at University of Greenwich –UK and University of Wageningen, Netherlands. Our role was project administration such as fund received, fund disbursement to partners, M&E , reporting to funding agency both financial and project progress etc.

In 2009-2012 we lead a project titled Ecological Rodent Management (Post Harvest Loss Reduction) funded by DFID/Research in to Use and we train 15,000 farmers on smart agriculture / post harvest loss reduction. Our UK was Natural Resource Institute at University of Greenwich –UK. There was Bangladesh Agriculture Research Institute, Department of Agriculture Extension, a number of Bangladeshi NGOs, marketing company, training institute as partner. Our role was project administration such as fund received, fund disbursement to partners, M&E , reporting to funding agency both financial and project progress etc.

Our mission is to act as a national movement of people to respond in practical ways to alleviate suffering; to expose and eradicate misuses of power; and to work for sustainable and long-lasting change, guided by the values of dignity, love, justice and equality. Our core interventions consist of gender, power and inclusion, voice and governance, community health, tackling violence and building peace, humanitarian emergencies and disasters, resilience and climate change.

We have been working in Bangladesh since 1997 and are recognized for addressing the needs of and strongly advocating for the empowerment of excluded and vulnerable communities including women, adolescent girls, refugees, internally displaced persons, landless, Dalits and other ethnic minorities through an intersectional lens in some of the most hard-to-reach areas like remote Chars of Kurigram District. AID-COMILLA has worked to claim their rights, entitlements and expand their power in social and economic spaces using integrated and inclusive approaches both directly and with 13 local and 02 international partners in 10 districts across Bangladesh.

Nationally we operate through local offices across 10 districts and have extensive experience managing and monitoring thematic areas such as CVE, Justice for All, Livelihoods, CGBV, and climate change along with focused project on gender, inclusion and human rights. A total 236 skilled staff including 25% female and 75% male are managing the programme and projects.

Operational structure: AID-COMILLA’s project ways of working follows a matrix model horizontally’ across the traditional ‘vertical’ silos of functions. The team will be led by a designated Project Manager/Budget Holder and all team members under his/her leadership will have clearly defined roles using the RACIS (Responsible, Assists, Consulted, Informed and Sign off) tool.

Our approach: We promote inclusive and intersectional rights-based approach in all stages of development and humanitarian work. AID-COMILLA has significant expertise and experience of working with civil societies, advocacy platforms and coalitions, the private sector, the UN, and the Government of Bangladesh. Our work is guided by our Corporate Gender Strategy – ‘Gender Justice for All: Achieving just and equitable power relations between women and men’, which focuses on power relations.

We are a member of the Leave No One behind Coalition of the Sustainable Development Goals in Bangladesh. AID-COMILLA’s Resilience Framework outlines a holistic, adaptive and integrated approach and at the core of this framework is the belief that individual and community resilience can be enhanced by empowering poor and vulnerable women and men, boys and girls to manage risks and improve their wellbeing so that they can live with dignity.

Key guiding principles of this framework include power, gender, inclusion, accountability, do no harm and community-led process in different contexts and translating evidence-based learning into the participatory decision-making process with AID-COMILLA’s core principles are guided by feminist principles of inclusivity, equality and cooperative working. Our gender inequality and social empowerment visions is: systems of oppression that continue to discriminate based on gender, socio-economic status, religious belief, caste, race, disability and other identities are dismantled and equality of outcomes for all is achieved. We work to dismantle intersectional oppressions that compound marginalization of excluded communities. We recognize the multiple grounds of identity inter sectionality (ex. gender, caste, race, nationality, religion, ethnicity, sexual orientation). We have designed a series of programme interventions that challenge the existing patriarchal structure that often puts women in a subordinate position in society. Through our project interventions we have been able to give voice to women who are often side-lined. Women are also able to break the cultural norm of restricted mobility, and are now actively participating in livelihood activity for example rowing; fishing, cultivation and marketing of products our women beneficiaries are now seeking justice from the informal and formal justice systems. We are also engaged in the women’s movement in Bangladesh through our partnership with organizations such as USHA and also member of the One Billion Rising Campaign to raise awareness and end GBV in Bangladesh.

Vision Statement
AID-COMILLA aspires for a society, free from exploitation and oppression, where every individual will be able to live in peace and harmony, and will get rightful shares of the resources belonging to the society

Mission Statement
Promote the socio-economic status of underprivileged men, women, children in urban and rural areas through motivation, organizing of people’s organization, non-formal education, training, resource mobilization, and implementation of other economic programs.

• Promote human dignity, fraternity and social justice in the process of its development endeavors.
• Alleviate poverty through the empowerment of the powerless people.
  
  

Management structure:
Governance in AID COMILLA: AID-COMILLA has three tire management systems.

First tire is General Committee: It has a General Committee on the top consisting of 21 General members from different spheres of society and professions. They meet once in a year to discuss on the progress of the organization, to give approval to the Audit report and also to elect members of the Executive Committee.

The second tire is Executive Committee. Members of the Executive Committee govern as part of a collective leadership body; they have individual duties as well. They help to maintain Integrity, Good Governance, and Transparency in the organization. They also have a duty to exercise loyalty to the organization, to execute their responsibilities to the organization with care and diligence, and to maintain the confidentiality of non-public information about the organization. They attend meetings regularly, contribute actively to deliberations, and put the AID-COMILLA’s interests above any other personal, professional, or organizational interests. The Executive Committee Structure is (please refer to Annex-7):

President-1, Vice President-1, General Secretary- 1, Assistant Secretary-1, Treasurer-1, Executive Member-2, Total: 07

Beyond these basic duties, Committee may delegate additional, specific duties to individual members. The financial expert who serves on the Committee, for example, might be authorized to oversee the preparation of the annual budget, or the lawyer on the Committee may be given authority to oversee the NGO’s legal affairs. Such delegation must be made clear by the Executive Committee and shouldn’t be automatically assumed according to the professional qualifications of individual Committee members.

A basic tenet of good governance is that management and governance are separate. The underlying assumption is that this separation makes possible the checks and balances that ensure the organization are well run and important decisions are made with the public interest in mind.

The third tire is Advisory Committee; this committee will be formed with the combination of the person’s experienced well, educated, generous type of men/women of the society and nominated by the elected personnel.

At the Implementation level, there are Senior Management Team and Area / Project Management Team for smooth operation of the organization.

Senior Management Team: This Team is comprised of all the Programme Managers and central Coordinators at Head Office of the organization. They meet every month for reviewing the progress and planning the future course of action. Such meetings are chaired / presided over by the Executive Director or by his nominee.

Area / Project Management Team: This team is comprised of Supervisors, Coordinators and Technical staff members. They meet in the monthly meeting to review, plan and prepare the monthly report for the Senior Management Team. These meetings are mainly chaired by Project / Area Managers in respective Area Offices or occasionally by the Executive Director / Senior / Project Manager of the Head Office.