ANTAR has been established in the year 2000. In the beginning ANTAR started a vigorous study on human vulnerability and rights situation in the greater Chattogram area (South- Eastern part of Bangladesh) with particular emphasis to poverty, vulnerability of poorer segment of the society and child rights. The primary observation made by ANTAR was that there is huge human vulnerability particularly with the poorer class and child right violations are quite high but not reported. The development initiatives to remove human vulnerability and establish CR are so negligible that it is very likely that minimum encounter and responses to right violations in any form are almost absent. Some NGOs most of whom are locally working on human vulnerability and CR issues in the area are greatly lacking in-depth knowledge, concept, methods and strategic directions required for Child Rights as well as overall human development programming. Under this context ANTAR started a continuous sharing process though organizing workshops and meetings with civil society, NGOs and other stakeholders in greater Chattogram including Cumilla area. ANTAR through this process gained an idea that the geographic area and the country as a whole need more systematic attention to human development issue with special focus to gender and child rights violation. ANTAR observed that the stakeholders have willingness to sincerely work for sustainable human development particularly to stop child and women right violations and improvement of their livelihood. ANTAR also observed that NGOs being one of the important actors in promoting right based human development, should continuously play an appropriate role to effectively collaborate with the government agencies in all of their development initiatives. But capacity of the local level NGOs particularly on result and right- based approach and collaborating with government machinery is too limited to address the situation.

At the local level inter NGO communication and collective efforts are totally absent. That created a situation where the reflection of development initiatives of various stakeholders including NGOs cannot be traced apparently. On the other hand sustainability of results/ benefits achieved through the projects remains in question. There are also coordination gaps among the NGOs, local level government administration, opinion leaders, media and other stakeholders. Due to the gaps among stakeholders no remarkable and demonstrative collaborative actions and initiatives have emerged on sustainable development led by NGOs in the area. Leaders of the NGOs strongly felt that local level coalitions of NGOs to promote peoples participation and establish rights for human development through fostering cooperation, coordination among NGOs and capacity supports particularly to adopt a right and result based approach and coordination with the government could be one of the appropriate steps in this regard.

With these understandings ANTAR devoted itself to struggle to promote human dignity through sustainable development approach and build capacities of the program participants through initiating innovative and appropriate programs, which empower them. ANTAR started sharing with local level NGOs on the situations around here as a step to improve the situation on human development in the area.

ANTAR realized that a continuous campaign on peoples participation in the development process and against right violations bringing on board the NGOs and government together at the same time initiating programs that empowers people could be one of the best step in this regards. Accordingly as a first step ANTAR started working children and women empowerment issues with a focus to reducing child abuse, child labor, child and women trafficking, gender violence, income generation activities, with a thrust to sustainable development of vulnerable women and children and building a networking of NGOs in the area.

ANTAR realized that poverty being the major cause responsible for disadvantageous position of the poor, addressing poverty in an effective way is very important. ANTAR organizers and staff members have a long experience on socio economic programming in a right based approach to improve livelihood standards along with status of the poorer section of the society by promoting IGAs through micro-finance and capacity building. ANTAR along with rights based programming started working directly with micro-finance and capacity building of target groups. ANTAR also emphasizes that the micro-credit should be implemented keeping in mind that it promotes human rights and social advancement. As one of the promoter of Child Rights, ANTAR tries to implement livelihood support program keeping human rights in the centre.

With these experiences from the start ANTAR over the period redefined its course of actions time to time in an appropriate manner and tried to adjust to the changed situation so that it can prove its worthiness as a dynamic development organization. ANTAR provides due importance to its own capacity building in which staff development, information access and analysis and its proper utilization, technology including information technology, program diversity to rightly response to the field need.

The socio- economic condition of Bangladesh is improving day by day. Some valid development issues have emerged over the period as development priorities in Bangladesh as tools for sustainable development. The SDG agenda for sustainable development of which Bangladesh is one of the strong and active partners has been working as a guideline for Bangladesh’s development planning. Bangladesh Government is very instrumental and committed to implement SDG in systematic processes through - short, medium and long term planning. Short term plans are already in place while the medium and long term plans are developed and sharing of these plans with the stakeholders within and outside the country is going on. The NGOs are expected to rightly play role in this regard as part of effective development actors in the country. Some of the issues already got priority in development planning of Bangladesh are financial inclusion and peoples participation, special programming for the bellow poverty line group, food security, access to health, climate change, education for all and appropriate education for the different groups of people of the society.