An Agenda for a Dignified and Sustainable Rohingya Refugee Response in Bangladesh 3.3.3 Need for sector-specific and response-wide advocacy strategies An example of successful protection advocacy in the Rohingya refugee response is the agreement of the Government of Bangladesh to allow schooling for Rohingya children in the camps in early 2020 through a pilot programme of the Myanmar curriculum.189 Due to COVID-19 restrictions, the pilot project could not be implemented in 2020 and is aimed to be initiated in 2021. In 2020, the education Sector in Cox’s Bazar, co-led by UNICEF and Save the Children, has developed a clear advocacy strategy for 2020-21 to strengthen refugee children’s and youth’s access to academic education and technical/vocational education and training, in collaboration with a working group comprised by UN agencies and NGO partners. The education sector’s advocacy strategy, premised on actualising a set of policy decisions of the Government, may provide important lessons for other sectors, including protection, to engage with their partners and advance similar advocacy plans within the sector strategy framework aimed at influencing the policy and practice on refugee protection. There is a need to develop a response-wide protection advocacy strategy under SEG’s leadership, in line with the objectives of the Joint Response Plan and guided by the protection framework. An advocacy strategy developed though consultations among humanitarian partners will likely create space to secure an open engagement with the Bangladeshi authorities and will be a positive step towards achieving a common understanding on refugee protection with diverse stakeholders and gradually achieve positive protection outcomes. 3.4 Conclusion The short-term policy approach towards Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh has enabled the delivery of humanitarian aid in a complex setting where adherence to humanitarian and human rights principles and the quality and accountability of humanitarian protection and assistance stands compromised. Other regional governments may also benefit from this status quo, as onward movement of Rohingya to their countries are somewhat contained, allowing them to avoid their obligations under international law. Nevertheless, such a short-term outlook based on pursuing temporary strategies aimed at refugee repatriation, in the fourth year of the response, does harm to Bangladesh’s longer term economic, security and political interests, thereby exposing both Rohingya and host communities to greater insecurity and instability. The potential for future tensions and further displacement is intensified by the presence of an idle, aid dependent population with limited access to education, livelihoods, and justice. Declining trust and growing divisions between refugees, host communities and humanitarian stakeholders undermines security, as well as protection and the general effectiveness of the response. The shifting policy landscape in Bangladesh demonstrated by an increased prioritisation of national security interests does not acknowledge the identity of Rohingya as stateless persons and refugees. The lack of meaningful inclusion and participation of the Rohingya themselves in cooperative mechanisms and decision-making processes erodes their sense of dignity and security. 189 40 JRP 2020, supra n. 64. Act for Peace / May 2021