Professional Documents
Culture Documents
ADVISOR
Senait Gebregziabher
Soumya Brata Guha
EDITOR
Tony Michael Gomes
EDITORIAL BOARD FOR THE ISSUE
Shamim Ahsan Khan
Sarah F Carpenter
Md Abu Hanif
PHOTOGRAPHS
Salma Sultana
Saikat Mojumder
Tanjimul Islam
Kuntal
COVER PHOTO
Tony Michael Gomes
DISCLAIMER
Plan is committed to ensuring the security, privacy and dignity of all the children that we work with. All
copyrights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in retrieval system or transmitted,
in any form or by any means without prior permission of Plan International Bangladesh.
Please mail at plan.bangladesh@plan-international.org for more information.
Senait Gebregziabher
Country Director
Plan International Bangladesh
BACKGROUND
Bangladesh has achieved remarkable progress in
reproductive health during the last decades. However,
rates of maternal, neonatal and child mortality remain
high compared to other developing countries. A
2010 study revealed a maternal mortality ratio of
194 per 100,000 live births despite a 40% decline
in the last decade [1]. Under-five mortality declined
from 133 to 53 per 1,000 live births between 1994
and 2011 according to Bangladesh demographic and
health survey data [2]. However, newborn mortality
experienced slower rates of decline in the same period
(52 to 33 per 1,000 live births between 1994 and
2011). Indeed, newborn deaths account for 70% of all
infant deaths in Bangladesh [2].
The overall proportion of deliveries attended by skilled
birth attendants increased more than fivefold in the
last two decades in Bangladesh - from 5% in 1991 to
26.5% in 2010 [1] however these rates remain very
low. A 2010 survey called the Utilization of Essential
Service Delivery shows that the proportion of skilled
attendance at birth is seven times lower among the
poorest households (9%) compared to the richest
households (63%) and that it is almost three times less
frequent in rural areas compared to urban areas [4].
The Government of Bangladesh has committed to
achieve Millennium Development Goals (MDG) 4 and
5, which are to reduce child mortality by two-thirds
(target for under-five and infant mortality is 50 and
31 per 1,000 live births respectively) and maternal
mortality by three-quarters (target is 143 per 100,000
live births) by 2015. Its Health, Population and
Nutrition Sector Development Program (HPNSDP)
2011-2016 identifies the improvement of antenatal
care (ANC) and postnatal care (PNC) coverage as well
as delivery by skilled persons as priority areas. It aims
to increase the number of institutional births while also
increasing the utilization of Community Skilled Birth
Attendants (CSBAs) since home births still constitute
the majority (73%) of all births in Bangladesh [1].
Indeed, available data from 2013 shows that CSBAs
contributed only 0.3% of the total skilled attendance
at birth in Bangladesh and that they were performing
only 2 to 3 deliveries per month on average [6].
On the whole, the survey revealed that the pregnancyrelated needs of women are not being met. Although
22% of recently delivered women reported
complications during their last pregnancy, delivery or
postpartum period, only just over half of them report
their needs being met despite 78% of them consulting
6
The gatekeepers were totally unaware of CSBAs in
the community and their activities as were a large
proportion of the community group members. Similarly,
only about 20% of recently delivered and pregnant
and
supportive
References
Karate:
Building Confidence,
Empowering Girls
Mohammad Masud, Sarahzin Ahmed
Jolly Nur Haque and Sarah Carpenter
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INTRODUCTION
Violence and discrimination against girls and young
women is a serious and complex problem that is deeply
embedded in Bangladeshs traditions, cultures and
practices. Girls in Bangladesh grow up in settings where
unequal treatment on the basis of sex is considered
normal. Discrimination starts from the period of
early childhood and becomes evident in the range of
barriers that girls encounter within the household, at
school and in the community during their transition
to adulthood. These barriers hinder their ability to
access and participate in school, find paid employment,
engage in sport activities, access quality health
services, have free time and fulfill their roles as active
citizens. As a result of limitations on their social and
economic participation, girls and young women have
much lower outcomes than boys on a range of health,
education and livelihood indicators. Girls aged 14 to 17
are more likely to commit suicide, and attempt suicide
than boys1. Violence against girls and young women
comes in multiple forms including bullying, beating,
stalking, child marriage, child prostitution, child labour,
sexual harassment and acid throwing. Existing social
protection mechanisms and legal frameworks are
inadequate at safeguarding against these abuses. The
pervasive violation of the rights of girls and young
women severely compromises their ability to fully
contribute to, participate in and benefit from the
economic and social development of Bangladesh.
Plan International Bangladesh is helping to reduce
gender-based violence against girls and young
women. Since 2011, its been implementing the Girl
Power Project, a five year multi-country project
funded by the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs in
partnership with 10 national NGOs. In eight districts of
Bangladesh2, the project is strengthening the capacity
of civil society organizations to influence policy
makers through lobbying and advocacy; increasing
awareness and sensitizing duty bearers on the rights
of girls and young women; improving Bangladeshs
legal protection system; and empowering girls and
young women to resist violence, report on violence
and access protection mechanisms.
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LESSONS LEARNED
Karate is an effective means of empowering
girls and young women
I did not learn self defence to hit anyone, but to
make myself confident, says Morium Akter (18 years
old), President of the Mirpur Bawniabadh Girl Forum.
She received karate training through the Girl Power
Project and now gives self-defense training to other
girls and young women. I stopped my education for
economic reasons and also due to stalkers, who used
to stalk me on the way of my school. But after getting
the karate training, I feel confident and can move
freely, says Morium.
Nahid Pervin (17 years old) also speaks of being
empowered by the project. She lives in Dhakas
Geneva refugee camp, which shelters thousands of
stateless Urdu-speaking Muslims, and studies in the
Pioneer College. As a result of karate training, Nahid
says, I am very confident and feel secure about my
life. Some days ago I couldnt think about my future
and even couldnt think to protest when someone did
something that was wrong. Karate training has made
me confident and self motivated to do anything with
courage. Now I encourage other girls to improve their
confidence by taking karate training.
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References
1 UNICEF Women and Girls in Bangladesh
2 The Girl Power Project is being implemented in
Gazipur, Kishoreganj, Rajshahi, Dinajpur, Nilphamari,
Lalmonirhat, Shariatpur and Dhaka.
3 MTR report, page: 21
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INTRODUCTION
The use of cash assistance in humanitarian programs
is becoming increasingly popular. Both people in need
and humanitarian communities consider cash as one
of the most effective means to support a disaster/
crisis affected population. It is gradually replacing food
or in-kind assistance because it allows the affected
population to decide on their own needs, is easy to
carry and also helps to restore the local economy.
However in most cases cash is handed over manually,
which poses problems with regards to manipulation
by middlemen, timely delivery and logistics in terms of
securing the cash during its journey to the distribution
centers. Considering the limitations of manual cash
transfer, Plan used Mobile Money Transfer (MMT) to
support early recovery after Tropical Storm Mohasen.
This case study describes how MMT technology was
used in a cash based program that aimed to ensure
food security and extend early recovery support.
It highlights the experience of Plan Bangladesh and
four international non-governmental organizations
in using technology as an empowering approach
to delivering cash assistance to the Tropical Storm
Mohasen affected population. It also documents the
process used for MMT, good practices, lesson learnt,
challenges faced and recommendations for using
MMT in future projects.
BACKGROUND
Plan International Bangladesh serves as the lead
organization of the National Alliance for Risk Reduction
and Response Initiative (NARRI) consortium, which
includes Concern Universal, Islamic Relief International,
Oxfam and Solidarities International. Under the DFIDfunded early recovery project for Tropical Mahasen,
NARRI supported 14,481 households in Barguna and
Patuakhali districts with interventions involving cash
for livelihoods, cash for work, vegetable seeds for
homestead gardening support and awareness training.
For cash based interventions, the project transferred
money using a Mobile Money Transfer (MMT)
platform to avoid many of the challenges associated
with handing over cash manually.
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Advantages
Limitations
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be
used
to
empower
CONCLUSION
MMT as a modality for cash transfers was a successful
part of the Tropical Storm Mahasen early recovery
project and was highly accepted by the beneficiaries.
It is evident that vulnerable populations can benefit
from the use of such technology in the early recovery
period following an emergency however the roll out of
such a methodology may be less feasible for immediate
emergency contexts considering factors such as the
level of administration needed to set up the system.
It is important to continue national advocacy efforts
with corporate stakeholders to reduce transfer fees
and widen network coverage especially in remote
locations. This will make MMT a more effective and
efficient tool for cash transfer during humanitarian
responses.
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INTRODUCTION
Protecting Human Rights (PHR) is a five year program
funded by USAID to reduce domestic violence and
related human rights abuses (such as dowry, child
marriage) through an integrated, grassroots and
broad-based approach which includes advocacy,
capacity building, access to justice, services for victims
of gender-based violence, and mass awareness and
educational program. PHR is being implemented in
102 Unions in eight upazilas of six districts. The districts
- Barguna, Bogra, Chittagong, Dinajpur, Jessore and
Sylhet are distributed all over the country. At the
heart of PHR are community-based units called Social
Protection Groups.
CONTEXT
PHR began operations in 2011 after the enactment of
the Domestic Violence Act of 2010 but the program
really took off in mid-2012. At the beginning of the
program a lot of thinking went into exploring ways
to address the issue of domestic violence where most
of it was occurring inside the homes of the villages
of Bangladesh. Reaching this level with information
about domestic violence and its legal consequences
and putting in place preventive mechanisms and
getting services to victims of domestic violence was
considered a major challenge. This challenge stems
from patriarchal norms that lead women to think that
physical and mental abuse is not a form of abuse but
rather that it is acceptable for a man to beat his wife as
he is the breadwinner in the family. It also stems from
prevailing culture that sees such matters as private and
that it is shameful for households to make their family
matters public.
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SPGs today
Today SPGs are fully functional protection mechanisms
within their communities. SPGs prepare quarterly
outreach plans and meet quarterly to review their
tasks related to gender-based violence. The 102
SPGs around Bangladesh have, at any one point,
between 15-19 members. At present, the total SPG
membership is 1,945 individuals of which 663 are
women and 1,282 are men. Men outnumber women
as certain positions in the community are, by tradition,
Effectiveness of SPGs
PHR has established a performance evaluation matrix
to annually measure the efficiency and effectiveness
of individual SPGs based on the following criteria:
number of child marriages stopped, number of cases
referred to PHR legal counselors at the Union level
and attendance rate of SPG members in the quarterly
meetings. By using these criteria PHR has formulated
three categories of SPGs A (good), B (satisfactory)
and C (poor). A total of 44 SPGs received an A grade,
35 SPGs received a B grade and 23 were graded as Cs.
The As are the oldest SPGs so PHR has nurtured them
for a longer time (two years). The Bs are the SPGs
whose leadership were not as active or committed.
Almost half of the SPGs that received a C rating are
from Barguna, a coastal area. Indeed Barguna has 10
SPGs and nine were rated as Cs. The projects analysis
is that the high number of Cs in Barguna results from
its geographical location, vulnerability to natural
disasters and lack of public sector services due to
its remote location. From the PHR perspective, the
project was not able to adequately nurture the SPGs
in Barguna due to a lack of local skills to serve the
project. High staff turnover is also partly to blame,
which is a result of Bargunas remote location and
because staff needed to be recruited from other places
in Bangladesh.
PHR is utilizing the results of the first such assessment
to target SPG capacity building and training initiatives
and to substitute inactive individuals with more
promising ones.
Regardless of their ratings, SPGs have emerged as
effective platforms for addressing gender-based
violence issues. SPGs have already proven to be
the basic building block for PHRs awareness raising
campaign to reduce the level of gender-based violence
and other human rights abuses at the Union and Ward
levels. SPG membersindividually and collectively
have proven to be the most important effective
change agents against the pandemic of domestic
violence and human rights abuses at the community
level.
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Reference
1 Villages in Bangladesh are grouped into Wards. Seven
villages make up a Ward and nine Wards made up a
Union. One Union is administered by a Porishod
(council) that is made up of a Chairman and 12 general
members. Nine of the general members are directly
elected one from each ward. The remaining three
general member positions are reserved for women
each woman member represents three Wards.
Members are responsible for the Wards from which
they have been elected. One of the responsibilities that
they have at the Ward level is to build up a movement
against dowry, child marriage, multiple marriages, acidthrowing and drug addiction. In addition, they must
support birth and death registration. At the council
level, committees target various issues (resolution
of family conflict and welfare of women and children
is one such committee) and an important duty is to
ensure birth and death registration.
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As manual labour based work specifically in the readymade garment sector demands physical fitness, only
youth aged 18 or above with reasonable medical
fitness can meet the demands of the job. The project
gives special attention and care to these youth for the
course period in order to keep them physically and
mentally fit to retain them in the sector.
The youth are selected with the help of their
communities and relevant local government institution
i.e. Union Parishads and Upazila Parishad, which
is crucial in building trust, transparency and social
security to engage youth, especially female youth,
from the remote rural areas. The project targets
youth who are the most motivated to transform their
lives through skilled employment in the formal sector.
Youth who dare to overcome the initial uncertainty,
nervousness and fear of the future that comes with
major life changes succeed in their training and job
placements.
Corporate Engagement to success
Corporate engagement in the project is crucial for
success and remains an ongoing priority. Establishing
strong partnerships between Plan International
Bangladesh and the corporate sector is challenging,
as the corporate sector fears that development
organizations like Plan will mobilize their workers
to claim their rights. Indeed, the ready-made
garment industry largely blames non-governmental
organizations for the labour unrest in the industry.
Plan International Bangladesh overcame the
prejudices of the corporate sector by organizing a
series of orientations on Plans program interventions
in Bangladesh. Plan also organized exposure visits
for the senior management of corporate partners to
Plan program areas and opinion sharing meetings. As
a result, Plan is now involved with Fakhruddin Textile
Mills Limited, a sister concern of Urmi Group6, and
Amantex Limited, a sister concern of Aman Group7,
to develop the competent and trained workforce that
their factories need.
Plan has conducted a thorough assessment8 of each
of its corporate partners to ensure their suitability
for the project. Although the assessment process is
not watertight, Plan has made every effort to ensure
that the apprentices are safe, secure, and enjoy basic
labour rights.
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References
2 http://www.academia.edu/859072/Unemployment_
Problem_in_Bangladesh
3 United Nations Population Fund, State of World
Population 1990
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