Introduction

POWER (Promoting Opportunities for Women’s Empowerment and Rights) project is a multi-country project implementing in Ghana, Rwanda, Bangladesh and Pakistan with the long term objective to increase economic empowerment of women. This project also works with families to help reduce women’s burden of unpaid care work, so they can contribute towards income generating ventures. ActionAid Bangladesh has been working with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Netherlands and SKS foundation to make this project a success since 2016.

Four areas of this project include: 

  • Unpaid care work for women;
  • Climate resilient sustainable agriculture;
  • Market access for women;
  • Violence against women

Background

The prevailing gender norms and power relations in Bangladesh justify women’s heavy workload and limited control over productive resources must be challenged if the economic participation of women is to be improved. In 2016, ActionAid Bangladesh has done a research on “Time Use of Women and Men (Unpaid Care Work)”. It shows that women spend 6.3 hours and men spend 1.1 hours in household work daily. According to another research, women spend on average around 8 hours in unpaid care work which was more than men who spent approximately an hour and a half on it. The bottomline being that women in Bangladesh are spending almost five times more in unpaid care work than men. 

 

In Bangladesh other key contributors to the persistence of gender inequality are women’s limited knowledge and mobilisation around their rights, limited partocipation of women in decision making spaces, and violence against women. In addition, access to markets is a major barrier for rural women. They receive unfair treatment from buyers,  often lack knowledge regarding the current market situation, as well as finance and other productive resources. Many women consequently utilise ‘middle-men’ to market their products which reduces profits and maintains gender imbalance. Therefore, by recognising and addressing these issues and increasing household and community influence are crucial to women’s economic empowerment.

This project works with women to help empower them within their households and the community including a contribution to decision making. This is achieved by training them about their rights, and sustainable money generating activities such as climate resilient agriculture.

This project also works with families to help reduce women’s burden of unpaid care work, so that they can devote more time to income generating ventures.

The initiative was to promote opportunities for women’s empowerment and rights. ActionAid Bangladesh has been working with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Netherlands and SKS foundation to make this project a success since 2016.

Four areas of this project:

  1. Unpaid care work for women;
  2. Climate resilient sustainable agriculture;
  3. Market access for women;
  4. Violence against women

We have covered Gojaria, Konchipara, Uria, Udakhali, Fajlupur, Mogolhaat, Kulaghaat, Rajpur, Harati, Khuniagach village of Rangpur and Sylhet divisions so far.  

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News

Promoting Environmental Awareness and Action: Combating Plastic Pollution and Reducing Fossil Fuel Use

Awareness and action for a healthy environment are growing among the people. World Environment Day, celebrated on June 5th, focuses on solutions to plastic pollution. In Bakalia, activities included an art competition on "Solutions to plastic pollution" with 128 children participating. A rally and discussion sessions raised public awareness, while a workshop engaged 56 participants, including students, youth, parents, teachers, and local elites. Tree plantation activities were conducted at various locations, and saplings were distributed to schools and families. A cycle rally, awareness campaign, leaflet distribution, and community-wide initiatives involved participants from different groups. These efforts promote awareness and action to combat plastic pollution and protect the environment.
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Child Change Makers Lead the Way: Taking Action for a Sustainable Future

To observe the One Million Mobilization Campaign, initiatives were undertaken in the Sunamganj and Ghoraghat working areas.
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Empowering Children and Youth in Bangladesh: One Million Mobilization Takes a Stand Against the Climate Crisis

One Million Mobilization, in collaboration with ActionAid Bangladesh, is focusing on empowering children and young people to protect the environment and address the climate crisis.
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Empowering Children for a Sustainable Future through World Environment Day Celebrations

Children's active participation in World Environment Day celebrations yields a profound impact, driving awareness, education, empowerment, and environmental stewardship. Their involvement ignites a surge of creativity, innovation, and advocacy skills, fostering enduring sustainable practices. By actively engaging children, we seize a transformative opportunity to shape a generation passionately dedicated to environmental conservation and resolute in constructing a sustainable future.
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Fostering the Future: Child-Driven Efforts in Combating Plastic Pollution and the Climate Crisis

In line with the advocacy of One Million Mobilization, the focus has shifted to child & youth-led initiatives aimed at safeguarding the environment and mitigating the pressing climate crisis.
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Growing a Sustainable Future for Children: Spice Tree Sapling Distribution in Thanchi's Hilly Areas

On the date of on May 30, 2023, ActionAid Bangladesh and its partner organization promote ecological balance and climate sustainability in Thanchi's hilly area by distributing spice tree saplings to empower 68 children and young women for a greener future. Planting these saplings restores biodiversity, balances ecosystems, and educates the community about the importance of planting.
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Event

Capacity-building training on child journalism has motivated children to pursue their dreams:

The objective of the child journalism training is to provide children (trainee journalists) with the concepts and the information that will help them to develop responsible news reporting skills that appreciate and respect children's rights.
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Event

Drama and child competition have an effective power of expression

A child from the drama group Meem (15) said, “while developing the drama script, we were not aware of but after finishing we realized every character of the community has a role to prevent child marriage and we can effectively fit the roles. Along with the parents and community leader, neighbor the role I played has a great responsibility and can positively or negatively tackle child marriage situations.”
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Event

Celebration of Child Rights week 2022 in Social Change

“We girls don't get many opportunities to play sports in our community, especially in public places. But this time on Child Rights Week, a friendly football match competition was organized by ActionAid and BNKS. Where I participate as a team leader. Before the start of the game, my team members and I practiced football in our area for a few days. And this practice was the first-time played football in our life. Playing sports refreshes our minds and increases our social participation. Participating in sports also keeps us physically healthy. Participating in a football match has taught me to think that girls can participate in all social activities, it is our right”, shared by D Hola Wang Marma (16 years adolescent child)
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Event

Children from Sunamganj created awareness among community people during Child Rights Week:

One of the performers, Tamanna (15-year-old) said, “We tried to aware others of the alarming issue of our community. Children are engaging themselves in stone lifting work. After flood, the rate has been increased. It is really alarming as they are dropping out from school. To keep this in mind, we, the cultural team planned to aware others through a street drama, and we did it during Child Rights Week. People from different areas enjoyed the drama, someone even cried. I hope this would be helpful to stop child labor at our community.”
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Event

Children of Ghoraghat are moving towards cultural movement:

This year, Children of Ghoraghat celebrated Child Rights Week through different activities. This time, they focused on street drama presentation as through this, the image of the society can be beautifully displayed. As easily as drama leaves a mark on people's minds, no medium can. So, they decided to portray the image & problems of their area through a street drama.
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Event

An Amusing Picnic Day for Children

Jim (05), a young girl, reading in class two, was very happy to take part in the picnic and shared, “We are very happy that ActionAid Bangladesh arranged this picnic for us. Me and my friends participate in the games. We enjoy a lot. On behalf of all I would cordially thanks to ActionAid to gift us an enjoyable day”.
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Blog, News

Introducing Sahakom Mobile App: Empowering Child Sponsorship Communication through Training of Trainers

ActionAid Bangladesh is thrilled to announce the launch of the Sahakom Mobile App, a groundbreaking technology designed to revolutionize the way we communicate and connect with child sponsors.
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Blog

ClimateInjustice #WaterCrisis

I joined my ActionAid Bangladesh colleagues and volunteers engaged in the preparedness initiatives to mitigate the impact of #cycloneMocha.
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Blog, News

Being trained in leadership, the children of Kurigram are already planning to work on climate change and justice.

Child leadership refers to developing leadership skills in children, while cultural movement refers to the promotion & preservation of cultural values & practices.
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Annual Reports, Publications

ANNUAL REPORT 2022

Your trust and confidence on ActionAid Bangladesh gave us the strength to continue working for ensuring a just and sustainable society for all. Our commitment of long-term partnerships for sustainable change shall not waiver. We therefore dedicate the Annual Report 2022 to ‘Partnership 4 Change’.
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Achievements

The empowerment of women at household and community level, raising awareness of and claiming their rights

The recognition, redistribution and reduction of unpaid care work which keeps women in the private sphere

The increase of women’s access to productive resources, markets and knowledge of sustainable practices, which will ensure women continue to have a livelihood in the longer term

Affecting policy and institutional change to provide an enabling environment that supports women’s economic empowerment