Rural Poor in Bangladesh Empowered to Dream of a New Life

DHAKA, Jan. 7 (NsNewsWire) — The Empowerment and Livelihood Improvement “Nuton Jibon” Project is in line with Government of Bangladesh’s vision of pro-poor growth, reduced vulnerability and human development. The project aims to improve the lives and livelihoods of poor families in rural areas while building their resilience to climate variability, natural hazards and other shocks. The project targets the rural poor and vulnerable households that are otherwise left out from development interventions.

With support from the World Bank, the Nuton Jibon project has given more than 2.5 million people in the poorest and disaster prone districts of Bangladesh, the chance to dream of a new life by benefiting them from community infrastructure and productive investment.

The project has reached 3262 villages in 16 districts, mobilizing approximately 545,000 poor and vulnerable households into Nuton Jibon Groups. Over 386,500 households have already accessed Shabolombi Fund loans to initiate productive and meaningful income generating activities.

According to an assessment study, 83% of village institutions are functioning in a transparent, inclusive and accountable manner and about 35% of the project households have been able to increase their income by 40 to 50%. About 77% of households in project villages are directly benefiting from community infrastructures sub-projects which have increased their access to social services.

Through the project, about 30,000 youth have benefited from skills development training, of which 96% have been employed.

The project benefits from the solid momentum on governance and accountability tools already built-in its design. This includes Community Assessment Process, Social Audit, Village Matrix, Village Score Card, Third Party Process Monitoring, community complaint redress mechanism and web based MIS system. This has resulted in strong participation, transparency, accountability and equity throughout the project implementation.

Finally, as the livelihood activities become more meaningful with the emerging community federations, the project will ensure that close linkages are developed for improved access to the financial sector and markets.