1. Measuring Women’s Empowerment on the chars of north-west Bangladesh: Lessons Learnt and Results
Welcome:
Thank you to gender-working group for allowing us to come and present and UST for hosting
Apologies for the absence of other CLP team members
CLP coming to an end and after a decade of work we have a lot to share. We recently published a series of lessons learnt briefs which focused on a variety of thematic areas, one of which was women’s empowerment
This gender working group is a key audience for disseminating lessons learnt
Quick overview of structure of presentation

2. The Chars Livelihoods Programme
CLP phase 2 started in 2010, and operational activities wrapped up end of February
Improve the livelihoods, incomes and food security of at least one million extremely poor and vulnerable women, children and men living on remote isolated riverine char islands of north-western Bangladesh.

3. Why the chars? High concentrations of extreme poverty
River sediment: low-lying; prone to erosion; flooding
Hard-to-reach, especially in the dry season
What is a char (how they are formed, wide ranging characteristics, vulnerabilities)
Few jobs; agricultural day labour = low-pay, seasonal
Few government or NGO services; Limited infrastructure
Poor health, food security,
nutrition, literacy

4. Who does CLP work with? The Extreme Poor
CLP worked with the adult female in the household and directly targeted over 78,000 extreme-poor households. However some of our interventions involve the wider community as well.
CLP’s HH Selection Criteria
No land or access to land
Total HH assets worth <Tk5,000 (approx £43.50)
No job / regular employment
Not receiving cash or asset grants from another programme; irregular income
Resident on char for at least 6m
Willing & able to attend weekly meetings
Over 97% had savings less than Tk500 (£4.35). Avg savings in was Tk. 82
96% with less than Tk5,000 (£43.50) in productive assets. Avg value of assets was Tk 1,532.

5. What does CLP do? Water, sanitation & hygiene activities
Formation of community-based organisations
Flood protection & employment generation
Market Development
Asset transfer& stipends
Livelihoods training & support
Providing health & nutrition services
CLP offered a comprehensive, 18 month support package to 6 separate cohorts since Short explanation of cohorts.
18 sub-projects in this core package- some of the main ones are highlighted on the slide
Social Development
One of the first activities to start up
Formation of social development groups, weekly curriculum that ranges from managing household finances/loan management to disaster preparedness, WASH, dangers of dowry/child marriage etc.
Also includes couples counselling with spouse for increased gender-sensitivity
Supporting health and nutrition
Train local women as health and nutrition workers (CSKs/CPKs) for the chars communities
Because of lack of access to quality health care on the chars, CLP facilitated over 32,000 satellite clinics - benefitting wider community and this work will continue post-CLP because of the multiple partnerships we have established with private actors and BRAC.
Asset Transfer, services & livelihoods training
Women choose their own productive asset to invest in
Asset amount given= Tk 17,500 (approx £152)
98% chose cattle
Monthly stipend for asset maintenance and household expenses
Livelihoods training on cattle-rearing, poultry-rearing, homestead gardening
Train LSPs to provide vaccination services for cattle; AI technicians/voucher
Flood Protection
to increase household resilience, CLP raised 31,763 plinths for over 77,000 CLP and non-CLP households
62,978 workers employed through IEP during lean season
Water, sanitation, hygiene
Access to improved water source by building/improving existing tube-wells
Access to sanitary latrine above flood level, on plinth, with privacy shelter and water deal
Targeted wider community as well
CBO
To help facilitate CLPs work- VDCs to lead social development, VSLs to increase access to finance/safe savings, CBCs to aid market development
Market Development
Formation of milk and meat business groups for participants to share production knowledge
increase access to market inputs by bringing in CID
CBCs to link char farmers with other market actors like input providers and buyers
Partnerships
With private and government actors to continue the work CLP has been doing on the chars and ensure progress ensues
Ie. health, education and microfinance
Social Development