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Northern Bangladesh is home to some of the world’s poorest and most vulnerable rural people. The area, like the rest of the country, is frequently hit by floods and cyclones. Its smallholder farmers are trapped in poverty, largely excluded from borrowing and knowledge of farming practices that could help improve their lives and protect them from potential risks. An IFAD-supported project in the north-west and north-central regions of the country has introduced financial services customized to the specific needs of poor farming communities. As a result, incomes are improving and rural people are beginning to lift themselves out of poverty.

The Norwegian Nobel Committee honoured Muhammad Yunus in Oslo yesterday for his pioneering work in microfinance, presenting him with this year’s Nobel Peace Prize. The award was shared by the Grameen Bank, the Bangladeshi institution that Professor Yunus founded more than 30 years ago.

The Bay of Bengal Programme is an Inter-Governmental Organisation (BOBP-IGO) mandated to enhance cooperation among member countries, other countries and organisations in the region and provide technical and management advisory services for sustainable coastal fisheries development and management in the Bay of Bengal region. It assists the member countries -- Bangladesh, India, the Maldives and Sri Lanka -- in sustaining fisheries production and ensuring livelihood security for millions of fisher folk in the region. BOBP-IGO took part in the FAO Committee on Fisheries (Rome, 7-11 March 2005) and is a key FAO's partner in the rehabilitation plans and strategies after the tsunami.
Source:FAO

Part 1: Recovering and aid co-ordination
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Part 2: Analysis of assessment and next medium and long term actions
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Ten years ago, Hira Akhtar and her husband, Moslem Uddin, lived in a simple hut in the village of Baniyar Kandar in Bangladesh. It was all they could afford on her husband's income of 1,000 taka (US$17) a month from his work as a sharecropper.

In many developing countries, access to basic education is improving for girls. Teachers are being trained to be sensitive to gender and child rights issues, learning materials are being created to adapt to local conditions, and parents and students are being encouraged to participate in the operation of schools. However, in some parts of the world, discrimination and neglect of girls remains and begins at an early age, limiting their choices and excluding them from fulfilling their potential as adults.

The programme concentrates on long-term improvements to sustain people's lives and livelihoods against disasters and works with communities, local partners, a network of agencies, and the government. The programme aims, amongst other things, to mitigate the effects of the annual floods on vulnerable communities.

Lack of access to safe water and sanitation is a major problem in the Chittagong Hill Tracks, and particularly acute for about 80 per cent of highlanders. This is the biggest district of Bangladesh, making a significant contribution to the national economy, an area of abundant natural resources and great natural beauty. The hills, rivers and cliffs are covered with dense bamboo breaks, tall trees and creeper jungles, the valleys thick with valuable timber trees, bamboos and cane.

“We met Eti's parents,” her friend Mili later recalled. “And we explained to them that she was not yet fully grown up and if a girl under 18 is married she runs a greater risk of death due to pregnancy. We also explained that it is a punishable offence to marry off a young girl without her consent. And if they, as educated parents, didn't understand these matters, who else would?”