Four women groups from Mohalbari,
Surail and Damoir villages in Northern Bangladesh participated in a two-day leadership
and mobilization training in Dinajpur to spread the initiative of successful women-led
cooperatives improving the livelihood of the rural poor. Among the 51
participants, most were landless women coming from Hindu, Muslim and indigenous
communities.
The training, organized by ALRD in partnership with SUSTAIN, is part of the
project’s innovation plan that received ROUTASIA’s award of 2,500 USD last
year.
ALRD’s
Innovation Plan entitled “Strengthening Women’s Empowerment and Livelihood through Access
to Land and Market” was launched in July 2015, as a result of ROUTASIA’s Learning
Route on women’s empowerment in Nepal’s Chitwan and Kapilvastu districts, in
December 2014. With the financial award and technical assistance of IFAD-PROCASUR’s
ROUTASIA programme, ALRD and SUSTAIN, its local partner in Dinajpur, are now implementing
the plan in the northern region of Bangladesh, where the existing farmer groups
are located. ALRD’s plan aims to secure equitable land access and control for
marginalized landless communities, including farmers, indigenous peoples, religious
minorities and women in particular, and to improve their livelihood through
effective management of natural resources.
Using local resources, local technology
and indigenous knowledge, ALRD’s action plan integrated the People’s Initiative
or “Gonoprochesta” model. This initiative promotes sustainable, small scale,
family-based organic farming and rural enterprises, and provides direct access
to land and market for disadvantaged communities, which in turn contribute to
the country’s food security. The Gonoprochesta model empowers women by advocating
their recognition at policy making level, and by enabling access to public land
and to supporting services such as bank credits, agricultural inputs and
technology, information and knowledge, and policy dialogue with government institutions.
During the process, women are encouraged to create their own capital collectively,
and to invest it in agricultural production of food and organic fertilizers.
By transforming into
People’s Cooperatives, the initiative sets a unique example to improve quality
of life without external financial assistance. It also creates an alternative market
for the products of small farmers and entrepreneurs united by cooperative groups,
creating a wide range of employment opportunities in rural Bangladesh,
particularly for women. In terms of diversification, cooperative farmers use different
types of production, including agricultural cultivation (rice, vegetables, fish)
and fertilizer production (earthworm compost).
To analyze the socio-economic context in Bangladesh, the path of change
and the participants’ respective roles in it, ALRD used a participatory
discussion method. All participants agreed to the new vision of the People’s
Initiative process promoting social and economic changes to improve their life
and to protect their children’s future. They selected a name and a leader for
each of their group, and they set up a work plan for the next three months. To
create their initial capital, participants decided to save a handful of rice
twice a day and to organize their weekly meeting on Fridays, where the saved
rice is put on sale to generate financial resources for each group to be used
for income generation activities. This collective way of farming enables them
to use their small land as a homestead. It was also agreed that all activities
would be monitored and guided by SUSTAIN, ALRD’s local partner organization.