Pathways from Poverty (Shiree)

Building economic empowerment and resilience for extreme poor households in riverine areas of Bangladesh

Donor: DFID - Shiree
Duration: 2009-2012
Partners: Own Village Development (OVA), Jhanjira Samaj Kallyan Sangstha (JSKS), Uttara Development Program Society (UDPS), AKOTA, Gana Unnayan Kendra (GUK), Power and Participation Research Centre (PPRC), Handicap International (HI)

Harvesting pumpkins from sandbars, Rangpur district The project targets extreme poor people living in 120 flood protection embankments located in four northern districts of Gaibandha, Lalmonirhat, Rangpur and Nilphamari adjacent to the Brahmaputra and Tista rivers.

The Pathways from Poverty project is part of the larger Shiree initiative funded by DFID Bangladesh. Practical Action is one of 6 NGOs awarded ‘scaling up’ contracts under the Shiree initiative, to scale up tried and tested approaches for working with what DFID terms the “ultra poor” – that part of the population currently untouched by most development initiatives.

They characterise this population as being without assets, unable to plan beyond today because of the precariousness of their income and access to food, and untouched by the institutions focussing on the poor, be they government agencies, NGOs or the micro credit institutions.

Project aims

The project goal is to graduate 50,550 extremely poor people (16,850 households) in rural areas from extreme poverty by Project Year 3. The project purpose is to improve livelihoods of 16,850 vulnerable char land households with improved livelihoods and increased resilience to natural disasters.

Generating employment opportunities for 8,000 extreme poor households (HH) through utilisation of sandbars, under-utilised lands and water resources by year 3;
Providing operational access for sandbar cropping in char and fellow lands
Provide skills training to the beneficiaries in different fields of farm and non-farm activities
Adopting participatory market development approach to link the extreme poor to markets for creating income opportunities
Creating opportunities for the extreme poor through various livelihood options to cope with risks and ensure year round livelihood security
Capacity building for protecting assets during disasters and seasonal food crises
Empowering the extreme poor by building links, awareness and enhancing their ability to increase access to services from the local institutions, government and private sector
16,850 extreme poor households secure market access and increased incomes;
By year 3, 90% of targeted households support asset protection strategies that increase resilience to impacts of disaster and seasonal food crises;
Extreme poor households with stronger influence over decision making and service provision by the local government, line departments and private service providers.