by lwang | Jul 5, 2012 | BRAC, Community Development, Poverty Reduction
In their efforts to tackle some of the world’s most challenging social issues, Kravis Prize winners always go one step further. BRAC works to alleviate poverty in Bangladesh by offering support services in the areas of human rights and social empowerment, education and health, economic empowerment and enterprise development, livelihood training, environmental sustainability and disaster preparedness. In fact, when cyclone Aila hit Bangladesh’s southwestern coastal region three years ago, BRAC supported the villagers financially and helped build cyclone-resistant homes. According to the Guardian, BRAC University consulted the villagers and designed 43 cyclone-resistant structures at Adarsha Gram. BRAC also imported two desalination plants from China to provide drinking water for the village! Today, BRAC is promoting alternative economic activities for the villagers, since their livelihoods from shrimp farming were wiped out after Aila. These include teaching villagers to grow salt-tolerant rice and maize, as well as crab-fattening. Until June 2011, BRAC has covered almost 50,000 households in the region with different agro-based interventions. Jossi Rani from Deyara village, 23 kilometers from Adarsh Gram, shared how BRAC has impacted her life: “I’m earning good money. Crabs are more profitable than shrimp.” It’s plain to see that BRAC really goes the extra mile in their initiatives! “Bangladesh villagers still struggling after Cyclone Aila’s devastation” [The Guardian, March 5,...
by lwang | Apr 6, 2012 | BRAC, Fazle Abed, Poverty Reduction
In its Poverty Matters blog, The Guardian recently focused on extreme poverty in Bangladesh and on the extraordinary impact of our 2007 Kravis Prize winner Sir Fazle Abed in reducing poverty and empowering the poor. Through BRAC, Sir Abed has been tirelessly working to help the bottom 10 percent of Bangladesh’s poorest – or the “ultra poor,” as they are often referred to. A 30-year-old Bangladeshi woman Maleka Begum was among the ultra poor when she first heard about BRAC. “I have been doing manual labour, digging holes,” said Maleka. But with the help of BRAC’s asset-transfer program, she was provided with livestock and a monthly payment for two years, as well as visits from a BRAC program organizer every five days to check on her livestock, teach her about basic hygiene and give her family planning advice. Now, thanks to BRAC, Maleka is helping her family escape extreme poverty through food security, asset ownership and better education. Today, BRAC, which celebrated its 40th anniversary earlier this year, has expanded its poverty-reduction model to other poor countries, serving more than 110 million people per year. To find out more about 2007 Kravis Prize winner and BRAC Founder Sir Fazle Abed, go to our...
by lwang | Feb 7, 2012 | FAWE, Female Empowerment, Poverty Reduction
Kravis Prize winners share many things in common, including an exemplary record of effective programs that drive socioeconomic development around the world. In fact, 2008 Kravis Prize winner Forum for African Women Educationists (FAWE) officially launched a $2.5 million program with children’s development organization Plan Liberia in Monrovia, Liberia last week! The five-year program, which will be implemented in the Montserrado, Bomi, Grand Cape Mount and Lofa counties, “seeks to empower over 40,000 girls and young women with education and other basic skills.” In addition, the program will protect girls from gender-based violence and increase access to post-primary education. You can also check out our page to find out more about...
by lwang | Feb 2, 2012 | Female Empowerment, Landesa, Poverty Reduction, Roy Prosterman
Did you know that 42 percent of children under the age of five in India suffer from malnutrition? Thankfully, international development organizations are working to eradicate this problem by implementing health programs and other community development initiatives. One area that might be overlooked, however, is how women’s rights contribute to reaching this goal. The Guardian’s Poverty Matters blog published an article by Renee Giovarelli, executive director of the Landesa Center for Women’s Land Rights, who discusses how female empowerment affects child malnutrition: “There is growing evidence that the reason for India’s malnourished children is not just empty pockets – it is, specifically, women’s empty pockets. Women in India have a lower status and therefore less control over resources, both land and money, and consequently do not have the leverage to ensure that their children’s needs are met.” Giovarelli also outlines how Landesa and the national and state governments of India are tackling this issue: “Across India, national and some state governments are recognising this and are working to put a powerful asset – land – into the hands of women. … Just last year officials in Odisha state opened the first Women’s Land Rights Facilitations Centre. And officials in West Bengal state have begun adding the names of women to all the land titles they distribute in their micro-plot poverty alleviation programme. Officials in Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Odisha and West Bengal are working to ensure that more women find their names on the title documents to the land they till.” “Land rights for women can help ease India’s child malnutrition crisis” [Poverty Matters, January 20, 2012] To learn more...
by lwang | Dec 8, 2011 | Landesa, Poverty Reduction, Roy Prosterman
In 1981, 2006 Kravis Prize winner Roy Prosterman founded the Rural Development Institute (RDI), now Landesa, with a mission to secure land rights for the world’s poor. Landesa partners with governments around the world to extend land rights to the poor and has offices in the U.S., China, Russia and India. NPR recently discussed Landesa’s program in India, which employs young men from 12 local villages and trains them to help people through the process of acquiring title to their land. NPR interviewed RDI India State Director Sanjoy Patnaik, who discussed the pilot program in Chillipoi: “Our prime focus is securing land to the world’s poorest. And as you see, this village displaced for 40 years without titles, no food. So these are the people who actually need the kind of facilities and support that Landesa is providing.” According to the broadcast, 19 families have received title papers to their homesteads so far. Patnaik says the next big challenge for the project will be to scale up the pilot programs into an operation that can provide land title for up to 18,000 families. Listen to the broadcast here and find out more about Landesa Founder Roy Prosterman...
by lwang | Nov 3, 2011 | BRAC, Poverty Reduction
The Huffington Post published another article by BRAC USA President and CEO Susan Davis, who discussed the organization’s partnership with the MasterCard Foundation. The MasterCard Foundation is helping BRAC implement their anti-poverty solutions in Africa and has committed $45 million to help BRAC reach 4.2 million people by 2016. BRAC’s Uganda program is not only offering microfinance loans, but also professional training, medical treatment, new schools and a network of micro-franchised entrepreneurs. According to Davis, these additional services are crucial for increasing the effectiveness of microfinance based on BRAC’s experiences. BRAC is also focusing these initiatives on girls and women, which has been shown to promote “healthier families, a more flexible workforce, lower HIV rates and a more stable society.” From Uganda, Davis wrote about the results they’ve seen so far: “An estimated 1.2 million Ugandans are HIV positive, yet of the women and girls who have participated in BRAC’s programs in Uganda, 67 percent report always using a condom if and when they have sex, versus only 38 percent of a random control sample. There’s an apparent spillover effect, too: Even among those who don’t participate, 54 percent of those in villages where we’ve set up programs say they use condoms, suggesting the spread of good habits among peers. Rates of early motherhood have fallen, too, with 12.4 percent of girls in the control group having children since an initial survey in 2008, versus only 8.7 percent of our program participants.” Judging from these statistics, this partnership is just like any another reward from MasterCard: priceless! “Letter From Uganda: Given the Tools to Fight Poverty, Africa’s Women Tend...
