Bangladesh has reduced poverty and improved living standards significantly in recent years despite the global economic recession and natural calamities. In spite of rising standards of living, some things never seem to change. Men still seem to get a better deal than women. This happens in all walks of life, starting from a multinational corporation to the most remote village farm in Bangladesh.

Analysis of recent demographic data shows that Bangladesh has a significant ‘youth group’ – more than 40 to 50 percent of the Bangladeshi population is now under the age of 24, with a significant portion centered on the cohorts aged between 15 and 24. This youth group provides great opportunity. This group has the potential to create a ‘demographic dividend’ in the right policy environment. The combined effort of a large working-age population supported by appropriate health, family, labor, financial and human capital policies can create sustained cycles of wealth creation.

I have just finished a twelve month assignment as an Australian Youth Ambassador for Development (AYAD) funded by the Australian Agency for International Development (AusAID). I am writing this from my old desk having signed on as their Program wheelbarrow Development Advisor and I can hardly believe twelve months in Bangladesh has passed so quickly. I do not seem to have stood still for long enough to notice the whole week flash before my very eyes!

I came across a new word called ‘small farmer’ while reading the National Agricultural Policy, 1999 of the Government of Bangladesh. The term, ‘small farmer’, is not defined in the policy. It emphasizes especially on ‘small farmers’ but there is no definition available to comprehend the phrase. Who are small farmers, what do they do? The status has been formed but without any specified indicators. This has to be branded, but how?

The year 2010 was the last year of ActionAid Bangladesh’s (AAB) third Country Strategy Paper (CSP-III) titled “Equality, Citizenship and Justice”. Review of the CSP-III and formulation of the CSP-IV were the major undertakings in 2010 while continuing interventions at different levels to strengthen the fight for the eradication of poverty and injustice. AAB shares the Vision, Mission and Values of global ActionAid.

The spirit of International Women’s Day (IWD) is still in the air, and the aim of this contribution is to offer some thoughts over the theme of IWD, 2011. Each year around the world, we dedicate March 8 solely to the celebration of International Women’s Day (IWD), and this is considered the juncture of global celebration of respect, appreciation, and love towards the women all over the world. This celebration symbolizes wider meaning and is exclusively meant to respect women’s economic and social achievements in the journey towards equality, peace, and development. Choosing IWD theme each year gives the day more special outlook by reflecting on global and local gender issues.

Learning Document Series 6-8 contains three development alternatives. The first one is People Managed and Owned Savings and Credit, an alternative to the Conventional Microsoft Concept and Practice. This document describes our experiences and knowledge of how we assisted poor people to own and manage their savings and credit programme being totally independent from facilitating NGOs. Community Rice Bank, the second alternative, is shown to stand by the poor communities. This series depicts how community people innovated and initiated it and made an example for mitigating monga (lien season induced hunger) through a collective mechanism. Next one is Midday School Meal, quite a new initiative in Bangladesh and first piloted by us. It is expected that replicating and mainstreaming this model in the poverty-stricken areas of Bangladesh can combat school dropouts and thereby education for all can be achieved countrywide.

Learning Document Series 1-5 contains five development alternatives. The first one Putting the Poorest First tries to expose the process of addressing the hardcore poor as well as the areas that need further attention to addressing the hardcore poor. The second alternative is Polli-Mela – considered as an effective and interactive extension methodology for disseminating information and sharing experiences on prevention of domestic violence. The next one Partnership with Union Parishad relates prevention of domestic violence and other violence against women. The fourth one, Social Change Agents, argues that building the adolescents as social change agent has been the proven strategy for building future leaders of society for women- and girl-friendly environment and development. The last alternative is Hanging Garden that helps people survive and create voice against anti-people interventions.

This emerged from our former Impact Assessment and Shared Learning initiative to support critical thinking about and documentation of our rights-based work for transformation and justice. The initiative aimed more generally to strengthen our ability to write about change in an analytical, powerful and effective way. The stories, written by staff members most intimately connected to our ‘change’ work in the field ‘the front’, were developed through an empowering writing journey through five-day critical writing retreat, mentorship and peer support to deepen analysis.