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.