Your trust and confidence on ActionAid Bangladesh gave us the strength to continue working for ensuring a just and sustainable society for all. Our commitment of long-term partnerships for sustainable change shall not waiver. We therefore dedicate the Annual Report 2021 to ‘Partnership 4 Change’.

Women play a central role in agriculture. Rural women throughout Bangladesh make critical contributions to household production and consequently to household and national food security. The specific nature of their contribution vary, for instance women’s participation in economic activities differ considerably according to the type of activity and the place of residence. Traditionally women have played an important role in a wide range of income-generating activities. These rural production activities include post-harvesting, cow fattening and milking, goat farming, backyard poultry rearing, pisciculture, horticulture, food processing, cane and bamboo works, and handicrafts. Yet the reality has been that ‘markets’ are not women sensitive nor friendly. Women struggled to be in market spaces as a producer trying to sell their product, or as a buyer to make choices in person. ActionAid Bangladesh (AAB) took up initiatives in different parts of the country with the intent of changing the market system and practices so as make the market system women-friendly. This called for long-term projects and investment. One such project entitled: Making Market Work for Women (MMWW), in partnership with the Embassy of the Netherlands in Bangladesh, aimed to support women Agri -entrepreneurs to evolve into a competitive and successful entrepreneur by participating in the market. MMWW project facilitated the creation of a women-friendly market environment; developing linkages with market actors and relevant stakeholders towards promoting and increasing access for women entrepreneurs in existing rural markets. The project also established linkages with online market platform for women entrepreneurs, so as to promote their engagement in e-commerce. In the present reality of the COVID-19 pandemic online marketing played a great role to sustain the enterprise of women entrepreneurs. They were able to trade their produce and flourish their business in 2020. AAB took an initiative to publish a Photobook to showcase the success stories of women entrepreneurs through the photobook ‘Market Transformation for Women’. It is a testimony of women’s contribution in transformation of society, and the significant contribution to their community, as well as national economy. I believe that Agri-entrepreneurship particularly by rural women is an important growing sector in the economy of Bangladesh. Therefore, it calls for recognition and investment to stimulate growth and further development.

ActionAid Bangladesh along with other networks and alliances successfully influenced the review and formulation of the of the 2020-2025 strategy

Due to the demographic window, Bangladesh has the opportunity of harnessing youth potential for achieving long term development objectives. Even though Government of Bangladesh (GoB) has associated investment in youth with the development trajectory of the country through various plans and policies, youth related discussions are not contextualized due to absence of policy coherence and consensus on intended outcomes. Lack of structured and holistic approach towards these discussions result in ineffective implementation of well-intended policies. Hence, this policy brief, jointly developed by ActionAid Bangladesh and SANEM (South Asian Network on Economic Modeling) construes that Bangladesh requires a formal, well-structured Youth Budget Framework (YBF) as part of the national budget to attain vital objectives by cashing in on demo- graphic dividend. A youth centric budget is intrinsically a framework of goals and visions to empower youths economically and socially. The designated monetary allocations in the budget will be analysed through a youth centric lens to equip the evidence-based policymaking process. In short, the youth budget framework will serve to represent the commitments of the Government of Bangladesh to invest holistically in youth development, alleviate challenges and bottlenecks which uniquely affect youths through various channels.