MAKING MARKET WORK FOR WOMEN
Introduction
The community and market is largely male dominated and the lack of female participation has resulted in the issue of safety and security (for women) as a prerequisite being completely overlooked by the community. In Bangladesh, nutrition and SRH care are interlinked problems: poor food intake causes malnourishment, which leads to poor health and poor SRH perpetuates the intergenerational cycle of undernourishment. One of the key factors leading to (women’s) intake of poor nutritional food at home, poor reproductive, maternal and sexual health stems from lack of life skills (on SRH). Furthermore Women face many internal and external barriers that hinder their access and ability to participate in the market.
To break this cycle, interventions are needed for improving access to nutritious food, access to quality SRH care, access to women-friendly markets and freedom for women to decide over their bodies and lives. ActionAid Bangladesh (AAB) has decided to work with women agro-entrepreneurs, government institutions including private sector organizations responsible for service delivery, school-based adolescent boys & girls as well as market committees.
Objectives:
1- To bring sustainable and systemic changes in existing market behavior that will enable women to perform in the agri-value chain
2- To improve the capacity of targeted women for entrepreneurship, competitiveness, increased productivity and profitability
3- To improve SRHR and nutrition situation of targeted women entrepreneurs and their family members with a focus to SRHR sensitive wider community
Background
Women’s contribution to agriculture is underestimated and constantly overlooked. Besides women face many obstacles to access the markets due to lack of skills such as basic literacy, business plan development, awareness etc. Not only that, poor food intake causes malnourishment among rural women. Which leads to deficiency in nutrition and SRH care, and results in poor labor productivity as well as market performance. ActionAid Bangladesh (AAB) is working to break the boundaries. They have worked with women agro-entrepreneurs, government institutions including private sector organizations responsible for service delivery, school-based adolescent boys & girls as well as market committees. 6002 people in Sundarganj Upazila of Gaibandha, Gabtoli Upazila of Bogura Sadar & Modhukhali Upazila of Faridpur, Golachipa of Patuakhali have benefitted from initiatives taken by ActionAid Bangladesh.
