Severe Weather: Bangladesh regularly experiences severe weather phenomena including
·floods
·tropical cyclones
·tornadoes
·and tidal bores
The country also suffers from the annual monsoon season which brings high humidity and heavy rainfall.About 80% of the country’s annual rainfall occurs during this season.Monsoon-induced flooding causes significant loss of human life, damage to property and infrastructure, and shortage of drinking water, facilitating the spread of disease.
Agrarian Economy: Despite the growth in the industrial sector, particularly in the garment industry, Bangladesh’s economy remains primarily agriculture-based.According to the World Bank, the agriculture and rural non-farm sectors contribute to 54% of Bangladesh’s national GDP.Moreover, 54% of the country’s population is employed in agriculture and the rural non-farm sector.This dependence on agriculture makes the majority of the population highly vulnerable to the monsoon-flooding and other severe weather occurrences, whichdestroy crops and homes.For the 80% of the population that lives in rural areas there is usually no alternative but to borrow from lenders, and falling further into debt and poverty.
Lack of Infrastructure: Under-developed infrastructure limits access to education and health services for much of Bangladesh’s population living in remote areas.With limited access to markets these people have no means to generate wealth.Lack of health education, vaccines, and contraception, combined with high birth rates leads to children born into poverty, with little chance of escape.
The impact of Poverty
A video presentation of the impact of poverty in Bangladesh, produced by Clara Lee.
Efforts to Alleviate Poverty
The Grameen Bank: A banking system created by Nobel Peace Prize winner Dr. M. Yunus, offering small loans without collateral, to the poor people in rural areas. These loans are known as micro-credit. The bank is based on the voluntary formation of small groups of mostly women, who provide mutual, morally binding guarantees in place of collateral.
A debate on the effectiveness of micro-credit.
Benefits: Individuals have access to credit that enables income generating activities like lime-making, pottery and garment production. Women have financing for entrepreneurship and develop financial independence.
Limitations: Does not solve greater poverty issues like illiteracy, access to land.High interest rates (20%) and limits lenders to small-scale enterprises.
Temporary Foreign Migration: Millions of Bangladeshi workers migrate overseas temporarily to work in construction and domestic labor. Remittances from such workers contributed $2.5 billion in 2001 (5% of GDP), which help the impovrished escape poverty. Bangladeshi workers are employed in Malaysia, Singapore and the Middle East.
Benefits: Self-sustainable means of escaping povertyentire families and reduces dependence on agriculture.
Limitations: Subject to immigration policies of host countries. Foreign workers have limited means,few rights and undertake hard labor. Bangladesh is developing a reliance on remittances and is highly susceptible to the economic fortunes of host countries.
Food for Schooling: A government program that offers free monthly grain rations for attendance at school. Children can afford to attend school while contributing to their family income.Families can consume the grain and reduce their food budget or sell grain to meet other needs.
Benefits: Higher primary school enrollment especially for girls, lower dropout rates. Household food security increased.
Limitations: Overcrowding in schools and lower achievement scores. Grain rations are insufficient to improve malnutrition. Program is not reaching all of the poor and important “6 months to 3 year old” age group.
Feel free to put up any useful links you find. Also, lets meet sometime soon and start talking about what we're going to do for the project.
Gender Equality
3/18:
Heres some info to pop off with:
This site has good charts and info on different issues surrounding gender equality:
Despite international laws guaranteeing women equal rights with men, women around the world are denied their rights to land and property, financial resources, employment and education, amongst others. In many cultures, women and girls are subject to female genital mutilation / cutting, and are harmed and even killed in the name of tradition. And for women in all countries, gender-based violence constitutes perhaps the most common and serious violation of human rights.
"By 2015, countries should act to empower women and should take steps to eliminate inequalities by “promoting the fulfilment of women's potential through education, skill development and employment, giving paramount importance to the elimination of poverty, illiteracy and ill health among women and girls.”
"Eliminate gender disparity in primary and secondary education preferably by 2005, and at all levels by 2015"
Why was this goal created?
70% of 1.3billion living in poverty world wide are women.
Women perform about 66% of the world's work for less than 5% of its income.
Laws against sexual violence in Africa should be imposed. Such laws will increase womens' rights and their ability to insist that men wear condoms. Higher use of contraception will prevent the spread of HIV.
1) Culture and tradition plays a large role in determining women's roles at home and in society. Is it possible to change cultural norms and centuries old traditions?
2) In the United States, few women are seen in prominent business or political positions. Are developed countries like the U.S in a position to demand that poverty striken nations improve gender equality within their governments and community leadership?
3) The women in Wahala complained that they funded their children's education and yet had no say in whether their daughters should drop out of school to get married or work. How do African governments or aid organizations encourage fathers to keep their children in school? It isn't a small matter of providing funds for education, rather, a broader economic policy has to make it viable for women to attain jobs with their education and prove that their income far outweighs that of their return as housewives or farmers.
4) How sustainable are charities like the Shenzhen Women's Federation, which depend on donations from the very communities they serve and donations from corporations (what incentives are there for Asian corporations to help charities seemingly unrelated to their business lines)?
On Gender and the Media:
Media representations of men and women tend to conform to traditional gender norms, reinforcing the aggressive independence of men and the passive dependence of women. While there are exceptions to the traditional gender norms presented in the media, entertainment industries predominantly present men and women in roles that reinforce inequality between the sexes. Men are presented as career oriented, lazy, or incompetent in doing housework, and rarely are they presented as caregivers for their families. Women, conversely, are almost always presented in advertisements for household care products or as the sexy, love-struck female in film. These presentations of gender in the media help to reinforce the gender norms within the home as well as in the public sphere and contributes to gender inequities in society.
Gender equality is very connected with a number of the other issues that comprise global poverty. For example, gender inequality faced by women in the form of lack of access to reproductive health services is at the heart of the widespread HIV/AIDS problem in Africa.
WJO: Some Links of Interest for "Global Social Challenges and Key Players" Lecture as it relates to Gender (descriptions to come):
In the overall Index scores, Oceania continues to hold the top spot, followed closely by Western Europe and North America. All three regions have closed over 70% of the gender gap. They are followed by Latin America and Eastern Europe, each of which has closed 67% of the Gender Gap. Sub-Saharan Africa and Asia come next, each region having closed approximately 63% of its gender gap. The Middle East and North Africa region occupies the last place, having closed approximately 58% of its gender gap.
The Global Gender Gap Index 2007 raises five key concerns. First, it highlights the great need for progress by showing that no country in the world has yet reached equality between women and men—the highest ranking country has closed a little over 80% of its gender gap while the lowest ranking country has closed only a little over 45% of its gender gap. Second, the Index points to possible role models by revealing those countries that, regardless of the overall level of resources available, have divided these resources equitably between women and men. Third, the Index, coupled with the Country Profiles, allows users to understand how far each country is from closing the gap in each of the four critical areas and provides a snapshot of the legal and social framework within which these outcomes are produced. Fourth, it reveals that both progress and decline are possible in a relatively short time frame. Fifth, it exposes a correlation between the gender gap and national competitiveness, providing an added impetus for countries to incorporate gender equality into their national priorities.
Addressing both the challenges and opportunities associated with the gender gap will require concerted efforts by governments, businesses and civil society organizations across the world. In addition to these specific efforts, best practice exchange, partnerships and collective problem-solving among these groups will also be crucial. Moreover, future research will be needed to develop a clearer understanding of the policies that are successful and those that are not. We are hopeful that this Report, by providing a transparent and comprehensible framework for assessing and comparing global gender gaps, will serve as a catalyst for greater awareness, for future research, for targeted action by policy-makers, employers and civil society and for collective action among these groups.
March 13, 2008 - Bangladesh has achieved impressive gains in women’s status and gender equality, but access to reproductive health services, labor markets, physical security and role in decision-making need urgent attention, says a World Bank report released today.
The Grameen Bank-1.pptx
Poverty A Global Perspective.pdf
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