Presentation by Kamal Bhattacharyya, CRS at the INGENAES Bangladesh Symposium in March 2017

1. Presentation in Dhaka / Bangladesh INGENAES Regional Symposium
Kamal Bhattacharyya, Protima Roy and Saleh Ahmed
7 – 9 March 2017
Egiye Jai & Nijera Gori Projects Update from Bangladesh –
Duration: Jan, 2013 – Sep, 2016
Acknowledgement – Caritas Bangladesh Project teams and INGENAES

2. 2
Project Priorities
• Production focus on - Homestead vegetable gardens,
livestock, poultry, aquaculture;
• Joint decision making to carry out improved production
practices;
• Post-harvest marketing engagement;
• Cluster approach;
• Using village change agents
• Nutrition (dietary diversity);
• Linkages to government, institutional, NGO, and private sector
services;
• Household savings;
Each cluster has a
community
representative
called either VDT or
VPMT who
supports project
implementation
and works with
project staffs.

3. Some Pictures
3
Some PicturesSSome PicturesS
Intra-Household decision making and gender equity (wife of head of HH taking decision)
Poultry – Control villages 7%; Treatment villages 46%
Vegetables – Control villages 3%; Treatment villages 32%

4. Cluster approach and its implications on
participation of men and women
• The cluster approach appears to be an
effective way of reaching women with
information
• Proximity to homestead makes it easy
for women to participate in multiple
tasks in the family
• Cluster level trainings are not reaching
men in target households -
• Only homestead based interventions
will not attract men.
4

5. 5
Women’s Participation in Market –
A close look at the village market
Trader sales non-perishable items to
wholesaler
• Rules guiding marketing
• Trader collects products from farmers on
Village market day.
• Both parties (Trader and Consumer)
agreed that regular market day price will
guide the transaction cost.
• Market price information collected from
mutually agreed vendors from Union
markets and notified in the cluster market
place.
• Farmers agreed to receive a discounted
price to meet traders transaction cost
• Trader arrange alternative to farmers
incase unable to collect on stipulated day
and time.
• On the spot payment.
Market, Gender and local Culture
• Traders visit villages to collect produce / Little or no
transparency / Terms of payment flexible/ Trader
covered a big catchment area.
• Existing traders have a strong cooperating network,
that must be carefully considered and negotiated
when introducing new traders to the market.

6. HH Nutrition in project area
6
As compared to control villages
Egiye jai – Increased the likelihood of a
vegetable garden by 37-45 percentage points,
and increased plating by about four types of
vegetables in the garden
Nijera Gori – Increased the likelihood of a
vegetable garden by about 20-21 percentage
points, and increased planting by about two
types of vegetables in the garden
Egiye Jai - Increased the likelihood that they
would have poultry by 25-30 percentage points
Nijera Gori - Increased poultry in the household
by about three percentage points.
Pathways for nutrition
Agriculture Production – Nutrition Pathway
Income and Assets / Income – Nutrition
Pathway: Nijera Gori project increased wealth
index values, and Egiye Jai and Nijera Gori
projects increased HH’s average monthly
expenditures.
Women’s empowerment – Nutrition pathway:
Egiye Jai and Nijera Gori had a positive impact
on wife’s assets and decision-making on
marketing poultry and vegetables.
Gender and Generation in Nutrition Decision Making
* Traditionally men market their own as well as women’s produce, purchase items at the market.
Involve men in nutrition decision making.
* Life expectancy of farmers has increased, mothers who live longer also tend to become frailer;
meanwhile, younger women assume the nutritional decisions of the household.

7. 7
Questions
7
Thank you