$29m WB support for unemployed
The World Bank will provide $ 29 million credit to Bangladesh to support employment of poor and vulnerable women in five monga-prone districts of the country.
The is the first WB-financed project in South Asia that will focus solely on the empowerment of disadvantaged women through their employment in the formal sector, according to a WB statement.
The WB board yesterday approved the loan for the Northern Areas' Reduction of Poverty Initiative (NARI) project.
NARI will facilitate the employment of women with life-skills training, transitional housing, counseling and job placement services in the garment sector in three Export Processing Zones.
Around 10,800 women from five northern districts Gaibandha, Kurigram, Lalmonirhat, Nilphamari and Rangpur will benefit from this project. These areas suffer from seasonal deprivation and famine-like conditions, a phenomenon known locally as monga.
Migration of poor women from the impoverished monga-prone northwestern districts to formal employment in the garment sector is substantially lower than from other parts of the country.
“Over 80 percent of the three million workers in the thriving garment sector are women. Yet, they are often vulnerable; young, poor, sometimes illiterate and often single,” said Ellen Goldstein, country director of World Bank Bangladesh.
"This project will help vulnerable women from the poorest regions to overcome the difficulties of migration and give them a chance to successfully adapt to a new life," she said.
The project will undertake awareness raising activities in five pilot districts, where a screening and orientation programme will be used to select appropriate candidates. The selected candidates will be assisted in finding employment in Dhaka, Karnaphuli and Ishwardi EPZs where dormitories and training centres will be constructed for their use.
The training centre will accommodate 300 trainees at a time. The dormitories attached to the centres will accommodate 600 women for a period of six months. This will allow graduates three months to find permanent housing on completion of the training.
For all latest news, follow The Daily Star's Google News channel.
Comments