THE HUNGER PROJECT in South Asia

Transcription

1 THE HUNGER PROJECT in South Asia Villages that Work

2 The Hunger Project in South Asia Villages that Work Bangladesh and India have a great strength that is missing in most of Africa constitutionally mandated elected village councils for meeting basic needs, which are based on ancient traditions of local self-government. The infrastructure to achieve the end of hunger is there, as long as it can be made to work. The Hunger Project has pioneered strategies in Bangladesh and India to transform the social conditions that give rise to poverty and to make village self-governance work. Against all odds and in the face of centuries of subjugation, women are empowered to be the key change agents in this process. The Hunger Project in

3 Gender Inequality: The Root Cause of Hunger and Poverty Forty percent of the world s hungry people live in South Asia. Since 2007, the number of chronically hungry people in the region has grown, having now reached 400 million the highest in the last four decades 1. This situation persists due to the subjugation of women and girls. Although studies have shown that when women are empowered all of society benefits, in South Asia women continue to be held back and disadvantaged. In most measures relating to the status of women such as protecting women from violence or upholding their rights to property, as well as in areas of nutrition, health, education, literacy and employment South Asia ranks among the worst in the world. This condition of gender inequality gives rise to a vicious cycle of malnutrition. In South Asia, girls eat last and least. They grow up to be undernourished. They are married early and get pregnant early, often when they are still teenagers, undernourished and underweight. They give birth to undernourished children. And the cycle continues. Recognizing the urgent need to intervene in these conditions and the enormous potential of unleashing the power of the women of South Asia, in the year 2000, The Hunger Project launched its South Asia Initiative to empower grassroots women in Bangladesh and India to become effective change agents for ending hunger and poverty in their villages. 1 United Nations Children s Fund (UNICEF)

4 Fulfilling Mahatma Gandhi s Vision: Villages that Work The Hunger Project s South Asia Initiative employs our methodology of bottom-up development, unleashing the potential of our most important resource: the people living in conditions of hunger and poverty. At its heart is Gandhi s vision of a self-reliant village in which people have the capacity to meet their own needs. Prevailing Condition People feel isolated, powerless and resigned. People do not bring in enough income to meet their basic needs, including feeding their families or sending their children to school. People are malnourished and children suffer the worst rates of malnourishment in the world. Girls are taken out of school and married off at a young age. Women have no voice in society. They are not even addressed by name but called wife, sister or daughter. Women are confined to the home. Women face violence such as acid throwing and even murder due to dowry conflicts. Girls are fed last and least and grow up underweight, leading to a vicious cycle of malnutrition. Mothers give birth unattended and in unsafe conditions, leading to high infant and maternal mortality rates. People drink contaminated water and are subject to water-borne illnesses. Women are often subject to violence traveling far distances to water sources. Water is polluted due to lack of safe sanitation. As a consequence of climate change, devastating floods and other extreme weather threaten people s land, livelihoods and lives. Government programs addressing issues such as food security, housing and widow s pensions do not reach the local level. Our Vision of a Self-Reliant Village People are mobilized to meet the needs of their villages. Villagers run income-generating projects and have enough money to feed their families and send their children to school. People are adequately and well nourished and ensure their own food security. There are no early marriages, and girls complete school. Women serve on their village councils and have a voice in the decisions that affect their lives. They band together in federations to initiate changes at the district and state level. Women are leaders within their community and begin to transform the development agenda in their villages. Villages are dowry free and women are treated as equal members in society. Girls are recognized as valued members of society. All births are attended by trained personnel, and babies are safely delivered. Tube wells are tested for arsenic, and villagers have access to close and safe water sources. Villagers have household sanitary latrines or access to close public sanitary latrines. Villagers are prepared to cope with the consequences of climate change and provide input into related policies at the regional, national and international level. People are aware of government programs and access resources that are rightfully theirs.

5 What We Do While our programs differ in detail to better meet the local conditions in Bangladesh and India, they share a unified approach, based on three pillars: 1. Mobilizing people at the grassroots level to achieve self-reliance In Bangladesh, this is achieved by working with a critical mass of animators and elected officials through a variety of civil society organizations. These leaders in turn mobilize their communities in mass action campaigns. In India, this is achieved by working with elected women representatives at the grassroots level, who are organized in women s self-help groups and taking action to mobilize their communities through the gram sabhas (village assemblies). 2. Empowering women as key change agents In Bangladesh, a special Unleashed Women s Network includes gender-focused trainings for women animators. The National Girl Child Advocacy Forum draws specific attention to empowering girl children. In India, elected women representatives participate in Women s Leadership Workshops and follow-up workshops, skills-based trainings and workshops on federation building. 3. Forging effective partnerships with local governments All our work in South Asia is focused at what we call the cluster level unions in Bangladesh and gram panchayats in India. Traditional villages may comprise fewer than 100 households, and are often too small to have a voice in government and manage social services such as health centers or schools. Communities joining together in clusters of villages have a stronger voice and are able to demand access to the human and financial resources of local government. In Bangladesh, we work closely with union parishads (local elected councils) to encourage decentralization and increased access to resources. We also catalyzed and support Shujan, a platform to strengthen grassroots democracy, ensure transparency and accountability of local government, and carry out advocacy initiatives at the national level. In India, we empower the women who are elected to panchayats (local elected councils), who then bring water, health and education to their villages. The Sarojini Naidu Prize draws specific attention to highlights of their work in the national media. We also participate in the National Platform to Promote Decentralization, which promotes decentralization and builds capacity for systemic reforms to strengthen the voice of the poor within governance. In addition, state-level advocacy forums are also beginning to emerge. What does this have to do with food? The Hunger Project is committed to the sustainable end of world hunger. Chronic, persistent hunger is not due merely to lack of food. It occurs when people lack opportunity to earn enough income, be educated and gain skills, meet basic health needs and have a voice in the decisions that affect their community. The Hunger Project s work addresses these root causes of hunger and poverty by emphasizing self-reliance, the empowerment of women and the strengthening of local democracy. \ 3

6 Active in All 64 Districts Panchagarb Thakurgaon Lalmonirhat Nilphamari Kurigram Dinajpur Rangpur Gaibandha Joypurhat Shepur Naogaon Bogra Jamalpur Netrokona Nawabganj Mymensingh Sunamganj Sylhet Rajshani Sirajganj Natore Tangail Moulavi Bazar Kishoreganj Habiganj Pabna Gazipur Narshingdi Meherpur Kushtia Dhaka Brahmanbaria Manikgahj Rajbari Narayanganj Chuadanga Jhenaidah Faridpur Munshiganj Comilla Magura Chandpur Shariatpur Madaripur Khagrachhari Jessore Narail Gopalganj Lakahmipur Feni Barisal Noakhali Pirojpur Rangamati Satkhira Jhalakati Khulna Bhola Patuakhali Chittagong Bagerhat Barguna Bandarban in Bangladesh Cox s Bazar Founded in 1991, The Hunger Project-Bangladesh is the nation s largest volunteer-based organization. Our work focuses on mobilizing more than 500 village clusters or unions, which have union parishads at their center. These 500+ unions represent more than 10,000 villages. Within the unions, we build civil society from the bottom up through the training and organization of elected officials (holding office in the union parishads) and volunteer leaders. These individuals are organized in six different civil society organizations at the grassroots level: 1. Union Parishad Members: Initiate mass action campaigns to ensure 100 percent sanitary latrine coverage, 100 percent birth and death registration, and open budget meetings to provide transparency and accountability.

7 2. Animators: 130,000+ volunteer leaders, 40 percent of whom are women, mobilize their communities, initiating development projects such as income-generating activities and educational programs on nutrition and sanitation. 3. Youth Ending Hunger: A program to unleash leadership and creativity, and foster a sense of social responsibility among 100,000+ students across the country. 4. Shujan (Citizens for Good Governance): A platform of committed, active and socially conscious citizens to strengthen grassroots democracy, ensure transparency and accountability of local government, and carry out advocacy initiatives for policy reforms at the national level. 5. National Girl Child Advocacy Forum: An alliance of 500 organizations that coordinates the celebration of National Girl Child Day across Bangladesh to recognize the importance of girls in society and eradicate all forms of discrimination against girl children. Each year, on September 30, National Girl Child Day is celebrated across Bangladesh with rallies, essay and art competitions, debates and media events. 6. Unleashed Women s Network: More than 3,000 women, intensively trained in gender issues and women s rights, reach out to all of the women of their villages and run campaigns against early marriage and domestic violence. 7. Barefoot Researchers: Volunteers from the poorest areas, the vast majority of whom are women, are empowered to analyze the obstacles they face, devise strategies and carry out campaigns of action to build lives of self-reliance. 5

8 Active in 9 States Uttarakhand Rajasthan Bihar Assam Madhya Pradesh Maharashtra Orissa Karnataka Tamil Nadu The Hunger Project in India The Hunger Project-India was established in In 1992, the 73rd Amendment to the Indian Constitution mandated that one-third of all seats in panchayats be reserved for women resulting in more than one million women serving in elected office. Creating Public Support for Women in Local Democracy The Hunger Project s Sarojini Naidu Prize for Best Reporting on Women in Panchayati Raj annually recognizes media efforts highlighting the work of women leaders within local village councils. Each year, awards are given in Hindi, English and Other Indian Language categories. With the launch of the South Asia Initiative, The Hunger Project committed itself to ignite and sustain a coordinated strategic campaign of action for women s leadership and the success of panchayati raj. The campaign was designed to build the leadership capacity of elected women, mobilize people s participation and create public understanding and support for local democracy. The Hunger Project-India currently implements this strategy in nine states, focusing its energies on more than 3,000 village clusters, or gram panchayats, which represent about 12,000 villages. The Hunger Project in South Asia Within India s panchayats, The Hunger Project has supported the leadership of more than 95,000 elected women representatives with key interventions in each year of their five-year terms. The women go on to make changes in their communities addressing issues such as literacy, education, water and sanitation, and health. They are true groundbreakers, creating lasting change and fostering self-reliance in their communities. This strategy is implemented in partnership with approximately 50 community-based organizations, who are aligned with our principles and trained in our methodology. The Hunger Project and its partners now have a voice in policy debates at state and national levels. In recent years, The Hunger Project has seen the emergence of a distinct need in its strategy in the second year of the elected women representatives terms, the women are keen to co-learn and build alliances with each other to have a greater impact in their communities. The Hunger Project supports them in building federations of elected women as powerful voices for influencing public policy at the district and state level. Overall, 160 block-level federations with a membership of 6,500 elected women representatives across six states of India have been formed.

9 Women have important roles to play in taking up positions of power and responsibility in all our communities as they have done through their newly asserted active participation in panchayats across India. The Hunger Project is to be commended for its contribution in bringing this about." His Holiness the Dalai Lama, September

10 The Challenge Ahead Since the launch of the South Asia Initiative in 2000, The Hunger Project has unleashed the creativity and capacity of hundreds of thousands of grassroots leaders throughout Bangladesh and India. Women and men are awakening to their own abilities and stepping forward in their leadership to improve their health, education, nutrition, environmental sustainability and income. These trained Hunger Project leaders and partner organizations present an enormous opportunity for change. We now have a groundswell of empowered women and men working to achieve a vibrant and strong local democracy. It is time for The Hunger Project to build on all of the accomplishments of our partners over the past 10 years and take the highest leverage actions we can to realize our vision of a self-reliant and hunger-free South Asia. The Hunger Project in South Asia 1. Unleashing the power of federations and alliances to sustain our social movement and create lasting change at higher levels. We must intensify our work to support the formation of federations of elected women leaders in India; networks of trained women and youth in Bangladesh; and multi-organization platforms such as the National Girl Child Advocacy Forum, National Platform to Promote Decentralization and Shujan (Citizens for Good Governance). Such federations and alliances create a built-in support structure for sustained mobilization and enable our partners to have a unified voice to request enforcement of, or initiate changes in, policies at the regional and national levels. 2. Discovering new pathways of organizing people within their village clusters to ensure that they meet the development challenges of their communities in a sustainable, comprehensive and effective manner. We must support the implementation of legal structures that are already mandated but not yet in place (such as standing committees for each sector: food security, gender, education, health, environment, finance).

11 How do you reach 700 million people? We researched many non-profit groups to find the right partner to help bring climate change information to India s villages. We quickly discovered the work of The Hunger Project. Environmental Defense Fund 3. Integrating our approaches into national strategies to expand our breadth and depth. We must continue to play a leadership role in multi-organization advocacy platforms, such as Shujan and the National Girl Child Advocacy Forum in Bangladesh and the National Platform to Promote Decentralization in India, in order to promote bottom-up, genderfocused development. 9

12 Key Partnerships in South Asia Australian High Commission, Bangladesh BRAC, Bangladesh British Council, Bangladesh Embassy of New Zealand, India Environmental Defense Fund, India Ford Foundation, India Forum Syd, India Hygiene, Sanitation and Water Fund (HYSAWA), Bangladesh Ministry of Panchayati Raj, India Ribbink Van Den Hoek Foundation, India SKL International, India Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC), India United Nations Democracy Fund, India United Nations Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM), India United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), India United Nations Millennium Campaign, Bangladesh United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), India The Hunger Project The Hunger Project (THP) is a global, strategic organization committed to the sustainable end of world hunger. In Africa, South Asia and Latin America, THP seeks to end hunger and poverty by empowering people to lead lives of self-reliance, meet their own basic needs and build better futures for their children. THP carries out its mission through three essential activities: mobilizing village clusters at the grassroots level to build self-reliance, empowering women as key change agents, and forging effective partnerships with local government. THP is active in the following countries: Australia, Bangladesh, Benin, Burkina Faso, Canada, Ethiopia, Germany, Ghana, India, Japan, Malawi, Mexico, Mozambique, The Netherlands, New Zealand, Senegal, Sweden, Switzerland, Uganda, the United Kingdom and the United States. THP is a funding partner to local organizations in Bolivia and Peru. The Global Hunger Project is a 501(c)(3) tax-exempt organization in the United States. The Hunger Project 5 Union Square West New York, NY USA Phone: Fax: info@thp.org Web: The Hunger Project-Bangladesh Badiul Alam Majumdar Vice President and Country Director 3/7 Asad Avenue Mohammadpur Dhaka-1207 BANGLADESH Phone: Fax: The Hunger Project-India Rita Sarin Vice President and Country Director Second Floor, Shaheed Bhavan 18/1 Aruna Asaf Ali Marg Qutab Institutional Area New Delhi INDIA Phone: Fax: Printed on recycled paper Design: Rothschild Design