Research and Field study Reports

Gender, Vocational Training and Employment: Not in all jobs and professions women and men have to be equally represented, but both have the right and need to be free to choose the education and the work they like. Furthermore, if relatively well-paid jobs are available, these should be open to all who are qualified, both women and men. This study focuses on girls and women who dare to take a stand against gender stereotypes and related discourses about men and women’s work, to participate in “typical male” vocations and professions.
Case study on Gender and Empowerment through Wash: It is often assumed that participation and representation of women in Water Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH) committees will lead to their empowerment. Therefore, in order to get a better insight into “How” participation in the WASH committees can lead to empowerment of women, Simavi and the Gender and Water Alliance, through the Gender and Water Programme Bangladesh, decided to do a study to get a better insight on “If”, “How” and “Why” women’s empowerment has taken place as a result of participation in the WASH committee or other WASH interventions.
BRAC WASH Field visit study report.pdf: This report is based on findings from a field visit made by GWAPB staff to BRAC WASH programme sites in Khulna. The objective of the visit was to get first-hand information on how gender is integrated in the programme interventions and how local women, men, and youth talk about how this has influenced their lives and empowerment. The study used qualitative methods of information gathering such as key informant interviews, focus group discussions, and inquiries.
Gender and Water Poverty: Salinity in Rampal and Saronkhola, Bagerhat: The NGO Voice of South Bangladesh conducted a study in two unions of Bagerhat district, in the Coastal Belt, where salinity is increasing as a result of various factors, amongst them: climate change and global warming resulting in sea water rise, and the large dam in India that withholds the water in the dry season and opens the gates in the monsoon. Shrimp cultivation is a third factor. Both poor women and men suffer from the saline water, but women more: they are responsible for water and hygiëne in the household, and for their reproductive duties. So much water everywhere, but drinking water is far away or expensive. In the paper the findings are analysed from an empowerment perspective. Different categories of people are interviewed.
Voices of SIDR Survivors: Life stories of surviving victims of Cyclone SIDR: This book is a rare compilation of the unheard life stories of some survivors of the deadly Cyclone SIDR that hit Bangladesh in 2007. Using the actual words of the survivors as far as possible, the book attempts to recount the suffering, courage and attempts of poor women and men survivors to improve their situation and get back on their feet after devastating disasters. Despite their resourcefulness and amazing capacity to adapt and survive, women and men such as these survivors of SIDR in coastal Bangladesh are as yet mostly unseen and unheard - reduced to a number in disaster statistics on loss and damage, and not even this sometimes. Through this documentation we hope to bring to the attention of decision makers and the wider public not only the needs and interests of those left behind in the wake of a disaster, but also their capacity and skills - which is better used in relief and rehabilitation efforts, rather than ignored. GWAPB acknowledges Voice of South Bangladesh for enabling this work, and also the Netherlands Embassy for financing this work.
Political Empowerment of Women in the South West IWRM Project: The South West Area Integrated Water Resources Planning and Management Project (SWAIWRPMP) was supported by the Embassy of the Kingdom of the Netherlands (EKN) with a substantial grant from January 2006 until June 2015. In the project a concerted effort was made to involve women, and it is said that due to the project’s interventions the political empowerment of women has increased to such levels, that more women are elected in the Union Parishad. The Gender and Water Programme Bangladesh (GWAPB) undertook a field study to investigate whether and how this project has contributed to empowerment of women in the area, especially in the political dimension.