In August -October 2012, Practical Action Bangladesh submitted 500 words abstract. Under a vigorous screening process the submission was screened in the list of 30 out of 300 submissions. Following the process, they have requested PAB to submit 2nd submission within 2000 words in November 2012. PAB submitted 2nd submission in February 2013. Again, it got passed through a competition among 30 selected submissions. It came with 9 submissions (out of 30).

The 9 submissions were reviewed by the jury board and selected 3 submissions as top three finalists. These 3 again faced a step by step process for the final round. It included presentation and individual interview and declaration. It happened from 30th April to 3rd of May 2013 at St. Andrews University in Scotland.

Since its launch in 1998, the Prize has attracted entries from more than 50 countries each year on diverse topics including sustainable development in the Amazon rainforest, urban regeneration, recycling, health and water issues, renewable energy.

Submissions for the annual prize were assessed by a panel of eminent trustees representing science, industry and government with the award going to the project the Trustees consider displays the best combination of good science, economic realism and political acceptability.

Finally, the St Andrews Prize for the Environment committee announced Transforming lands, transforming lives project of Practical Action Bangladesh which is funded by Shiree, as the runner-up for 2013. Practical Action Bangladesh got the award of $25,000 USD.

To read more please visit http://www.thestandrewsprize.com/lists/2013.htm

Just after 1 year of Korail Eviction (April 4, 2012), there was another shocking eviction in Mirpur on April 3, 2013!

The evicted place belongs to Kazifuri Primary School. The place has been illegally occupied by some local house owners for many years. Those locals have been renting the site to slum dwellers and getting income out of the place. Some slum dwellers reported that they have been living in this slum for 30/32 years.

The Kazifuri School has been running a legal fight with the local house owners. Finally, the school got decree from the Court for the land. Accordingly, the school provided notice to the house owners 3 months back. Unfortunately, they did not inform to the slum dwellers. Slum dwellers received the announcement on April 2, 2013 in the evening.

The local Officer in Charge (OC) of local Shah Ali police station and a Magistrate along with other force conducted the eviction with Bulldozer and other instruments.

This Kazifuri Slum was a quite old slum. People have been living there for nearly 30-35 years. All together, all households, nearly 800-900 have been fully destroyed by the eviction. 26 Community Latrine and 3 Water Points established by Water Aid, DSK and NGOs have also been fully destroyed.

To download the report, click here

Please have a look on last week’s media monitor below. To get the Media Monitor archived click here.

External Shocks

Health & Nutrition Risks

Gender & Marginalised Community Risks

Lack of Access to Government Services

Other Category

This Innovation Fund is now closed. Shiree is very pleased to have received a high level of interest in the fund with over 200 organisations submitting an Expression of Interest (EoI). EoIs are currently being evaluated by an Independent Assessment Panel for progression to proposal stage.

We expect to inform all applicants of the outcome of this round of selection by 5pm on Thursday the 11th of April. Only those applicants who are successful at EoI stage will be invited to submit a full proposal. Due to the number of applications received and resource constraints we regret that we are unable to provide feedback to unsuccessful applicants at this stage.

Applicants invited to the next stage of selection will be issued with further guidance and will have two weeks to prepare a full proposal. The deadline for submission of proposals will be 12 pm Dhaka time on Thursday the 25th of April, 2013. For further information regarding dates you can access the Provisional Fund Timeline.

To read the full report and view the presentations, click here.

Agenda:

9.30am – 10.00am: Introduction — A recap on the history and development of poverty research in Bangladesh
10.00am – 10.40am: A. Mushfiq Mobarak, Associate Professor of Economics, Yale University: “Lessons from Randomized Controlled Trials in North Bengal”
10.40am – 11:20am: Dr. Peter Davis, Social Research Consultant, Social Development Research Initiative, Bath, UK: “Exploring poverty dynamics in rural Bangladesh using life-history interviews”
11.20am – Break
11.40am – 12.20pm: Dr. Rie Goto, Cambridge University: “Methods behind a Longitudinal Panel Survey”
12.20pm – 1:20pm: MPower and Colin Risner, CEO shiree: “The Potential of Dynamic Monitoring for Research and Management”
1.20pm – 1.30pm: Closing Remarks
1.30pm – Lunch

For more information, please contact Kira Galbraith at eprgcontact@shiree.org

1. Exclusion from public services
2. Insufficient economic opportunities
3. Vulnerability to external shocks
4. Health and nutrition vulnerability
5. Gender inequity
6. Marginalised group specific risks and vulnerability

The process of gathering recommendations has initiated a dialogue on the state of extreme poverty and continues to raise awareness of the challenges facing the extreme poor and what needs to be done to act on their behalf. It is worth noting that the issue of extreme poverty has also broken on to the global agenda over the last 6 months, with global leaders proposing the eradication of extreme poverty as a core global objective for the post MDG period.

The recommendations received so far vary greatly from the broad to regional or issue specific, but they are all valid as each represents a deliberate act of recognizing extreme poverty and endorsing the need to address it. On November 30th, 2012 at Extreme Poverty Day, five panel discussions were held to start to synthesize and consolidate these recommendations. The event was highly successful in gaining recognition and support of the Manifesto as well as in raising awareness of extreme poverty.

So, what’s next? 2013 holds a year of great potential for embedding extreme poverty on the agenda of policy actors. However, a lot still needs to be done to produce a credible Manifesto that will be recognized and supported by political parties, international donors, civil society and private sector actors. For the first half of the year, shiree will work toward producing a final Manifesto for the Extreme Poor in English and Bangla by continuing to broaden the dialogue, consolidating recommendations and providing a strong evidence base by including the voice of the extreme poor. We will also estimate resource needs required to implement the recommendations. The second half of 2013 will be used to publicly disseminate the final Manifesto and gain the widest possible endorsement. The Manifesto will be a realistic set of actions that will allow extreme poverty to be eradicated in Bangladesh by 2021!

In the mean time, we encourage you to submit your recommendations for action here.

Here are some stories from the extreme poor and their own recommendations for change

JOIN US IN CREATING A MANIFESTO FOR THE EXTREME POOR – JOIN US IN THE FIGHT AGAINST EXTREME POVERTY!

Date: February 4-6, 2013
Venue: BDS, Main Conference Room, 5 Sadar Road, Barisal
Host: Oxfam International

From the 4th-6th February 2013, Oxfam GB hosted the eighth Lesson Learning Workshop in Barishal. Representatives from eleven NGOs attended, along with members of the Shiree team and mPower.

The workshop focused on two main themes; Gender and Digital Innovations. The workshop was set to include introductory presentations from Oxfam GB, SCI and iDE and a Gender discussion led by Colin Risner, whilst also giving NGOs a chance to showcase their own digital innovative practices.

Read the full report

Tentative Agenda:

1. Exclusion from public services
2. Insufficient economic opportunities
3. Vulnerability to external shocks
4. Health and nutrition vulnerability
5. Gender and minority specific risks and vulnerability

Shiree is developing a Manifesto for the Extreme Poor as a means of raising awareness of these challenges, proposing a specific set of recommendations to address them and advocating with those with the power and resources to carry out the recommendations.

With the aim in view, Shiree sponsored five episodes based on the above mentioned topics to broadcast through ABC Radio FM 89.2 in Dhaka, Bangladesh. The episodes were broadcast in December 2012.

Missed the programs? No worries. Here goes the episodes:

The exhibition hosted 60 photographs of some internationally renowned photographers including Abir Abdullah, Gmb Akash, Charlie Bibby, Brent Stirton and Munem Wasif. Other participating photographers were Anisur Rahman, ASM Shafiqur Rahman, Barhanuddin Talukder, Habibul Haque, Juthika Hawlader, Khaled Arafat Ahmed, Saikat Majumder and Tareq Salahuddin. Details of the photographers are available in the Facebook event page of the exhibition.

The exhibition initially was launched at the Extreme Poverty Day 2012 at Basundhara Convention Centre-2, Dhaka on November 30, 2012. Later it anchored at Drik Gallery from December 9-12, 2012.

There was a publication with the photos of the exhibition.

See the photos of the exhibition below:

The exhibition attracted some media coverage as follows:

The Independent on December 11, 2012

The Daily Star on December 13, 2012

Background

• 2009 – Bangabandhu International Conference Centre – Making the Invisible Visible
• 2010 – Banani Field – with UPPR – Eradicating Urban Extreme Poverty
• 2011 – Basundara Conference Centre-2 – with BRAC and British Council – Eradicating Extreme Poverty: Whose Responsibility Is It?
• 2012 – Basundara Convention Centre-2 – with WaterAid - Manifesto for the Extreme Poor

Extreme Poverty Day 2012

The public event Extreme Poverty Day in 2012 was co-hosted by WaterAid, at the Bashundhara Convention Centre-2, Dhaka on November 30, 2012 to build awareness around the Manifesto for the Extreme Poor (the challenges facing the extreme poor) and to develop the space for private sector – NGO partnerships.

Over 1500 people attended the event. Participation from the extreme poor communities, government, non-government and private sector was impressive. The response from participating organizations and stakeholders was positive. Everyone felt the event was useful and unique.

Components of the Event

Beneficiary Voices:

5 extremely poor women were given a chance to share their experiences and their thoughts with the audience.  The impact of such initiatives are somewhat intangible, but they include sharing (others were able to see first-hand how people have been degraded by poverty), motivating (emotional and intellectual appeals were made), demanding (giving the poorest a platform to speak and raising their voices has an important effect on both the speaker and the listener).

Video for manifesto:

The communications – advocacy team of Shiree prepared an 8-minute video capturing voices of the poorest for the manifesto demanding on five challenge areas. This video was aired at the event and is available online. The video is also available online on http://vimeo.com/54360530

Manifesto dialogues:

5 recommendation validation sessions took place.  60 high profile speakers showed their support for the manifesto by participating.

Extreme poverty heroes:

5 local government representatives from around the country were recognised for their outstanding support to our partner NGOs in assisting with the transfer of khasland resources for the poorest.  With the support of local government, such efforts are made much more viable and sustainable. We hope this recognition will encourage these ‘heroes’ to continue to support the poorest and also, will encourage others to do the same.

Speed Meets:

In order to facilitate partnerships between the private sector and NGOs, we organised an innovative session called ‘Speed Meets’ where 10 private sector companies spoke with 10 NGOs, each for 5 minutes, to understand where there were potential spaces for collaboration to help the poorest. This process brought about a huge learning for the private sector companies who do not usually get a chance to understand the needs of NGOs.  This was also a huge learning for NGOs as they had a chance to pitch their needs in a concise and positive manner to private sector companies interested in helping.  The companies and NGOs which participated were then asked to identify which pairs could potentially partner and 81 such pairs were identified. In 2013, we will help these 81 pairs link up and hopefully some of them will finally materialise into solid partnerships.  If any of these pairs do become partnerships, this will be the biggest impact of the event. However, it will take some time to measure this.

Private sector dialogue:

One of our goals in advocacy is to highlight successful models that should be scaled up or replicated.  Shaheen Anam, Executive Director Manusher Jonno Foundation, moderated a superb session bringing together NGO persons and private sector persons to examine such models.  The GUK-APEX combination and Uttaran-Lalteer combination were highlighted.  GUK trained climate change refugees for job placements at APEX. Uttaran worked with Lalteer to develop discounted seed packets customised for extremely poor homesteads.   Both APEX and Lalteer stated their commitment to the scale up of these success stories.  NGOs were encouraged to learn from these successful initiatives.  In 2013, we shall follow up to scale up some of these partnerships.

FOOTY Award:

40 field officers were recognised for their dedication to their work. This award scheme was introduced last year and proved very popular. Many field officers said they felt this motivated them to work harder this year.  We were happy to provide this small token of gratitude to the officers who are the frontline foot soldiers of our war against poverty.

Best Stall Award:

60 NGOs, private sector companies and a GOB initiative (Ekti Bari Ekti Khamar) participated with stalls at the fair to highlight their projects.  The top 3 stalls, judged in terms of drawing attention of guests, were awarded for their effort.

Government Commitment:

Mihir Kanti Majumdar, Secretary, GOB, RDCD, spoke as Chief Guest. He reiterated his support to our programme.

Photo Exhibition:

There was a photo exhibition illustrating in the venue which was further extended in Drik Gallery on December 9-12, 2012. The photo exhibition titled ‘Cascading Dreams’ featured stories of grass root people’s life, struggle and success, dreams and realities, joy and sorrow, dignity and empowerment in relation to Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WaSH) and poverty alleviation. Photos of renowned photographers were displayed in the exhibition. There was a publication with the photographs. The exhibition got some print and electronic media coverage.

Radio Programme:

Five radio episodes were broadcast from ABC Radio FM 89.2 on the five challenge areas described in the manifesto. The participants discussed about the problems and way out the extreme poor families face in their daily life.

Jamil Ahmed moderated the episodes while academics, development workers, activists, journalists, gender specialists were among the noted discussants. The radio programme created awareness among the target audience. The radio episodes are available online on http://www.shiree.org/radio-program-manifesto/

Event video

Participation

• 15 change makers from various stakeholder groups spoke
• 26  organisations shared their poverty reducing projects
• 1000 beneficiaries learnt about their rights and the programmes trying to help them
• 20 private sector players committed to engage with shiree NGOs
• 22 media houses were present at the event
• 1500+ people were made aware of the challenges and possibilities of urban poverty

Media coverage

• 5 electronic media houses reported on the event.
• 11 print media houses reported on the event.
• 3 radio channels reported the event.
• 3 news agencies reported the event.

Lessons Learnt

• As the number of guests exceeded expectation, we ran out of food boxes. However, drawing from our lesson last year, we were able to avoid any problem.  We kept count of the number of lunch coupons distributed and were able to order an additional 500 lunch boxes before lunch time was over.
• Having two parallel sessions was exciting; however the space was not sound proof so both sessions suffered from the noise of the other.

Expected outcome

• Policy recommendations highlighted and government support demanded publically – Manifesto
• Platform for beneficiaries to speak – raise their voices and demands
• Recognition for field officers committed to eradicating extreme poverty
• Sharing of successful models and experiences of NGOs-private sector
• Networking among partners for linkage
• Inspired private sector representatives among guests – commitments from some
• Discussions around cutting edge poverty research
• Showcasing top NGO models to donors for funding – especially for training and skills development
• Dissemination of knowledge on extreme poor
• Media coverage around the extreme poor

Impact

• Knowledge increased/awareness
• Partnerships formed (NGO/private sector)
• Validation of recommendations
• Government heroes motivated
• FOOTY staff motivated
• Private sector motivated – instituting a culture of collaboration – presence and participation is one kind of acknowledgement

Download the outcome report

Event photos