Establishing gender equality is one of the major commitments of CARE, and it has taken a number of steps towards fulfilling this commitment during the last few years. During this period, CARE Bangladesh have seen significant success in gender mainstreaming both of its program and institutional levels. Gender specialist Farah Ghuznavi, reviewed the progress made by CARE with in this period, to assist CARE to document the learning and the experiences. “From Policy to Practice- A Good Practical Guide to Gender Mainstreaming” is not intended to be an exhaustive report of what CARE has achieved in terms of gender mainstreaming, but a presentation of certain specific elements that contributed significantly to the successes achieved.

CARE Bangladesh wishes to give greater emphasis to improving the position of women in its programming. This literature review begins with a discussion of how the overall configuration of gender relations has affected women's power to take decisions, and identifies a series of significant changes that have taken place in recent years. It then goes on to investigate how various more specific institutional arrangements – relating to dowry, locally administered justice and property rights – have constrained women's ability to exert greater agency, and asks what NGOs can do to make a difference in each of these areas.

CARE Bangladesh wishes to give greater emphasis to improving the position of women in its programming. This literature review explores the roles women currently perform and asks how they are changing and how they vary by religion, class and geographical region. Early sections explore the different types of domestic work that women perform and their role in relation to crops, livestock and fishing. Non-agricultural occupations are then reviewed, together with the significance of micro-credit, and the nature of women's involvement in markets. Finally, an attempt is made to identify the implications of women's changing roles for their status and well-being, and to ask how external agencies might promote further change.

Violence against women has been repeatedly exposed and condemned by feminist groups, NGOs and human rights activists. The problem is certainly not new. Although the discourse is fierce and anger is profound among many Bangladeshi women, numerous barriers still prevent identifying and exposing gender violence ...

Of central importance to the report is the idea of an entry-points: development activities that CARE staff can use to initiate or accelerate the empowerment process at the community level. Particular attention has been given to the Farmer Field School, a group-based approach that has been employed by a number of CARE projects during the last decade. An important question that is addressed in Section 3 of this report is: has the Farmer Field School been an effective entry point for empowerment in Bangladesh?