For more than a decade, CARE has been promoting farmer field schools in Bangladesh as a means of supporting the livelihoods of poorer households. But during this period, the organization has never asked how farmers are already learning and how this might affect the outcomes of specific interventions. Drawing on fieldwork mainly conducted in four communities Dinajpur and Thakurgaon districts, this paper explores the nature of agricultural knowledge; investigates the respective importance of learning processes taking place within and at the frontiers of communities; asks how opportunities to extend what is known are shaped by gender and class; and sketches possible implications for future program activities.

This abstract was written for both short (How Farmers Learn) and a long paper (same title authored Howes, M., K. Kar, and B. Bode. Both, short and long versions (long paper is in soft version only) have been professionally edited and ready for dissemination. They are helpful for newcomers to Bangladesh to get a sense of agricultural knowledge shared and disseminated amongst rural men and women. The paper could be of interest to policy makers, practitioners, government officials, and college and university students.

A set of livelihoods indicators monitoring the livelihoods of the poor is a prerequisite to enabling CARE and other development partners to understand the impacts of their programs.

This report, based on the 2004 livelihoods indictor workshop, offers results from the review and assessment of current livelihood indicators used within CARE and also by other external organizations working in Bangladesh. It gives details of the process involved in building a consensus and generating the best set of proxies for ‘Livelihood Indicators,' which meet a number of standard criteria such as validity, measurability, relevance and flexibility.

This report, as a research tool, can help guide development and research organizations in conducting livelihoods assessment or to track the changes in livelihoods of targeted populations.

The report is in English and is available in electronic version.

This document summarizes for CARE Bangladesh and other stakeholders the lessons learned from the implementation of the CARE Livelihoods Monitoring Unit (LMU), which comes to an end in March 2006. This paper highlights the LMU's evolution, its position within the organization and its achievements and failures. It also offers conclusions and recommendations based on lessons learned from LMU activities over time.

With the closure of the LMU, it is timely to document experiences from its implementation for the benefit of future interventions inside the sphere of knowledge management, both within CARE and beyond.

The report has been published in English and is available in electronic version.

CARE Bangladesh is transforming itself into a rights based organisation, where increasing emphasis will be given to raising poor people's awareness of their basic entitlements and improving their access to services. Focussing on a single “slice” of reality, which starts at national level, and then runs down through a district, an Upazilla, a Union, two residential para, and a handful of households, this paper describes the key political, administrative, legal, economic and social institutions that will need to be taken into account as the new approach takes shape. It is the first in the series and sets a broad context for the other more detailed investigations that follow.

This abstract was written for both short (Institutions in Northwest Bangladesh) and a long paper (available in bound form titled “Northwest Institutional Analysis” authored by Howes, M. and Bode, B.). Both, short and long versions have been professionally edited and ready for dissemination. They are helpful for newcomers to Bangladesh to get a sense of how various institutions at different levels operate; the detailed analysis of union and para dynamics could be of interest to policy makers, practitioners, government officials, and college and university students.

Social capital is a key element in the Sustainable Livelihoods Framework that has guided CARE Bangladesh's natural resources activities since the late 1990s. But no explicit attempt has so far been made to define what it is, to consider how it might be promoted, or to determine how it may already have been affected by the various interventions that have been made. This paper, which draws on a number of household case studies from communities where CARE's Go-Interfish and Shabge projects have worked in Dinajpur district, is a preliminary attempt to explore these issues.

This abstract was written for both short (Social Capital in a Rural Community) and a long paper (“titled ”Social Capital in Rural Dinajpur” authored Howes, M. and B. Bode. Both, short and long versions ((long paper is in soft version only) have been professionally edited and ready for dissemination. They are helpful for newcomers to Bangladesh to get a sense of how social capital can be operationalized and understood in concrete ways. The detailed discussion of para and union dynamics (how resources are accessed and bargained over) could be of interest to policy makers, practitioners, government officials, and college and university students.

CARE's Rural Livelihoods Program is exploring ways of improving poor rural people's access to land. This literature review introduces the legal framework through which rights to land are officially defined, and explains the structures and procedures through which they are administered. It is divided into three parts. The first shows how land law and policy have evolved, traces the origins of key institutions, and outlines the major features of contemporary land administration. The second explores how private ownership of land is established, transferred and recorded. The third explores the procedures through which access to public land and water resources are administered.

This abstract was written for both short (Land Policy and Administration) and a long paper (titled: “Land Policy and Administration in Bangladesh: A Literature Review” authored by Howes, M. Both, short and long versions (long paper is in soft version only) have been professionally edited and ready for dissemination. They are helpful for newcomers to Bangladesh to get a sense of how land, pond and water body administration work in reality. The paper has important policy implications as it points to the contradictions within the legal structure and the administration. It could be of interest to policy makers, practitioners, government officials, and college and university students.

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.

This abstract was written for both short (The Changing Role of Women) and a long paper (“titled ”The Role of Women in Agriculture and Related Rural Livelihoods” authored Mallory, E. Both, short and long versions (long paper is in soft version only) have been professionally edited and ready for dissemination. They are helpful for newcomers to Bangladesh to get a sense of how women's role in agriculture and other livelihood activities; the paper could also be of interest to policy makers, practitioners, government officials, and college and university students.

The poor people CARE would like to work with have lacked sufficient access to land and water resources to take full advantage of the technologies that were formerly promoted through the organisation's Farmer Field Schools (FFS). Starting in 2000, attempts have been made to use an initial presence established in an area through FFS to develop new ways of managing local water bodies, where the introduction of more productive methods can be combined with an enhanced role for poorer households. The paper explores a small number of case studies to identify who has won and who has lost as a result of these initiatives, and asks how they might subsequently be organised to maximise the prospects of pro-poor outcomes.

This abstract was written for both short (Securing Access to Water Bodies) and a long paper (same title as the short paper) authored Howes, M. and B. Bode. Both, short and long versions (long paper is in soft version only) have been professionally edited and ready for dissemination. They are helpful for newcomers to Bangladesh interested in pond and water body management and the tremendous complexity involved in any intervention. The detailed discussion of power dynamics that shape such an intervention could be of interest to policy makers, practitioners, government officials, and college and university students.

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.

This abstract was written for both short (Gender Relations in Bangladesh) and a long paper (“titled ”Gender Relations in Bangladesh. The Household and Beyond: Dowry, Women's Property Rights and Salish” authored by Nazneen, Sohela. Both, short and long versions (long paper is in soft version only) have been professionally edited and ready for dissemination. They are helpful for newcomers to Bangladesh to get a sense of the literature on women's rights and how various NGOs are working to advance women's rights. The paper could be off interest to policy makers, practitioners, government officials, and college and university students.

This study is designed to provide CARE Bangladesh with an understanding of the political dynamics that characterize union-level governance in the Northwest of Bangladesh. The analysis focuses on the practices of elites that create systematic barriers and prevent marginalized groups from participating in democratic processes. It examines how political networks and alliances between powerful actors are fostered and used to gain access to public resources. I also emphasize how these resources and benefits are used to build support within local constituencies and provide opportunities for personal gains. A n important part of this study is to highlight the various accepted forms of social control through which local leaders assert their domination.

This paper will be helpful for newcomers to Bangladesh to get a sense of local power dynamics at the union level. It could be of interest to policy makers, practitioners, government officials, and college and university students. The paper (soft copy only) has already been widely distributed and is posted on IDS Livelihood Connect web site.

This review provides background information on the dynamics of chronic and extreme poverty, social protection and safety nets in rural contexts. It aims to focus on gender inequality, social exclusion, rights to services, and governance; elaborating on CARE Bangladesh's shift towards a rights-based approach. Particular attention is given to project initiatives within and outside of the organization that can help CARE work towards these new themes. Two additional themes—environmental vulnerability and research methodology—have also been included following consultations with the CARE Bangladesh project team.

Because much has been written about poverty in Bangladesh, this review has been selective, concentrating on interrelated concepts and identifying various ‘drivers' of poverty within the Bangladeshi context that have a profound impact on people's vulnerability, lack of security and risks to which they are exposed. These factors help us understand the forces causing people to become poor and stay poor.

This review provides examples of a range of approaches and resources upon which CARE can build. It suggests that understanding patterns of shared vulnerabilities might be useful when designing future programs. At the same time, it stresses the removal of these vulnerabilities so that the targeted interventions can become more effective.

This report explores rural-urban interactions and suggests how Bangladesh can take advantage of the synergies to reduce both urban and rural poverty. It focuses on the types of these urban-rural interactions and describes the flows of people in urban and rural areas. It recognizes agriculture as a key element of urban-rural interactions, and describes how livelihoods in this important sector are changing and how they relate to urban-rural transformation.

It examines the flows of goods, investments, information and services as well as natural resources and wastes while also looking at the need for good governance and the incorporation of spatial considerations in planning and policymaking.

It would be useful for development practitioners, policymakers and researchers to identify needs and priorities of the development agenda.

The report is in English and is available in electronic version.

Previous studies have not adequately calculated the causes and effects of improved levels of hard infrastructure, and access to this infrastructure, on markets and higher rural incomes. No micro-level studies have specifically examined the role of physical infrastructure in farm and non-farm development or in promoting urban-rural linkages that can change the food value chain through contract farming arrangement.

To reduce these gaps, this report by the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) examines the causes, impacts, and implications of changes in infrastructure and urban-rural linkages in the northwestern region of Bangladesh as they relate to rural livelihoods and poverty, particularly in the context of women and the landless.

The report includes chapters on changes in infrastructure in Bangladesh over the past two decades; the global impacts of infrastructure development on household income; the impact of infrastructure on women, migration levels and the landless; urban-rural linkages through institutional arrangements resulting from closer connections to markets; and policy implication.

This report provides the wider livelihoods picture of the Northwest region based on the quantitative data of 1600 households distributed across 80 random villages, including qualitative livelihood profiles of 14 surveyed villages. It also highlights the nutritional status of the same 1600 households studied during this period.

It covers a number of themes under the Household Livelihoods Security (HLS) framework. These are mainly the livelihood strategies and assets, access to institutions, effects of gender and ethnicity on HLS, vulnerabilities and coping strategies, and livelihoods outcomes. ‘Gender of the household head' and ‘agro-ecological zone' are the major categories used for data analysis. The findings have also been reported under these aspects.

This report will be useful for development professionals, academicians and organizations working in Northwest Bangladesh.

It is in English and is available in soft form through the CARE Bangladesh website: www.carebd.org

This report, based upon a quantitative livelihood survey conducted in 2002, presents a broad livelihoods picture of Southeast Bangladesh. It attempts to capture the variability in livelihoods by a number of disaggregates—mainly agro-ecological zone, poverty category and sex of household heads. It has been organized according to the Household Livelihoods Security (HLS) framework and highlights different forms of livelihoods assets, dimensions of livelihood strategies, gender and mobility, crisis and coping strategies and seasonal food insecurity.

The findings from this exploratory livelihood analysis will be useful for programming and policy-making initiatives. Development organizations working in the Southeast region will find the information useful in designing and targeting interventions.

This report is available in English and Begali in printed copy. The electronic version is available through the CARE Bangladesh website: www.carebd.org

This report, based on the thematic study, presents an analysis of both indebtedness and migration among vulnerable households in northwest Bangladesh. It draws on CARE's Households Livelihood Security (HLS) framework and focuses upon the dynamics of indebtedness and migration to better understand the livelihood strategies of poor families. It examines debt-incurring behavior within household decision-making. It also inquires into the motives, sources, terms and timing of debt episodes and seeks out patterns of indebtedness among different levels of poor households.

It should be noted, however, that the study was not designed to provide a formal quantitative assessment of the economic impacts the process places on rural livelihoods and cannot be read as doing so.

The material presented in the report raises a number of issues that are relevant for the programming of development interventions by CARE and other development organizations. In particular, it could be an informative material for the micro-finance sector in designing innovative programs so as to protect the poorest and most vulnerable households from entering a downward ‘debt spiral.'

The report is in English and the electronic version has been circulated through the CARE website (www.carebd.org) for external use.

This report highlights a cross-regional comparison of the debt-migration thematic study findings from Northwest and Southeast Bangladesh. It examines how the comparative analyses of quantitative survey data shows significant differences in the nature of livelihoods and provides a pattern of increased availability of credit and present differences between the regions in the incidence of productive and non-productive uses of credit.

In this context, however, it should be noted that the paper was not designed to provide a formal quantitative assessment of the economic impacts the process places on rural livelihoods and cannot be read as doing so.

The material presented in the report raises a number of issues that are relevant for the programming of development interventions by CARE and other development organizations. In particular, it could be an informative material for the micro-finance sector in designing innovative programs so as to protect the poorest and most vulnerable households from entering a downward ‘debt spiral,' resulting from frequent livelihood shocks in context of the specific region.

This report is in English and is available in electronic form.

This report provides the results for the 2005 quantitative livelihoods study in Southeast Bangladesh. It draws on the HLS framework and relates to the use of an asset and access research approach to assessing livelihoods outcome. It covers the results for both cross-sectional and panel analysis of the survey data and helps to define constraints on livelihoods of the poor, including actual changes in livelihoods. The central feature of the analysis presented in the report is the dis-segregation of the survey results by wealth category, agro-ecological zone, participants and non-participants, and gender of the heads of households.

In addition to providing the findings, the report has tried to assess the ‘Asset Based Wealth Index' approach constructed by LMU. It argues for the adoption of an asset and access framework and the adoption of an index that captures both elements of the framework.

The report is highly useful for development partners not only in terms of findings for Southeast livelihoods but also because it acts as a guiding tool for assessing livelihoods outcomes.

This report has been published in English and is available in electronic copy and hard copy.

This report presents the results of the 2004 Northwest livelihoods panel data analysis. It explores the dynamics of livelihoods in the region by focusing on changes in livelihoods assets, strategies and outcome over time.

The report draws on the Households Livelihoods Security (HLS) framework and documents the shift in household status according to asset ownership throughout the last three years, defining clusters of households according to their progression out of poverty, continuance in chronic poverty, or deteriorating livelihood security. It provides explanations for the changes in livelihood profiles and answers questions to why some households were able to improve their livelihood status when the status of some worsened and others remained impervious to change.

The findings of the panel data analysis are useful for development organizations, research institutes and donors working in Bangladesh. They have implication in policy formulation and program designing. The methodology used in the survey is also applicable to similar initiatives in Bangladesh and beyond.

This report is in English and available in both electronic and printed form.

This report, resulting from cross-sectional datasets, provides wide-ranging and detailed quantitative information on livelihoods for a representative sample of households in the CARE Rural Livelihoods Program (RLP) target areas in Northwest Bangladesh.

It presents the findings of the analysis of the cross-sectional data set for 800 households sampled during the 2004 North-West Livelihoods Survey (NWLS) and is broadly structured according to CARE's Household Livelihood Security (HLS) model. It examines the vulnerability context of livelihoods in North-West Bangladesh in terms of households experiencing crisis and the coping strategies employed in response to crisis; explores household asset-holdings in terms of access to human, social, natural and financial capital; examines household livelihood strategies in terms of occupation, income generating activities and expenditure; looks at food security, health security and gender equity as key aspects of household livelihood outcomes; and discusses the results of the research in context and draws out the broader and cross-cutting themes of the specific key findings.

It will be particularly useful for development professionals interested in the use of HLS frameworks for research purposes. Local and international development organizations and academicians will also find the report useful for designing livelihood interventions.

This report is in English and available in electronic and printed form

This report, using qualitative research, explores extreme poverty in the context of Northwest and Southeast Bangladesh. It focuses on ‘emic' perspectives that highlight the multi-dimensional nature of extreme poverty and also gives some thought on how the phenomena/categories of extreme poverty are different from one another.

Overall, based on life history and other qualitative material, it tries to explain how different forms of vulnerabilities influence extreme poverty in different sets of agro-ecological and social environments. The research found that the influence of health shocks—due to inability to work and costs associated with healthcare and medicines—have often been enough to strip a family of assets, remove children from school and into work, and plunge families into severe debt. Life history respondents revealed that extreme poverty was associated with unskilled manual labor. Physical and sexual vulnerability was discovered to be a pervasive problem for extremely poor people, and has significant impacts on women's poverty and well-being. It is also nearly impossible for children of the poorest households to have access to a decent education, despite their parent's commitment to education. And access to most government services (including some relief services) is bribe-based. In addition, ethnicity in the northwest is also included as part of the research work.

This report will be particularly useful for development professionals and policy analysts to review existing policy and design viable interventions to fight against extreme poverty.

This report is in English and is available in electronic version.

During the last few years, CARE has been giving greater emphasis to rights-based approaches and has started to plan a new program for the Northwest of the country that will address discrimination, exploitation and violence against women. This report aims to provide CARE staff with an analytical toolbox that will help them put these policies and plans into practice. The toolbox includes conceptual models, evaluation indicators, and suggestions relating to strategy.

Of central importance to the report is the idea of entry-points development activities that CARE staff can use to initiate or accelerate the empowerment process at the community level. Particular attention is given to the Farmer Field School (FFS), questioning if it has been an effective entry point for empowerment in Bangladesh.

The report is written to help development practitioners analyze their work and develop more effective ways to help people—particularly women and the poor—take greater control of their lives. It should be seen as an entry point to empowerment that is not intended to be a comprehensive or definitive examination of empowerment as it relates to the activities of CARE Bangladesh.

The report also has two sizable annexes that contain diverse readings about empowerment and the FFS, which readers are encouraged to use to form their own conclusions.

CARE Bangladesh documents and disseminates surveys and studies conducted in the field through a series of published reports. The ‘Livelihoods Headlines' series aims to introduce these reports and their findings to practitioners, policy-makers and the wider development community in Bangladesh, by providing a brief and accessible summary of the data and its implications.

This article summarizes the cross-sectional and panel data analyses of the 2004 Northwest Rural Livelihood Survey. The end of this document also provides links and references for readers who need more detailed information.

CARE Bangladesh documents and disseminates surveys and studies conducted in the field through a series of published reports. The ‘Livelihoods Headlines' series aims to introduce these reports and their findings to practitioners, policy-makers and the wider development community in Bangladesh, by providing a brief and accessible summary of the data and its implications.

This article summarizes the mixed impacts of micro-finance on poor households in Northwest and Southeast Bangladesh. The end of this document also provides links and references for readers who need more detailed information.

CARE Bangladesh documents and disseminates surveys and studies conducted in the field through a series of published reports. The ‘Livelihoods Headlines' series aims to introduce these reports and their findings to practitioners, policy-makers and the wider development community in Bangladesh, by providing a brief and accessible summary of the data and its implications.