The management team and senior staff of FAO Bangladesh – together with Economic Relations Division (ERD), GoB - took part in the first training on “Gender Equality and Women Empowerment”, organized by FAO Bangladesh at the Hotel Westin, Dhaka on 16 April, 2015.

The session, facilitated by Ms. Soma Chakrabarti, Gender Specialist, highlighted the relevance of gender considerations in agricultural and food security programmes, with particular reference to the FAO Gender Equality Policy (2012)

It was sponsored by the FAO TCP activity with ERD on “Strengthening Capacity for Integrating Gender and Socio-economic issues” in food security programmes.

In opening the discussion, Mr. Mike Robson, FAOR, explained that gender is a central consideration in FAO’s work, particularly in a rural setting.  He cited examples of a productivity programme (from outside Bangladesh) where technologies introduced were successful, but ultimately were not adopted because the work to implement them fell disproportionately on women. Also, we encourage women to attend training events or community consultations, and we are happy to meet a 50% target participation, but women may do this by getting up earlier in order to complete normal chores, again adding to the burden.  It is hard to imagine a project activity of FAO in Bangladesh which does not have some component with a gender angle – whether nutrition improvement through homestead gardening for pregnant and lactating women, or the need for gender-disaggregated statistics relating to food security.  He concluded by committing to identify resources to carry out studies to examine gender aspects of technology implementation. He also speculated about the possible benefit of adding gender awareness (based on modules developed by HQ) as a pre-assignment certification for all consultants visiting Bangladesh (similar to the field security certification required by the UNDSS).
 
In her speech, Ms. Sultana Afroz, Joint Secretary, ERD highlighted government’s initiative in upholding the issue of gender equality and women empowerment as equal human rights for cross sectorial people. She said that positive actions by government and private sectors and employment in RMG sector have boosted women employment rate in the country. She stressed that ‘Women Development Policy 2011’ complements to increase the status of women leading to acceleration of growth and long term sustainability of the country’s development. She thanked FAO Bangladesh for stepping in to mainstream women, consequently increase food production, and improve nutrition.      

Closing remarks were also made by Mr. Md. Ashadul Isalm, Additional Secretary, ERD, and Ms. Begum Nurun Naher, Consultant, FAO. The facilitator commended the enthusiasm and lively participation from those attending throughout the session.