September 23, 2021
BLOG Financial inclusion
Workers in the readymade garments (RMG) industry in Bangladesh have taxing working hours every day. By the time their shifts end, it is usually time to go home and prepare for the next day. In order to access any financial services on a workday, they mostly have to take a leave or travel far, resulting in a pay cut at work. Against this backdrop, BRAC’s client interaction points (CIP) work as a service point for RMG workers to access financial services.
September 19, 2021
BLOG Learning
Schools in Bangladesh reopen this week after the world’s longest shutdown. Prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, BRAC was providing education for almost 750,000 students. During the extended closure, it continued teaching remotely, and ensured that close to 620,000 students graduated from their courses. The remaining students continued learning remotely and, after planning for reopening for months, BRAC opened its doors to 129,000 students this week. Amidst dire predictions of learning loss globally, it is quietly optimistic that its innovative measures to continue learning, combined with a rigorous approach to remediation will get its students back on track.
September 14, 2021
BLOG Environment
With global warming set to intensify in the next decade, climate change adaptation is vital. The new normal must incorporate resilience at the heart of community, infrastructure, planning and policymaking. What would housing look like in the future? Here’s an example from Bangladesh, a country that is already facing the impacts of a warming climate.
September 13, 2021
BLOG Learning
Digital solutions allowed continued schooling during the pandemic, but students without access to the internet were at risk of being left behind. BRAC turned to an understated device for reaching the students in these communities: the feature phone.
EDITOR'S PICKS
July 29, 2021
BLOG History
A jamdani saree graced the French Riviera this month, as actress Azmeri Haque Badhon represented Bangladesh at the Cannes Film Festival. While jamdani is a symbol of sophistication, beauty and grace, and has always travelled across the world, the story behind the weaving technique is not well known - the art of weaving jamdani almost became extinct just decades ago.
April 21, 2021
BLOG Environment, Poverty
This #EarthDay, we explore the Climate Bridge Fund, a unique climate financing mechanism in Bangladesh that supports non-governmental organisations directly responding to people displaced by climate change.
March 16, 2020
March 2, 2020
BLOG Financial inclusion
For three days, I embarked on this journey with a dearth of knowledge on village etiquette, a language barrier (weak spoken Bengali), tainted with urban hues. Yet I was accepted into their homes with open arms and wide-eyed grins. And as we spoke to the families, our preconceived, textbook definitions of hardcore poverty came into question.
February 19, 2020
BLOG Financial inclusion
280 million adults in the private sector globally receive their wages in cash.This poses a risk of losing out on take-home wages for workers. Is wage digitisation the answer?
This year, BRAC’s Frugal Innovation Forum will bring together global practitioners, thinkers, researchers, policymakers and financial ecosystem partners to brainstorm solutions to challenges in financial inclusion, particularly for women, through digital services.
January 23, 2020
Ahead of this week’s selection panel of ‘Sir Fazle Hasan Abed Ashoka Young Changemakers’ we’d like to take a moment to share about the deep roots of Sir Fazle and BRAC’s long-standing relation with Ashoka.