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Many factors influence children’s development and mental health – the environments they are raised in (ie, home, school), the relationships they build and the experiences they have. Evidence suggests that play-based learning in these early years is a powerful approach to promoting healthy development and improving children’s potential for learning later in life. Happiness and wellbeing grow simultaneously with discovery, competence and mastery. Children learn naturally when they are provided with safe, stimulating spaces, where they are listened to, and valued as an individual entity.
Globally, early childhood development is a priority under Sustainable Development Goal 4.2, which aims to …
In order to achieve Goal 16 of the Sustainable Development Goal (SDGs), countries must ‘provide access to justice for all and build effective, accountable and inclusive institutions at all levels’.
More specifically, under SDG Target 16.3, countries must promote the rule of law at the national and international levels and ensure equal access to justice for all. One of the ways progress towards achieving this target is officially monitored is by measuring the proportion of victims of violence who reported their victimisation to competent authorities in the past 12 months (SDG Indicator 16.3.1).
In the past 40 years, …
Rahima and Kashem started their business at the age of 50. The couple sells clothes in a van on a busy street in Kishoreganj, Bangladesh. These were the same streets where they would beg before.
Both Rahima and Kashem have visual impairments. They spent the majority of their lives in poverty. Their families could barely support them, and they were never able to find work they could do.
When the couple started their business, they thought about what could make it easy for them. The wholesale market of clothes is far from their home, so they bought a van …
The decreasing number of women workers can be attributed to a number of factors, but key among those are a lack of decent working conditions and a lack of adequate skill development. The industry has not ensured equal opportunities in supervisory roles, which has led to men holding the majority of supervisory positions.
95% of line supervisor jobs are held by men. Women are often not able to enter mid-management positions in the factories as employers often have a preconceived notion that women are incapable of handling these roles.
Read more: The garment industry needs more women leaders
Women …
Toilets. Do you have one?
If you have access to a well-equipped toilet in your home, office, or neighbourhood, you are luckier than half of the world. Almost 4.5 billion people still do not have access to a safe toilet. This has a price – poor sanitation costs the world USD 260 billion every year.
Bangladesh is a role model for safe sanitation. There are toilets everywhere, of every possible kind. Open defecation has reduced from 34% to almost zero over the past two decades, and having a toilet has become a status symbol in remote areas. Here are five …
People living in extreme poverty also lack access to food, education, and the resources and skills needed to develop a sustainable livelihood like financial services and access to available social services. Children born in these families get trapped in this cycle, with limited access to proper nutrition, sanitation, and education. Girls face even greater challenges such as child marriage and its subsequent health implications.
BRAC’s evidence-based, multifaceted Graduation approach provides a pathway out of extreme poverty that benefits participants’ entire households, including their children, by addressing their multidimensional needs. It connects families to essential social protection programmes and enables …
The COVID-19 pandemic took a dangerous turn in Bangladesh in July 2021, and the country witnessed over 12,000 infected cases and 200 deaths daily. As Eid-ul-Azha approached, the key question was: how could we ensure the safety of millions of people in a densely-populated country like Bangladesh, where mimicking western policies such as social distancing may not work?
Eid-ul-Azha in Bangladesh is celebrated with a unique tradition of organising seasonal cattle markets. Millions of buyers and sellers from across the country gather in these markets to buy or sell sacrificial livestock, especially cattle.
These markets are packed – …
Mental health refers to the emotional, psychological, and social wellbeing of people and communities, and is the interaction between psychological, biological, social and environmental factors. Good mental health is an enjoyment of life, the ability to manage hardship and stress, having goals and fulfilling potential, and having good relationships. We all have mental health, ie, a state of mental wellbeing, in every stage of life – from birth to old age. It affects how we think, feel, and behave, and influences how we relate to others, manage stress, and make choices.
Mental health is not a fixed state, because …
Many of BRAC’s schools reported 90% attendance in the first week of reopening. While this can be partly attributed to the excitement of schools reopening, and there are still significant challenges ahead in terms of keeping students engaged and addressing education gaps, it is an exciting start.
What are the likely reasons behind the high attendance?
One is teachers.
Teachers brought school to doorsteps during the pandemic. This was vital for BRAC’s students, many of whom are the first to attend school in their families. Students often do not have family members to support them with learning at home, …
Bangladesh had an export value of USD 34 billion in 2019, as the world’s second-largest exporter of apparel products (Export Promotion Bureau, 2020). The growth in the RMG sector has significantly contributed to women’s empowerment and employment in the country. According to The Global Economy, the latest female labour force participation rate In Bangladesh is 36.37 percent (2019). Women comprise 70% of all RMG workers in Bangladesh, yet most of them have remained unbanked (ERMG Project, BRAC). Although RMG workers are included in the labour force, countless women are not a part of financial …
Initial predictions of learning loss from COVID-19 paint a dire picture. Studies conducted in Karnataka, India, show close to a year of learning loss as a result of the pandemic. Research conducted four years after the 2005 Pakistan earthquake found students affected by three months of school closures were catching up on the equivalent of 1.5 years of schooling. There is evidence for the effectiveness of mitigation measures however, with remediation potentially able to reduce long-term learning loss by half.
The challenge of reopening schools is two-fold: first, maximise the safety of students and teachers amid …
Floods and cyclones are the most common natural disasters in Bangladesh, a low-lying country situated in a delta. Naturally, the country has had to adapt.
Existing challenges are worsening however, with the rising impacts of climate change. Cyclones have intensified – every year, severe cyclonic storms uproot millions of people’s lives.
Bangladeshi coasts were hit by a super cyclone in 2020, uprooting the lives of 2.6 million people. The year before that, Cyclone Fani – with gusts of 127mph – caused damages worth USD 4.5 million. In 2018, Cyclone Titli, caused landslides in southern Bangladesh, killing at least four …