Helping rural women from Northern Bangladesh transition to formal employment
The Northern Areas Reduction-of-Poverty Initiative (NARI) project, supported by the World Bank, aims to economically empower poor and vulnerable women from the northwestern region by facilitating their access to jobs in the ready-made garment sector. The project has started construction for building dormitories and training centers in three designated sites in Dhaka, Karnaphuli, and Ishwardi Export Processing Zones (EPZ). The construction work is aimed to be completed by February 2014 in Dhaka, March 2014 in Ishwardi and May 2014 in Karnaphuli, Chittagong. The civil works are progressing well and the quality of construction is being diligently maintained.
The NARI project will offer training, transitional housing, counseling and facilitate formal employment in garment factories for around 11,000 women from five northern districts, namely Gaibandha, Kurigram, Lalmonirhat, Nilphamari, and Rangpur. The selected candidates will be facilitated to find employment in three EPZs in Dhaka, Karnaphuli, and Ishwardi. An Information Education and Communication (IEC) Campaign will be launched in the five target districts by March 2014 to consult and communicate with target populations, select the candidates and bring them to the relevant EPZ sites by June 2014 when the training is scheduled to start.
The transitional housing and training facilities will help poor women adjust to migrant life and to their new found employment. The training centers will accommodate cohorts of 300 trainees; the trainings will be for three months period and technical curriculum would include training in cutting, sewing, and quality control. This training will allow women to enter factories as Junior Operators (semi-skilled workers) rather than Helpers (unskilled workers).
The trainees will also receive life skill training covering topics such as adjustment to city life, savings and remittances, safety and security, rights and responsibilities at the work-place, finding appropriate housing and contract negotiation and health among others.
A stipend will be provided to trainees, mainly to teach them financial management and food costs will be deducted from the stipends. The dormitories attached to the training center will accommodate 600 women for a transitional period of six months at a time.
The feasibility assessment for the possible inclusion of Uttara EPZ in Nilphamari as a fourth EPZ in the project is underway and will be completed by December 2013. Baseline studies have been fielded at the five districts. A robust system for monitoring and evaluation and Impact Evaluation has been developed for the project.
The World Bank has approved concessional IDA financing of US$29.29 million for this project. All credits from World Bank are interest free and carry 0.75 percent service charge, with 40 years of maturity period where the first 10 years are grace period.