Bangladesh: Extension, Gender and Nutrition Landscape Analysis

Abstract

This landscape study documents several initiatives that have been implemented by the Government of Bangladesh, agricultural universities, research institutes, development, and non-governmental organizations. The gender, nutrition, and extension related activities four agricultural universities, almost all agricultural research and training organizations, and a good number of non-governmental and development organizations were reviewed. Activities of DAE are also documented thoroughly, as the department is implementing several projects that have deep connections with gender, nutrition and extension. These include the ANGel project as well as the Nutrition and Food Security through Integrated Agricultural Development and the Agriculture Growth and Employment program. These projects train male and female farmers and their office staffs to enhance their working capacity and create gender and nutrition awareness. Agricultural research institutes only do sporadic research on gender and nutrition issues. However, research on bio-fortification is contributing to enrich nutrients in agricultural produce. Research organizations’ extension activities are not significant but they do collaborate with DAE. Government run research and training centers, particularly RDA, has distinctly focused gender components in their research and training activities. At present, agricultural universities do not offer distinct course related to gender and nutrition at undergraduate level but there are some courses at the Masters level. Universities have research centers that manage research projects but there is no mandate for carrying out gender and nutrition related research. Bangladesh Agricultural University and Bangabahdu Sheik Mujibur Rahman Agricultural universities have extension and outreach centers, but others do not. Non-governmental and development organizations are a bit ahead in addressing gender and nutrition issues. However, they are mostly project based and lack upscaling strategies, which would be crucial to generating greater impact. As an outcome of an interactive workshop with four different stakeholder groups, seventeen key points were identified for evaluating a project whether it can be considered as good practice or not. Accordingly, a couple of projects have been presented as good practices in this report. Every participant recognized the importance of collaboration for effective project implementation. Workshop participants reported that collaboration is must among education, research and development organizations but this may take time. Collaboration may begin with gaining an understanding of each other, which this landscape study is intended to help with, and it may require spending time at the organization level. The benefit of getting to know the organizations are equally valuable in terms of optimizing action design. Innovative approaches through collaborative efforts are necessary for organizational growth, for addressing technical challenges and institutional adaptation. The landscape study revealed that agricultural extension in Bangladesh has untapped potential for integrating gender and nutrition as part of a holistic development strategy. Insight were drawn from several initiatives working on gender and nutrition integration throughout Bangladesh. It is evident that more multidisciplinary action research is needed to fulfill existing development gaps in gender incorporation in agriculture. At organizational level, there should be a clear organizational mandate in mainstreaming gender and nutrition within agriculture and advisory services. Some agriculture interventions are explicitly found to be demand driven, gender responsive, nutrition sensitive, climate smart, etc. The key challenge is disconnection among the service providers and the subsequent programs. There seems to be competition over resources instead of collaboration. The lack of common understanding also deprives getting benefit from joint action planning. The supportive policy alignment among extension service providers supporting collaboration will also create a favorable environment to scale up agriculture intervention. To do so, it is important to create a supportive environment through a strong consensus and commitment on integrating gender and nutrition within agricultural extension enriched with effective interventions for development. Coordination and implementation actions will work in synergies towards gender equity and nutritional security within the broader scope of agriculture. It is important to mainstream gender and nutrition into the curriculum of educational institutions, make them a research priority and anchor them as organizational mandates. Attempts are needed in bridging the gap in combining gender and nutrition policies, programs and projects within agriculture. Gender mainstreaming in nutrition within agriculture thus can act as a key tool in strengthening gender nutrition linkage and the enlightenment process through recognizing women contribution in agriculture and household nutritional security.