Reducing vulnerability for the extreme poor in Bangladesh’s chars: M4C's experience of applying market systems

BEAM Grab the Mic webinar

Date: 
Tuesday 5 February 10.00 GMT

Speakers: 
Dr Syeda Zinia Rashid, Senior Programme Officer, Embassy of Switzerland, Bangladesh
From Swisscontact Bangladesh:
S M Mahmuduzzaman, Team Leader M4C / Jannat Adib Chowdhury, Manager, Knowledge Management and Cross-cutting Themes, M4C / Anirban Bhowmik, Country Director

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How M4C has used market systems to help the extreme poor cope with vulnerability

Over M4C’s seven years of implementation it has collected evidence of how various interventions have helped people in the chars to build capital, reduce contextual vulnerability and attract more private investment.

M4C has worked to combine the sustainable livelihood approach and Market Systems framework to assess the validity of M4C’s work. The webinar will present its findings, focusing on:

• how M4C triggered market system changes in the very thin markets context of the northern char regions of Bangladesh
• what prompted M4C to investigate its covert and profound secondary impacts, beyond income generation
• how M4C explored evidence of decreased vulnerability, and increased resilience, among the target populace as a result of the project’s activities
• how the chars’ contextual vulnerability diminished when improvements made them more attractive to private sector investment

We will also hear the funder’s perspective on M4C’s impact and its relevance for future investments.

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Background on M4C

Making Markets Work for the Jamuna, Padma and Teesta Chars (M4C)

M4C is a project mandated by the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC) and Ministry of Local Government, Rural Development and Cooperatives, Government of the People’s Republic of Bangladesh.

Chars are riverine land, susceptible to erosion and soil disposition, which remain disconnected from mainland either seasonally or throughout the year. Economic opportunities for the people living in the char areas are severely constrained due to geographical isolation, lack of access to basic services, weak markets and the effects of climatic hazards such as floods.

M4C’s aim is to reduce poverty and vulnerability of char households by facilitating market systems that enhance opportunities for income generation. By June 2017 M4C had helped 92,000 char households in ten districts of northern Bangladesh with an additional income of BDT 11,000/household.

Swisscontact, in collaboration with Rural Development Academy (RDA) Bogra, continues to implement M4C in Gaibandha, Sirajganj and Kurigram districts until December 2019

Additional Information:

• M4C on the Programme Index

• Swisscontact M4C: gaining traction in Bangladesh's chars

• Monitoring program progress - the case of making markets work for the Jamuna, Padma and Teesta chars in Bangladesh