Bangladesh

Inside Asea Begum's home, shelves teem with jars containing pulses, grains, spices and dried biscuits. A little girl runs in with a small plastic bottle that Begum fills with cooking oil in exchange for a few coins.
Asea Begum runs a small grocery store out of her one-room house in the Mymensingh district of northern Bangladesh. The store is a primary source of income for Begum, and allows her to provide for her family.
Not long ago, however, Begum and her family ate just one meal a day, consisting of plain rice and a few pieces of chili. Her children were always hungry and her husband, who pulls a rickshaw all day, was continually exhausted.
All this changed when Begum received a loan of 6,000 Bangladeshi Taka (about US$85) from her local community development committee. The loan allowed her to start a small grocery business, and thereby signicantly increase her income. After repaying the loan, she also borrowed cash to buy goats, which she raises and sells in front of her house.

For the first time in the history of Bangladesh, a woman has overseen municipal elections, ensuring their accordance with electoral laws and providing guidance to presiding officers.
Jesime Tuli, who holds more than three decades of experience in the country’s Election Commission, last year managed and executed the elections, upholding the rules of the Commission.
Her conduct was hailed as courageous, honest and dedicated by various international and domestic observer groups, national media and the Commission.
"I ask all women to think of themselves as officers and not women officers," Tulli said. "If we keep that in mind many of the challenges we face today as women can be overcome."

Tens of thousands of primary and secondary school children across Bangladesh are to go online from their desktops through a nationwide programme bringing new technology to school classrooms.
About 80,000 children, aged 11 to15 years, will receive tuition in equipped with a laptop, projector, speakers and internet connectivity as a result of a joint effort by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and the Government of Bangladesh.
The joint effort to spread information access throughout Bangladesh's education system has so far brought multimedia classrooms to about 1,000 schools with an additional 22,000 secondary schools going online within two years, and 60,000 primary schools within five years.

The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) has been supporting the revitalization of rural justice in Bangladesh by training local public officials and members of village communities in administration of official criminal and civil proceedings.
UNDP's rural justice project, with financial support from the European Union, strengthened the operation of village courts in areas where the previous dispute resolution system, based on the Shalish tradition, depended largely on informal decision-making that could often be swayed by vested interests.

Bangladesh's location makes it one of the most vulnerable countries in the world to environmental disasters. Its giant network of rivers and vast low-lying flood plains make it both fertile and subject to erosion from flood, drought, and storms. As a result, protective coastal greenbelts, in the form of natural vegetation, can make the difference between life and death during severe weather and increasingly frequent, and deadly, cyclones. Mangrove forests, in particular, are critical to providing this necessary defense thanks to their intricate root systems.

In November 2007 - Cyclone Sidr tore through the coast of Bangladesh, killing almost 4,000 people, leaving millions homeless and destroying the livestock, crops, farming equipment and fishing boats essential for people's livelihoods. In the days and weeks that followed Sidr's destruction, a massive relief effort kicked into action. The Government of Bangladesh, along with UNDP and other international partners, responded swiftly with help ranging from the provision of food and safe drinking water to emergency shelter kits.

21 June - The small island of St Martin’s, in the southernmost part of Bangladesh, is home to a composite mosaic of life. On land, the island’s fine sand beaches are a vital nesting place for sea turtles, and the forests that line the shore are home to a myriad of bird species. Below the surface of the water is rich ecosystem coral and marine life for which Bangladesh – the land of water – is famed.

26 April - It is 8:30 a.m. in the village of Matiranga, in the Chittagong Hill Tracts of Bangladesh; school is about to start. The Hill Tracts are one of the most diverse regions in Bangladesh, home to around 1.5 million people and many different indigenous communities.

03 November, 2009 - Electoral reform is an ongoing process in Bangladesh, and one that UNDP has been involved with for some time, including the unprecedented registration of 81 million voters from all walks of Bangladeshi life in 2008.

24 August, 2009 - The programme is steering funds and opportunities toward initiatives such as pre-primary education, apprenticeships and job-training.

10 July, 2009 - In 2007, Cyclone Sidr hit Bangladesh, a densely populated developing country that is buffeted by increasingly worse cyclones, floods and monsoons. A UNDP-supported project is working not just to rebuild homes for the poorest and most vulnerable but also set innovative building standards.