Gender Specialists Corner
Bangladesh Executing Agency (EA) Officials visit Sri Lanka for Lateral Learning on Gender Mainstreaming in Water Supply and Sanitation
Ferdousi Sultana, Bangladesh Resident Mission (BRM) and Nelun Gunasekera, Sri Lanka Resident Mission (SLRM)
 In continuation of previous lateral learning activities initiated by the Gender Specialists of the BRM and SLRM, a visit to Sri Lanka, funded by the Gender and Development Cooperation Fund, was organized in February 2008. A Bangladeshi team of 7 members including 4 Project Directors, EA official, Project Implementation Officer of BRM dealing with water supply, sanitation and water management projects visited Sri Lanka to learn how gender issues are addressed in ADB-supported projects. The Team visited three projects and discussed with the executing agencies, beneficiaries and partner NGOs. These provided the opportunity to understand how communities were involved and benefited from the projects and how the projects contributed towards the empowerment of women. In the debriefing and concluding Seminar, Bangladesh Project Directors shared their experiences. The Social Development and Gender Officer of BRM and Gender Specialist of SLRM supported and participated in the team visit. The overall impact of the visit were:
- enhanced knowledge on lessons and best practices in mainstreaming gender concerns in selected loans on water supply and sanitation, and water resources management in Sri Lanka;
- dissemination of lessons from Bangladesh-based ADB loans in urban water supply, sanitation and water management sectors and
- sharing the experience of the Bangladesh Local Government Engineering Department (LGED) in mainstreaming gender in an institution and infrastructure projects.
More photos
See also Gender Network e-Newsletter Vol.2 No.1
Capacity Building of the Executing Agency
Rokeya Khatun, Bangladesh Resident Mission (BRM)
 A Training course on Gender and Integrated Water Resources Management (IWRM) was designed on the basis of a need assessment exercise conducted through focus group discussion with Bangladesh Water Development Board (BWDB) officials.
The actual training was implemented for 3 days during the fourth week of April 2008 at BRM with the objective to develop a cadre of trainers on gender and integrated water resources management and thereby improving the in-house training capacity of BWDB officials in integrating gender in identification, designing, implementation and monitoring of water sector projects for poverty reduction. Twenty mid-level officials of BWDB participated in the training, 50% of which were female.
The contents of the course contained discussions on sector specific policy issues, MDGs, PRSP as well as guidelines for participatory water management and the gender equity strategy and action plan of BWDB. Participants conducted practice sessions by using various training techniques. Through a participatory evaluation process six officials came out successful to become trainers for future courses on gender and IWRM. As an immediate task these trainers will be conducting training on 'Gender and IWRM' during July and August 2008 in three batches which will be participated by a total of seventy-five entry-level officials (25 in each batch).
Bangladesh Resident Mission (BRM) Participates in Observation of International Women's Day with LCG-Women Advancement and Gender Equality Sub Group
Ferdousi Sultana, ADB BRM
 BRM participated in the observation of the International Women's Day with LCG-Women Advancement and Gender Equality Sub Group on 6 March 2008 at the ICDDR'B Auditorium. The theme was "Investing in women and girls".
Seven grassroots beneficiaries of various projects supported by different development partners spoke of their experience in a panel. Their experience varied from economic empowerment, political empowerment, overcoming violence, labor migration, participation in agriculture etc. One of the members of a Water Management Cooperative Association (WMCA), Ms. Salma Nazrul shared her story on how the WMCA helped her are to overcome the severe problem of water logging and expand agricultural coverage.
The WMCA enabled her to increase her family income and develop leadership skills. She has been elected as a member of the managing Committee. In relation to this, an awareness-raising program was organized by Rupantar, an NGO advocacy on women's empowerment.
ADB contributed towards the participation of Salma and the awareness raising program, and heads of agencies like Ambassadors of Norway and Netherlands, Head of Aid of CIDA, Regional Representative of IOM participated. Mr. Nurul Huda, Deputy Country Director of BRM and the BRM Gender Team participated and supported the organization of the event and participation of Salma.
See also Gender Network e-Newsletter Vol.2 No.1
Bangladesh Resident Mission (BRM) Organized Workshop on Gender and Poverty in Urban Sector Projects
Ferdousi Sultana, ADB BRM
BRM organized a day-long workshop for sharing lessons from the urban sector projects on 11 February 2008. Project Directors, Gender Focal Points, Gender Specialists, selected municipal leaders and representatives of development partners attended.
BRM Country Director, Hua Du welcomed the participants and expressed her concern about growth of urban population vis a vis the inadequate service facilities. She mentioned, despite measures to bring in women in the local government and other service bodies, the capacity of urban local governments and other stakeholders remaining limited in understanding and catering to their needs and ensuring their participation in local governance. Within the complexities in urban poverty, gender dimension calls for careful consideration to make all the initiatives meaningful for all citizens.
Project Directors shared their experience on how they have been addressing gender aspects in the design and implementation and also sought practical suggestions and ideas from others on how to improve the effectiveness of gender dimensions and poverty reduction efforts in the urban sector.
Urban poverty is complex, and clear understanding of gender concepts as well as gender action plans in light of the project's over all goal are to be prepared and implemented. Coordination amongst ADB supported projects need strengthening in light of similar or complementary geographic coverage. Efficiency of existing institutions need to be strengthened instead of formulating new ones for women empowerment. Effective communication materials must be developed and used, and allocation of adequate resources for addressing gender issues along with infrastructure issues need to be ensured.
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Sri Lanka Resident Mission (SLRM): Gender awareness workshop for the Southern Transport Development Project (STDP) staff
The session on financing clean energy for the poor and women discussed gender and poverty focus in energy initiatives and launched ideas for financing mechanisms to support clean energy services. K.V. Ramani, an energy, poverty, gender, and sustainable development expert, and Soma Dutta, Regional Network Coordinator for ENERGIA, moderated the session. See 
