Bangladesh : Institutionalizing Gender Equality Practices in the Local Government Engineering Department

Project Name

Institutionalizing Gender Equality Practices in the Local Government Engineering Department

Project Number

51319-001

Country / Economy

• Bangladesh

Project Status

Closed

Project Type / Modality of Assistance

• Technical Assistance

Source of Funding / Amount

TA 9575-BAN: Institutionalizing Gender Equality Practices in the Local Government Engineering Department

Source	Amount
Japan Fund for Prosperous and Resilient Asia and the Pacific	US$ 2.00 million

Strategic Agendas

• Inclusive economic growth

Drivers of Change

• Gender Equity and Mainstreaming
• Governance and capacity development
• Partnerships

Sector / Subsector

• Energy / Energy sector development and institutional reform

• Transport / Transport policies and institutional development

• Water and other urban infrastructure and services / Urban policy, institutional and capacity development

Gender

Gender equity theme

Description

The goal of this JFPR TA is to build the capacity of executing and implementing agencies in delivering quality gender equality results from the central to the decentralized levels of operations. In particular, the TA will support the Local Government Engineering Department (LGED), a pioneer in mainstreaming gender both at the organizational and operation levels, strengthen their operational capacity to deliver effective gender equality results. The TA will also study the existing best practices at the central level and propose possible ways to translate these to the decentralized levels of LGED operations. Lastly, the TA through studying enabling mechanisms that have facilitated the mainstreaming of gender into policies, institutional structures, programs, and projects will explore ways to replicate and expand the LGED practices to other EA and IAs.

Project Rationale and Linkage to Country/Regional Strategy

The Local Government Engineering Department (LGED) is responsible for designing and implementing rural, urban, and small-scale water resources infrastructure across the country. Its long history of integrating gender concerns into its areas of operation is perhaps unparalleled among Bangladesh government institutions of similar size and importance. A case study included in a 2013 Asian Development Bank (ADB) publication, tracing the institutionalization of gender mainstreaming in ADB's executing and implementing agencies and in sector and line agencies of the government, encapsulates the LGED's experience. Women's empowerment as an LGED concern was first reflected in its Gender Equity Strategy and the related action plan for 20022007 (phase 1), updated in 2008 to cover the period 20082015 (phase 2) and in 2016 for the 20162021 period (phase 3). The strategy is aligned with the National Women Development Policy (2011) and its main goal is to ensure gender equity in all LGED operations, including project activities, where it can be achieved through the sustainable participation of an empowered workforce and enabled communities.

The Gender and Development Forum of LGED plays a central role of ensuring that gender equity is addressed and achieved at all levels of operations of LGED. The Forum facilitates the sharing of experiences and lessons learned across projects in LGED. It is mandated to play a role in the planning of various projects by reviewing development project proposals (DPPs). It is chaired by the additional chief engineer (implementation), and has a senior woman engineer as the secretary. The project directors and women engineers of various projects are its members. Its budget is provided by various projects. However, without its own staffing structure and dedicated revenue budget, working effectively to achieve the level of results that the LGED is capable of is challenging.

In this context, the LGED Gender forum with support at both the central and decentralized levels, can become an effective and invigorating platform to move the gender agenda forward in line with the government's commitment to women's empowerment and gender equality. Furthermore, capitalizing on their own experiences and best practices in gender mainstreaming, LGED can be the example other EAs and IAs can draw on to institutionalize gender mainstreaming into their respective organizations.

Impact

Women's access to and benefits from infrastructure resources and social services increased.

Project Outcome

Description of Outcome

Effectiveness in delivering gender equality and social inclusion results improved.

Progress Toward Outcome

On track

Implementation Progress

Description of Project Outputs

Capacity of LGED at central level strengthened

Capacity of LGED senior staff and gender committees in 64 districts strengthened

Knowledge sharing and partnerships among various agencies in gender mainstreaming increased

Status of Implementation Progress (Outputs, Activities, and Issues)

The TA is on track to achieve the outputs. Under outputs 1 and 2, trainings have been completed at LGED central and district levels and for output 3, ca national workshop was conducted on LGED TA and the strategies for the other EAs are developed. The GIMS system for LGED developed and is being pilot tested.

Geographical Location

Nation-wide

Summary of Environmental and Social Aspects

Environmental Aspects

Involuntary Resettlement

Indigenous Peoples

Stakeholder Communication, Participation, and Consultation

During Project Design

During Project Implementation

The TA has held consultations with other EAs working on gender and development as well as relevant LGED units and officials.

Business Opportunities

Consulting Services

A firm will also be recruited using the quality- and cost-based selection method (90:10 quality to cost ratio). ADB will engage the consultants and carry out procurement following the ADB Procurement Policy (2017, as amended from time to time) and its associated project administration instructions and/or staff instructions.

Procurement

Individual consultants will be recruited through framework agreements wherein shortlisted candidates may be hired as needed for the duration of the agreement to provide international and national inputs as required.

Contact

Responsible ADB Officer

Selim, Nasheeba

Responsible ADB Department

South Asia Department

Responsible ADB Division

Bangladesh Resident Mission (BRM)

Executing Agencies

Local Government Engineering Department

Timetable

Concept Clearance

05 Dec 2017

Fact Finding

16 Nov 2017 to 30 Nov 2017

MRM

-

Approval

27 Aug 2018

Last Review Mission

-

Last PDS Update

14 Dec 2022

Funding

TA 9575-BAN