"Less is Not Enough" Dilemma of Alternative Primary Schooling Opportunities in Dhaka, Bangladesh

This dissertation focuses on low-income rural-urban migrant children and their families in Bangladesh, living in a severe poverty-stricken environment in the capital city, Dhaka. Specifically, it deals with the dilemma of so-called non-formal primary education (NFPE) programs aimed at providing alternative schooling opportunities to children who do not attend regular school in the city. It describes how such programs do not necessarily help children integrate into the country's formal school system, but instead continuously prepares them for the subordinate segment of the society. The study particularly addresses the state-sponsored Basic Education for Hard-to-Reach Urban Working Children (BEHTRUWC) project, and examines its three elements: 1) exclusive membership and the making of "working children," 2) distinction from formal schools and meaning of schooling, and, 3) an implementation model that reflects Bangladeshi social structure. First, the study looks at how the BEHTRUWC project labels its participating children as "working children" (not particularly as students), and provides them with only limited coverage of primary schooling. As a result, children become "working children," not only learning the concept, but also acquiring customs to "act out" as working children. Second, the study problematizes the unique goals and subjects taught at the BEHTRUWC project that ultimately draws clear distinction between its children and formal school students. The children and their parents also realize that their experience in the project would not assure the same level of education as formal schools, or provide them with more skilled and better-paid employment opportunities in the future. Finally, the study examines how the basic pattern of interpersonal relationships so common in Bangladesh is reflected in the daily practices of the BEHTRUWC project. The project's learning centers remain similar to any other places in Dhaka where children feel morally obligated to teachers and others, and thus, through the project, the children gradually recognize their assumed existing position in relation to other people in society. Through shedding light on the relationships, negotiations, and struggles of the people involved in the BEHTRUWC project, this study explores how these different elements of the project generate the unintended consequence for low-income migrant children in Dhaka

MICROCREDIT AND BUSINESS PERFORMANCE IN NIGERIA: THE CASE OF MFI FINANCE ENTERPRISES

This paper investigates the impact of microcredit loan on business performance of Microfinance Institutions (MFI) finance microenterprises in Nigeria. A microenterprise refers to an individual business that consists of less than five employees and is generally organized as a sole proprietorship or family business. The objective of the study was to examine the effects of micro credit on several business performance criteria of MFI clients. Data for the study was derived from both primary and secondary sources. First, a survey of MFI and entrepreneur – clients were undertaken using simple random sampling technique to select our respondent, this was linked to data extracted from the records of MFI to form a panel data. The data obtained was analyzed using multiple regression analysis. The finding reveals a positive relation between microcredit and profit of the microenterprise. The study recommends a wider coverage of microfinance through effective implementation of micro-fund scheme and mandatory business related training for all micro entrepreneurs

Review of the occupational health and safety of Britain’s ethnic minorities

This report sets out an evidence-based review on work-related health and safety issues relating to black and minority ethnic groups. Data included available statistical materials and a systematic review of published research and practice-based reports. UK South Asians are generally under-represented within the most hazardous occupational groups. They have lower accident rates overall, while Black Caribbean workers rates are similar to the general population; Bangladeshi and Chinese workers report lowest workplace injury rates UK South Asian people exhibit higher levels of limiting long-term illness (LLI) and self reported poor health than the general population while Black Africans and Chinese report lower levels. Ethnic minority workers with LLI are more likely than whites to withdraw from the workforce, or to experience lower wage rates. Some of these findings conflict with evidence of differentials from USA, Europe and Australasia, but there is a dearth of effective primary research or reliable monitoring data from UK sources. There remains a need to improve monitoring and data collection relating to black and ethnic minority populations and migrant workers. Suggestions are made relating to workshops on occupational health promotion programmes for ethnic minorities, and ethnic minority health and safety 'Beacon' sites

Bringing Medicine to the Hamlet: Exploring the Experiences of Older Women in Rural Bangladesh Who Seek Health Care

The purpose of this study was to explore the experiences of older women in rural Bangladesh who seek health care. Qualitative methods were used to collect data from 17 older women in Bibirchar Union, Sherpur District, Bangladesh in June 2006. The study is intended to generate findings to help policy makers plan appropriate strategies to improve the health of this highly vulnerable population group. The findings reveal that women’s culturally and socially determined roles greatly impair their health and play an important role in health-seeking behaviour through a complex web of social, economic, religious/cultural and behavioural interrelationships and synergies that pervade every aspect of their lives. Both demand factors—which include age, gender, cost, quality, geographic accessibility, availability of resources, the seriousness of the condition, and traditional and religious beliefs—and supply factors which include health system barriers such as perceived high cost of health services, geographical distance, scarcity of female health workers, understaffing, inadequate supply of drugs, discrimination and disrespectful treatment based on class, age and gender lead to reduced use of health services. The social determinants of health perspective informing the study shapes the conclusion that there is an urgent need for changes to the publicly funded health care system that would make it more accessible to older women in Bibirchar. These changes include ensuring an adequate supply of medications and equipment in the primary health centres, provision of free medications, and training of health service providers in geriatrics. Further, it is recommended that the referral system among the various health services be strengthened, collaboration between traditional health providers and modern health providers be provided, and that spiritual beliefs be integrated into health care provision. Training in how to treat older patients respectfully is recommended for all health providers working in government-funded organizations as is the hiring of more female health care providers. Incentives to attract physicians to work in publicly-funded facilities in rural areas are suggested and provision of free hospital and preventive testing services for older adults. In the longer term, recommendations are made that would increase the status, respect and resources commanded by older women in Bangladesh. These include health promotion programs to change public attitudes about the importance of providing health care to older women, investment in the social development of rural areas in Bangladesh, empowering local communities in health care decision making, and enhancement of economic opportunities for women. Finally a need is identified to redefine health from a limited understanding of it as “the absence of disease” to one grounded in a determinants of health perspective

Challenging the financial inclusion-decent work nexus: evidence from Cambodia's over-indebted internal migrants

In this paper, we question the promotion of financial inclusion, and microfinance specifically, as a means to achieve 'Decent Work' (DW) under the International Labor Organization's (ILO) programme. Drawing upon original research findings from two types of internal migrants in Cambodia, we make a twin contention: first, that excessive levels of microfinance borrowing by garment workers are part-outcome of the failings of the DW programme to engender 'decent enough work', and second, that microfinance borrowing is actually eroding rather than contributing to the prospect of decent work for debt-bonded brickmakers in the country. The data presented on two of the largest sectors contributing to Cambodia's growth in recent decades, enable the paper to show how microfinance and labour precarity are intertwined through the over-indebtedness of workers in both cases. The paper ultimately looks to caution the ILO on its current promotion of financial inclusion and microfinance in particular, stressing the need for significant sectoral reforms before this form of credit can be considered to align with the core principles of the DW programme

Final Report: Informal Worker Organizing as a Strategy for Improving Subcontracted Work in the Textile and Apparel Industries of Brazil, South Africa, India and China

[Excerpt] Recent tragedies in Bangladesh and Pakistan have led to greater public attention on the garment and textile industry. Hence, this study is timely and provides insights into the current working conditions, organizing efforts, and the changing organization and structure of the industry in question. Our central question in this study is the extent to which worker organization can improve monitoring and enforcement of labor standards in subcontracted and home-based work in the garment and textile sectors in Brazil, China, India, and South Africa. Existing research literature suggests that in at least some cases of informalized and casualized work, formation and mobilization of worker organizations can do much in this regard. The research has particularly pointed to the importance of innovative and alternative forms of organization that depart from standard trade union models—in line with the departure of whole sections of the world of work from standard forms of work organization. While suggestive, this literature has been dominated by cases of a single organization in a single country, or in some cases convenience samples of organizations from one or a range of countries. This report thus makes two distinctive contributions. First, it spotlights a set of specific sector-country combinations that have received limited attention at best in previous research. Second, it assembles a systematic comparison of organizing activities in a single sector (apparel and textile) across four countries with very different economies, institutional structures, and histories. This comparison points to some possibilities for generalization to a broader range of countries. At the same time, the study design, itself centered on case studies, builds in important limitations. The four countries in question range in size from large to very large, including the two largest countries in the world by population, China and India. The garment and textile sector, as the conjunction “and” signals, combines a variety of economic units and activities ranging from huge, highly automated textile mills producing standardized outputs to individual home-based seamstresses carrying out custom work. Narrowing the focus to subcontracted and home-based work limits this variety somewhat, but as we will see in all four countries, given the current pervasiveness of subcontracting in this industry, it is not a major narrowing. At the same time, the case study nature of the research, and its limited scale and duration, necessitates a focus on a small number of organizations in countries where organization is relatively advanced (India and South Africa), or on a single productive region in countries where organizations are still at an early, experimental stage (China and Brazil, though in the latter case we were able to supplement the in-depth regional study with a look at organization in a different region as well). The organizations and regions are chosen because of their importance as distinctive examples, and because in their entirety or in key aspects they have remained understudied in previous research. The resulting cases are valuable in their own right, but degree of generalizability across the full clothing and textile sector and the full countries in question is unknown

Pro-poor urban adaptation to climate change in Bangladesh : a study of urban extreme poverty, vulnerability and asset adaption

This dissertation investigates pro-poor urban adaptation to climate change in Bangladesh. Dhaka city, a capital of Bangladesh, is widely recognised to be one of the most climate vulnerable mega cities in the world. Climate change impacts are likely to affect the poorest urban residents disproportionately as having the least capacity to adapt to a changing climate. However, the assertion that the poorest are the most vulnerable to climate change is commonly made as a generalisation, with limited examination of the dynamic and differentiated nature of poverty. This research therefore aims to examine pro-poor urban adaptation in the context of climate variability and change. In analysing climate change vulnerability and asset adaptation from urban extreme poverty, this research identifies a differentiated view of poverty and vulnerability and also provides an analysis of how extreme poor households get access to assets and build asset adaptation strategies. This research found that extreme poor households do their best to adapt to perceived climate changes, but in absence of savings, access to credit and insurance, they are forced to adopt adverse coping strategies. Social policy and social protection could therefore become more of a priority sector for adaptation than it has been so far. This can create opportunities for the poorest to accumulate assets which help them to build asset adaptation or resilience strategies. By reviewing key theories and practices, this research first addresses the question of whether there is any interrelation between poverty dynamics and vulnerability. The research then explores drivers of climate change vulnerability for the urban extreme poor. This research critically analyses autonomous adaptation and planned asset based adaptation in order to build a conceptual framework of pro-poor asset adaptation for the urban extreme poor households and groups. Following this framework, this research aims to identify the individual adaptation practices and role of institutions and policies in supporting or constraining these adaptation practices. This research also examines the role of social policy and social protection for pro-poor adaptation. The research then applies the concepts drawn from a critical literature review to analyse the context of Bangladesh. Thus, the research has conducted household life-history interviews to explore the vulnerabilities and asset adaptation strategies of the extreme poor households. To understand household asset endowments (and their returns) descriptive statistics are derived from secondary sources. In addition to household interviews, key informant surveys, focus group discussions, grey materials and analysis of secondary academic materials were analysed to acquire qualitative information on the role of formal and informal institutions and policies for adaptation practices. The household life-history findings support the idea that poverty traps are likely to be linked to vulnerability. The empirical evidence also shows that there is a clear relationship between vulnerability to the market (exclusion from market opportunities), low asset holdings (and their returns) and ill-health. The slums and squatter settlements in Dhaka city are marked by high levels of physical vulnerabilities in the context of climate change, mainly as a consequence of their high politico-legal and socioeconomic vulnerabilities. The individual adaptation practices are impact-minimising, short lived, ad hoc and even harmful measures because the urban poorest are excluded from formal policies and institutions and in the absence of formal rights and entitlements, the process of facilitating and maintaining patron–client relationships is a central coping strategy for the poorest. The social policy and social protection are found to be effective in facilitating asset adaptation for the urban extreme poor and contribute to greater resilience to climate change. Analysing the empirical evidence through the lens of the pro-poor asset adaptation framework, this research reveals that the asset transfer approach was an effective programmatic intervention for building household adaptation strategies. Social funds and supports to community driven development can enhance the capacity of community organisations to develop small infrastructures that actually stops or greatly reduces flooding. However, challenging the adverse structural context is not a matter of building at a household and collective level assets but also capacity to participate in and influence the institutions from which they have previously been excluded. Attention must be paid to building a strong collective organisation in order to break the existing social order and inequalities. The city and municipal government can create an enabling environment for this grassroots mobilisation by providing services and information, and ensuring their access to the decision making process. A combination of micro (household), meso (community) and macro (city and municipal) level asset-based actions can ensure the long term resilience of extreme poor households and groups

Sportswear Industry Data and Company Profiles: Background information for the Play Fair at the Olympics Campaign

CCC_Background_Company_Profiles_Olympics_Campaign.pdf: 22793 downloads, before Oct. 1, 2020