Nearly 23 per cent of Bangladesh’s total population is aged between 10 and 19. This large population group is termed as adolescents and is considered the most potent source of the country’s future labour force. However, a larger portion of them has limited scope for acquiring knowledge and skills for self-development and participating in income generating activities. Considering the present context, BRAC has implemented a pilot project titled ‘Skills Development Initiatives for Adolescents’ (SDIA) on climate adaptive livelihoods’ in two districts of south-western Bangladesh to promote some agricultural technologies among the adolescents so that they can develop their skills and engage in Income Generating Activities (IGAs). Under this project, 100 adolescent members from different BRAC adolescent clubs were trained on three agricultural technologies namely Fish Feed production (FF), Compost Fertilizer preparation (CF), and Orange Fleshed Sweet Potato cultivation (OFSP). It is believed that these skills would be helpful to develop climate adaptive livelihoods among adolescents in this region. Quantitative data suggested that the training program significantly increased participant adolescents’ knowledge of climate adaptive technology by around 47 per cent. However, the study could not find any significant impact on changing the entrepreneurial ability and aspiration of the participant adolescents. Qualitative findings reveal a positive perception of the participant adolescents regarding knowledge and skills gained from the training. To conclude, the results are supportive to continue the training program for increasing knowledge and develop skills on climate adaptive agricultural technologies among the adolescents in ssouthwesternregion of Bangladesh.
Authors: Reza, Md Hasib; Shatil, Tanvir; Rahman, Md Sajedur; Malek, Mohammad Abdul
Type: Report
Year: 2017
