Women in Bangladesh have come a long way in attaining gender equality, and the country is frequently portrayed as a success case for women’s empowerment. Starting from decades base in the early 80s, today girls are at par with boys in completing education up to higher secondary level. Before the days of the ready-made garments (RMG) industry, women’s participation in the formal economy was minimal and their back-breaking work in the informal economy was invisible. Capitalising on the abundant female labour force, Bangladesh has become the second-largest RMG exporter. Women’s labour force participation has doubled in the last couple of decades. The country ranks 50th out of 153 countries in the 2020 Gender Gap Index (GGI), just above the United States and way ahead of all other South Asian and most African nations.
Still, the path ahead is even longer. Disaggregation of GGI demonstrates that the high ranking of Bangladesh primarily stems from the “political empowerment” component of the index; two-decades-long high-level female leadership, notably that of the Prime Minister, combined with reserved seats for women in the national parliament and the local government, has placed Bangladesh in the 7th position on this component. But, in the rest of the GGI components—economic participation and opportunity, educational attainment, health and survival, Bangladesh does not perform any better than other developing countries. The country is one of the worst performers in economic participation and opportunity.
The low economic status of women, as well as the underreporting of their economic contribution, is closely related to sticky gender norms in our society. Bangladesh is one of the highest rates of child marriage in the world. Violence against women is rampant; two out of three ever-married women experience some type of partner violence in their lifetime, half of them faced violence in last one year. Women also feel restricted in their freedom; in the BIGD Youth Survey, only 40% young women said that they have freedom of physical movement, and about a third said that they can freely choose their spouse.
These statistics raise the question why the success in female education up to higher secondary level does not translate to meaningful socio-economic empowerment of women and what does it take to empower them. We also wonder what real impact the presence of so many powerful female leaders have on women’s political empowerment and attainment of their rights. Finally, what are the pathways through which socio-cultural and religious norms and values affect women’s empowerment and gender equality. Our gender research focuses on these three interlinked areas:
BRAC Uganda is using para-skilled volunteer community health workers (CHWs) to extend the reach of the existing health system to underserved communities. The objective of this study is to evaluate, using a randomized control trial (RCT), the effectiveness and cost-effectiveness...
This experimental study is testing if depression therapy and cash transfers can break the cycle between poverty and mental health problems among young females. The intervention is implemented within the BRAC's Empowerment and Livelihood for Adolescents (ELA) program in 100...
This experimental study in Uganda (Wakiso area, Jinja town and in Iganga) seeks to investigate how barriers in access to information affect search efforts, labour outcomes and aspirations of young jobseekers taking their first step in the job market, and...
The refugee population of Uganda has been growing since 2013, currently amounting to a staggering 1.3 million. Though Uganda stands out in refugee hospitality, this huge inflow of refugees can place a lot of pressure on the country’s healthcare system. Against...
This feasibility study aims to develop and test the acceptability and feasibility of a mHealth app to deliver BA psychological intervention for youth within the Empowerment and Livelihood for Adolescents (ELA) programme in Kampala and Wakiso district of Uganda. It…
This study aims to identify the potential to scale up a program for adolescent girls and young women (AGYW) through partnerships with the government school system (and potentially, other providers) in an after-school setting in Mityana and Mubende districts of…
This study aims to investigate the barriers to women’s leadership roles in VSLAs in the Central, Western, Eastern and Northern regions of Uganda. A cross-sectional assessment in the formative phase will use a sample of 400 VSLAs to (i) analyze the…
This study will investigate the impact of BRAC’s Ultra Poor Graduation (UPG) program on poverty, livelihood, food security, and social participation outcomes of people with disabilities and their families in Kiryandongo, Gulu, Nwoya and Oyam districts of Uganda. It also…
This study will investigate the impact of BRAC’s Ultra Poor Graduation (UPG) program on poverty, livelihood, food security, and social participation outcomes of people with disabilities and their families in Kiryandongo, Gulu, Nwoya and Oyam districts of Uganda. It also…
This experimental study is being implemented in Masaka, Mukono, Mityana, Iganda, Mbale, Jinja, Kabarole, Kasese, and Kyenjojo districts of Uganda. It aims to assess the role of childcare services in improving women’s labour market outcomes and understand the role of…
This cross-sectional analysis assessment will involve preparation, delivery and analysis associated with household survey and focus group discussions (FGDs) across four refugee and host communities in Uganda. The World Bank will work with the office of the Prime Minister (OPM),…
This cross-sectional analysis assessment will examine how populations in Sierra Leone, Uganda, and Tanzania respond to and cope with the profound shock to their lives and livelihoods caused by Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic. The objective is to generate new evidence, which…
Many development programs that attempt to disseminate improved technologies are limited in duration because of external funding constraints or an assumption of impact sustainability, but there is limited evidence on whether and when terminating such programs is efficient. We provide…
This assessment in a formative phase was implemented between Feb-Mar 2021 in 23 districts of Uganda. It documented the level of representation of women in village saving and loans association (VSLAs) and the correlations of female leadership with members’ satisfaction…
This article analyses the factors associated with the educational and career aspirations of 2,473 young women and girls 10-19 in Bo, Moyamba, Kambia, and Port Loko districts in Sierra Leone. Findings indicated that over three-quarters of the study, respondents aspired…
This cross-sectional assessment surveyed 1,115 firms and 2,883 employees between 2018 and 2019 in the Central, Western, and Eastern regions of Uganda to understand the importance of the rental market to productivity in developing countries. It argues that rental market…
The Innovating for Maternal and Child Health in Africa (IMCHA) initiative implemented research to improve maternal, newborn, and child health and adopted a research model that was composed of: Principal Investigator of an African institution; Co- Principal Investigator affiliated with…
The authors study how credit constraints affect access to a remedial education program for girls. An unconditional cash transfer was given to randomly selected households, then measured their Willingness To Pay (WTP) for the program. In the control group average…
Harmful social norms often persist despite legal and economic sanctions against them. Can the abandonment of a harmful norm be facilitated by the presence of a “mildly harmful” alternative that may act as a stepping stone in the medium run?…
This multilevel mixed-effect model estimated the influence of social recognition on Community Health Promoter’s (CHPs) performance by following 4,050 CHPs serving 134 BRAC branch offices in Uganda from 2016 to 2018. The findings show how the presence of an award-winning…
Leveraging a regression discontinuity (RD) design, this study evaluated the impact of the BRAC’s Agricultural Extension Program that was rolled out in Uganda in 2008 on forest loss. A sample of 7,206 households residing in 417 villages was surveyed successfully…
School closures are a common short-run policy response to viral epidemics. The authors study the persistent post-epidemic impacts of this on the economic lives of young women in Sierra Leone, a context where women frequently experience sexual violence and face…
To evaluate how the social structure of village economies affects policy implementation by local agents, this experimental study followed 1,714 workers from disadvantaged settings in 119 villages in Uganda between 2012 and 2014. Findings show that delivery agents favour their…
Through this experimental design, 3,522 females 14-20 from 150 communities in Iganga, Jinja, Kampala and Mukono district of Uganda were followed from 2008 to 2012 to assess the impact on women’s socioeconomic empowerment. Results found the BRAC’s Empowerment and Livelihood…
