The Report Originally published in Dhaka Tribune

The initiative aims to help women and young girls of Bangladesh build skills in micro-enterprise development

Girls and young women living in the country’s urban areas will be imparted training to build their skills on micro-enterprise development against the backdrop of large-scale job losses due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

The Local Government Division (LGD), Commonwealth and Development Office FCDO, and the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) on Tuesday jointly began a specially designed training program targeting around 21,000 young girls and women of the country.

One of the government’s flagship initiatives, Livelihoods Improvement of Urban Poor Communities Project (LIUPCP), is implementing the training program titled “Handling the Post Covid-19 Challenges in Micro-Enterprise Management” in collaboration with the Institute for Inclusive Finance and Development (InM).

Addressing an online inaugural ceremony of the training program on Wednesday, UNDP Bangladesh Resident Representative Sudipto Mukerjee said: “It’s often a challenge for poor women to decide what to do with grant money for sustainable economic recovery. 

“I believe this exclusively designed training program will make that investment effective by generating more employable skills, gainful employment and a modest income for those poor families.” 

Chaired by Abdul Mannan, national project director and joint secretary of the LGD, Dr Jahangir Alam Khan, InM governing body Member, Yugesh  Pradhanang, technical advisor and project manager (acting) of the LIUPCP, and Ashekur Rahman, assistant resident representative of UNDP Bangladesh also spoke on the occasion.

This training will give participants valuable insights into the most contemporary issues of enterprise promotion initially for expert staff trainers who will cascade the training to more than 800 community facilitators and 20,000 beneficiaries on the ground across 20 city corporations and municipalities in phases.