Finalization of work

21 The amount of information gathered was substantial and consisted of project documents as well as other relevant literature and – above all - the interviews, discussion groups etcetera conducted in the project area. At the initial stage of my work, interviews were conducted with the members of the Technical Assistance team of CDSP-III, representatives of the involved NGO’s and government agencies (Bangladesh Water Development Board, Local Government Engineering Department, Department of Public Health Engineering, Department of Agriculture, Ministry of Land and the Forest Department). After that extensive research was done among the project beneficiaries; i.e. the male and female settlers of the Char areas. Eleven focus group discussions were organized with members of Water Management Groups, the Water Management Association, Farmers Forums, Social Forestry Groups, NGO groups and female Labour Contracting Societies. Furthermore, a courtyard meeting was arranged for women and two land hearings were attended. In total, around 225 people in Boyer Char (45 men and 180 women) participated in focus group discussions. In addition, a small group of female project beneficiaries were subject of case studies (see previous blogs), in order to obtain detailed insight into processes of change and female empowerment due to development interventions. Last but not least, three focus group discussions – with WMG and NGO group members - were organized in CDSP-I and II areas, with the purpose of comparing the impact of different types of interventions and understanding CDSP’s progress through time regarding effectively addressing gender issues. The information gathered in the field proved to be more than sufficient to write a detailed report on the contribution of CDSP-III to the empowerment of women folk in the Char areas. After submitting the draft version of my report, I received useful and – above all – positive feedback from various colleagues, which fortunately showed a great deal of interest in my work. I also organized two meetings; one for project beneficiaries and one for the Technical Assistance team, involved government agencies and NGO’s. During these meetings I presented my findings and organized group discussions, in order for people to raise comments and hence provide me with feedback on my work so far. The meeting with the project beneficiaries was deliberately kept rather informal and small (around 30 people), in order to have a structured discussion in which enough people could get a chance to raise their voice. Especially members of Water Management Groups and other community leaders were selected, in order to assure a certain level of information dissemination after the meeting. The project beneficiaries were overall very pleased with my findings and showed their interest and gratitude. We especially discussed the project’s (and their!) accomplishments over the years, and the things that will need further improvement in the future. Especially the participation of women was notable. The meeting with the Technical Assistance team, the NGO’s and the government agencies proved to be somewhat more challenging, as recommendations were sometimes interpreted as criticisms by certain participants - instead of ways to further improve development initiatives in the future. Furthermore, certain topics - such as dowry – also caused much heated discussion (should dowry be considered a form of violence against women and social illness? what must be done to prevent and minimize the detrimental consequences of dowry for the female population? etcetera). Nevertheless, both meetings proved to be useful for all parties involved and provided me with constructive feedback needed for the finalization of the report. After finalizing my work with CDSP-III, I’ve been involved in the IFAD Appraisal Mission for CDSP-IV as a gender expert. My job was to formulate a gender strategy and individual gender action plans for the implementing agencies. Furthermore, I got to visit the project area again – this time in the company of my parents. Together we explored the different chars developed under CDSP-I, II and III, and the new chars which will be developed in the future by CDSP-IV. This has been a great experience for all of us, and we have my former colleagues and of course the char people to thank for their help and hospitality! 2010-01-05T14:26:30+01:00 After conducting the fieldwork, it was time to analyze all the data collected and finalize the technical report on gender. 78

2010-01-05T14:26:30+01:00