DHAKA: The “Strengthening Women’s Ability for Productive New Opportunities (SWAPNO)” project has been launched in Satkhira and Kurigram districts on Sunday aiming to help over 4,000 poor women in the areas.

The substantial feature of the project is the 18-month employment facility for destitute women to help in maintenance of essential public assets and repair of important public works, said a press release issued by UNDP.

Implemented by the Local Government Division of Bangladesh, this five-year project is targeted the most vulnerable rural poor women, with support from the UNDP, Sustainable Development Goals Fund (SDGF), the Spanish Government and International Labour Organization (ILO).

According to UNDP, SWAPNO was initiated in 72 unions of Kurigram and 52 unions of Satkhira, reaching out to 4,464 women and their families, with a plan for future scaling up to 22 districts and reaching out to 65,000 women.

The project is promoting employment, and most importantly the building of future opportunities for the extreme poor rural women – specifically the widowed, divorced, abandoned or those living with disabled husbands.

The project provides recipients a daily wage of Taka 200, of which Taka 50 is saved to supply the seed capital for future productive investment.

Building on earlier successful partnership between the Local Government Division and UNDP, SWAPNO represents a cutting edge approach for the government to combine social safety nets with foundations to move out of poverty, the release added.

This includes developing the capacity of local government institutions to deliver pro-poor and gender-sensitive projects.

BDST: 1620 HRS, AUG 16, 2015
RS