Enhancing social protection for female tea garden workers and their families in Sylhet Division, Bangladesh

Through this joint programme of the Government of Bangladesh and four UN agencies, female tea garden workers and their families in Sylhet Division, one of the most left behind population groups of the country, will enjoy strengthened and more coordinated access to national social protection coverage and local social services, in a more empowering and non-discriminatory environment contributing to decent work. Building on existing Government and private sector efforts and agency programmes, a policy shift to be achieved with this partnership-focused initiative will consist of Government progressively strengthening coordination of social safety nets and social services and enhancing regulation of service provision by tea garden owners who perform functions as direct duty bearers for basic social services, notably health, as well as for education. On the ground, the women, who make up about 65% of the approx. 360,000 tea garden workers, and their families, as well as trade unions, will be more empowered to claim their rights to social protection and development, information and participation, as well as labour rights. A combination of upstream policy and legislative advocacy, dialogue and coordination; data generation, analysis and coordination; capacity development for increased system strengthening, service delivery and access, and individual and institutional empowerment and skills training, will be jointly carried out by partnering agencies ILO, UNICEF, UNFPA and UN Women with substantive support and coordination from the UN Resident Coordinator’s Office. The programme strategy builds on an analysis of root causes and manifestations of long-standing challenges that partnerships between Government, private tea sector businesses, trade unions and the UN are committed to address, with empowered participation especially by the female tea garden workers. The programme should generate synergies that may eventually contribute to a multiplier, upscaling effect on other extremely poor groups, including tea garden workers in other parts of the country, notably Chittagong.

Project symbol

BGD/19/51/UND

Admin unit

CO-Dhaka

Start date

01/01/2020

End date

31/03/2022

Total allocation

500000

Total expenditure

Status

Closed

478497

Development Partners

Multi Partner Trust Fund Office, UNDP

Country/Countries

Bangladesh

Outcomes

Outcome 8: Comprehensive and sustainable social protection for all
Outcome 4: Sustainable enterprises as generators of employment and promoters of innovation and decent work