Promoting Gender Responsive Enterprise and Skills Development Systems (ProGRESS): Feminizing Bangladesh’s Skills and Enterprise Systems and Labour Market

This project builds on over a decade of support to the core policy and governance systems of Bangladesh’s TVET system aiming to produce concrete impacts in terms of improved employment for women. In collaboration with a range of donors and Development Finance Institutes, Bangladesh has established a more market-oriented, competency-based skills system coordinated through a collaborative peak body. The next step is to establish a clear link between the skills system and infrastructure and economic development strategies including promotion of green enterprises to ensure that these major investments yield long term benefits for human capital development, sustainable employment and improved livelihoods. This project uses gender equality and women’s empowerment as a central theme to drive improvements in policy, skills and business service provision to empower Bangladeshi women. The disproportionate impact of COVID-19 on women’s employment, increasing incidences of violence against women and their increased ’care ’work due to closure of schools and other factors reinforce the urgency of this focus. The project works to mitigate the impact of COVID while using the disruption as an opportunity to advance access to skills training for all, and amplify the potential for women in promoting green skills and green enterprise development. It is designed to support the GoB’s commitment (NSDP, 7th Five year plan and the Strategy for Gender Equality in TVET) to promote gender equality in TVET, achieve an enrolment rate of 40% by 2020, significantly increase women’s graduation and labour market insertion, and gender-based violence-free training and working environments. The project combines capacity building and policy support with practical demonstration to achieve sustainable change and focuses on economically underdeveloped regions, including the Chittagong Hill Tracts and areas affected by the Rohingya refugee crisis.

Project symbol

BGD/20/05/CAN

Admin unit

CO-Dhaka

Start date

17/03/2021

End date

31/10/2027

Total allocation

14945936

Total expenditure

Status

Active

9114605

Development Partners

Canada, Global Affairs Canada

Country/Countries

Bangladesh

Outcomes

Outcome 3: Full and productive employment for just transitions