The Hunger Project’s holistic, gender-focused, community-led approach and our wide geographic scope provides an excellent platform for partnerships with agencies seeking to achieve key developmental goals.
Our projects (past and present):
Project Title: HER CHOICE:
Supported by: Dutch Ministry for Foreign Affairs (The Netherlands)
Project Duration: January 1, 2016-December 31, 2020.
Geographic Coverage: Bangladesh, Benin, Burkina Faso, Ethiopia, Ghana, Uganda.
Summary of Her Choice in Bangladesh: THP has founded the National Girl Child Advocacy Forum (NGCAF) and hosts its
secretariat. Implementing partner Dalit is also a member of this forum. The partners plan to promote the achievements and lessons learned of the HER CHOICE programme through this network. Regular advocacy campaigns and media events against child marriage at national level will also be realised during the coming years.
Project Title: POWER: Political participation Of Women for Equal Rights
Supported by: Dutch Ministry for Foreign Affairs (The Netherlands)
Project Duration: January 1, 2015 – December 31, 2017
Geographic Coverage of the Project: India and Bangladesh
Summary: Within the Human Rights Fund framework, the objective of the POWER program aims to promote and support women’s political participation and reduce violence against women in India and Bangladesh. Gender inequality and violence against women are both a cause for and a result of limited political participation of women in both countries. Discrimination and violence hinder women to take leadership roles and a lack of female leaders compromises the development and implementation of laws to reduce discrimination and violence. Once women are skilled and confident in their leadership role, they have the power to make the necessary changes in their communities and constituencies and stand up for the most marginalized through the empowerment of women, capacity building, and awareness raising.
Project Title: MDG Unions: Building Participatory Democracy From the Bottom Up in Rural Bangladesh (click for details)
Supported by: The United Nations Democracy Fund (UNDEF)
Project Duration: May 1, 2013 – April 30, 2015
Geographic Coverage of the Project: Bangladesh (12 Unions under 3 Upazilas of 2 Districts)
Summary: The objective of the MDG Unions is to organize, empower, and inspire the women, students, and other active citizens in Bangladesh who, through self-questioning and self-realizing, strive to build their capacity and develop their leadership skills in order to powerfully confront the issue of gender inequality and thereby create a hunger-free, self-reliant Bangladesh.
Project Title: Using Participatory Action Research to Empower the Underprivileged/Marginalized to Transform the Quality of their Own Lives
Supported by: The Global Hunger Project
Project Duration: 24 Months
Geographic Coverage of the Project: Bangladesh (Meherpur District)
Summary: The main goal of the project is to support the transformation of the underprivileged/marginalized by equipping them with the Participatory Action Research method and creating an inclusive community where they can enjoy all their rights. This will benefit the whole community but particularly the most disadvantaged sections of the community through increased access to services and increased voice. Underprivileged/marginalized groups are empowered to participate and hold the local government accountable and responsive to provide improved services to them and to create linkages within the community.
Project Title: Strengthening Political Landscape (SPL)
Supported by: U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID)
Project Duration: 5 years
Geographic Coverage of the Project: Bangladesh (5 Division, 9 Districts, 15 Upazilas)
Summary: The Hunger Project (THP) will help to expand on Democracy International’s current “monitoring-mapping mitigation” feedback loop model to ensure that all incidents are documented and publicized, that parties are called out for supporting violence, and that they have the tools to pursue alternative, peaceful approaches. Political party activists and politically active citizens will gain the skills and knowledge to be effective leaders and advocate for more inclusive policies and practices within their parties thereby mitigating the short- and long- term impacts of political violence.
Project Title: Peace Against Violence in Elections (PAVE)
Supported by: International Foundation for Electoral System (IFES), USAID and UKAID
Geographic Coverage of the Project: Bangladesh (7 Divisions, 29 Districts, 44 Upazilas, 4 City Corporations)
Summary: The project “People Against Violence in Elections (PAVE)” was initiated in the context of the unprecedented violence that raged across the country during the National Election of Bangladesh in 2014. The project was aimed at building peace and harmony by keeping elections free of violence, promoting democratic values among citizen at grassroots level, achieving conceptual clarity regarding election processes among citizens, and developing knowledge and skills for peaceful conflict resolution and resisting inter-party violence.
Project Title: VoteBD Database Upgrade
Supported by: International Foundation for Electoral System (IFES)
Project Duration: October 31, 2015 – January 15, 2016
Geographic Coverage of the Project: Bangladesh
Summary: The goal of the collective efforts of The Hunger Project-Bangladesh and IFES is to develop an online political financial database. This database is a web-based platform that seeks to assist electoral stakeholders and the general public in analyzing candidate disclosure information from Form 20 (campaign income statements), Form 21 (assets and liabilities), and Form 22 (election expense returns) to determine whether legal requirements for candidate disclosure have been met. Through this online political finance disclosure database, the transparency of money in politics will be increased through making candidate disclosure information publicly available in a searchable format.
Project Title: Nutrition Awareness in Flooded Areas
Supported by: Global Alliance for Improved Nutrition (GAIN)
Project Duration: October 15, 2016 – February 18, 2017
Geographic Coverage of the Project: North-Eastern Bangladesh (Haor)
Summary: The project aims to arrange a campaign in order to increase awareness of community people at the Union level through public gathering by disseminating awareness messages surrounding fortified staple foods and provide the local participants with sample fortified staple foods such as iodized salt, fortified oil with vitamin A, and fortified rice, and hold inception meetings to sensitize the local governments towards consumption of fortified edible oil and salt. Twenty one campaigns will be held where members of 1,250 households will participate.
Project Title: Youth and Pluralism- Phase 1
Supported by: National Endowment for Democracy (NED)
Project Duration: May 1, 2017 – April 30, 2018
Geographic Coverage of the Project: Bangladesh (6 Unions across 3 Divisions)
Summary: The Hunger Project-Bangladesh (THP-BD) will partner with NED to empower community engagement of youth for ethical leadership and social inclusion. It will address prejudices to promote social cohesion. Youth will be trained both online and offline to initiate social engagement actions, guided by mentors. Students, leaders of all religious and ethnic groups, will come to value pluralism and inclusion, and counter prejudices. The project uses a digital e-learning platform and social media to bring youth leaders into a network promoting pluralistic and inclusive values.
Project Title: Girls Advocacy Alliance Project
Supported by: PLAN International & Bangladesh National Girl Child Advocacy Forum (NGCAF)
Project Duration: October 1, 2016 – December 31, 2017
Geographic Coverage of the Project: Bangladesh
Summary: The project’s major activities include arranging consultation meetings with relevant government officials at the divisional level, conducting a national media campaign on child marriage, child trafficking, and gender-based violence, and coordinating meetings with various media houses.
Project Title: Strengthening Voluntary Civil Society Leaders for Social Action in Bangladesh
Supported by: Aga Khan Foundation
Project Duration: November 15, 2016 – November 14, 2019
Geographic Coverage of the Project: Dhaka, Mymensigh and Khulna Divisions
Summary: This project primarily has three components. The first focuses to expand technical capacity among voluntary civil society leaders for social action. The second stage works to enhance reach and networking ability among voluntary civil society leaders. The third stage improves the ability of voluntary civil society leaders to mobilize government and non-government actors and resources for the benefit of poor and disadvantaged citizens.
Project Title: Partnership for Strengthening Local Governance
Supported by: Base Realignment and Closure (BRAC)
Project Duration: July 29, 2016 – June 30, 2017
Geographic Coverage of the Project: 56 Districts of Bangladesh
Summary: The project is designed to build the capacity of the officials of Union Parishad and members of standing committees, and to make Union Parishad governance more pro-poor, as well as to create a rural citizenry that is awakened to their rights and capabilities, organized for effective self-reliant action towards creating more effective local governance. The goal of the project is to strengthen the Union Parishads in the target areas for transparent, accountable, and inclusive governance in order to accelerate the achievement of the SDGs.
Project Title: Empowering Youth Champions for Increasing Tolerance and Social Harmony
Supported by: Canadian Department of Foreign Affairs, Trade and Development
Project Duration: September 29, 2016 – April 28, 2017
Geographic Coverage of the Project: Nine Unions in District of Naogaon, Rajshahi, Bangladesh
Summary: This project works to empower youth groups to instill harmony as well as understanding in certain areas of the community. These select few youth ‘champions’ will be educated with leadership skills, as well as social peace-making skills to facilitate a more cooperative and peaceful community. They will then help local community members and peers embrace diversity after leading by example. Overall, this project will increase communal harmony and acceptance of others to help build a more productive and successful environment in the communities. This will also help minority groups integrate into their districts more peacefully.
Project Title: Active Citizens Youth Leadership Training
Supported by: British Council
Project Duration: June 30, 2016 – March 31, 2017
Geographic Coverage of the Project: Proposed Communities across Bangladesh
Summary: This project aims to conduct 60 ACYLT (Active Citizens Youth Leadership Training) programs. These will include selecting appropriate communities to deliver active citizens training and complete the Community Profile as per the prescribed format, recruiting eligible young people from the proposed communities, arranging a suitable venue for the 4-day long non-residential training, providing logistical support during the training, and preparing and submitting a Monthly Action and Reporting Plan as per the prescribed format.
Project Title: Best Schools for Girls
Supported by: USAID and Independent Television Service, Inc. (ITVS)
Project Duration: May 9, 2017 – November 17, 2017
Geographic Coverage of the Project: 365 schools with 6 partners in 16 Upazilas of 11 districts
Summary: The main goal of this project is to improve school environments to support the education of girls in order to prevent child marriage prevalence in Bangladesh. Specifically, the Best School for Girls campaign works with participating schools to take the initiative to improve school environments in the following five categories: Increased attendance and improved academic performance of girls; Increased initiatives to unleash girls’ leadership skills (largely by improving access to extra-curricular activities and sports); More enabling infrastructure for girls; Improved safety and security at school and on the way to school; and Increased engagement of parents, teachers and school management to support girls’ education.
Project Title: Grassroots Women Leaders to Scale-Up 1,000 Day Nutrition
Supported by: Canada High Commission-Canada Fund for Local Initiatives
Project Duration: April 1, 2013 – December 31, 2013
Geographic Coverage of the Project: Twenty Unions spread over 8 districts
Summary: The aim of this project is to train and support a cadre of grassroots women leaders to eradicate malnutrition during the critical “1000 Day window” from the start of a woman’s pregnancy to her child’s second birthday, and begin spreading that approach far more widely. The families of women of childbearing age in the 20 selected unions will know and understand the “Essential Nutrition Actions” (ENA) and their communities will be able and committed to monitor, track and reduce stunting of children under the age of two. The women leaders from an additional 100 unions will learn of these successes, and commit to replicating them next year.
Project Title: Building Capacity in 34 Unions
Supported by: BRAC
Projection Duration: September 1, 2012 – August 31, 2013
Geographic Coverage of the Project: Located in 44 unions under 8 Upazilas of Mymensingh and Tangail districts in Bangladesh
Summary: This project is designed to build the capacity of the officials of Union Parishad and the members of standing committees, in order to make Union Parishad more functional towards pro-poor good governance, as well as to create a rural citizenry that is awakened to their rights and capabilities, organized for effective self-reliant action and in an effective partnership with concerned Union Parishad for more effective government.
Project Title: Establishment of Youth Parliament, Phase I
Supported by: British Council
Projection Duration: June 24, 2012 – March 31, 2013
Geographic Coverage of the Project: 7 selected districts from 7 divisions of Bangladesh
Summary: The Hunger Project Bangladesh and British Council will work to establish Bangladesh Youth Parliament through the following things: Establish 35 Local Youth Councils consisting of 1050 youth members from 7 districts of 7 divisions of Bangladesh. Assign district/divisional coordinators who support the establishment of Local Youth Councils and run a fair election to elect one member from each LYC for the divisional caucuses. Conduct training on the Local Youth Councilors on democratic engagement, and politics and society of Bangladesh and conduct joint division meetings with other implementing partners in each division with the elected Local Youth Councilors.
Project Title: Accountability Mechanisms
Supported by: The World Bank
Projection Duration: May 1, 2012 – July 31, 2012
Geographic Coverage of the Project: Bangladesh
Summary: Designed to provide support in understanding and improving the accountability mechanisms prevalent in the country. In particular, to understand the extent to which accountability mechanisms across sectors (e.g. water supply, health, education, and safety nets) have fostered voice, inclusion, transparency and participation of the marginalized groups of the population (e.g. women, youth, urban poor, tribal populations), thereby helping to improve the implementation of ongoing government programs at the local level.