According to an evaluation of the Asian Development Bank (ADB), infrastructure projects have significant potentials to increase the economic empowerment of women in Bangladesh. It can also contribute to government's efforts to promote gender equality.
However, the evaluation makes clear that building new roads, expanding electricity grids and improving water supply services - the mainstay of ADB's support for Bangladesh over the past decade - do not automatically lead to better livelihood opportunities for women or other gender-equitable results.
The Independent Evaluation Department of ADB, prepared the report which was presented by ADB's principal evaluation specialist Hyun H. Son at a programme here in Dhaka.
The Director General of Independent Evaluation at ADB, Marvin-Taylor Dormond, said that "Women must be given a seat at the table in infrastructure-building".
He further said that women need to be part of the decision-making in all phases of infrastructure projects. And lending them a voice in such department of developmental growth will go a long way to bring down Bangladesh's high levels of gender inequality.
Women constitute half of the country's total population and as such the development of the country can not be achieved without development of women. The government has taken up a Tk.2.50 billion project for training of women.
The government has also undertaken various awareness raising programmes to resist violence against women. According to the report, the evaluation assessed the support of ADB for gender and development in its Bangladesh operations during 2005-2015.
The period saw a marked increase in infrastructure projects with ADB's US$9.0 billion portfolio for the country, of which infrastructure accounted for US$5.0 billion.
In the Seventh Five Year Plan for 2016-2022, both the government of Bangladesh and ADB are committed to promoting gender equality. The evaluation found that this collaboration and ADB's "top-down and bottom-up" approach to strengthening gender equality by working with government ministries, local governments, and communities was effective.
The ADB-supported infrastructure projects in Bangladesh were particularly effective in promoting gender equality when they enhanced women's access to education and health care, and helped promote their economic empowerment.
For example, the Second Rural Infrastructure Improvement Project US$206.0 million to improve roads in Chittagong, Dhaka and Rajshahi divisions increased employment opportunities for women by building sections for them in markets, and training them in shop management and other income-generating skills.
Improvement in roads brought about by infrastructure development activities also contributed to increased enrolment of girls in schools, and made it safer and easier for women to go to work.
The ADB evaluation found that Bangladesh has made significant strides in reducing gender disparities in education and health, where the status of women generally improved over the last decade.
But women continue to face high levels of inequality in livelihood opportunities and access to economic assets.
According to the latest available estimates, women own only 8 per cent of productive assets in rural Bangladesh. Women's participation in workforce, although improved thanks to the garment sector which employs 4 million workers of which 80 per cent are girls, labour migration and microfinance programmes, remains low at an estimated 34 per cent.
The evaluation raises the concern that these factors will increase women's risks to vulnerability to shocks. The main author of the evaluation report Hyun Son said that because of high levels of inequality in livelihood opportunities and economic assets, women have far less resilience than men to withstand various shocks, such as natural disasters, climate risks, and economic downturns.
The poor women typically lack the resources to protect themselves in case of disasters or restore their conditions to pre-disaster levels.
Better social safety nets are needed for Bangladesh's marginalised groups, particularly women, and this should be a priority area for development support, said Son.
The two ADB-supported programmes, such as, the Public Expenditure Support Facility Programme and the Counter-cyclical Support Facility Programme helped the government to increase spendings on social safety nets, especially for women. Both the programmes helped government ministries in incorporating gender equality into the mainstream of their work.
The important conclusion that can be drawn from the evaluation report is that there was little focus on getting men to support gender equality. It should be understood that gender issues are not just women's issues.
Men are important stakeholders in making progress toward gender equality particularly in South Asia. The evaluation report added that men should to be involved in addressing gender inequalities and supporting women's empowerment, lest they resort to violence in response to such empowerment.
The writer is a retired Professor of Economics, BCS General Education Cadre.
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