IFAD has been investing in poor rural women and men in Bangladesh for almost 40 years. The current approach aims to:

• Enable poor people in vulnerable areas to adapt their livelihoods to climate change;
• Help small producers and entrepreneurs benefit from improved value chains and greater market access; and
• Empower marginalized groups, including poor rural women, both economically and socially.

The project builds on decades of investments by the Government of Bangladesh and development partners aimed at developing improved and more secure livelihoods for poor people living on newly accreted coastal islands known locally as chars. It adopts an integrated approach to coastal zone development to:

• Improve drainage and enhance land accretion;
• Finance climate-resilient infrastructure for communications;
• Improve access to markets, potable water and sanitation in all five chars; Facilitate joint land titling for 20,000 households;
• Provide farmers with technical assistance to make the best use of limited land resources; and
• Establish a team to disseminate lessons in coastal zone development planning for the future development of new chars.

Targeted support is provided to the most disadvantaged members of the community, including landless households and women.