Bangladesh

With a focus on gender equality, civic accountability, and social cohesion, our Bangladesh office encourages innovation in tackling community challenges, building leadership capacity that reflects the country’s diversity, and facilitating broad-based participation in the country’s development.

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Country overview

Sara Taylor,
Country Representative

More Bangladesh staff »

Contact

The Asia Foundation – Bangladesh

House #5, Road #8 Baridhara
Dhaka-1212, Bangladesh

Tel: + 880 (2) 984-6941
Email: bangladesh.general@asiafoundation.org

Surveying the national mood

Bangladesh’s Democracy 2017: According to Its People, a survey supported by the Australian High Commission, captured the nation’s attitudes towards democracy, identity, and the direction of the country, and compared them with findings from 2006 and 2015. Overall, Bangladeshis expressed higher levels of optimism in 2017 compared to 2015, with significant majorities saying the country and their local area were heading in the right direction. The survey shows that Bangladesh has made significant progress toward gender equality goals, but divides remain in accessing information, mobile phone ownership, use of the Internet, and political participation.

NEWS FROM BANGLADESH

Finding the Hidden Potential Within Bangladesh’s Garment Factories

By Mowmita Basak
May 9, 2018
Blog
Four Things about Women and Trade in the BBIN

By Diya Nag
April 25, 2018
Blog

Expanding the Benefits of Trade to Women in the BBIN Region

By Diya Nag, Sagar Prasai
March 6, 2018
Publication
Introducing Greening Strategies in Emerging Economies

By Syed A. Al-Muti
February 28, 2018
Publication

Growing the Bangladesh economy with women entrepreneurs

Women in Bangladesh face a distinct set of challenges when they seek to start or grow a business: many run the household and care for families, and society expectations impact property ownership and access to collateral, finance, buyers and markets. They are challenged by often limited access to networks for support and to strengthen their voices. With funds from the GSRD Foundation and the Lotus Circle we are equipping women’s business associations in six districts to increase networks, facilitate loan opportunities, and promote the use of information technology among these new entrepreneurs. We sponsored six district-level networking events, trained more than 550 women entrepreneurs, built six online marketing and sales portals to gain access to buyers, and hosted public private dialogues promoting new policies to support women’s entrepreneurship.

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Economic Dialogue on Inclusive Growth

In spite of Bangladesh’s impressive growth in recent decades, over 40 million people still live below the poverty line. Many question if the growth has been “inclusive” and helped generate large-scale productive employment for the growing number of citizens entering the labor force each year. To increase evidence-based dialogue on inclusive growth, The Asia Foundation and the Overseas Development Institute, with support from the UK Department for International Development, are implementing the Economic Dialogue on Inclusive Growth Program in coordination with the General Economics Division of the Planning Commission. In addition to quarterly workshops, the project will produce six thematic research reports to support specific policy recommendations.

Economic Dialogue on Inclusive Growth

In spite of Bangladesh’s impressive growth in recent decades, over 40 million people still live below the poverty line. Many question if the growth has been “inclusive” and helped generate large-scale productive employment for the growing number of citizens entering the labor force each year. To increase evidence-based dialogue on inclusive growth, we are implementing the Economic Dialogue on Inclusive Growth Program in coordination with the General Economics Division of the Planning Commission.