Katalyst has identified that Bangladesh’s craft sector possesses a vast potential to contribute to women’s economic empowerment (WEE). . The ‘Empowering Women in Craft’ publication shows how an innovative partnership between Katalyst and BRAC-Aarong provides new perspectives for independent producers and women artisans in the craft industry.
Capacity development for too long has endured the stereotypical characterization of “just training and technical assistance” that has undermined its broader legitimacy. We need to shift to a new and bolder vision of capacity development, one that seeks to catalyze domestic collective capacity for change by inspiring, connecting and empowering transformative leaders and coalitions for change.
The Agribusiness Innovation Initiative (AII) seeks to contribute to advancing a climate-smart competitive agribusiness sector which will create more jobs and raise incomes for Ethiopians. The AII will contribute toward this objective by identifying innovative growth-oriented entrepreneurs who are pursuing business opportunities based on value addition of agricultural commodities and providing them with a holistic service offering that accelerates their growth and increases their sustainability.
This chapter examines processes to inform decision making and manage innovation at four generally defined levels of the innovation system for agriculture; policy, investment, organization, and intervention and also identifies methods relevant at each level for assessing, prioritizing, monitoring, and evaluating innovation processes so that practitioners have the information needed for decision making and for managing limited resources effectively.
The Agribusiness for Trade Competitiveness Project (ATC-P), branded as Katalyst, is a pioneer market systems development project contributing to sustainable poverty reduction in Bangladesh. It is implemented by Swisscontact under the umbrella of the Ministry of Commerce, Government of Bangladesh. The project has been operating in Bangladesh since 2003 in three phases.
This publication is providing a glimpse into how Katalyst is realising systemic change by making market systems more inclusive. As a result of the systemic changes, farmers are empowered to increase their incomes and improve their livelihoods, private companies are changing their business models as they recognize the buying power of small farmers and cater to their needs, and the public sector fulfills its role of supporting the poor more effectively by creating conducive enabling environments.
This booklet describes some recent, stand-out innovations and achievements that are the fruits of this future-oriented partnership, fully supported by the Katalyst project. As Katalyst is in its third phase of operations, some of the milestone achievements of the project are reviewed. The project expects to expand on these successful models to be implemented throughout Bangladesh.
Voices of Change brings you stories that are representative of the wide range of Katalyst’s work across Bangladesh. The project uses the market development approach, which is an indirect way of working to change the existing market systems as a means to benefit the poor people. In these stories, the beneficiaries share with you the constraints they faced as well as the solutions they found to bring about radical changes in their lives.
In 2014-2016, Katalyst project and the Bangladesh Crop Protection Association (BCPA) extended their work by training farmers, women, retailers and pesticide spray men on the safe and judicious use of pesticides (SUP). This initiative improved the ability of farmers to select the right types of pesticide, and to use them appropriately with the correct dosage.
Katalyst project has been facilitating awareness raising on the importance of balanced fertiliser application in Bangladesh since 2006.