Southwest Rural Development Project

This project addressed development issues in one of most important and densely populated regions in rural Bangladesh. It worked to:

• increase agricultural production (particularly food production) by improving irrigation and other essential production inputs
• strengthen cooperative (worker-buyer/government) relationships governing the lives and livelihoods of rural poor people
• encourage the landless to participate in these cooperatives and to develop and support activities designed specifically to benefit them

During the course of the project, credit was provided to more than 10,500 poor people, 53 per cent of them women. The project demonstrated that providing credit (together with skills training) to rural poor people is a better investment than providing similar credit to large farmers.

Source: IFAD