Unlocking the Full Potential of Bangladesh:

Bangladesh faces almost insurmountable challenges. Its large population - 128 million people - lives in an area the size of England and Wales, giving it one of the highest population densities in the world. Bangladesh's geography makes it prone to natural disasters, such as flood and hurricanes. As very young country - winning independence only in 1971 - Bangladesh was immediately confronted with a severe food crisis. The nation lacks the well-developed industrial and institutional bases that many nations rely on for development. Educational levels are very low. At the birth of Bangladesh, some experts even questioned - can this nation survive?

Those who doubt Bangladesh's future have never met the Bangladeshi people. The Bangladeshi people possess extraordinary resilience and creativity, and irrepressible spirit. Bangladesh's proud and homogenous society has met challenge after challenge - strengthening people's determination to build a better future. Bangladesh has established democracy, and achieved near food self-sufficiency and modest but steady economic growth. In addition, Bangladesh has built up a remarkable system of emergency preparedness and response. Despite cultural obstacles, it has made dramatic progress in family planning. Bangladesh has been the environment for globally-important breakthroughs in development, such as microcredit, oral-rehydration therapy, grassroots schooling and large-scale social mobilisation campaigns.

Bangladesh, however, has not made significant progress in overcoming the abject poverty and malnutrition of its people. Despite massive infusions of funding by international donors and the dedicated efforts of NGOs, the people of Bangladesh continue to suffer some of the highest child malnutrition rates in the world, almost twice as high as sub-Saharan Africa.

Bangladesh pays a terrible price for allowing malnutrition to persist. Malnourished children have lower IQs and suffer developmental and health problems that ultimately translate into less productivity - in a country that is already on the edge of survival.

The principle obstacle to ending malnutrition in Bangladesh - and thus unlocking the full potential of the Bangladeshi people - is the traditional subjugation, marginalisation and disempowerment of women that pervades Bangladeshi society.

For centuries, many women in Bangladesh have led lives of almost unimaginable isolation, malnutrition and powerlessness. Songs, proverbs and distortions of religious teachings have reinforced traditions that devalue and deny self-hood to one-half the population. These forces are further reinforced by the economic tyranny of dowry, and by physical violence. The presence of women heads of government in South Asia says more about the vestiges of feudalism that keeps power in the families of their husbands and fathers than it says about the status of women.

In these conditions, women are taught to "eat last and eat least" - giving the best food to boys and men, even when women are pregnant and nursing. Studies show that Bangladesh's exceptionally high rate of malnutrition is a direct result of the severe subjugation of women.

Today, there is a new opportunity. In recent years, there has been a shift in consciousness of the women in Bangladesh. Through interacting with each other, with NGOs and with global communications media, the women of Bangladesh have been part of a worldwide awakening of awareness about women and their role in society. For the first time in thousands of years, women in Bangladesh are stepping out of their homes - earning income - and expressing their leadership. Grassroots women are banding together, forming self-help groups and associations, and running for seats in local government. Women today are challenging their traditional roles in ways unthinkable to their mothers.

Women as change agents. As Bangladeshi women gain this new awareness, they take action. When women gain voice, they decide to space their children, and have fewer children. As they gain information on nutrition, they improve the health of their families. As they earn income themselves, they see the value of education for their daughters, and use their income to keep their daughters in school. As they form self-help groups with other women, they are able to reach out to more and more women. Millions of these actions, taken every day, add up to a new future for Bangladesh.

The changes that need to be made for improving the health and nutrition of Bangladesh, must be made by these women. They are the ones on the front lines of what must be done to achieve a healthier and more prosperous life for their families, their villages and the nation.

Just as there were women on the frontlines of Bangladesh's liberation struggle in 1971, today it is courageous women who are on the frontlines of Bangladesh's second liberation - the liberation from hunger and abject poverty.

It is almost unimaginable – but true - that at the dawn of this new millennium, the deeply entrenched discrimination against women that has persisted for thousands of years is now beginning to change – and the change agents are the impoverished, illiterate, malnourished women themselves. All those who stand for a new future for Bangladesh must make the empowerment of these courageous women their highest priority.

Links: A lifetime of subjugation'); Cycle of malnutrition, Invisible producers, Violence, Awakening, Local democracy, Women as change agents, Agenda for Action, The Campaign, National Girl Child Day