Programme to secure food for poor women

A new programme has been taken up to secure food and livelihoods to thousands of ultra poor women and marginal farmers in three poverty stricken districts in the north, thanks to the success of four other identical projects implemented in last 15 years, reports BSS. The programme Food and Livelihood Security (FLS) aims to improve the food security and livelihoods of 50,000 ultra-poor female headed households, and 30,000 ultra-poor marginal farmers and sharecroppers in all 22 upazilas of Chapainawabganj, Natore and Naogaon districts. "The European Union will provide almost the total budget of 24.8 million Euro," said an official of the Department of Women Affairs, the implementing agency of the project, which also implemented four other similar projects of the government and the European Union between 1996 and 2011. State Minister for Women and Children Affairs Dr Shirin Sharmin Chaudhury is expected to make an announcement for the new programme in the city Sunday. The state minister is scheduled to wrap up the project Vulnerable Group Development for the Ultra Poor (VGDUP) that has been evaluated as an effective tool to bring some degree of changes in poor people's lives in 36 upazilas of eight districts.