Hello everyone, my name is Mohammad Muktadir Hossain, Manager, Markets and Livelihoods Unit (MLU) of the Chars Livelihoods Programme (CLP) in Bangladesh. I have been working in this position since 2010, the beginning of CLP-Phase 2. This position has given me the opportunity to work in the diverse sectors of market and livelihoods, concentrating on the chars (islands in the rivers of Jamuna, Padma and Tista) in north-west Bangladesh.

I graduated in Forestry from the Institute of Forestry and Environmental Science, University of Chittagong in Bangladesh. My early studies were in St. Patrick’s Grammar School, Khilagon Government High School and Dhaka College, Dhaka in Bangladesh.

I started my professional career with BRAC International and worked for five years in both Bangladesh and Afghanistan. I gained significant working experience in food security, livelihoods and environmental project implementation, as well as project proposal writing and team leadership in Agriculture/Livestock based Livelihoods Development Programmes. I worked in Afghanistan for BRAC as a Coordinator of their Agriculture Development programme. I have working experience as a Project Manager of different livelihoods and income generating projects. This included planning & design as well as setting targets and producing business plans. Up to the present position, I have worked with different projects related to poverty reduction and food security, environment, disaster management, forestry and many other domains.

CLP is a unique programme and it brings a new approach to work with Char dwellers (who are considered to be very much vulnerable and needing assistance) and bringing them out from under the extreme poverty line within a particular period of time. The Chars Livelihoods Programme (CLP) attracted my attention once I came to know more about the different components.

Under CLP’s first phase, Markets and Livelihoods were two different units, but under CLP Phase 2 they were joined into a Markets and Livelihoods Unit to reflect the emerging importance of the links between these two areas of CLP activity. The merging of the two units was based on the theory that the extreme poor who have been assisted by CLP can further generate income and profitability from their assets base through market-based activities, even after graduation from the programme. As the manager of the unit, I am responsible for a dedicated expert team for implementing market development and livelihoods projects.

Working within this transitional state, where two units are merging into one, is one of the most interesting and challenging aspects of my current position. The MLU could be considered a newborn baby in the programme, needing to be run in a delicate manner. I believe this merger and the links between markets and livelihoods are a key to our vision of a sustainable livelihoods development approach for the poverty reduction in Bangladesh. We are working towards achieving such an approach, which brings extreme poor into the programme, feeds in different inputs and knowledge to increase the productivity of their products and increases access to markets in order to further increase income and profitability.

Though it’s very easy to outline the approach, nevertheless we have faced quite a few challenges. We therefore are putting a lot of effort into increasing market access for poor farmers in the chars. It’s a new concept and we are trying to establish this throughout our programme working areas. The model, if proven successful, could then be replicated in the poverty stricken communities in Bangladesh in the future.

I heard about different blogs but have never been involved in any before. However, it is interesting to me as an opportunity for people to get to know each other, share their views and ideas on different topics. I think the blog initiated by CLP would be a great platform for development practitioners especially those who deal with food security and livelihoods component which is at the heart of global development campaigns at present.

CLP has now become as an amazing hope for the extreme poor people living on the chars that allows them to build their own livelihoods for their future. Working with landless and assetless households helps them rise out of poverty. The opportunity of working with our poor people in the chars is to me a great and noble profession in my life. I like to see that the char people’s livelihoods have changed through adopting modern technology of food production, increasing their productivity and profit. As I am a strong believer in this programme, we all need to work together, face the challenges and achieve the overall objectives.
Thanks to all.

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