Scale Fund Round 1 Projects
The Scale Fund supports large projects which apply tested and proven approaches to providing sustainable pathways out of extreme poverty, by generating assets, improving incomes, decreasing dependency and vulnerability, and increasing food security. With the aim of eradicating extreme poverty in Bangladesh, shiree is currently funding 6 Scale Fund Round 1 projects which cover a broad spectrum of issues facing the extreme poor including: increasing assets; technology transfers; improving market linkages; small business development; transferring khas land; and improving access to rights and social entitlements. Five of these focus on extreme rural poverty and one on extreme urban poverty in Dhaka.
Scale Fund Round 2 Projects
The scale fund is about taking credible, proven and tested poverty alleviation approaches and applying them at scale with extremely poor households to provide sustainable pathways out of extreme poverty by: generating assets, improving incomes, decreasing dependency and vulnerability, and increasing food security. In the second round of the Scale Fund shiree is working with 3 NGOs whose proposed models have a credible and proven track-record of achieving sustainable impacts in the lives of extremely poor people. The three NGOS will be working in three of the most challenging areas of Bangladesh. Thus the second scale-fund round is for a further expression and diversification of the shiree portfolio.
Innovation Fund Round 1 Projects
Innovation round 1 focused specifically on eradicating extreme poverty in the Chittagong Hill Tracts, Haor and Coastal regions of Bangladesh, given the high percentage of extreme poverty in these areas. With the goal of encouraging new innovative ideas to improve the livelihoods of the extreme poor, 6 NGO projects were selected.
Innovation Fund Round 2 Projects
Innovation Fund round 2 (Summer 2009) provided grants to projects which tackle the root causes of income, food and employment insecurity, often referred to as ‘Monga’. Shiree acknowledges the nature of Monga, along with the socio-economic cleavages which prevail in the surrounding areas, mean that a sustained effort with an injection of new ideas is required to tackle Monga.
The round provided funds to NGOs with a current operational presence in the Monga-prone districts of North-West Bangladesh: Lalmonirhat, Gaibandha, Rangpur, Kurigram, Jaipurhat, Thakurgaon, Bogra, Panchaghar, Dinajpur and Nilphamari. Through a rigorous process, 6 NGOs were selected to implement innovative projects to alleviate extreme poverty among households in the Monga-prone areas.
Innovation Fund Round 3 Projects
In consultation with a number of key stakeholders, shiree identified people within ‘marginalised groups’ as making up a disproportionate number of the extreme poor. These groups; including elderly people, the physically challenged, religious or ethnic minorities etc have been largely failed by state and non-state development interventions. Thus shiree encouraged NGOs in Round 3 to develop proposals specifically designed to improve the lives of marginalized groups. 7 NGO projects were selected.
Innovation Fund Round 4 Projects
Innovation Fund Round 4 focuses on achieving sustainable impacts in the lives of extremely poor people, with a focus on the most vulnerable and socially excluded groups: women, the elderly, the disabled and adivasis. The mechanisms for the sustainable movement of households out of extreme poverty form the core of the proposed innovations. Holistic approaches will be applied to sustainably lift the most marginalised groups out of extreme poverty.
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