The Carter Center in Bangladesh

USAID Continues Support for Advancing Women’s Right of Access to Information in Bangladesh

For more than 30 years, the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) has generously supported the Carter Center’s peace programs, including gender-specific efforts to improve access to information. The Center proudly recognizes a new, five-year grant from USAID in support of Advancing Women’s Right of Access to Information in Bangladesh (AWRTI).

The Carter Center takes an evidence-based, results-oriented, and sustainable approach to empower women. The Center and its civil society partners have been among the first organizations to focus specifically on the right of access to information for women in Bangladesh.

While the country has had a Right to Information Act since 2009, a lack of access to information impedes fundamental aspects of democratic governance. As modern technology grows and evolves, governments must continually adapt the ways they provide information and make it accessible.

Since 2016, The Carter Center has led AWRTI efforts in five Bangladeshi districts with USAID’s generous support. The Center has worked to implement programming at national and local levels to improve women’s rights and their access to information, address inequalities among Bangladeshi populations, and encourage women to make informed choices and engage in public life more meaningfully.

With USAID’s new support, The Carter Center will expand the AWRTI project to six additional districts and help to advance key policies at the national level. The long-term goal of the current project is to reduce corruption in Bangladesh through increased public-led accountability. To accomplish the overall goal of improving women’s access to information, the Center and its partners will work toward achieving three interconnected objectives:

Objective 1: A strengthened legal and policy environment enables more sustainable access to information for women;

Objective 2: National and target local government leaders more effectively and equitably provide information to women in target districts; and

Objective 3: Through support from civil society organizations, information liaisons, and youth in target districts, women advance their use of the right of access to information.

USAID’s partnership with the Center and the Rule of Law Program underscores their commitment to improving fundamental freedoms and rights for the most vulnerable. The Carter Center is thankful for USAID’s support, and we look forward to continuing this collaborative effort in the years to come.