Under this project, SNV works with energy nexus women lead productive use of energy interventions to ensure the food security and livelihood improvement of COVID 19 pandemic affected Low-income communities. This project will run from 1 January 2021 to 30 October 2021.

According to a Bangladesh Institute of Development Studies (BIDS) survey, about 13 percent of people have become unemployed in the country due to the Covid-19 pandemic. They are primarily skilled adolescent/women garments workers, domestic helpers, food vendors, retailers, service staff, and they are living a miserable life during this situation. Aiming to support these vulnerable groups, the project will help set up low-cost grid-tied SHS for powering small local RMG & tailoring houses & community-based egg hatching businesses. Skilled garments dropout adolescent girls/women will lead the small RMG & tailoring houses. The small RMG & tailoring houses will also provide hands-on tailoring training to the local unskilled adolescent girls and women.

The project will also support creating local women entrepreneurs to start a community-based egg hatching business. The egg hatching entrepreneurs will be provided with automated egg incubators that will accelerate local home-based poultry farming to commercial scale, reduce energy cost, increase renewable energy contribution, and women can contribute more to their family income.

The main objectives of this project are:

• Support dropout skilled women/adolescent RMG workers.

• Improve the livelihood and create women & local-based youth employment opportunities.

• Increase the income of COVID-19 affected families.

• Ensure decentralised urban employment opportunities and help to prevent local people from again returning to overcrowded cities.

• Create a household-based energy hub & increase renewable energy contribution in the national energy mix.