Roman Ehtesham

WAVE Foundation, a Civil Society Organization emerged in 1990 in Chuadanga district located in the south-western part of Bangladesh. Then 49% people of Bangladesh lived under the poverty line. The state’s initiative towards establishing people’s multi-dimensional rights was weaker then. Local governance as well as the overall governance status was also fragile. Under these circumstances, WAVE launched its development pursuits aiming at integrated development emphasizing economic, human and skill development of organized women. In its relentless effort since the last 28 years in the development field, the organization has been implementing multifaceted interventions on various pressing issues like basic rights along with right to food and rights of the poor & marginalized communities with emphasis on women-youths-children, access to justice, democratic decentralization & local-self- government, responsiveness of public service & institutions, election observation, economic empowerment & employment through microfinance, agriculture & livestock development with focus on Black Bengal Goat-BBG, value chain, holistic community development, health and education service, renewable energy, human resource & productive skill development and so on. Networking at various levels and policy advocacy are the important areas of WAVE’s program implementation approach. Still 24.3% (Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics, 2016) of the total population lives below the poverty line of which 12.9% is extreme poor. A vivid reflection of the entire scenario of the country makes it apparent that the prime challenges are- ensuring fundamental rights along with right to food; sustainable development of lives & livelihood through reducing discrimination; and ensuring good governance at every strata of the society while keeping the development momentum steady. Overcoming through all these challenges, Bangladesh aims at becoming middle income and developed country by 2021 and 2041 respectively.