The Readymade Garment (RMG) industry fuels economic growth in Bangladesh, employing 4.4m workers, of whom 80% are women. Given rapid urbanization and migration – increasing economic opportunities for women is strategic to narrowing gender gaps in South Asia1.
However, rapid urbanization also creates unprecedented challenges in Dhaka, where the population has increased from 6.6 to 21.7 million2 in three decades. For women RMG workers employment comes at a cost of systemic challenges – including unpaid domestic labour, poor housing, water supply and sanitation infrastructure, and unaccountable, masculine formal and informal governance systems.
How do income opportunities, governance and liveability play out in peri-urban Dhaka, and what are the gender implication of these complex challenges?
In this session, I discuss past and new research to highlight why we need to better unpack how gender, power, politics, and difference play out in the governance of food, water, environment systems in the peri-urban locations where
