How Planning for Seasonality Can Reduce Extreme Poverty

This chapter discusses successful responses to seasonality in the context of the DFID-funded Chars Livelihoods Programme Phase 1 (CLP) and the impact these interventions have had on achieving MDG1: namely reducing extreme poverty and increasing food security in the poorest households. ² CLP was a £50 million integrated rural livelihoods programme based in five riverine districts of the River Jamuna in north-west Bangladesh. ³ Running from 2004–2010, CLP targeted extreme poor island char ⁴ households, who comprised the economically poorest 10 per cent of the Bangladeshi population but represented approximately 30 per cent of the wider char communities in CLP’s working area.