Poverty alleviation through capacity building, social security and sustainable livelihood programs are one of the seven priority areas under the Biwako Millenium Framework. The Framework has been developed and adopted by UN ESCAP for the current Millenium Decade of Disability 2003 - 2012. Providing people with disabilities with support to establish income generating activities is one of the most significant ways to enable people with disabilities to earn for themselves and to contribute to their family, become independent and gain confidence.

GDPOD member in Chadpur engaged in an income generating activity selling cloth door-to-door.

Information from BPKS baseline surveys of various districts around Bangladesh indicates that over 50% of people with disabilities are unemployed. PWD employment levels are comparatively low as a result of discrimination towards people with disabilities in the employment sector, together with a lack of access to the sector, a lack of understanding by others regarding PWD’s capacity and lower education levels among PWDs. Most people with disabilities who are employed are involved in income generating activities (IGA) - that is, they are self-employed.

BPKS is working to improve economic conditions for people with disabilities. To do this, the PSID program includes the following activities:

• a weekly savings scheme for Grassroots Disabled Peoples' Organization to Development (GDPOD) members;
• establishing a cooperative loan scheme run by GDPOD members and providing loan support from the GDPOD Savings Fund and Program Acceleration Fund;
• home and/or community-based income-generation skills training for people with disabilities (eg. tailoring, animal husbandry, crop rearing, grocery store, shop management);
• assisting individuals and communities to initiate appropriate income-generating activities (eg. provide tree saplings to establish a nursery);
• assisting people with disabilities to access local financial institutions; and
• job placement both within and outside the community

Australian High Commissioner to Bangladesh Ms Lorraine Barker opening an income generating project at Manikgonj DPOD in June 2005