গবেষণা প্রতিবেদন:

করোনাকালে বাংলার কৃষক এবং কৃষির সম্ভাবনা

দৈনিক বণিকবাতায় প্রকাশিত, তারিখ: ২৩ ও ২৪ মে. ২০২০

বাংলাদেশে ধান এবং সব্জী দুটোই দেশের অভ্যন্তরীন চাহিদার চেয়ে অনেক বেশি উৎপাদিত হচ্ছে। সামগ্রিকভাবে খাদ্য শস্য উৎপাদনের হিসাব করলে দেখা যায়, ২০০৬ সালে ২ কোটি ৬১ লাখ মেট্রিক টন খাদ্য-শস্য উৎপাদিত হয়েছিল, যা ২০১৮-১৯ সালে বেড়ে হয়েছে ৪ কোটি ৩২ লাখ মেট্রিক টন। ১২ বছরে দুই-তৃতীয়াংশ (৬৬%) উৎপাদন বৃদ্ধি পেয়েছে। এ অর্জন কৃষকের, এ সফলতা কৃষির, এ বিজয় চিরায়ত কৃষি নির্ভর বাঙালী সমাজের।
ডেভরেসোন্যান্স দেশের ৮টি বিভাগের ২৫টি জেলা থেকে একশত-একজন ধান চাষের সাথে সরাসরি যুক্ত কৃষকদের সাথে বিশদ সাক্ষাৎকার গ্রহণের মাধ্যমে করোনাকালে বাংলাদেশের কৃষকের ও কৃষির অবস্থা জানতে নি¤œ উদ্দেশ্যকে সামনে রেখে এ গবেষণা কার্যক্রম পরিচালনা করেছে।

১. কৃষি উৎপাদন ও বাজারজাতকরণে কোভিড-১৯ এর প্রভাব চিহ্নিত করা।

২. ধানচাষীদের পারিবারিক অর্থনীতিতে কোভিড-১৯ মহামারীর প্রভাব চিহ্নিত করা।

৩. কৃষকদের সমস্যার ক্ষেত্রসমূহকে খুঁজে বেরা করা এবং কৃষির সম্ভাবনাকে বিশ্লেষণ করা।

এ গবেষণাটি মূলত গুণগত এবং পরিমানগত উভয় পদ্ধতি ব্যবহার করে পরিচালিত হয়েছে। পরিমানগত পদ্ধতির খানা জরিপ করার ক্ষেত্রে দেশের সকল বিভাগ ছাড়াও, সকল কৃষি-পরিবেশগত অঞ্চল-যেমন, উপক‚ল, হাওড়, চর, পার্বত্য অঞ্চল ইত্যাদিকে বিবেচনায় নিয়ে করা হয়েছে।

স্যাম্পল পরিবার চিহ্নিত করার ক্ষেত্রে স্থানীয় পর্যায়ে সম্পদ-ব্যক্তি, কোথাওবা স্থানীয় প্রতিষ্ঠানের সহায়তা নেয়া হয়েছে। উত্তরদাতা হিসেবে যারা সরাসরি ধানচাষের সাথে জড়িত এবং যাদের সাথে মোবাইল ফোনে যোগাযোগ করা সম্ভব এমন কৃষককেই নেয়া হয়েছে। মোবাইল ফোনে কথা বলার মাধ্যমে তথ্য সংগ্রহ করা হয়েছে।

গবেষণায় নারী, পাহাড় ও সমতলের আদিবাসী, দলিত ইত্যাদি প্রান্তিক জনগোষ্ঠির অংশগ্রহণ নিশ্চিত করা হয়েছে।

Journal of Development Research
[Volume-1, Issue-3, April 27, 2020]
Covid-19 Pandemic: Experience of Italy

Italy was arguably most gravely affected by the COVID-19 pandemic despite having one of world’s best healthcare systems. In this study, we reviewed secondary literature, reports, and other reading materials to assess why the outcome of COVID-19 pandemic was so disastrous in Italy and how the government responded in effect. We outline the timeline of events as they unfolded in the country after the initial outbreak in China. We analyzed different literature to point out the contributing factors that worsened the situation in Italy that resulted in deaths in thousands. The study discusses government policies and financial packages worth 750 billion euros introduced to help businesses cope with the economic fallout from the COVID-19 pandemic and how international and national organizations extended help to fight off the situation. We also look at the health system of Italy to understand the factors that may have contributed to high mortality rate and the lessons that can be drawn from them by other countries. Italy, home to one of the oldest population in all of Europe, found itself in a very difficult position to tackle a disease that primarily takes the form of a serious case in people who are typically older with preexisting medical conditions. Apart from that, the study reveals that a combination of factors such as relaxed immigration regulations for workers in certain industries, densely populated cities, culture and habits, and government’s lack of seriousness in the initial days may also explain the high death toll in Italy and why the situation might have spiraled out of control.

Journal of Development Research
[Volume-1, Issue-2, April 14, 2020]
Covid-19 Pandemic: Experience of China

The COVID-19 outbreak since end of last year has disrupted global health and economy and presented substantial challenges to control this highly contagious disease, resulting in deaths in tens of thousands all over the world. It has originated from Wuhan State of China during the second week of December 2019. The outbreak overlapping with the biggest Chinese festival of year presented substantial challenges for the Chinese Government in taking steadfast decisions to curb the spread of the disease. In this study, we have reviewed secondary literature and materials and outlined all the measures and policies adopted and advanced technology leveraged by the Chinese Government. The study looks at how existing healthcare system in the country has helped the Chinese Government in their cause, while they further ramped up the efficiency of its healthcare delivery and imposed other strict measures utilizing past experiences with pandemics. It looks at how the Chinese Government developed and allocated its financial schemes and support packages to accelerate the nation’s economy recovery as a result of the fallout from this pandemic and the role of China’s military force and other agencies in providing assistance in various ways to mitigate the negative consequences.

Journal of Development Research [Volume-1, Issue-1, April 13, 2020]

The COVID-19 outbreak since end of last year has disrupted global health and economy and presented substantial challenges to control this highly contagious disease, resulting in deaths in tens of thousands all over the world. South Korea has been quite an exception to the fate of the rest of the world, emerging successful in its containment. In this study, we have reviewed secondary literature and materials and outlined all the measures and policies the Korean government has undertaken during the pandemic which has proven to be instrumental in its mission to “flatten the curve”. We discuss how the country prioritized the production of testing kits over issuing mandatory national lockdowns, unlike many other nations, and how the Govt. developed and allocated its USD 13.7 billion financial scheme and support packages to provide sustenance for its people amidst global crisis. In conclusion, we draw lessons that can be learned from South Korea’s valiant effort in curbing the spread of Coronavirus and can be emulated by other nations to fight this global pandemic.

The study titled “What Works: Enabling Resilience in Dhaka Urban Areas” was carried out with the main objective to contribute to institutional learning and document innovative solutions and ideas that can help to scale up similar interventions and replicate it in other domains. The study was commissioned by Plan International Bangladesh, in association with Canadian Sida. It was also expected from the study that it would support and boost the capacity of Plan International and partners to develop urban resilience programmes in the future. In addition, the research findings were to be used to generate evidence for effective policy advocacy. The study was carried out in Ward 2 and 5 of Dhaka North City Corporation. The research methodology employed qualitative methods which focused on the interpretation of the perception of people from social perspective and consequently, the result was largely descriptive. This method was helpful in building meaningful relationships between the researchers and people in the project areas. The process had facilitated better understanding of what worked well in their lives and community and interpret the result using a qualitative approach, that consisted of review of project documents (project proposal, Knowledge, Attitude and Practice (KAP) study; mid-term and endline evaluations, and project learning document; review of the Focused Group Discussion (FGD) and Key Informant Interview (KII) reports. The findings were used to understand what had worked, how they worked, the contributing and constraining factors and learnings from the study; and triangulate the findings. The study continued from April to June 2019.

The study, commissioned by SNV Netherlands Development Organization, was initiated with the purpose of conducting an assessment to identify the current norms, practices and gaps to address Gender Equity and Social Inclusion (GESI) issues for increasing access and use of WASH services for all, particularly in Khulna. For obvious reasons, the coverage of the study span across Khulna City. The research prioritized gender equality and social inclusion based on the information from the baseline and available secondary information and primary research in Khulna city. The research tried to assess the status of equality between genders and different social groups, identify the most important gender-related and social inclusion-related issues in Khulna city and in the CWISE Project areas and find definite answers to how do these issues affect the project and which opportunities are there to work on those issues within the project. The research team developed a framework for appropriate compilation of primary level qualitative data, compiled such data from secondary sources as exhaustively as possible, used those to provide insights into analysis pertaining to gender equality and social inclusion, and undertook assessment of these two issues. This was followed by analysis of policy and legal framework, assessment of institutional issues of sanitation sector, overall project analysis to draw recommendations, good practices and lessons learned and application of specific tools. For determining the sample pool to be studied, members of diverse segments of population directly or indirectly affected by the sanitation service delivery in Khulna city from the community were identified. These included CDC, Hrishi community adolescent boys and girls; persons with disability; low income settlement dwellers. Academia and other institutions engaged in sanitation research were found to be another category of participant. Academic institutions such as Khulna University and Khulna University of Engineering and Technology were included in the latter category. The duration of the project was from April to July 2019.

Plan International Bangladesh, in collaboration with JOINT ACTION FOR NUTRITION OUTCOME (JANO) PROJECT, implemented by Care and Plan International, and supported by EU and Australian Development Cooperation, carried out a formative research to understand present perceptions and attitudes of young people on gender equity, nutrition and hygiene. The coverage of the study was spread out across 3 upazilas of Rangpur district (Gangachara, Kaunia and Taragonj) and 4 upazilas in Nilphamari district (Domar, Jaldhaka, Kishorgonj and Nilphamari Sadar). Both quantitative and qualitative methods were used to collect information from young people at intervention schools and Madrassas regarding the primary research issues which were gender equity, nutrition and WASH. The sample pool of interviewee accounted for 576 students from primary, junior secondary and secondary school. It was taken into consideration that there were equal representation of adolescent girls and boys to be surveyed. Additionally, health service providers, agriculture, livestock, education and women affairs department at upazila and district level were also interviewed. Some of the specific objectives of the study was to reveal beliefs and attitudes of youth aged between 10 to 19 years on key gender equity and nutrition issues, to understand the attitudes of the parents, teachers and School Management Committee (SMC) members in primary and secondary schools and Madrassas, health service providers in Community Clinics and Union Health and Family Welfare Centre (UH&FWC) towards provision of Gender Equality Monitoring in School (GEMS), hygiene (Menstrual Hygiene Management), hand washing practice and nutrition for young people. The study went on for a course of four months from February to May of 2019.

The study coverage of this national study on waste and sanitation worker’s working condition, occupational health and safety, wages, livelihood and exclusion span out across 417 administrative wards in 12 city corporations all over Bangladesh, and 327 Paurashavas in 8 divisions. This research considered wards of City Corporation and Paurashava as same unit. As a result, 744 units (417 wards+327 Paurashavas) constituted the sampling frame. The study went for a 30 cluster method and interviewed 13 households of water and sanitation workers from each of the cluster to get the expected number of samples. These 30 data collection units (ward and Paurashava) were selected randomly from the list of 744 units. All of the involved beneficiaries and relevant stakeholders were rigorously studied to assess the current situation of waste and sanitation worker’s working condition, occupational health and safety, wages, livelihood and exclusions in terms of social and economic benefits. More specifically, the study was aimed to analyze the vulnerability versus accessibility of the workers in working place, mainstream society, financial and educational institutions, options to choose own livelihood etc., analyze the male-female ratio in the sectors identified for the study and assess gender gap, equitable access to wage, working environment, child rights with social and economic exclusion, and finally to evaluate their contribution to national GDP, considering direct and indirect benefits (economic, environmental, social, climate, etc.). The research methodology opted to perform the in-depth study took both primary and secondary data into consideration. Primary data from the waste and sanitation workers and stakeholders was be collected by utilizing both quantitative and qualitative techniques while secondary data was collected and analyzed from different relevant literatures. The entire national study was commissioned by Practical Action Bangladesh.

This was an evaluative study carried out by WaterAid Bangladesh to assess the return on investment of an initial project titled “Promoting Environment for Urban Poor (PEHUP)”. More specifically, the study would quantify the social, environmental and economic outcomes of the initial project that had been implemented in three city corporations of Bangladesh – Chittagong, Dhaka and Khulna. In order to accomplish the task, the total value created by the project were compared in relation to the investments by the project and private expenditures by the stakeholders relevant to these values that generated a ratio as the rate of return on the investment. Estimation of ROI of the PEHUP project followed an extensive methodology that combined social return and cost-benefit analysis approaches. It mapped out the ‘material’ stakeholders and, the financial and non-financial outcomes accrued to the stakeholders through the project. The return on investment had been calculated by aggregating the values the stakeholders assigned to relevant outcomes. It made use high level of engagement with the project stakeholders and focused on understanding the value of the change to the stakeholders themselves. The duration of the project was approximately 6 months from June till November 2018.

Family Welfare with the aim to develop a framework for assessment and analysis of gender components in the Operational Plans (OP) of the Health, Population and Nutrition (HPN) sector. It was expected that the policymakers could use the guidelines in the framework to identify gender issues in design and implementation of health policy and programme. Additionally, this study intended to identify the major obstacles associated with gender issues in health systems, which were expected to be useful in preparing a priority list and develop a plan to provide recommendations on the basis of analysis of the existing scenario. The team relied on various types of resources along the way to develop a methodology for this study. These were literature review, opinion obtained from experts in Bangladesh and Abroad, opinion received in the consultation workshop on validation of methodology, and meetings with GSPN team. Furthermore, the study team developed a Gender assessment framework which included indicators to assess following 6 different domains – Background and Context, Objectives, Strategy, Action/ Activities, Resource (Financial, Human) Allocation, and Monitoring and Evaluation. The team members reviewed all OPs and PIP (as secondary documents) and then FGDs and consultations conducted with responsible officials of the relevant departments. Following that, information from FGDs were verified within secondary documents and scores were put on the OPs (individually to the domains) for rating the indicators of OP analysis accordingly. The duration of the study was from February till June, 2018.

Gender Analysis of IEC Materials in Health, Population and Nutrition Sector Programme has been implemented at the national level by the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare. The study was carried out to assess and analyze IEC materials developed by Operational Plans (OPs) in Health, Population, Nutrition sector program so that health systems policy makers can use the guidelines to identify gender issues in the design and implementation of gender sensitive IEC material and to identify gaps in information, health education, communication materials to address gender inequities, prioritize and devise way out to address them. Furthermore, this study analyzed the following 8 types of sample IEC materials – posters, leaflets, billboards, newspaper advertisements, booklet and brochure, guidelines, flipchart, audio visuals, and others – of three units (IEM, IPHN and IEM) of the MoHFW. This analysis aimed to portray an overall picture of existing gender sensitive communication of the Health, Population and Nutrition (HPN) sector of Bangladesh. For accomplishing the objectives, the study team developed a Gender assessment framework for assessing the IEC materials of HPN sector. This study followed this framework and guideline for collecting and analyzing the data. Additionally, they analyzed the IEC materials in relation with gender specific and gender transformative areas in following 4 domains – Content Quality, Content Placement and Preservation, Content Print Quality, and Call for Action. The study assessed the IEC materials produced under the supervision of following 3 departments – Information, Education & Motivation (IEM) Unit under Directorate General of Family Planning (DGFP), Bureau of Health Education under Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS), and Institute of Public Health Nutrition (IPHN) under Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS). KII had been conducted with health, family planning, and nutrition professionals (Civil Surgeon, Deputy Director, Medical Officer, Consultants, UHFPO, RMO, FWV, SACMO, CHCP) at the division, upazila, union, community levels to obtain their understanding of IEC materials, its implementation modalities, challenges, and suggestions to overcome the challenges. Moreover, KII had conducted with national level representative from respective departments and experts in this thematic area. The study had been conducted in the form of group discussion/consultation with service seekers to assess their understanding/perception from the sector’s produced IEC materials they have had access to. The mobility mapping of the women and adolescent girls have been mapped to validate the placement of the IEC materials. The participants were comprised of adult men and women, adolescent boys and girls, mothers of under five children, pregnant and lactating mother. This study organized a number of consultations with GNSPU, programme managers, deputy programme managers responsible for designing and implementing the health, family planning, and nutrition IEC materials for the sector programme. The objective of the consultation with GNSPU was to clarify and get feedback on study methodology, analysis plan, tools, and draft reports. The aim of the consultation with responsible representatives from different departments on IEC was to receive guidance on selecting materials from the list as well as finalizing study methodology and analysis plan. The study continued from February till June, 2018.

WaterAid Bangladesh, with capacity building and technical assistance from NEF Consulting and Water Aid UK for SROI estimation, carried out a study titled “Social Return on Investment (SROI): Assessment of Value for Money of a project in coastal area of Bangladesh”. As the name of the study suggests, the study coverage was Dacope – a coastal upazila of Khulna District in Bangladesh. The purpose of the research was to apply SROI method to quantify the social, environmental and economic outcomes of the project in coastal area of Bangladesh. It would compare the total value created by the project with the investment in order to gain a ratio to quantify the value generated by the project outcomes. It made use high level of engagement with the project stakeholders and focused on understanding the value of the change to the stakeholders themselves. The beneficiaries and relevant stakeholders surveyed for this study comprised of Mothers (of children less than 5 years of age), Adolescent girls, Students’ Council members, Female service providers at health service facilities, Female service seekers at health facilities, Service providers and seekers at health service facilities and WDMC members. The SROI methodology that has been the central research mode for this study and has been developed from social accounting and cost-benefit analysis approaches. It mapped out the ‘material’ stakeholders and outcomes and return on investment is calculated by aggregating the values the stakeholders assign to relevant outcomes. The principle of materiality often guides judgement and inclusion in the model. Therefore, assumptions and judgements were important for the study. The survey continued for a course of three months from October to December 2017.

The study titled “Youth Pulse Survey” had been carried out from August to November 2017 across all divisions in Bangladesh by Save the Children, Bangladesh. The purpose of the study was to call attention to the campaign and to be in a position where the organization could understand what are the factors that are currently driving Bangladeshi youths and in what direction. In addition to a planning approach for the Movement of Millions, Save the Children decided to conduct a study to collect information about youth and analyze them to understand the current thoughts and interests of the young generation of the country. The main purpose of this study was to incorporate youth voice, regarding current interest, social issues and behavioral pattern; in the campaign on the premise that youth are generally regarded as tomorrow’s change maker, making their role very important for bringing out the voice of children. The survey more specifically aimed to identify the current interest and perspectives of children and youths of Bangladesh to claim their rights through campaign, identify social issues important to the children and young people, which they feel they can bring changes through campaign and advocacy, and explore current youth’s behavioral pattern and channel of interest to demonstrate campaign on the ground to bring social changes. Participants, both male and female, aged 15-18, 19-23 and 24-29 years were surveyed for the study. The study consisted of reviewing existing national level strategy/policy and other available documents (both ICT based and regular) in relation to the children and young people’s current interest and perspectives, behavioral pattern and interests. The research followed qualitative methods including focus group discussions and relevant participatory appraisal methods where necessary. The study selected samples from Dhaka (urban), Bhola, Sylhet, Rangpur and Chittagong Hill Tracts for information collection as different levels of exposures and life-experiences arising out of living in different geographical and cultural context. Within each of these geographical areas, a mix of different groups such as, girls, boys, students from general education, Madarasah education, and from English medium schools, as well as out of school children and youth, etc. were included in the study to capture the effects of socio-economic backgrounds on youth perspectives and interests.

Link: https://resourcecentre.savethechildren.net/node/13117/pdf/counting_youth_pulse.pdf

The initial project was titled Resilience through Economic Empowerment Climate Adaptation Leadership and Learning (REE-CALL) initiated with the purpose of contributing to social and economic changes, and increase women’s economic activity and their control over financial resources. This study has been carried out by Oxfam Bangladesh, in collaboration with Oxfam UK, and Oxfam Australia with a set of objectives – to identify how the CBO approach has contributed to social and economic changes in REE-CALL, to explore the relevant factors and stakeholder’s role including partner5 that contributed to women’s increased economic activity and control over financial resources in REE-CALL analyzing the diversity of different women’s experience and to identify the contextual factors and different stakeholders that has been contributed to the CBO approach and women’s economic empowerment in REE-CALL. The comprehensive study was carried out in the districts of Rangpur and Satkhira and studied Community Based Organization (CBO), Local Government Representatives and Government officials, Private Sector and Staff of implementing partner NGO using a combination of qualitative methods. The study was conducted during August and September 2017.

In the 3 remote districts of Bangladesh – Barguna, Kishoreganj and Khagracchari, the evaluation of the project titled “Creating an Enabling Environment for Young People to Claim and Access their Sexual and Reproductive Health Rights in Bangladesh” was carried out.
This evaluative study was mainly initiated to understand to what extent the initial project had achieved its intended following results and to document the learning and challenges experienced during the implementation of the project. One of the outcomes of the project was to enable young people to make informed decisions and increase their access to information and services regarding sexual and reproductive health in targeted areas. For this reasons, it was one of the indicators to look out for in the end-line evaluation to see to what extent the project had been successful. Similarly, the project wanted to improve the implementation of National and Local government institutions of the national adolescent sexual reproductive health strategy. Therefore, the endline evaluative study was carried out to assess if these institutions really did improve their services or not. The outcomes of the initial project became the natural cursor for the endline evaluative study to assess the success of the project. The endline evaluation also wanted to assess if CSOs now have the capacity to facilitate sexual reproductive health information and youth friendly health service in target areas which the project set out to achieve. Finally, the last measure of the success of the initial project was to discover the availability of an accessible, inclusive youth-friendly quality health service at local health facilities in target areas, which the endline evaluative study set out to assess. In order to accomplish this comprehensive study of cross-sectional surveys across the 3 districts, the sample size was set at 1708 comprising of 4 types of sample respondents – 1152 households, 284 married young women, 108 CSO members and 64 school teachers. The evaluation research was executed using a combination of methodology – with both quantitative and qualitative approach. Qualitative sessions were conducted in the form of FGDSs, KIIs, consultation and observing health facilities which allowed for the participation of various stakeholders. The duration of the endline evaluative study was set out for three months, initiating in July 2019 and completing in September of the same year.

In the 3 remote districts of Bangladesh – Barguna, Kishoreganj and Khagracchari, the evaluation of the project titled “Creating an Enabling Environment for Young People to Claim and Access their Sexual and Reproductive Health Rights in Bangladesh” was carried out. This evaluative study was mainly initiated to understand to what extent the initial project had achieved its intended following results and to document the learning and challenges experienced during the implementation of the project. One of the outcomes of the project was to enable young people to make informed decisions and increase their access to information and services regarding sexual and reproductive health in targeted areas. For this reasons, it was one of the indicators to look out for in the end-line evaluation to see to what extent the project had been successful. Similarly, the project wanted to improve the implementation of National and Local government institutions of the national adolescent sexual reproductive health strategy. Therefore, the endline evaluative study was carried out to assess if these institutions really did improve their services or not. The outcomes of the initial project became the natural cursor for the endline evaluative study to assess the success of the project. The endline evaluation also wanted to assess if CSOs now have the capacity to facilitate sexual reproductive health information and youth friendly health service in target areas which the project set out to achieve. Finally, the last measure of the success of the initial project was to discover the availability of an accessible, inclusive youth-friendly quality health service at local health facilities in target areas, which the endline evaluative study set out to assess. In order to accomplish this comprehensive study of cross-sectional surveys across the 3 districts, the sample size was set at 1708 comprising of 4 types of sample respondents – 1152 households, 284 married young women, 108 CSO members and 64 school teachers. The evaluation research was executed using a combination of methodology – with both quantitative and qualitative approach. Qualitative sessions were conducted in the form of FGDSs, KIIs, consultation and observing health facilities which allowed for the participation of various stakeholders. The duration of the endline evaluative study was set out for three months, initiating in July 2019 and completing in September of the same year.

This study was a mid-term review of a project titled “Initiatives for Married Adolescent Girls’ Empowerment (IMAGE)-Plus”, commissioned by Terre des Hommes –Netherlands and supported by EKN. The project was the second phase of an earlier project, being implemented in three northern districts of Bangladesh with the aim to address the issues of Early Married Girls (EMGs) through four core components – Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights (SRHR), Education, Gender Based Violence (GBV), and skill training for Income Generating Activities (IGAs). Additionally, it aimed for behavior change through raising awareness, promoted communications and advocacy, among the EMGs, their husbands, mother in law and unmarried sister in laws, along with community members, public representatives (UP), civil society, and government agencies at the local level. Furthermore, it worked in association with national level influencers and policy makers and the media. This mid-term study, therefore, was carried out to measure the changes and improve the implementation mechanism of the project by assessing the relevance, effectiveness, efficiency, sustainability and collating the lessons learned of the project. In order to assure a well representative sample size were used for quantitative data collection for the conduction of the study, probabilistic sampling approach has been used. The sample respondents for the survey were selected randomly and individual interviews have been conducted with 383 EMGs, and their spouse and mother in-law at their homesteads. SPSS software has been used for data entry, management and analysis, following editing and cleaning. The cross sectional data was analyzed through comparison of the sample in the old project sites with those in the new sites, in line with the outcome and output statements in the project logical framework. The MTR’s focus was on the changes in knowledge, attitude and practices with regards to the wellbeing and empowerment of the EMGs. The coverage of the study spanned across 3 northern districts – Nilphamari, Gaibandha and Kurigram and the duration of the review study was from April to June 2019.

The initial project titled ‘Improving the sexual and reproductive health and resilience of young people, in particular of vulnerable young women, in four districts of Bangladesh’ was carried out as a 3-year project for improving the Sexual and Reproductive Health (SRH) and Resilience of young people, particularly vulnerable young women, in 22 rural villages of 4 districts – Barisal, Comilla, Pabna, Jessore – of Bangladesh with funding mainly from DfID and Fresh Leaf Foundation. The overall objective of the project was to increase the access of young women and men in selected locations within four districts to sexual and reproductive health (SRH) services and create an environment where they are able to exercise their SRH rights. The specific objective was to enable 3,350 young women and 1,580 young men in same areas to make positive and informed choices about their sexual reproductive health. Consequently, the purpose of the endline evaluation, commissioned by Y Care International, UK, and supported by DfID and Fresh Leaf Foundation, was to evaluate the effectiveness of the project in order to generate data about how well the project delivered benefits to the target population; assess the impact made on direct beneficiaries, their families and communities and the YWCA Bangladesh and the process used to achieve these; and finally capture learning from the project (i.e. analyze what worked well and what worked less well with reasons) to guide YWCA Bangladesh and YCI in determining the effectiveness of the project and help guide future project development. Data was collected from 220 young women (152) and men (68) through a structured questionnaire. 96 young women and 8 men, 85 community members (53 women, 32 men), including 48 parents of young women and men engaged with the project participated in the FGDs as part of the evaluation. Interviews were conducted with 8 (3 women and 5 men) healthcare service providers and 8 social decision makers (6 women and 2 men). Furthermore, the evaluation also collected 30 case stories (26 from young women and 4 from young men) for the analysis. The final evaluation of the project made use of a mix of quantitative and qualitative approaches for collecting data, which were then analyzed in combination with project log frame, baseline survey report and other quantitative and qualitative reports generated by the project. The study was initiated in December 2018 and completed in February 2019.

The initial project was titled “Journey Towards Disaster Resilient Dhaka City”. This end line study was carried out to assess the achievements of the project in relation to the expected set of outcomes of the project. The end line study was commissioned by Plan Internal Bangladesh and supported by Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (SIDA). The area of coverage for the study was Dhaka North City Corporation. Some of the more specific objectives of the initial project was to increase the level of awareness and capacity of children and youth to facilitate child centered Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR) process in targeted slums, make stakeholders more accountable on their commitment on reduction of disaster and vulnerabilities of children and increase awareness, capacities and activities of civil society organization (CSO) on Urban DRR with the scope of intervention slums. Therefore, the end line study was aimed to assess the level of awareness the project was able to increase and the extent to which capacity of the following beneficiaries were built. Additionally, the study also identified gaps, challenges and lessons learnt from the implementation of the project so as to be able to provide recommendations for future implementations. In order to efficiently assess the situation, a total of 478 households were selected from DNCC for quantitative survey using online platform. Research methodology opted for this study was carried out in three distinct phases – secondary information analysis, primary data collection and analysis, which entailed collection of detailed information from selected sample project locations, and finally, focusing on policy and programme recommendations. The duration of the project was three months from April to June 2018.

This study was an endline evaluation of a project titled “Building Resilience of Urban Poor-BRUP”. The study was commissioned by Care Bangladesh and supported by C&A Foundation. The initial project aimed to enhance resilience of targeted urban individuals, communities and institutions through project intervention. Therefore, the end line study was carried out to document the changes occurred as a result of the interventions and document the constraints/challenges encountered and lessons learned from the prior project intervention. Additionally, the study would also shed light on to what extent the results of the project were sustainable and scalable also provide recommendations, if appropriate, of how sustainability can be improved. The area coverage of the study was the Gazipur City Corporation area, where the sample pool of respondents comprised of 271 slum dwellers, in which 178 were female. DevResonance completed this endline study following mixed methods- quantitative and qualitative. In-depth interview with direct beneficiaries using structured questionnaire, FGD with different beneficiary groups, key informant interview, direct observation and documents review methods were used for data collection. The team analyzed all data as per OECD method, containing relevance effectiveness/impact, efficiency and sustainability/scalability. The duration of the project was set for three months from January to March 2018

The project titled “REE-CALL”, which is short for Resilience through Economic Empowerment Climate Adaptation Leadership and Learning, is an extensively conducted project, with a coverage of 12 districts, 20 upazilas, 37 unions and 257 villages. The project was able to have a wide reach by working through 14 implementing partners across this scope of area. 76,000 beneficiaries were directly benefitted through this project. Furthermore, the project brought about the involvement of 800 community based organizations (CBOs) representing 3 distinct disaster prone area of Bangladesh – haors, chars and coast. This end line evaluation study of this large scale project was carried out with a set of objectives – to review findings, recommendations and learning of the studies, researches, baseline survey, midterm, third party monitoring and end evaluation of different components of REE-CALL, to assess the REE-CALL project has achieved its outputs and outcomes/objectives by the end of the project as set out in the project log frame, to document operational lessons of the REE-CALL project to feed into future programming and to understand the spillover effects like economic changes and capacity to deal with the environment shocks. The study, commissioned by Oxfam Bangladesh and assisted by UkAid-EEP Shiree, studied 382 project supported households from Char, Haor and Costal districts of Bangladesh. Additionally, the study followed OECD M&E framework and analyzed relevance, effectiveness, impact and sustainability of the project. This endline evaluative study was undertaken from June till August of 2017.

The initial project titled ‘Promoting sustainable building in Bangladesh’ was initiated by Oxfam GB, with support of European Union, with the aim to promote sustainable and eco-friendly building materials and practices in Bangladesh with an enabling policy environment on the premise that brick manufacturing industry is one of the major causes of adverse environmental impacts, contributing to Green House Gas emissions, deforestation and land degradation in Bangladesh. The project was a collaboration between Oxfam in Bangladesh, Housing and Building Research Institute (HBRI) – for research and development of new alternative and eco-friendly brick production technology, Jagorani Chakra Foundation (JCF) – for extension of the technology in the local market, promoting local producers and consumers, and Bangladesh Environmental Lawyers Association (BELA) – for advocacy to bring about policy and regulatory changes in favour of alternative bricks. Hence, the evaluative study was carried out in Dhaka and Jessore with the purpose of improving the performance of the project and contribute to achieve its objectives through capturing and processing of data/information/knowledge, analyzing and extracting learnings, good practices and dissemination, and feeding into planning and actions. The goal was also about an internal ongoing documentation of the process during the execution of the project. The exercise was a cooperation between the project team, stakeholders, and outsiders which helped to reflect, analyze and improve the ongoing project. The methodology was designed in such way that the exercise would look at the change process from the eyes of those involved in it, and reflect their diverging point of view. It was not about describing a success story, but rather monitoring a process of change and development, and learning from experiences. The exercises were aimed to focus more about the ‘how’ of the implementation process as opposed to the ‘what’ of process impact. This exhaustive monitoring and evaluative study continued from January 2017 till June 2018.

This was an endline evaluative study of an initial project titled “Transforming rural livelihood through WASH in climate vulnerable areas in southwest Bangladesh” that was initiated with the objective of reducing WASH deprivation among the poor, marginalized, and disaster vulnerable households living in Dacope upazila. More specifically, the project intended to achieve reduced average water collection time and water scarcity at household level, increased number of households using hygienic latrine in target communities, improve proper hygiene practice among household members and school children, community capacity to exert demand and governance orientation of the Union Parishads increased, and improved household awareness on climate resilience and water safety compliance. Consequently, the objectives of the evaluative study, commissioned by WaterAid Bangladesh and in association with Earth Watch and WWF, were to know the proportion of households in intervention Unions that have access to context specific safe drinking water supply, to measure current water consumption privilege in household (average per capita quantity being used) and average monthly expenditure of the household to collect drinking water, to understand the proportion of households in intervention areas that are practicing water safety plan (WSP), to assess the level of TTC11, Iron and Arsenic in the water of the facilities in intervention areas, to assess the proportion of households in intervention areas that have access to improved sanitation facilities, to measure monthly expenditure of the household for the purpose of sanitation and hygiene, to understand the prevalence of water-borne diseases that include diarrhoea, jaundice, typhoid, dysentery and skin diseases in the intervention areas, especially among the under five children, to measure proportion of households that have hand washing devices near the latrines, to understand awareness of mothers of under 5 children in the household regarding hand washing at five critical times, to assess children’s awareness at school on handwashing at five critical times, to identify to what extent the project has contributed to enhance children’s access to sanitation and MHM facilities at schools, to assess the level of understanding of people living in intervention areas about the risks and impacts of climate change on water, sanitation and hygiene practice, to assess the extent/amount of support has been mobilized in the recent years from the local government (UP, DPHE, etc.) to address WASH needs/crisis in the communities, to identify local government (Union Parishad, DPHE, Upazila Coordination Body, etc.) practices and responses to WASH service delivery in terms of resource allocation-cum-utilization and participatory planning, to identify the involvement of local government in the project implementation and know their contribution in respect of sustainability of WASH services, and to know to what extent the project has addressed the equity and inclusion issues in interventions. The coverage of the study spanned out in Southwest Bangladesh (Khulna). For estimating the sample size, W.G. Cochran’s formula was used. Housewives were targeted as respondents in household survey, while the household heads were considered as alternative respondent if housewives were unavailable. The study used both quantitative and qualitative methods for better triangulation of collected information. The report, based on the analysis, also documented lessons learnt to be able to provide recommendations. To meet the study objectives, data in the endline study were collected through following methods: Quantitative methods (household survey with children survey), Qualitative methods (focus group discussions-FGD, key informant interviews, or KIIs, and consultation), School survey (KII and observation), Water quality test in a laboratory (to identify presence of Thermotolerant Coliform, Iron and Arsenic), Direct observation, and review of secondary sources of information, i.e., annual plan and annual budget of union Parishad, project documents as well as other relevant documents and other similar study reports, Strategies, Policies, as far as available. The endline study was initiated in November 2016 and saw completion in January 2017.

This was a baseline study carried out with the purpose to understand and analyze present WASH situation at household and factory premises in Bangladesh. The study coverage encompassed pearl garments, cosmopolitan industries and meddler apparels across Savar area of Dhaka. WaterAid Bangladesh, in association with Levi Strauss, initiated this study with the intent of providing necessary benchmark on current the current situation against each specific objectives – i) knowing the proportion of households of the garment workers that have access to safe drinking water facilities ii) knowing the proportion of households of the garment workers that have access to improved latrine facilities iii) finding out levels of TTC, Iron and Arsenic in the water of the facilities in targeted intervention areas (source of drinking water at households of the factory workers and factories) iv) understanding the proportion of households of the garment workers that are practicing water safety plan (WSP) v) knowing the proportion of households of garment workers that have hand-washing facilities with soap and water near the toilet and kitchen vi) measuring knowledge and awareness of the garment workers regarding hand washing at critical times vii) understanding knowledge and practice of the female garment workers about menstrual hygiene management ix) trying to comprehend to what extent the garment workers have access to safe drinking water, improved inclusive toilet and hygiene in the factories x) understanding situation of WASH in the health facilities at intervention area and xi) trying to comprehend the situation of WASH in the schools at intervention area. To accomplish the task, 318 garments worker from three factories were studied. The research methodology for the study followed a mixed combination of quantitative and qualitative methods that primarily analyzed four components – a quantitative exercise, which is a cross-sectional survey among the RMG workers, especially the households living in three study locations to quantify and describe access to WASH at household and factory level, a quantitative and qualitative sample exercise of health facilities from community clinic, Union Health and Family Welfare Centre, Upazila Health Complex, educational institution in study locations with a checklist to understand the situation of WASH, a qualitative exercise among purposively selected community members, women and men factory workers, factory manager to explore the different dimensions of service provisions, WASH access and conduct a bottleneck analysis and a lab test/ experiment of water samples from water points of the factory, source of drinking water of the workers at home to evaluate the water quality through Total Thermo-tolerant Coliforms (TTC) test. The study was initiated in October 2016 and completed in January 2017.

Oxfam Bangladesh, in association with DSK and NGO Forum for Water and Sanitation, commissioned an endline evaluative study of an initial project that was aimed to explore urban resilience in Bangladesh. The study, therefore, was carried out with the purpose to document the changes that occur in the lives of targeted urban communities through project interventions, to document achievements and strategies adopted against approved log frame and set indicators of the project, to document the constrains & lessons generated from project intervention, to analyze and document added value of the project highlighting any unintended outcomes that benefits others and to provide an opinion on the extent to which the results of the project are sustainable and offer recommendations, if appropriate, on how sustainability can be improved. 132 households in Dhaka slums and 191 households in Mymensingh were studied for a total of 323 interviews. The methodology comprised of quantitative and qualitative approaches, with the former involving knowledge, attitude and behavior survey of residents of the slums where the project intervened and the qualitative approach involved FGDs and IDIs of stakeholders including slum dwellers, volunteers, project personnel and officials including WDMC members, CC/PDMC members and public service providers. The duration of the study was from February till March 2016.