“Flood Protected Housing and Income Generation Activities”

Background

VARD has been implementing a five-year Project on "Flood Protected Housing and Income Generation Activities phase-II" from January 2002 with financial support from Strømme Foundation aimed at enhancing socio-economic capacities of poor and marginalized families in 3 districts of Sylhet, Moulovibazar and Comilla. Both partners, VARD and SF decided to carry out a mid-term evaluation in December 2005 by an independent external consultant to assess the progress and impact of the project as well as any lessons to be learnt. The report contains findings and recommendations on effectiveness and efficiency of program implementation, involvement of target beneficiaries, their social and economic enhancement, leadership pattern, empowerment issues and capacity fortification in line with the objectives of this study.

Purpose/objective

The specific objectives were:
i. To determine whether or not the project activities were accessible to the poorest communities in the intervention areas.
ii. To examine whether or not the service delivery mechanism was conductive to reaching the vulnerable groups especially women and children.
iii. To examine and assess the outcome and impact of the project.
iv. To examine the specific objectives of the project in relation to income and employment and whether these have helped them live an average life in the project areas.
v. To prepare a set of recommendations based on the findings of the study on the present approaches and strategies for future direction.

Methodology

The methodology used has been participatory using both quantitative and qualitative techniques to facilitate participation. Primary data has been collected through focus group discussions and personal interviews with target respondents at the village level. Secondary data has been collected through review of Project documents.
?? Household visits /Individual interviews to group members in different villages to study family composition, and assess the situation in relation to education, health, occupation, land and other assets holding, water and sanitation, training on occupational skills and leadership pattern of the clients.
?? Focus Group Discussion (FGD) sessions conducted with different stakeholders e.g. group members, school teachers and staffs ensuring maximum representation.
?? Review of Secondary data Available project documents: Project Applications, Annual Reports, Monitoring Reports, Financial reports, Micro-finance documents.

Key findings

Flood Protected Houses
?? The targeted number of 100 houses 24 x 12 feet at a cost of Tk. 20,000 has been built, 19 in 2003 and 81 in 2004 and according to the design, to protect these from frequent floodwaters.
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Ownership of the house as planned has been given to women group members, which is very much appreciated by both women and her family members.
Reaching the Poorest segment of the community: Target people and groups
?? The FPH-IGA-II has been designed to address the poor in the community organizing them in 'groups'. A total of 2,932 members have been active in Phase-II of the Project, with 1,213 (42%) from Phase-I who have re-joined Phase-II. The rest 1,719 (58%) have joined newly. Group members joined newly are comparatively poorer.
Education
?? VARD has established a private primary school with funds from Strømme Foundation covering 2-3 surrounding villages with a total of 147 students. 77 (52%) of them are girls and 70 (48%) boys. This type of private primary school in a remote area is very much appreciated by the community and to attain sustainability, it is necessary to get affiliation to the Department of Education.
?? A seven member Management Committee has been formed to oversee and ensure quality education to develop into a model school.
?? 90% of school-going aged children among group member families are enrolled in the school against the planned target of 80% children.
Microfinance
?? 1,171 borrowers representing 40% of the total group members are active, but there is scope to reach more group members. In 2005 (up to October) loan disbursement has increased by almost 89% compared to the amount disbursed in 2004. 'On-time' loan repayment in 2002 has been 99.28%, in 2003 94.96% and in 2004 92.59% though in 2005 the rate has increased to 94.19%. The project needs to work on 'On-time' loan repayment. IGA training for group members has not been effective.
Effects and Changes
?? 1) Increased mobility for women outside their homes, 2) education of children from poor families, 3) liquid cash in hand always, 4) Increased social acceptance, 5) weaning away from traditional moneylenders who charge high interest rates.
Project Management
?? Senior Program Manager (SPM) assigned to supervise the project activities though competent has lots of other work to do, making it difficult for him to provide the necessary support to this project in the field especially in case of any emergency. There are 13 Credit Assistants (CAs) who work in the field but almost all are new less than 1 to 2 years in employment and none from the start of the project.

Recommendations

i. Greater scrutiny of applicants needed to avoid those comparatively better-off joining the project and focus more on recruiting poorer people.
ii. Group members expressed the need for more intensive training on social development and human right issues. School teachers also need more training to impart quality education.
iii. Savings mobilization must improve and that will help VARD to reduce dependence on donors funding for microfinance lending.
iv. Arrears rate and portfolio at risk is high considering the best practices in the industry and the project should work on bringing arrears below 2%, and portfolio at risk to below 5%.
v. There is a need to diversify IGAs/enterprises.
vi. Social development and human right based training courses should be organized for CAs followed by refresher courses.
vii. There is a need to more actively involve the target population in planning, implementation, monitoring and evaluation of the project.
viii. Impact monitoring and internal assessment systems, including sustainability issues, need more attention in the next implementation phase.

Comments from the organisation

This mid-term evaluation of the project was aimed at reviewing the progress of the project and to assess if the interventions were effective in achieving the objectives of the project. The report was reviewed by SF and the Partner and an action plan has been drawn up to remedy the weaknesses identified. It is our experience that owing to commercialization in MF and a desire to achieve a level of professionalism among MF partners, the project seems to give low priority on social and capacity building aspects in the program. In order to remedy this SF has planned to introduce a component for capacity building of MF participants on social aspects including human rights, gender issues, environment and HIV/AIDS under the development education program.
Technical shortcomings in MF management have been discussed with the partner and these e.g. organizational procedures and staff capacity will be developed by the partner as needed.