United Nations Public Service Awards Case Studies

Bangladesh, one of the poorest countries of the world, has 40% of its population living below the poverty line and for rural areas the rates is 43.8%. One aspect of women’s poverty is that the total number of poor women is higher than that of poor man. Various micro studies indicate that the ‘hard-core’ poor are largely women. The number of ultra poor (measured by food intake of 1.600 k.cal/person/day) and extreme poor (food intake of 1,805 k.cal/person/day) is higher in female headed households than in male headed households. The HIES 2005 shows that about 29.6 percent of women of these households are divorced / widowed. Women live below lower poverty line against the national average of 25.1 percent. Customary biases and intra-household inequalities lead to lower consumption by and fewer benefits for women and girls among low income households.

Since 1971, the country has faced almost 200 disasters, including cyclones, floods droughts, and river erosion, causing severe damage of assets and lives. The poorest income groups are the most vulnerable to disaster and have to struggle to recover the loss of their livelihood almost every year. Floods aggravate poverty by affecting the most poor and vulnerable groups and major floods, particularly affected the women segment of the population. The flood-induced rural urban migration makes women vulnerable to trafficking and prostitution. During the flood of 2007, more than 13.8 million people were affected causing huge income and assets losses. Economic activities were hampered leading to large scale unemployment, particularly for the poor and women in the form and non farm sector. Loss of livestock and crops creates severe budget deficit at the household level affecting women. Damage of water and sanitation infrastructure led to diseases and hazards.

Women are the ones to face the challenge of managing households' food security and nutrition needs. During the disasters and food crisis they were the ones hard hit in managing the households' food supply. Often women are the ones to forgo their foods and nutrition in favor of other family members with severe consequences on their own health. Loss of resources leading to unemployment created additional problems for the women of the poor households making them also more vulnerable to violence. Helping these households deal with such shocks more effectively through social protection schemes, better governance and changing attitudes (e.g. health behavior and dowry) could keep many households out of chronic poverty. Further maternal nutritional status is a strong predictor of child nutritional status (and thus development of child’s mental faculties and productivity. Women’s health and well-being are therefore important factors for breaking, the transmission of poverty over generations.

Under the above circumstances government has decided to undertake a number of safety net programs that would help the poor and destitute. The Rural Employment & Road Maintenance (RERMP) project has been designed to improve livelihood of selected rural destitute women (widowed, separated etc) of the country who are capable of doing physical works that can benefit the community as well as themselves.

What is the initiative about? (the solution)
The Project has employed 51,740 destitute women for a period of five years who are maintaining 98,000 km of rural earthen farm to market roads. In total the RERMP has employed 51,740 women to maintain 20 km of rural roads of each union of the country. The benefits of the Project are as follows: (i) Secured employment for 51,740 destitute women benefiting their families for five years; (ii) Income generation training for 51,740 women; (iii) Maintenance of 98,000 km of rural earthen roads for year round movement of rickshaw, van, motor bikes and pedestrian; (iv) Plantation of 102,000 palm trees, two in each worker’s home premises which will give them steady income in future. Considering a family size of 4 persons the Project directly benefits about 204,000 people. The Project provides (i) steady cash income Tk 54 (US$ 0.77) per head per day for all the workers for five years. Additionally, it ensures forced savings of Tk 36 (US$ 0.51) per head per day, which together with the accrued interest will be about Tk 75,000 (US$ 1071) at the end of the Project, when the workers will be graduated from the Project. The Project also imparts income generation training to the women workers which include (i) Small grocery business; (ii) poultry rearing; (iii) livestock rearing; (iv) fish culture; (v) mushroom /vegetable cultivation; (vi) small cloth shop and tailoring etc. Besides, the Project arranges literacy and numeracy training for the beneficiary women. The Project is currently running for two and a half years. It has so far successfully engaged (i) 51,740 real destitute women in the Project; (ii) Opened 4,520 Crew wage accounts in the local government “Sonali” Bank to transfer crew wages; (iii) Opened 51,740 savings accounts for the individual crew members (these women never would have known how to deal with banks) in local “Sonali” Bank to deposit crew savings; (iii) Planted 102,000 palm trees; (iv) established data base to track beneficiary livelihood changes; (v) established system to track km of roads maintained in each union. However, the real challenge will be to sustain the income of the poor household once they are graduated from the Project.

Who proposed the solution, who implemented it and who were the stakeholders?
The Project was designed by Mr Abdus Shaheed, Superintending Engineer, LGED with support of the LGED Food For Works (FFW) unit and the Planning unit of LGED. The project is being implemented by Mr. Abdur Razzaque, Project Director. Mr Razzaque heads the office of the Project Director established at the LGED HQ. The Project Director is a senior civil engineer of LGED who is supported by an Executive Engineer and an Assistant Engineer and four Sociologists. The project has established 64 district level offices at the district level headed by the LGED Executive Engineers who are helped by a Sociologist and other support staff in each district. The physical works of the Project are implemented form the Upazila (Sub-district) Offices of LGED headed by the Upazila Engineer, who is supported by 2 community workers. 51,740 earthen Road Maintenance workers are the direct beneficiary of the project. Beneficiaries were selected through a transparent process with assistance of the local union council chairmen, ward members, local elites and the LGED officials. The road maintenance plan is prepared by the upazila engineer with the assistance of the Upazila technical staff. The community organizer form groups and arranged orientation training for each crew groups. The district level sociologist and the community workers organizes road maintenance training for the workers and assists to open (i) crew wage account and (ii) individual crew savings accounts. They also organize income generation training to the workers. The LGED regional training unit assists them in developing training materials and providing training support. Fund for crew wages is transferred by the Project Director to the district level Executive Engineers who in turn pays wages through bank to bank transfer to (i) Crew wage account and to (ii) Individual crew savings account

Describe how and when the initiative was implemented by answering these questions
a. What were the strategies used to implement the initiative? In no more than 500 words, provide a summary of the main objectives and strategies of the initiative, how they were established and by whom.
The Project has been designed for improving based on (i) rural development strategy and (ii) strategy for ensuring food security. The Planning Commission of Bangladesh developed the rural development strategy in 1984 which include (i) improvement of physical facilities of the Growth centers (rural markets) including improvement of access to the rural markets; (ii) improvement of small scale floor control, drainage and irrigation schemes and (iii) generation of employment opportunities for the rural poor. The Second National Strategy for Accelerated Poverty Reduction emphasized on food seciruty and social safety net. Food security encompasses three broad aspects, namely availability, access and utilization. The Project follows the principles of (i) ensuring adequate and stable supply of safe and nutritious food; (ii) enhance the purchasing power of the people for increased access to food; and (iii) ensuring adequate nutrition for all especially women, children and the persons with disabilities. It increased purchasing power among poor women. Intra-household disparity and discrimination in food consumption is reduced through increasing food availability and household access to food. The Project identified disaster affected rural destitute women and formed them into groups with the help of local government agencies. A group of 10 women is entrusted with the responsibility of maintaining 20km of rural earthen roads of each union of the country. These roads helps the farmers to market their products which in turn ensures better price to the farmers for their commodity. A daily wage $1.3 per day is allocated but a part of the wage is saved to undertake income generation at the end of the project when the work cycle of 5 years is over. Before ending of the Project, the women will be trained on vocations they choose to be run by utilizing their savings. The specific objectives of the Project are: o To reduce the proportion of the country’s rural population below the poverty line through improved access to markets and social services. o To create employment for rural destitute women in rural roads maintenance and initiating income generating works to reduce poverty. o To develop rural road networks that have significant positive impact on agriculture productivity, cost of commodity movement and personal transportation, private investment, primary education and health care. Productivity will increase with improved year round connectivity of farmland with market places. o To develop capacity of the rural poor women to undertake income generation works and thereby to become self-reliant

b. What were the key development and implementation steps and the chronology? No more than 500 words
The project has two components namely (i) Rural Road Maintenance Component (RMC) and (ii) Income Generation Training Component. Under the RMC component about 20 km of village/market/ social institute connecting roads of each union were maintained by 10 local destitute women on payment of cash wages at Tk 90 per head per day. As a result, 10 destitute women of every project union got a chance to become self-reliant through working under the project and on the other hand 20Km of important earthen roads of the union remained serviceable due to year round maintenance. The key development steps are as follows: (i) Formulation of the Project Proposal; (ii) Approval of the Project Proposal by Executive Committee of the national Economic Council (ECNEC); (iii) Establishment of Project Directors office; (iv) Establishment of the field offices; (v) Recruitment of Project officials and staff; (vi) Correct selection of destitute women beneficiaries and forming groups; (vii) Carryout baseline survey on the livelihood standards of the beneficiaries; (viii) Opening of crew wage accounts and individual worker savings accounts; (ix) Prepare a Yearly Work Program showing roads that will be maintained; (x) Train workers regarding maintenance; (xi) Procure road maintenance tools and distribute among workers; (xii) Supervise maintenance works done by workers and suggest improvements if necessary; (xiii) Ensure adequate budgetary allocation for yearly works; (xiv) Disburse wages from PD’s office to district Executive Engineer’s office (ensure dispatch of authority to pay from AG’s office); (xv) Ensure timely issuance of fund transfer instruction to local banks; (xvi) Assist workers to withdraw wages every 15 days; (xvii) Arrange income generation training for the workers; (xviii) Collect and distribute palm tree saplings amongst the workers; (xix) Collect livelihood data every year to see changes; (xx) Design a second project based on experience gained.

c. What were the main obstacles encountered? How were they overcome? No more than 500 words
Main obstacles for Project implementation are: (i) Political Influence in selection of beneficiaries; (ii) Unwillingness of the farmers to give soils from road side borrow pits for road maintenance and (iii) at time social barriers for women to work in the area of infrastructure. The political influence in the crew selection process has been overcome making the process transparent. The news of recruitment of workers was announced in the villages beating drums and posting the news in local offices. Destitute women aged in between 18-35 were asked to gather at a school or union council premises. Each crew was interviewed in presence of the concerned ward member to ensure about her destituteness and a number was awarded to her if she is found eligible as a worker. A lottery was drawn in presence of the concerned Union council chairman and the LGED Executive Engineer to select 10 beneficiaries from the eligible candidates. In Bangladesh most rural roads were constructed on voluntary donated private lands. In most case there are no borrow pits. With the increase in price of agriculture products most farmers are reluctant to give soil necessary to maintain the land. However, as these roads are mostly farm to market roads the farmers understand the importance of roads that are round the year passable for getting better price of their commodities. Thus this issue is resolved through community consultation This sort of livelihood improvement projects are time consuming and needs dedicated staff support. Staff incentive like (i) recognition of good work; (ii) cash incentive as prize and (iii) Overseas trips to similar projects may encourage staff to compete among themselves

d. What resources were used for the initiative and what were its key benefits? In no more than 500 words, specify what were the financial, technical and human resources’ costs associated with this initiative. Describe how resources were mobilized
The project cost is Tk 9,430 million (US $ 135 million) and is being funded entirely by the Government of Bangladesh. Project personnel include (i) a Project Director; (ii) a Deputy Project Director; (iii) 2 Senior Assistant Engineers; (iv) 2 Assistant Engineers; (v) 8 Sociologist; (vi) 4 Sub –Assistant Engineers and (vii) 8 other support staff. The field level offices were staffed with (i) 64 Sociologists; and 128 other support staff. Besides, the Project has recruited 920 community workers to assist the road maintenance crews. Some of the key positions were filled with LGED permanent personnel and others were recruited for the life of the project.

Is the initiative sustainable and transferable?
Direct involvement of grass root level worker with the project is one of the key elements for the success. Rural poor women get scope to work close to their residents and known place is an advantage for them. Leadership selection from the group is one of the potential elements. Selection process of destitute women to be the worker of the Union level group is participatory and local government institutions take the responsibility for ensuring the workers availability. Wage rate is attractive and continuous employment motivates them to perform their duty efficiently. Training for the women workers help them planning for future alternative employment. Sustainability: o This Project is a nation wide Project and it is expected that a follow on project of similar nature built on experience of this project will be implemented on completion of this project. o The Project is entirely funded by the Government without any external funding, which provides better possibility of continuation and replicability. o The LGED and Union Councils will have experience and will be able to replicate such programs. o LGED has learned through this initiative that project is sustainable, manageable and replicable. o The activities can be transferred to the local government institutions as they are gaining experience.

What are the impact of your initiative and the lessons learned?
3. Impact & Lessons Learned Impacts: o Creation of employment for rural destitute women in rural roads maintenance and initiating income generating works to reduce poverty. o Year round quality maintenance of the economically important rural earthen roads has been done to develop a rural network which have significant positive impact on agriculture productivity, cost of commodity movement and personal transportation, private investment, primary education and health care. Productivity will increase with improved year round connectivity of farmland with market places. o Significant positive effect and impact on women in employment, empowerment, self-reliance etc. has been achieved from the project. This is turn will benefit the children. o Women themselves are now contributing to the family expenditure and are self reliant. Employment of more than 51740 destitute women has been created for five years that will result in significant step towards poverty alleviation o Local government institutions will develop capacity to carry out their routine maintenance activities. Productivity will increase with improved all weather connectivity of farmland with market places. The lessons learned: o Creation of job opportunity for the destitute rural women can make them self sufficient. o Earning money by the women workers can help them to be involved in decision making process. o Social recognition has been obtained as a worker of LGED. o Capacity building for operating bank account has developed their interaction with the official procedures. o Leadership and team work management has been developed for getting involved in this type of work. o Management of conflict and other social problems has been learned by them. o Representation in various decision making process including membership in union parishad through nation wide election has been achieved


Institution Name:		Local Government Engineering Deparment
Institution Type:		Government Agency
Contact Person:		Wahidur Rahman,
Title:		Chief Engineer
Telephone/ Fax:		880-2-8156000
Institution's / Project's Website:		880-2-8156018
E-mail:		wahid113@yahoo.com
Address:		LGED Bhaban, Agargaon
Postal Code:
City:		Dhaka
State/Province:
Country:		Bangladesh

The Problem

Solution and Key Benefits

Actors and Stakeholders

(a) Strategies

(b) Implementation

(c) Overcoming Obstacles

(d) Use of Resources

Sustainability and Transferability

Lessons Learned

Contact Information