Project Description:

The Haor Basin region in northeastern Bangladesh was characterized by annual flooding, which made livelihoods highly vulnerable and limited the potential for agricultural production and rural enterprise growth. For about six to seven months of the year, the cropped land remained completely inundated, forcing rural poor households to rely on fisheries and off-farm labor. Poorly developed communication infrastructure restricted access to markets, off-farm employment opportunities, and essential social services, particularly in health and education.

To address these challenges, the Haor Infrastructure and Livelihood Improvement Project (HILIP) and Climate Adaptation and Livelihood Protection (CALIP) were launched with the support of the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), with a total funding of US$134.84 million, including a contribution of US$33.83 million from the government of Bangladesh. The HILIP project was implemented by the Local Government Engineering Department (LGED) from January 2012, while CALIP began in July 2014. The projects aimed to enhance access to markets, livelihood opportunities, and social services, improve village mobility, reduce production losses, increase access to fishery resources, conserve biodiversity, and promote the production, diversification, and marketing of crop and livestock produce.

The primary target groups of the project included:

• (i) Poor households residing in the Haor region
• (ii) Smallholder farming households
• (iii) Small fishing households deriving a major share of their income from fishing
• (iv) Women from poor households
• (v) Small traders in local markets

The HILIP project directly benefited 142,020 individuals, including 35,000 members of Labour Contracting Societies, 13,020 fishers in Beel User Groups, and 94,000 participants in livelihood protection initiatives. CALIP’s target population consisted of small and marginal farmers, fisher-folk, landless people, women from poor households, and small traders, with a total of 91,950 direct beneficiaries, including 10,600 Labour Contracting Society members and 81,350 participants in value chain subsectors and vocational training. Additionally, the village protection and internal services improvements benefited around 18,850 households, while agro-meteorological and flash flood forecasts aimed to support approximately 3 million people (688,000 households) for improved crop management.

A baseline survey provided essential data to measure the project’s impact. The completion and impact study aimed to assess the end-line values of key project indicators, capture additional measures, and evaluate the project’s social, economic, technical, environmental, and institutional effects on the communities. This evaluation captured the broad impact of the program across various sectors, reflecting the wider benefits of the interventions. DM WATCH LIMITED was awarded this assignment and undertook the evaluation to deliver a comprehensive assessment of HILIP and CALIP’s impacts on the Haor Basin communities.

Key Highlights of the Assignment

DM WATCH successfully carried out the project completion and impact assessment study for the Haor Infrastructure and Livelihood Improvement Project (HILIP) and Climate Adaptation and Livelihood Protection (CALIP) in the Haor Basin region of north-eastern Bangladesh. This comprehensive study evaluated the overall impact and outcomes of the projects, considering their social, economic, technical, and environmental effects on the communities and institutions in the area.

Here’s a list of actual services provided under this study:

1. Conduct Field Investigations:

   -Assess the performance of existing roads, bridges, culverts, and boat landing ghats constructed under HILIP for livelihood improvement in haor areas.
   -Determine the current average annual daily traffic (AADT) for the project road.
   -Project traffic loading for the next 10 years.

2. Structural Evaluation:

   -Evaluate the adequacy and structural integrity of small structures (bridges, culverts, etc.) on the project roads.
   -Recommend appropriate thickness for various layers based on different soil conditions in the Haor area.

3. Surveys and Testing:

   -Perform all necessary surveys, investigations, and laboratory testing required for the project.

4. Guidelines for Pavement and Joints:

   -Provide guidelines for transverse contraction joints, expansion joints, longitudinal joints, and construction joints.
   -Address the issue of closely spaced joints causing inconvenience to traffic.

5. Guidelines for Construction and Maintenance:

   -Develop guidelines for the construction and maintenance of rigid pavements in rural roads of the Haor region, as well as for bridges, culverts, ghats, and markets.

6. Review and Suggest Alternatives:

   -Review the bill of quantities and technology used, and suggest alternative technologies that are cost-effective, durable, and sustainable for haor conditions.

7. Design Recommendations:

   -Suggest adequate and cost-effective designs for roads, bridges, culverts, boat landing ghats, and rural market development.
   -Provide illustrative examples of prescribed designs used in Bangladesh or elsewhere.

8. Impact Assessment:

   -Identify the impacts of roads, bridges, culverts, and boat landing ghats on improving livelihoods and socio-economic conditions in haor areas.
   -Assess the changes in vehicle types, reduction in transportation costs due to paved roads, profitability of new transport owners, employment changes in the transport sector, and social impacts (health, education, etc.) due to better connectivity.

9. Market Development Assessment:

   -Assess changes in the number of shops before and after development.
   -Estimate changes in sales (transactions before and after) and any additional investments in shops, housing, etc. due to market development.
   -Assess changes in the nature of business in markets (e.g., availability of medicine, seed, doctors, etc.).

10. Identify Construction Barriers:

    -Identify gray areas and difficulties in construction related to sustainability.
    -Specify weak areas of construction and suggest ways to overcome these difficulties.

11. Workshops and Reporting:

    -Organize 5 district-level workshops and 1 national-level workshop.
    -Share the outcomes with LGED, IFAD, project officials, GoB officials, and beneficiaries.
    -Incorporate feedback from the workshops into the final report.