The Urban Resilience Fund (URF) Program, funded by the Asian Development Bank (ADB), aimed to enhance climate resilience across 25 cities in eight of ADB’s developing member countries, , namely, Bangladesh, India, Indonesia, Myanmar, Nepal, Pakistan, Philippines, and Vietnam. The program focused on community-led resilience planning and the implementation of small-scale initiatives to complement existing or planned ADB infrastructure projects. This initiative sought to build resilience at multiple levels—household, community, and city—addressing vulnerabilities in urban areas and bolstering adaptive capacities.

As part of this global initiative, Daira Limited was tasked with providing Monitoring and Evaluation (M&E) support for the URF program. A key component of the M&E framework involved conducting city-level end-line surveys to objectively measure the impact of investments and activities implemented under the URF. In Bangladesh, DM WATCH LIMITED was engaged to conduct comprehensive city-level and household surveys across five cities: Kushtia, Gopalganj, Faridpur, Patuakhali, and Bagerhat.

The end-line surveys evaluated resilience outcomes, focusing on infrastructure improvements, household adaptation, and community resilience. Participatory Rural Appraisal (PRA) sessions were conducted in all five cities, while 300 household surveys were completed in three cities (Faridpur, Patuakhali, and Bagerhat) using digital tools provided by Daira. The findings provided valuable insights into the program’s effectiveness, identified gaps, and informed strategies for future resilience-building initiatives.

Key Highlights of the Assignment

DM WATCH LIMITED successfully implemented the project through a structured and collaborative approach, fulfilling all requirements outlined in the ToR. Key tasks included:

1.Planning and Coordination:

• • -Conducted an introductory kick-off meeting with Daira and other stakeholders to finalize the scope, work plan, and deliverables.
  • -Reviewed and contextualized study materials and tools to align them with the local context, ensuring relevance and applicability.
  • -Translated survey instruments into Bangla and pre-tested tools to verify usability and clarity.

2.Capacity Building:

• • -Delivered comprehensive training sessions for field enumerators on the use of the survey data collection and management app provided by Daira.
  • -Oriented field teams on quality assurance protocols, ethical standards, and best practices for data collection.

3.Data Collection:

• • -Organized and facilitated Participatory Rural Appraisal (PRA) sessions in five cities (Kushtia, Gopalganj, Faridpur, Patuakhali, and Bagerhat), engaging key stakeholders to develop city profiles and gather qualitative insights.
  • -Conducted 300 household surveys in three cities (Faridpur, Patuakhali, and Bagerhat) using a real-time, digital data collection tool.

3.Data Quality Assurance:

• • -Implemented rigorous quality control measures, including high-frequency checks and cross-validation during data collection.
  • -Supervised field activities to ensure data reliability and accuracy.

4.Data Analysis and Reporting:

• • -Processed, cleaned, and coded the collected data using advanced statistical software for analysis.
  • -Prepared a field data collection report summarizing activities, challenges, and observations.
  • -Prepared and submitted assignment completion report to Daira.

5.Deliverables:

• • -Report on findings of the five PRA sessions in five cities
  • -Field data collection completion report
  • -Clean dataset in Excel format with accompanying coding files.
  • -Field notes
  • -Audio transcripts