FAO of the UN

Narrative Description of Project:

"Special Programme for Food Security (SPFS)" is currently being implemented by the Department of Agricultural Extension, Ministry of Agriculture, funded by the Government of Japan, executed by FAO of UN. This project is currently operating in 21 Upazilas of 16 districts in diverse agro-ecological setting of the country. Food insecurity remains the concern of the Government of Bangladesh. In Bangladesh , public, private and NGOs sectors are addressing the issues of poverty, nutrition women and food security. Although Bangladesh has achieved significant success in increased food grain production in recent years, the problems of food insecurity still persist in the country. In view of this point, the government has adopted a National Action Plan to attain food security by the year 2010. In this circumstance, SPFS is operated a holistic strategy under a unique interdisciplinary programme to achieve household food security. SPFS project in Bangladesh is primarily aims to achieve some of the following outputs among many:

• Social mobilization for food security mechanism established and communities of the project villages are able to participate in agricultural development activities;
• Multi-sectoral such as crop, irrigation and water management, agro-forestry, livestock, fisheries, agro-processing, micro- credit, marketing, nutrition, and non- and off-farm income generating activities for seasonal and annual agricultural plan are developed;
• Linkage mechanisms with local government, private sectors and NGOs are developed;
• Community organizations carrying out by themselves improving food security of the communities;
• Coordination and integration of various activities for food security are in place through active process;
• Farming system appropriate to specific agro-ecological zones developed;
• Community based nutrition education programme established to create nutrition awareness among communities;
• Programme to encourage consumption of nutritious food products as a nutrition intervention in place;
• Collaborative programs with local government organization, voluntary private organization, donor agencies, NGOs, rural banks, and private sector marketing and input supply agencies established to bring about a joint effort for common welfare of poor farmers;

The Interim Impact Assessment (IIA) aims at gauging and analyzing the progress of project implementation and its impact on project villages, especially traditional and alternative livelihood of households introduced by the SPFS project. IIA consisted of three parts: (i) data collection, (ii) data input and compilation, and (iii) analysis. HB carried out the first two parts of IIA while PMU subsequently conduct the last part of IIA (i.e., analysis) based on the data collected by HB. To assess and compare output, effect and impact, data collected for two different time points: right before the project and time when data is collected. The data consists of qualitative and quantitative, which will be collected through two different approaches (i.e., PRA and household impact survey respectively).

The qualitative data collected through participatory rural appraisal (PRA) approach for the following information: Impacts of all project interventions on the community (both direct beneficiaries and indirect beneficiaries) by technical component (e.g., benefits/issues arouse as a result of project intervention); Remaining issues, if any, to be addressed by the project; Potential measures proposed by the PRA participants; Updated site map of the project site in contrast to the site map prepared during the 1 round PRA; and Local prices of selected essential goods, commodities and services e.g., labor wages. Quantitative data, on the other hand to be collected through household survey. The sample size is estimated to be approximately 75 households (60 direct and 15 indirect beneficiaries) per project site and the time required for one interview is within half a day. Qualitative data consists of the following information: Household characteristics: number of households, characteristics of individual household members such as gender, age, marital status, educational attainment, occupational information; Household income by source [agriculture (by project component), non-agriculture, remittance, gift]; Household expenditure by group of commodities/services; and Household assets: land, livestock, machineries, etc.