Chars Livelihoods Programme Innovation, Monitoring and Learning (IML) Division February 2, 2009

CLPs response to annual Monga:

The Chars Livelihoods Programme (CLP)1 is a poverty alleviation programme funded by the UK Department for International Development (DFID) and sponsored by the Rural Development and Co-operatives Division of the Government of Bangladesh. The CLP approach is holistic and multi-strategic and includes the transfer of substantial assets to core beneficiaries, the raising of homestead plinths and extensive support, training and capacity building for beneficiaries and local non-government organizations. Key among the objectives of the CLP is to improve the livelihoods security and reduce the vulnerability of women, men and children residing predominantly on island chars2 within the riverine areas of five districts of the northern Jamuna (Kurigram, Gaibandha, Bogra, Sirajganj and Jamalpur). The CLP seeks to assist beneficiary households to move sustainably out of poverty but it also recognises the exceptional conditions facing chars households during monga3. Consequently it supports char residents during this particularly difficult period of year by employment creation and by providing income safety nets. Employment Creation during Monga Each monga season the CLP provides employment in earthmoving activities, especially homestead plinth-raising, to large numbers of needy households living in the chars. Such employment creation both enables households to plan for the immediate future due to the income they can earn in the Cash-for-Work programme (CFW) and allows the CLP to raise significant numbers of plinths. Up to December 2008, the CLP had generated a total of 4.66 million person-days of employment through its monga employment activities during a total of three monga seasons, as follows: In 2006, one million person-days of employment in labour-intensive earthwork, primarily homestead plinth-raising, were provided in the districts of Kurigram, Gaibandha and Jamalpur. More than 25,000 men and 12,000 women were employed with a wage rate fixed at Tk. 80 per day with payment occurring every 3-4 days. On average, these wages were sufficient to allow a family to purchase 2 meals per day.4 In 2007, and following the very severe monsoon floods, the CLP increased its activities to all five CLP target districts and provided approximately 2.5 million person-days of work for
1 2

See the CLP website at www.clp-bangladesh.org A char is silty or sandy area of land deposited by a river and either attached to the mainland (mainland char) or separated from the mainland by a main river channel (island char). Chars are highly susceptible to complete erosion, especially during monsoon floods. 3 Monga is the local term used to denote the period of seasonal hunger which generally occurs between midSeptember and mid-November in the northern part of Bangladesh. It occurs after the planting of the aman rice crop as a result of there being almost no agricultural employment between the planting and harvesting periods. Limited diversification in the rural economy also means that there are few other (formal or informal) employment opportunities. In years of drought or flood, destruction of the aman crop further prolongs the period of seasonal unemployment and food shortage 4 For further details see CLP Infrastructure & Employment Programme 2007: Worker Satisfaction Survey, http://www.clp-bangladesh.org/pubs/IEP%20Worker%20Satisfaction.pdf

Page 1 of 2

over 50,000 workers. Workers were paid on a piece-rate5 and households were able to earn, on average, a minimum of Tk. 100 per day.6 For char families, the CLP-sponsored CFW activities are very much a win-win situation since they significantly reduce the impacts of monga, while providing beneficiaries with homes on raised plinths that drastically increase their protection from flooding.7 Research findings carried out by independent studies, undertaken by Helen Keller International; show that the CLPs monga employment programme has very positive impacts on the nutritional status of women and children from participating households.8 Participating households thus benefit from increased income during monga and are less likely to use economically-damaging coping strategies.9 During monga season 2008, the programme allowed almost 6,400 island char households to receive raised plinths by providing 760,000 person-days of work. Safety Net Grant during Monga Until the monga season of 2007, many extreme poor households were excluded from the CFW programme simply because they lacked an able-bodied family member to take part in the work. In response, the CLP experimented with the payment of a safety net grant on a weekly basis to excluded families. The safety net grant was given to qualifying households (households with no productive adult labour) residing in CFW villages.10 The Safety Net grant begins at the same time as CFW and continues until the last pay day of the CFW programme. In the 2007 season, Tk.175 was paid weekly for 12 weeks to 3,142 households while this was increased in 2008 to Tk. 200 per week for 7,356 households over the same 12 weeks period. Research results shows that the safety net grant was broadly successful in reducing or even eliminating the impact of monga in areas where it was distributed.11 The centre-piece of the CLP is the one-time transfer of investment capital in the form of income-generating assets (Asset Transfer Programme12) accompanied by a package of other social and market development inputs to a target of 55,000 extreme poor households living on island chars. These households also have their homestead plinths raised to protect them and their assets from flooding. ATP beneficiaries also receive training in homestead gardening that aims both to diversify diets and to help provide additional sources of income. ATP is proving its place as a strategic development tool that assists extreme poor households escape from poverty. Research shows that the value of the initial assets and of overall household productive asset levels is increasing significantly.13 Other benefits include access to milk and eggs.
5

Wages were based on payment per volume of earth moved (based on the most generous GoB rate of Tk. 30 per cubic metre) and not on a notional daily wage basis as in the previous year. 6 See Conroy, Islam & Marks (July 2008): The use of coping strategies by extreme poor households on the Jamuna chars during monga. http://www.clp-bangladesh.org/pubs/Coping%20Strategies.pdf 7 CLP efforts can never completely protect homes because if the underlying char is eroded the home and plinth are lost. However, the proportion of homes lost each year is minimal; partly due to rational selection of plinth construction sites. 8 For further details see Measuring changes in nutritional status and coping strategies in response to monga of the Chars Livelihoods Programme, Infrastructure and Employment Programme (IEP) Helen Keller International. http://www.clp-bangladesh.org/pubs/Monga%20season%20nutritional%20report.pdf 9 For further details see The Impact of the 2007 CLP Infrastructure and Employment Programme http://www.clp-bangladesh.org/pubs/IEP%20Impact%202007.pdf 10 Productive labour is considered to be the ability to participate in earth-moving activities 11 For further details see Infrastructure & Employment Programme Safety Net Grant: Initial Impacts (Marks, 2008) http://www.clp-bangladesh.org/pubs/Safety_Net_report.pdf 12 For further details on the CLP Asset Transfer Programme see www.clp-bangladesh.org 13 Malcolm Marks (July 2007): Economic impact of cattle transfers during the CLPs asset transfer programme.

Page 2 of 2