Samriddhi

Samriddhi 

(LEAF Phase 3) 

Project Document 

for the period 

01.08.2010 to 31.07.2013 

(Version July 13th, 2010)

Samriddhi Project Document 

Table of Contents 

1. Background........................................................................................................................ 1 

1.1 The evolution of LEAF and SAAKTI............................................................................... 1 

1.2 Rationale for merging LEAF and SAAKTI...................................................................... 2 

2. Context .............................................................................................................................. 3 

2.1 General context............................................................................................................. 3 

2.2 Relevance regarding government policies and SDC cooperation strategy..................... 6 

3. Achievements, key lessons and major challenges.............................................................. 6 

4. Project description............................................................................................................ 11 

4.1 Current situation and vision for Samriddhi................................................................... 11 

4.2 Systemic view on sustainability.................................................................................... 16 

4.3 Strategic framework..................................................................................................... 18 

4.4 Approaches................................................................................................................. 19 

4.5 Strategies.................................................................................................................... 20 

4.6 Objectives and Interventions (Logical Framework)....................................................... 25 

5. Beneficiaries and intervention areas................................................................................. 28 

5.1 Target households....................................................................................................... 28 

5.2 Geographical intervention areas.................................................................................. 29 

6. Partners and Alliances...................................................................................................... 30 

6.1 Project partners........................................................................................................... 30 

6.2 Alliances...................................................................................................................... 31 

7. Project Management......................................................................................................... 33 

7.1 Institutional Set-up....................................................................................................... 33 

7.2 Steering and Management........................................................................................... 34 

7.3 Monitoring, evaluation and reporting............................................................................ 34 

8. Budget ............................................................................................................................ 36 

9. Risk and mitigations measures......................................................................................... 37 

Intercooperation Bangladesh 

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Annexes 

Annex 1: 

Annex 2: 

Annex 3: 

Annex 4: 

Annex 5: 

Annex 6: 

Annex 7: 

Annex 8: 

Annex 9: 

Annex 10: 

Annex 11: 

Annex 12: 

Logical Framework 

Location maps 

Detailed programme activities 

Institutional analysis 

Organisational set-up of the project 

Monitoring and reporting plan 

Value chain selection, analysis, and ranking 

Relationship between LEAF, SAAKTI, AFIP and Sharique 

Coordination overview with AFIP, ILGS, and Sharique 

Timeline 

Terms of references 

Organigram project staff 


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Abbreviations 

AFIP 

APO 

BDS 

BMO 

CBO 

DAE 

DoF 

DLS 

DRR 

FM 

GO 

HID 

HYV 

IC 

IGA 

ILGS 

LA 

LEAF 

LSP 

M4P 

MSE 

NGO 

NSAPR 

PGA 

PKSF 

PNGO 

PRS 

PSMU 

RO 

RRP 

SAAKTI 

SCO-B 

SDC 

SPA 

UDMC 

UNICEF 

UP 

UZP 

VC 

VFFP 

Agroforestry Improvement Partnership 

Annual Plan of Operations 

Business Development Services 

Business Membership Organisation 

Community Based Organisation 

Department of Agricultural Extension 

Department of Fisheries 

Department of Livestock 

Disaster Risk Reduction 

Female Mentor 

Government Organisation 

Human and Institutional Development 

High Yielding Variety 

Intercooperation 

Income Generating Activities 

Improved Local Government Services 

Line Agencies 

Livelihood, Empowerment and Agroforestry 

Local Service Provider 

Making Markets Work for the Poor 

Micro and Small Enterprises 

Non Governmental Organisation 

National Strategy for Accelerated Poverty Reduction 

Participatory Gender Analysis 

Palli Karma-Sahayak Foundation 

Partner NGO 

Poverty Reduction Strategy 

Project Support and Management Unit 

Regional Office 

Regional Resource Pool 

Sustainable Access to Agroforestry Knowledge, Technology and Information 

SDC Cooperation Office in Bangladesh 

Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation 

Service Provider Association 

Union Disaster Management Committee 

United Nations International Children's Fund 

Union Parishad 

Upazilla Parishad 

Value Chain 

Village and Farm Forestry Project 


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Samriddhi fact sheet 

Overall goal 

Outcomes 

To contribute to sustainable well-being and resilience of poor and 

extreme poor households of Rajshahi Division and Sunamganj District 

through social and economic empowerment. 

Outcome 1: Market and value-chain development 

Poor and extreme poor men and women in the project intervention 

areas make use of improved employment and income generating 

opportunities facilitated through value-chain and enterprise 

development, and have sustainable access to quality services 

(information, skills, technology, etc.), both private and public. 

Outcome 2: Community organisation and governance 

Poor and extreme poor men and women in the project intervention 

areas define, manage, and lobby for their own development priorities 

and are able to secure access to a more enabling environment for their 

livelihood improvements. 

Major interventions • Value chain development 

• Enterprise development 

• Service market promotion (knowledge, information, finance, etc.) 

• Building human and institutional capacities (social capital, 

participation in local governance, gender, DRR) 

Budget 

Beneficiaries 

Geographical 

intervention area 

8.3 mio CHF 

700,000 direct target households; additional 500,000 indirect 

beneficiaries, adding up to 1,2 million beneficiary households or roughly 

5 million people 

Rajshahi Division and Sunamganj District, covering a total of 58 

Upazillas, 211 Unions, and 1899 Wards 

Duration August 2010 to July 2013 


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Overview of the actors at local level 


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Executive Summary 

In Bangladesh, approximately 82 % of the population live in rural areas, virtually all of them 

making their living exclusively or substantially from agriculture. The poverty rate is very high in 

this highly populated country with around 80 % living with less than $2 per day. Women in 

particular are highly affected by poverty. Gender equality still remains a major challenge in all 

sectors of development. Because of their low resilience, extreme poor people are especially hit 

by natural disasters. Geographical location and land characteristics make Bangladesh one of 

the most disaster-prone countries in the world. 

The Livelihoods, Empowerment and Agroforestry (LEAF) Project and the Sustainable Access to 

Agroforestry Knowledge, Technology and Information (SAAKTI) Project both started in 2004. 

They work in the Rajshahi Division, and in Sunamganj District, two of the poorest areas in 

Bangladesh. LEAF supported community based organisations (CBOs) in planning and 

implementing their socio-economic development. In its interventions, the project combined three 

approaches: human and institutional development, market development and the livelihoods 

approach. SAAKTI was mainly conceived to collaborate with national institutions (research 

institutes, extension agencies) to promote local private service providers, with the view of 

replacing the support role of local NGOs to communities, which was not sustainable. 

LEAF and SAAKTI have been very successful in establishing approaches which contribute to 

the economic empowerment of rural households, with special attention to poor and extreme 

poor, and have strengthened the efforts of CBOs to identify their development priorities and 

participate in local decision-making processes. As a result, more than 40,000 extreme poor 

households could access safety-net opportunities. About 150,000 households have been 

involved in economic activities, increasing their income on average by more than 60 Taka (1 

CHF) per day. 100,000 producer households have profited from the project interventions in 7 

value chains. The producers have been supported by around 5,300 local service providers, for 

many of which the provision of services became their most important source of income, making 

a profit of up to 3,000 Taka (50 CHF) per month. The support of LEAF and SAAKTI directly 

benefited 300,000 households. 

In the course of time, both projects have been more and more involved in the promotion of 

economic activities, which were considerably interconnected, resulting in interventions more and 

more similar. Having had a common management from the second phase and working in the 

same areas of intervention and targeting the same beneficiaries, it became obvious that they 

were two components of a single programme. Therefore, the evolution of the projects 

naturally led to a decision of merging them in a new project, Samriddhi, meaning 

“prosperity” in Bangla. 

The goal of Samriddhi is “to contribute to sustainable well-being and resilience of poor and 

extreme poor households of Rajshahi Division and Sunamganj District through social and 

economic empowerment” 

Samriddhi shows a strong coherence with the SDC Cooperation Strategy as well as the national 

poverty reduction strategy, mainly in terms of income and employment creation, MSE 

development, local private service provision, and local governance. 


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The main challenge for Samriddhi will be to consolidate the achievements of LEAF and SAAKTI 

to make them sustainable and at the same time scale-up the successful interventions to 

increase the outreach. The cluster platforms, which have been coordinating activities between 

CBOs, have to be put in a better position to cover the interests of extreme poor and 

disadvantaged groups. Thus, they will be encouraged to transform themselves into community 

platforms, representing not only CBO members but also taking into account all and especially 

the weak segments of the community. According to the project’s vision, the community platform 

will play a crucial role in connecting the communities with the local government bodies. 

Furthermore, services to MSEs have to be institutionalised in collaboration with public and 

private organisations. The service providers associations (SPA) will take the lead role in this 

regard. Their capacity will be strengthened to negotiate and organise capacity building and 

procure updated knowledge and information, but also to more efficiently and effectively organise 

the service transactions. At the same time, value chain actors need to become drivers for 

development of their sub-sectors. The project will facilitate appropriate market actors to take the 

necessary steps to upgrade their value chain leading to enhanced competitiveness of the 

farmers’ products and better performance of the value chains. 

To work towards sustainability, the project will adopt a more systemic view on the system of 

rural producers and their markets. A number of crucial supporting functions for the rural MSEs 

and value chains will be targeted, focusing on business development services. Besides 

supporting functions, an enabling environment is crucial for value chain and market 

development. Similarly, for social empowerment and inclusion of the poorest into the society, an 

enabling and empowering environment is essential. An increased involvement of the 

communities in local governance is necessary to achieve this. In order to make the system 

inclusive and empowering, there is also a need of strong human and institutional competencies 

of all actors. 

The main approaches of Samriddhi are “Human and Institutional Development” (HID) and 

“Making Markets Work for the Poor” (M4P). HID will help the community platforms to work 

towards an empowering and enabling local environment and the MSEs and SPAs to take a 

strong role in business development, outreach and inclusiveness. The M4P approach will be 

directed to establish sustainable and inclusive market systems for the selected value chains. 

Samriddhi will strengthen its focus on poverty and extreme poverty which includes more 

targeted value chain interventions in terms of sector and geographic location. To achieve this, a 

set of eleven value chains has been selected according to their potential and poverty 

orientation. Besides the targeting of value chain interventions, an increased inclusion of the poor 

and extreme poor in both social and economic activities will be achieved through sensitisation 

and capacity building of community leaders, MSEs and SPAs. Besides that, gender 

mainstreaming will contribute to the empowerment of women and improved situation of women 

entrepreneurs. The mainstreaming of DRR will contribute to protect the assets that the target 

households could establish with the support of the project. 

At the community level, the project will deliver its support to the target households through the 

community platforms. Each community platform will cover the geographical boundary of one 

Ward. The project expects to organise community platforms covering around 700,000 

households or roughly 3 million people. In addition 500,000 households outside the 

geographical area of the project will benefit and, thus, the overall coverage of the project will be 


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more than 1,200,000 households or roughly 5 million people. Samriddhi will work in new areas, 

leading to an increase of over 50% in terms of area targeted by the project. The project will 

continue with the current situation of a division of the geographical areas into four regions. 

With regard to partnership, Samriddhi will lead a major change from the LEAF and SAAKTI 

approach. The NGOs, which were so far the main implementing partners, will essentially focus 

on capacity building of community platforms and associations of service providers. The 

collaboration with NGOs will be phased out during the last year of the phase. With regard to 

sustainability, the project will strengthen its collaboration with the private sector, which should 

become a driving force for the value chain promotion. 

In order to sustain and consolidate its interventions, Samriddhi will further develop collaboration 

and forge alliances with other initiatives, particularly those funded by SDC. This will be the case 

with the AFIP Project (promotion of quality trees), Sharique (local governance) and Katalyst 

(promotion of enabling environment for sub-sector development). 

Given a shift to a facilitation role – particularly in the market development, and the reduction of 

NGO involvement in the implementation of project interventions, the resources of project will 

have to remain similar to previous projects. The structure will however be reorganised, and the 

assignment of staff revised to new functions. The project will be steered and controlled by a 

steering committee composed of SDC, IC and project representatives. Knowledgeable and 

relevant personalities or institutions could be invited to participate in steering committee 

meetings. 

The total cost borne by SDC during this phase amounts to CHF 8.3 million. Contribution of other 

stakeholders (private sector, communities, MSEs...) should considerably increase during the 

phase. 

During the consolidation phase, Samriddhi will have to address and mitigate a variety of risks. 

The lack of commitment of the private sector could jeopardise the M4P approach, and should be 

addressed by promoting win-win situations and strengthening the capacities of the other 

stakeholders. The lack of commitment of government agencies, so far supported through a 

project-driven approach, will be addressed through the establishment of a memorandum of 

understanding at national level, and the establishment of a policy dialogue. The fact that 

Bangladesh is a disaster prone area could affect the improved assets of beneficiaries. 

Therefore, DRR interventions will be necessary to mitigate those risks. 


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1. Background 

1.1 The evolution of LEAF and SAAKTI 

The foundation on which both LEAF and SAAKTI were built was the Village and Farm Forestry 

Project (VFFP), initiated in 1986 under the SDC Sustainable Land Use Programme. VFFP 

achieved considerable results regarding aforestation and in promoting nursery owners 

associations. In its 6 th and last phase, the project shifted away from a very technical approach 

focussing on agroforestry promotion and became more people oriented. It collaborated more 

directly with small and poor farmers, and initiated a process in which community based 

organisations (CBO) identified development priorities and developed annual plans of action to 

address development issues, including social aspects. VFFP also undertook development 

initiatives targeting the extreme poor, and put emphasis on economic as well as gender 

aspects. During its last year of existence, VFFP undertook initial actions to establish a system of 

private local service provision, seen as an alternative to replace the unsustainable system of 

NGOs providing direct assistance to the producers. Becoming more and more complex, VFFP 

was reorganised into three distinct projects from 2004: 

• LEAF targeted to address poverty issues through three main approaches: sustainable 

livelihoods, market development and human and institutional development. The main 

objective of LEAF was still better utilisation of land resources. 

• SAAKTI was conceived as the continuation of the agroforestry research centre of VFFP, 

with a more national perspective. One main component of the project related to the 

development of agroforestry technologies by national institutions, which was calling for 

institutional reforms. The promotion of local service provision systems was the objective 

of the second main component. 

• AFIP took over the activities of VFFP in the tree nursery business with a national aim to 

develop and distribute quality planting material, as well as to promote nursery 

associations throughout the country. 

During the development of the first phase of LEAF and SAAKTI, an initial collaboration took 

place with Katalyst 1 in the two sub-sectors vegetable and bamboo, which allowed LEAF and 

SAAKTI to develop experience in collaborating with the private sector, particularly in the field of 

strengthening the capacities of local service providers, which was previously essentially ensured 

by the government line agencies. 

During the second phases of the projects (2007-2010), the market development approach and 

activities gained considerable weight. While LEAF was involved in the promotion of income 

generating activities (IGA), marketing extension and enterprise development at CBO and cluster 

platform 2 level, SAAKTI was supporting the promotion of local service providers and their 

associations as well as a number of value chains. Through its activities with IGAs and their 

1 

Katalyst is a multi-donor project aiming to achieve pro-poor growth through market development interventions in 

selected sectors across Bangladesh since 2003. 

2 Cluster platforms are coordination platforms for a number of CBOs in one community. 

Intercooperation Bangladesh Page 1


graduation into micro and small enterprises (MSE), LEAF got involved in value chain 

development, too, specially targeting handicrafts. Furthermore, it developed “Mobile Managers”, 

specific local service providers for business management issues. 

During its second phase, LEAF also increased collaboration with the Sharique project 3 , 

particularly in establishing links between the CBOs and local government bodies. 

The diagram presented in Annex 8 shows how the different projects collaborated with each 

other. 

1.2 Rationale for merging LEAF and SAAKTI 

As described above, LEAF and SAAKTI became more and more complementary to each other 

they also worked in the same geographical areas, targeted the same beneficiaries, and 

collaborated with the same partners (NGOs, line agencies, private sector). As a result of this 

close collaboration, it was decided to establish a common management structure and a very 

similar project set-up. The planning of the projects followed a programmatic approach and the 

objectives were converging. 

Both projects were involved in market development and their activities were interconnected. For 

instance, the groups involved in marketing extension naturally evolved as MSEs and were 

integrated in the value chain support system. At the same time HID contributed to 

strengthening the capacities of the CBOs, cluster platforms, MSEs and SPAs. The projects 

jointly supported a socio-economic system where cluster platforms, MSEs, service providers 

and market actors are closely working together leading to a win-win situation for all involved, 

with the beneficiaries being the same for both projects. 

The evolution of projects naturally led to a decision of merging them in a new project, 

Samriddhi, which means “prosperity” in Bangla. 

The merger of LEAF and SAAKTI can also be seen as being relevant in a context where 

government and development partners endeavour to combine their effort. 

Samriddhi, will allow significant gains in effectiveness, as well as in efficiency, meaning the 

resources invested by SDC will be more appropriate in terms of outputs and achieved results. 

Samriddhi is expected to reach at least the double amount of beneficiaries as compared to the 

previous phases with less financial and human resources. 

Effectiveness will be enhanced through the reorganisation of project teams (functions and 

responsibilities, organogramme, relation with partners), as well as through the adoption of 

revised and common approaches, particularly regarding the activities related to income 

generation and market development. 

Bringing SAAKTI and LEAF together will also increase the link between the promotion of value 

chains (mostly done by SAAKTI) and the empowerment and participation of communities 

(mostly done by LEAF). It is considered as crucial for the sustainability of the achievements of 

Samriddhi that value chain promotion takes place within an enabling environment. Synergies 

with local governance will also contribute to establish an environment favourable to the inclusion 

of poor and extreme poor in the activities facilitated by the project. 

3 Sharique is the SDC Local Governance Programme in Rajshahi and Sunamganj 



The future gains in efficiency are due to: 

• A process leading to a stepwise transfer of tasks and responsibilities from PNGO to 

other actors like private sector actors and local service providers from the community. In 

the medium term, sustainability of interventions will be greater allowing a gradual 

phasing-out of certain activities. 

• Concentrating activities around selected value chains working on the basis of validated 

tools and methodologies reducing the cost per process, e.g. with regard to steps to be 

taken to strengthen a value chain. Working with existing structures such as associations 

of service providers will improve outreach through an increased number of direct and 

indirect beneficiaries. 

• The new set-up simplifying operational and administrative issues. The financial 

management will be simplified, leading to a further reduction in transaction costs. 

2. Context 

2.1 General context 4 

National economy 

Low integration with the world economy helped cushion Bangladesh from the negative effects of 

the recent financial crisis. Annual GDP growth dipped slightly to reach a still healthy 5.9 percent 

in 2009. Lower international food and oil prices combined with a bumper rice crop helped to 

bring down inflation. On the fiscal side, the underutilisation of the annual development 

programme budget hampers growth and poverty reduction. Meanwhile, energy shortages 

continue to choke private sector investment. Inflationary pressures may re-emerge if the liquidity 

overhang in the domestic banking system continues and international commodity prices rise. 

Poverty 

For 2008, the population of Bangladesh was estimated to be over 160 million. According to the 

World Bank, in 2005, around 80% of all Bangladeshi lived with less than 2 US$ per day and 

40% with less then 1 US$ a day. An increase in food prices in 2007, combined with the factors 

of weak or lacking social safety nets have resulted in thousands of Bangladeshis falling back 

into poverty and extreme poverty in the project intervention areas. In addition, it is expected that 

the impact of the financial crisis on poverty will be more significant in 2010. Prior to the crisis, 

Bangladesh was on target to cut poverty by nearly 11 percentage points between 2005 and 

2010. With the impact of the crisis, the poverty rate is now projected to fall by only about 9 

percentage points. 

4 Data from Asian Development Outlook 2009 (Pp 117-122), Asian Development Bank; and Bangladesh 

Economic Update, Economic Policy and Poverty Team, World Bank, September 2009; as well as own 

data. 



Agriculture 

Nearly two-thirds of Bangladeshis are employed in the agriculture sector, with rice as the singlemost-important 

product. Approximately 80 percent of the country's population live in rural areas, 

virtually all of them making their living exclusively or substantially from agriculture. Agricultural 

production grew by 4.6 percent, rebounding from 3.2 percent in 2008, driven mainly by strong 

growth in crops and horticulture. 

The project focuses on the Rajshahi Division and Sunamganj District. Rajshahi falls into the 

western dry zone, one of the seven climatic zones into which Bangladesh can be divided, and 

has a mean annual rainfall of below 1500 mm compared to a national average of 2500 mm. 

Land is irrigated by tube-well, power pump and by traditional methods. The major irrigated crops 

are rice, wheat, potato, vegetables, oil seed, sugarcane, and pulses. Mango is a particularly 

important crop, with a production level more than twice the national production average of per 

acre. In Sunamganj many areas are prone to crop damage by floods and farmers struggle to 

subsist by cultivating one crop of rice a year (50% of households own less than 0.2 ha, and a 

further 35% own less than 1 ha). The poor have limited access to savings and credit facilities. 

There is the lack of physical infrastructure highlighted by the poor state of roads and 

embankments, which are eroded annually 

In and around rural homesteads, a mixed cultivation of trees and crops is grown, e.g. fruit trees, 

timber trees, bamboo, vegetables, spices, medicinal plants. These homestead areas are of high 

importance to the livelihoods of small and marginal farmers, covering around 0.3 million ha in 

total. The production of vegetables, livestock, fishes, etc. at the homestead meets about 50% of 

the total requirements of food and cash of the poor rural families. However, many households 

still face low productivity due to a lack of access to quality services and inputs. At the same 

time, rural producers often lack the necessary capacity to successfully market their surplus 

produce. 

Rural markets are quite dynamic, both in agricultural and non agricultural products. For 

producers, there is a good potential to sell their products at good prices at local, regional and 

national level. However, these opportunities are rarely tapped. Accessing potential and higher 

markets, and accordingly, better price, remains an obstacle for different reasons. The producers 

more often sell their products to middlemen, at farm gate. The low price they then get does not 

lead them to invest in quality, quantity and business. The producers are not well organised so 

that they do not buy inputs in bulk amount or sell collectively, which would otherwise reduce 

production costs and increase sale price. The organisation between value chains actors is 

almost nonexistent, leading to a weak competitive position for them too. Despite some problems 

of remoteness e.g. in Sunamganj District, the potential to improve the competitiveness of value 

chains, and therefore the income of producers, remains high. 

The public extension services only reach a very limited number of farmers due to limited 

resources. Being the largest public agricultural extension service provider, the Department of 

Agricultural Extension (DAE) cannot ensure a minimal standard of services for all because each 

extension worker has to cover more than 1000 farm families. Moreover, technical services are 

disappearing from their profile due to the increased involvement in diverse non-professional 

activities like fertiliser or diesel distribution. The situation is even more acute in the other 

extension agencies, i.e. the Department of Livestock (DLS) and the Department of Fishery 



(DoF), where 2-4 extension workers are assigned for a whole Upazilla. This pressure generally 

leads to services only being delivered to larger, more affluent farmers and the poor are not 

serviced at all. The level of extension services, especially to the extreme poor, becomes even 

worse when considering those living in more remote areas as extension workers often have little 

spare time for travelling. 

Local Governance 

Local self-governance in Bangladesh has existed for centuries in different forms, mostly based 

on traditional decision making mechanisms. The modern basis for local government is affirmed 

in the Bangladesh Constitution that defines a significant role for elected government bodies at 

each administrative unit, i.e. Union Parishad (UP), Upazilla Parishad (UZP) and Zila Parishad. 

The Bangladeshi society is highly in-egalitarian, with strongly established power-relations that 

mostly exclude the poorest, women and most marginalised people from accessing development 

benefits. 

There is a growing interest among development partners to support local government and their 

initiatives. This creates a favourable environment to strengthen elected local government but 

poses as well a challenge in terms of coordination and harmonisation. 

Disaster Risks Reduction 

In the past two decades, more than 200 million people have been affected worldwide every year 

by disasters. The number of reported natural disasters has tripled in the past thirty years. The 

rising costs of these events and their disproportional impact on the developing world have 

resulted in an increasing awareness of the connection between disasters and development and 

explain why disaster mitigation and risk reduction are important aspects of a sustainable 

development strategy. 

Geographical location and land characteristics make Bangladesh one of the most disasterprone 

countries in the world. The country is exposed to a variety of recurrent natural hazards, 

including floods, cyclones, droughts and riverbank erosion, which pull down the development 

initiatives and progresses. Furthermore, the adverse effects of climate change will be more 

severe in Bangladesh than in most other countries and pose a significant threat to the goal of 

poverty reduction. 

Gender 

Gender relations in Bangladesh have been undergoing a process of considerable 

transformation over the last two decades as part of the broader process of economic transition 

and social change. Various social and cultural values still hamper progress and need to be 

taken into account. Gender equality in Bangladesh remains a major challenge in all sectors of 

development. Significant disparities in employment and wage rates persist which, combined 

with considerable gaps in assets, is the main factor limiting women's equal participation in 

economic activities. It has been shown that income generating activities are an important driver 

for women's empowerment, both at community and household levels. But because of women's 

traditional roles and lower skills they have often been left behind. 



2.2 Relevance regarding government policies and SDC cooperation strategy 

Relevance regarding government policies and programmes 

The project works in line with a number of specific issues identified in the poverty reduction 

strategy framework of NSAPR-II of the Government of Bangladesh. 

It is expected that the promotion of rural MSEs will play a pivotal role in achieving the national 

goals of accelerated pro-poor growth, sustained poverty reduction and faster rate of economic 

and social progress. MSEs strategies will be made sensitive to the needs of women 

entrepreneurs. The government also aims at undertaking job creation programmes for those 

who are by-passed by the normal growth process. Considering the importance of the private 

sector, the government has introduced a broad range of policies and institutional changes 

having positive impact on private sector development. 

The vision of the government for agriculture sector is to enhance growth through development 

and dissemination of sustainable technologies capable of generating productive employment, 

diversification of crop and livestock, development of agri-business services, and human 

resource development. Beside agriculture, the vision is to foster rural non-farm activities as an 

important and effective poverty reduction activity, particularly for women. 

The goal for disaster management is protection of lives and properties from any kind of 

hazards. The draft Disaster Management Act has identified a group of broad-based strategies, 

which focus on management of risk and consequences. 

Relevance to SDC country strategy 

Coherence with the SDC Cooperation Strategy Bangladesh 2008 – 2012 is given to a high 

extent. On the one hand, Samriddhi directly tackles poverty reduction through the creation of 

employment and income opportunities for the rural poor which is in line with the employment 

and income strategy of SDC. On the other hand, it will increasingly make use of synergy 

potential with Sharique, the local governance projects implemented by Intercooperation, as well 

as Katalyst, with which previous collaborations have proven to be fruitful. In terms of DRR, 

LEAF has proven to be highly valuable for SDC’s knowledge management and learning, 

Bangladesh being one of eight SDC pilot countries for DRR mainstreaming. 

3. Achievements, key lessons and major challenges 

The current phases of LEAF and SAAKTI started from March 2007 and April 2007, respectively, 

and will continue until July 2010. The achievements presented in this document cover the 

activities of phase 2 of both the projects. 

The mid-term review that was carried out in June 2009 concluded that LEAF and SAAKTI have 

been very successful in establishing innovative, valid approaches, which: 

• contribute to the economic empowerment of rural households, with special attention to 

poor and extreme poor, through improved access to quality service provision and 

markets; 



• strengthen efforts of community organisations to identify their development priorities, 

arrange joint actions, mobilise resources and services, defend their interests and rights, 

and participate in local decision-making processes 

In general, both the projects were seen as well on track regarding targets and performance, 

while interventions with less significant results were linked to weak institutional capacities and 

framework conditions. The key challenge today is to ensure the sustainability of the results. A 

better understanding is needed on how key functions performed by the projects can be 

transferred to the stakeholders. 

The specific achievements of the projects, but also challenges for their consolidation in a next 

phase are presented below. 

Social organisation 

The projects supported around 1500 cluster platforms which are formed by nearly 5000 CBOs. 

97% of the cluster platforms could develop their annual plans of operations (APO) reflecting 

priority issues and opportunities of the communities, and could identify appropriate actions in 

order to address the issues using available opportunities. Almost all the cluster platforms could 

establish functional linkages with the Union Parishad (UP), as well as other governmental and 

non-governmental organisations for the acquisition of appropriate services and goods for their 

members, specifically the extreme poor. As a result, more than 40,000 extreme poor 

households could get access to safety-net opportunities from UPs and public organisations. 

Furthermore, members of the cluster platforms are, due to their prominent place in the 

community, often selected to become members of divers committees of the UP: standing 

committees like education and agriculture, project implementation committees, project 

supervision committees, etc. The UPs often request the participation of cluster platform and 

SPA representatives in the Union Development Coordination Meetings. 

Key lessons learned: 

• CBOs are reluctant to include more members because they are rather closed groups of 

people with common savings and common interests. On the other hand, cluster 

platforms are more open to include members from the whole community. Furthermore, 

cluster platforms are well positioned to take the lead of promoting development priorities 

of the community and connect to external sources of support/resources, including local 

government bodies. 

• Networks of cluster platforms have shown to be good for ad-hoc and need based 

initiatives to tackle common issues like DRR but have not shown an interest to evolve as 

formalised organisations. It must be reminded that the concept of cluster platform 

networks was initially thought as a driver for a self-propelling process of replication of the 

cluster platform model. 

For the consolidation phase, the project’s focus should be on cluster platforms considering the 

wider impact on and inclusiveness of the whole community. Networks of cluster platforms will 

not be considered as a secondary level of organisation. The challenge will be to ensure that 

cluster platforms are in a position to better cover the interests of extreme poor and 

disadvantaged groups. 



Poverty orientation / pro-poor strategy 

The monitoring results show considerable achievements in terms of graduation of poor and 

extreme poor out of poverty. The effectiveness of combining market development and 

promotion of social and political participation of communities has been demonstrated. However, 

the approach of improving participation in economic activities is not sufficient for a rigorous 

focus on the extreme poor – most of them not having the minimal assets required to start any 

economic activity. New strategies have been developed in order to increase the benefit of 

interventions for the extreme poor and increase the number of extreme poor beneficiaries. 

Enterprise development 

About 112,000 CBO member households got involved in income generating and marketing 

activities and each of the households increased their income on average by 62 Taka per day. In 

addition, about 1,600 MSEs have been developed involving about 35,500 households from 

1,350 CBOs. The MSEs formed about 50 MSE networks. The producers involved in an MSEs 

increased their profit margin by an average of 63 Taka per person per day. 

As part of a pilot initiative to provide business development services at local level, 35 mobile 

managers started providing high quality business services to the MSEs. The project has started 

working with NGOs, MFIs and venture capital companies to develop new financial products and 

simplify the access of MSEs to finances. 

Key lesson learned: 

• Graduation of producer groups to rural MSEs can lead to improved business and 

increased attractiveness for financial institutions. 

In the consolidation phase, the project will continue building the capacities of rural enterprises 

since they are an effective means to establish income and employment opportunities. The 

challenge will be to institutionalise the services to MSEs in collaboration with public and private 

organisations. Another key challenge will be to strengthen the appropriate actors to support the 

MSEs in market access and to ensure fair labour conditions. 

Value chain development 

The value chain interventions produced impressive results in terms of outreach and partners 

involved. More than 100,000 producers of more than 2,700 communities active in 7 value chains 

benefited from the interventions in terms of income and sustainable livelihoods. However, 

additional measures are required to better target the poor and the extreme poor. 


• There is a lack of capacity within private companies to take the lead in value chain 

development or invest in product and capacity development of producers. 

• Not all sub-sectors are similarly benefitting the poor; the lower the necessary initial 

investments are, the lower are the margins of the products, but the easier it is for the 

poor and extreme poor to get engaged. 

In the consolidation phase, the project will analyse the market system and carefully select 

appropriate partners. Considering that the selection of value chains is critical, the project has 

carefully analysed the value chains, considering a balance between inclusiveness, profitability, 



and outreach and selected 11 value chains for the next phase. The challenge will remain that 

partners will really become drivers for the value chains development, and that the latter could 

equally benefit the poor and extreme poor. 

Service provision 

The projects have mobilised around 5,300 local service providers (LSP) of which 76% are 

providing their services on a commercial basis. Most generally, the provision of services 

generated additional income for the service providers. In some cases, they became their main 

source of income. Their monthly income ranges from 400 to 3,000 Taka, depending on the 

domain of service. LSPs formed service provider associations (SPA) as platforms that promote 

and protect their professional interest. The concept of mobile manager, developed in 2008, 

proved to be promising. These service providers support MSEs in regard to business 

development. 


• Service provision is profitable when connected with rural MSEs through service 

contracts. 

• Training has less impact on the extreme poor since they often lack the means to utilise 

the information gained. 

• Organisational and management capacities of the SPAs are not yet strong enough to 

attract all the LSPs. Experiences show however that compared to individual LSPs, SPAs 

are in a better position to negotiate with input companies and line agencies. 

• The cooperation with line agencies has been shown to be strongly project driven and did 

not work well without external support. 

In the consolidation phase, the project will stop supporting training/service sessions for the 

extreme poor and focus on interventions like facilitation of the establishment of service contracts 

or contract farming. The concept of mobile managers, with the idea of supporting MSEs in their 

business, will have to be refined and scaled up. 

The quality of services and the sustainable access of LSPs to capacity building still remain a 

challenge that the project will have to address. The sustainability of the system, with producers 

buying services on a not subsidised basis is also another challenge. 

Gender mainstreaming 

In terms of participation of women the results were quite impressive: 39% of the CBOs are 

female only, 44% are mixed with a total of 80,000 women members. 83% of the CBOs 

implement 2 or more specific activities to address women inclusion in decision-making, control 

over resources, etc. Through income generating activities and employment in MSEs, women 

can earn their own money and increase their status in family and society. However, progress in 

control over resources by women and representation of women in decision making positions is 

still limited. 




• Although achievements were impressive on a community level, the gender 

mainstreaming was not very visible throughout the project. 

• In communities, where the community facilitators and female mentors were leading the 

participatory gender analysis (PGA), the follow-up activities by the communities were 

more effective. 

In the consolidation phase, gender mainstreaming will be carried out in a more systematic 

manner. Community facilitators and female mentors will systematically lead the PGA, the latter 

being regularly revised. To secure the achievements in changes in the social status of women 

are still challenging because of the existing social patterns. There is a need to consolidate the 

achievements to prevent them of reverting to the previous situation. 

Disaster risk reduction 

Based on the SDC strategy to mainstream DRR in all projects, LEAF initiated DRR pilot 

initiatives in 5 locations, focusing on “software” support like capacity and awareness building, 

participatory planning, etc. Intercooperation developed a community-based DRR planning tool 

which led to a significant increase in the awareness of the community. Issues like disaster 

prevention and preparedness that were hardly a topic before have been brought to the 

awareness of the people. Subsequently, the communities took actions to prepare themselves 

and reduce their vulnerabilities to the most important hazards. 


• The involvement of the whole community is crucial for the success of DRR activities. 

Under the lead of cluster platforms, DRR has to become a community activity, starting 

with common planning meetings, and including common disaster preparedness and 

prevention measures. 

• Starting with software and at later stage introducing “smart hardware” could bring good 

results regarding DRR. The effectiveness of smart hardware as a means for software 

depends on the maturity of the group receiving the support. 

For the next phase, these activities will have to be further mainstreamed, taking into account 

indigenous risk reduction measures, linked with local governance, and improved small scale 

hardware such as livestock shelters or bamboo piling against river erosion. Only smart 

hardware, which can be implemented and maintained by the communities themselves will be 

considered. Considering their resources, this will be challenging. 

Cooperation / coordination 

With an organisational re-arrangement, LEAF and SAAKTI have moved towards a more 

programmatic way of working. The cooperation with AFIP and Sharique was intensified in line 

with this development. Collaboration with Katalyst was found effective and very useful for both 

parties. Other collaborations with other development initiatives and the private sector were 

established and significantly extended. However, two questions still have to be addressed: i) 

how can the projects withdraw their support that still is instrumental for the functioning of various 



collaboration arrangements and ii) how can project experiences be scaled up through sharing 

with other donors? 

Programme management 

Good achievements of the projects include the capacity building of the 20 partner NGOs (203 

staff), the cost effectiveness of interventions (value creation is 7.47 times higher than the 

projects’ costs), and quality of monitoring and experience documentation. However, PNGO are 

still dependent on the projects. The future role of PNGOs and other stakeholders will be 

carefully analysed and reorganised. Therefore, the process of phasing out, i.e. the consolidation 

of approaches is a major challenge to be addressed with priority in order to ensure 

sustainability. 

4. Project description 

4.1 Current situation and vision for Samriddhi 

Since its inception, LEAF has developed the following vision regarding the beneficiaries (see 

Figure 1): “The communities’ organisations and their respective networks (secondary level of 

organisation of cluster platforms, MSEs, etc…) are able to identify, organise and lead their local 

development initiatives based on their priorities, in mobilising and exploiting resources and 

services available at their level (local administration, lines agencies, service providers and 

market actors, etc) on a continuing basis and without further substantial inputs from 

development projects. The fruits of this social and economic development have to be shared 

with extreme poor and vulnerable households living within the boundaries of communities’ 

organisations” 

The principal role of the project and its partners was to work towards this vision. In the future, 

the principal setting of the actors will remain the same while Samriddhi will adopt the role of a 

facilitator in a process during which the project will reduce its support on a gradual basis by 

shifting the responsibilities to the actors in the system, with the aim to make the system 

sustainable. What this means for the actors of the system and for the project’s view on 

sustainability is described below. For an overview on the evolution of institutions and 

approaches throughout LEAF, SAAKTI, and Samriddhi, see annex 10. 



Figure 1: Vision of LEAF and SAAKTI during the first phases 

Community organisations 

The capacities of CBOs and clusters platforms that developed over time have been instrumental 

to establish functional linkages between the different actors at community level. CBOs and 

cluster platforms, with diverse levels of achievement, have acquired capacities to identify 

development priorities and to plan and implement joint actions towards socio-economic 

improvement. 

The cluster platforms were originally seen as coordination platforms of the CBOs supported by 

the project. They develop an annual plan of operation that coordinates the activities of CBOs 

and partly of MSEs. However, the platforms have partly opened and extend their activities to 

non-CBO members. 

The project’s vision is that the cluster platforms continue along this path of opening up and 

develop into community platforms, raising the voice for all community members, especially the 

often unheard and suppressed voices of the poor and extreme poor. According to the vision, the 

community platforms will take their development in their own hand and are eager to shape their 

future by building partnerships with public and private organisations. Local governments and 

market actors on the other hand start to appreciate the organisational development in the 

community platforms and respect them as strong partners. Community platforms include the 

poor and extreme poor and support them in getting services from local government, line 



agencies, and access to marginal land. They support them in their economic activities by 

facilitating access to financial or in-kind assets on a credit or profit sharing basis. 

At the same time as giving emphasise to the establishment of community platforms, the project 

will phase out its support to individual CBOs. 

88% of the present cluster platforms are located at Ward level. There are nine Wards per Union, 

each of which includes a similar number of households. In order to give them the critical mass to 

play a role in local governance the community platform should remain at Ward level. 

The networks of cluster platforms, which were seen as an entity that could play an important 

role in local governance and for the process of economic development at local level, could 

hardly be put in place. 

Local enterprises - MSEs 

Many CBOs have evolved into, or gave birth to, different models of MSEs. In some cases, the 

CBOs have evolved as collective enterprises. In other cases, one member of the CBO has 

developed its own enterprise and involved other members in his or her business. There are also 

cases where members from different groups and the community have developed collective 

enterprises, or where individual enterprises got connected to networks. Although CBOs and 

MSEs are not the same “institution”, they sometimes can hardly be distinguished as they consist 

of the same people. 

Beside the community platforms, MSEs will represent the second pillar in the community that 

will ensure the sustainability of the project’s interventions. Successful MSEs will increase 

income and employment opportunities in the communities. Through sensitisation during their 

capacity building as well as through the influence of the community platforms, the MSEs will 

also enable the poor and extreme poor of the community to access these opportunities. In the 

project’s vision, rural MSEs reach a degree of development and professionalism to engage in 

high quality national and international markets to increase their income and create employment 

opportunities for the poor and extreme poor. At the same time, other market actors appreciate a 

strong value chain organisation and organised producers, and intensify their work with and 

support to local MSEs. 

Since the project will phase out its support to individual CBOs but continue its support to MSEs, 

conceptual clarity has to be established about what will be seen as MSE. In this context, an 

MSE will be defined as an entity that is constituted by a group of local people who develop a 

business plan and engage in economic activities. 

Service Providers 

The provision of high quality services – mainly on agricultural knowledge, technology and 

information as well as business management – to the rural producers is done by both private 

service providers and public bodies, especially extension agencies. At the beginning, the LSPs 

were mostly seen as advisory service providers in order to replace the technical assistance 

provided by NGOs. However, they have evolved beyond this assumption. To enrich their 

services, the majority of them provide besides pure advisory services also inputs at discount 

prices to their clients and play an active role in linking them with market actors. Through this 

embedded provision of inputs, input companies have a way to make quality inputs available in 



rural areas and expand their services for rural producers in terms of technical advice and 

knowledge, delivered through the LSPs. 

The LSPs play a crucial role in distributing the knowledge from the government extension 

agencies to the individual farmers and rural MSEs. Through policy dialogue, the project works 

towards the recognition of the importance of the LSPs as a link to reach the communities by the 

line agencies. In the project’s vision, the line agencies are committed to build their capacity and 

provide them with knowledge and information. 

As a first step towards the institutionalisation of the local service provision market, the LSPs 

have formed associations (SPAs) consisting of different types of LSPs in all Upazillas covered 

by the project. The SPAs are seen as the key players in leading the local service provision. 

They are the appropriate actor to establish linkages between their members and government 

agencies and private companies for capacity building and input procurement. On the other 

hand, they have the capacities to effectively and efficiently organise service transactions at local 

level. Furthermore, the SPAs strengthen the commercial attitude of their members and are 

engaged in the promotion of their business at community and Union level. They also contribute 

to expand the outreach of LSPs to new groups and people. 

CBOs and MSEs are still financially supported by the project to buy services from LSPs / SPAs. 

Usually, the project supports training, i.e. it contributes to the service fees of LSPs when the 

CBOs or cluster platforms organise learning sessions at community level. This support will be 

phased out in the planned phase. 

In order to facilitate the SPAs to get access to capacity building support for the LSPs, the project 

established a number of regional resource pools (RRP). The RRPs will continue to contribute to 

the strengthening of local service providers’ skills, as well as providing them with up-to-date 

information. The pools will be extended to local extension agents and increasingly include 

private sector actors. At the same time they will become more informal, taking the form of a pool 

of experts and less of a formalised platform. The project will still play a role of facilitation 

between SPAs and resource pools, but will withdraw its support in the medium term. 

Other market actors 

Besides the local MSEs and LSPs, other market actors like buyers, trader associations, input 

companies, processors and retailers play an important role to rural economic activities more 

viable and to strengthen rural value chains. During the last phase, the market actors have 

become key partners of the project. They took over some functions that were previously 

exclusively ensured by the project such as technical training of producers, information on quality 

inputs, demonstration plots, establishment of collection centres, provision of market information, 

etc. Some of the companies have established contracts with producers ensuring the provision of 

inputs and buy-back guarantees. 

So far, the projects sustain the linkages between producers and market actors, though a few of 

them have established or maintain direct links without the involvement of project. In the future, 

the project will increasingly work in partnership with market actors since they are a vital part of 

the market system. 



Local Government 

LEAF put special emphasis on facilitating links between cluster platforms and UPs, with an 

objective that was twofold from a community perspective: on the one hand accessing services 

and resources from UPs, on the other hand participate in local governance. 

In Unions not covered by Sharique, the cluster platforms take the initiative to directly present 

their plan of operations to the UPs. This is done to identify possible support from UPs in relation 

to their plan and at the same time to lobby UPs to advocate for the community priorities at the 

level of line agencies. In turn, UPs also request support from cluster platforms, for instance for 

the implementation of government policies or campaigns. 

In regions covered by Sharique, the involvement of cluster platforms in local governance is 

higher. The members of CBOs and cluster platforms, due to their experience in planning, are 

active contributors in the UP planning process. However, they do not take a lead role in the 

process, and do not raise their voice as group representative, but more as individuals. 

According to the project’s vision, the community platform will continue to play a crucial role in 

connecting the communities with the local government bodies, both inside and outside areas 

where Sharique is active. Sharique will work with the new community platforms in the same way 

as before with the cluster platforms. 

Partner NGOs 

Partner NGOs are considered as external actors supporting the project in implementing its 

interventions. However, they have had a strong involvement with the system up to now: 

• Community level: the social mobilisation of new communities and the capacity building of 

the communities is currently ensured by NGO staff. In communities that have been 

supported for a couple of years, local “community facilitators” have been developed and 

have acquired the capacities for the mobilisation and facilitation work. 

• Service provision: all technical support has been taken over by local service providers. 

NGO staff is still involved at a low level in skills development in marketing, mostly for 

new groups. NGOs also continue providing organisational support to SPAs. 

• Market: the NGOs still play an active role in order to link producers with market actors, 

though some LSPs or MSEs are increasingly taking over this responsibility. 

• Local government: the cluster platforms have reached a good level of independence in 

order to establish direct links with UPs. NGOs are still slightly involved, mostly for new 

groups. 

• Others: the linkages between cluster platforms and other organisations and projects that 

could provide support like e.g. in health, education, inputs supply are mostly facilitated 

by the NGOs. 

In order to consolidate the achievements on a community level, the role of the NGOs will be 

changed and more responsibility will be given to the community platforms and community 

facilitators. In the market and service market development, the role of the NGOs will also be 

reduced. See section “Project partners” for more details about the future role of the NGOs. 



4.2 Systemic view on sustainability 

Main goal of the project is to work towards an improved well-being of the population in the 

targeted areas. The key strategy to achieve this goal is creating income and employment 

opportunities, mainly driven by better functioning rural value chains. As part of those value 

chains, rural small scale producers and enterprises play a vital role in the creation of 

employment opportunities and in the provision of higher incomes (see Figure 2). 

A number of supporting functions are crucial for a working value chain. These include inter 

alia the provision of financial services, business development services, technical services 

(knowledge, technology, and information), and quality inputs to the value chain actors. Although 

part of the value chain, input supply as such can be promoted by private service providers in 

combination with technical services. 

Besides the supporting functions, an enabling environment is crucial for a functioning value 

chain. It includes a whole range of factors, from the legislation, through the rules and regulations 

of various ministries and departments, at national, regional and local levels, and the practices of 

civil servants (based on attitudes and various interpretations of the laws and regulations). The 

environment also includes the policies and practices of relevant non-governmental 

organisations and private sector businesses which, in turn, also are affected by the 

governmental factors listed here. 

In order to make the system inclusive and empowering, there is also a need of strong human 

and institutional competencies of all actors. These competencies include the social 

responsibility of the market actors, e.g. integrating poor and extreme poor into business 

ventures. They further include gender capacities, leading to an empowering environment for 

women and giving them the possibility to become economically active and decide on the use of 

their own resources. Human and institutional competencies include the capacity of the 

communities to organise themselves in order to lead their own development process and to 

raise their voice to lobby and advocate for their own interests, including the interests of the 

weakest members of the society. 

The main actors in the described system are, besides the value chain actors, the community 

platforms, who are in the lead of organising the communities. Micro finance institutions (MFI) as 

well as private investors are offering financial services and investments to feed the financial 

needs of rural MSEs. The products they offer have to be adapted to the business models of the 

rural enterprises. 



Figure 2: Samriddhi’s vision towards sustainability. The main entry points for the project are the community 

platforms, the rural MSEs and producers, and the service provision market (i.e. the SPAs). 

The provision of these services in rural areas is seen as a separate market system with demand 

and supply of services in the core, flanked by supporting functions, and enabling environment. 

The main actors in this system are the local service providers, service provider associations, 

government line agencies and private companies, but also the local, district and national 

government bodies play a crucial role. 

In order to work towards a sustainable system as depicted above, the project analysed all 

crucial functions and actors required for the two systems to work. The tables in annex 4 show 

the envisaged evolution of actors’ roles and responsibilities from the current set-up to a future 

situation corresponding to the vision. 

The central assumption for both the development of the vision and the definition of future actors 

providing crucial functions was that the project will in future be less and less directly involved. It 

is envisaged that the project phases out some direct support to individual producers, individual 

CBOs as well as individual LSPs in the beginning of the next phase. The project will strengthen 



its role as facilitator, leaving the activities to be performed by actors in the system. After this 

stepwise transformation and consolidation, the phasing-out of the project is envisaged for the 

medium term (5-6 years). 

4.3 Strategic framework 

In order to contribute to poverty reduction, the project follows a systemic approach: the 

project’s interventions lead to changes in the socio-economic system in which the poor and 

extreme poor live and work in. These changes lead to improved growth in opportunities, but also 

to improved access of the poor and extreme poor to opportunities, eventually contributing to 

well-being and resilience. The overall logic of the project, linking interventions with the poverty 

reduction goal, can be expressed using the strategic framework below. 

Table 1: Strategic framework for Samriddhi 

Poverty reduction 

System changes 

Systemic 

interventions 

To contribute to sustainable well-being and resilience of poor and 

extreme poor households of Rajshahi Division and Sunamganj District 

through social and economic empowerment. 

Better performance of rural MSEs in terms of business management, 

market linkages, etc. 

Improved performance of value chains in terms of value addition, 

chain governance, etc. 

Better performance of rural service and input markets 

Communities lead their own social and economic development. 

Improved integration of community priorities in local governance 

leading to an empowering and enabling environment and resilience 

against disasters and other shocks 

• Improved social capital and inclusiveness within the communities 

(gender equality, inclusion of poor and extreme poor, ethnic 

minorities as well as disadvantaged) 

• Value chain development 

• Enterprise development 

• Service market promotion (knowledge, information, finance, etc.) 

• Building human and institutional capacities (social capital, 

participation in local governance, gender, DRR) 



4.4 Approaches 

To achieve the intended changes in the system, the project follows two main approaches, i.e. 

human and institutional development (HID) and making markets work for the poor (M4P), which 

are depicted in Figure 3. 

Figure 3: The main approaches applied by Samriddhi to establish a sustainable system for improved well-being of 

poor and extreme poor households. 

HID is a process guided by existing values and principles, particularly concerning poverty 

reduction and developing social capital, which contributes to: 

• Developing the skills and behaviours of individuals so they can lead, manage, serve and 

strengthen their endeavours. 

• Strengthening institutions (social, economic, technical, political and religious) in order to 

make them more responsive, effective and efficient towards the individuals or 

organisations they serve. 

• Promoting equitable and cooperative relationships between stakeholders and their 

institutions. 

Intercooperation considers the building of social capital as a necessary achievement of an HID 

process. “Social capital” was first defined as those intangible substances which are important to 

people, namely goodwill, fellowship, sympathy, and social intercourse. This concept also 

encompasses solidarity, social cohesion, shared values, mutuality, trust, tolerance, reciprocity. 

Such features can improve the efficiency of society by facilitating coordinated actions. It is 



recognised that a strong social capital strengthens civil society, and is critical to socio-economic 

growth and the sustainability of development actions. 5 

HID will constitute a key approach in the project, which will however focus on two particular 

aspects. The community platforms will be capacitated to work towards an empowering and 

enabling local environment, to participate in local governance and establish linkages with 

different support organisations. Regarding the MSEs and SPAs, the HID support will contribute 

to strengthen their capacities in terms of business development, outreach and inclusiveness. 

The approach will phase out during the third year of the phase. During the phasing-out phase, 

HID should then be integrated in normal activities of community platforms, MSEs and SPAs. 

The M4P approach uses the economic transactions of the poor as an entry point to its analyses 

and interventions. Its interventions are focused on changing the market based systems around 

the poor’s transactions with the aim to make economic opportunities more accessible to them. 

Interventions aim to achieve institutional changes by defining functions of the market systems 

and finding appropriate actors within the system to fulfil these functions according to their 

incentives and capacities. By applying these principles, M4P projects generally reach a high 

level of sustainability. The M4P approach will be directed to establish sustainable and inclusive 

market systems for the selected value chains including MSEs and service providers. 

In combination, the HID and M4P approaches provide a powerful framework for poverty 

reduction, focusing not only on social or market development but integrating the two by 

strengthening and empowering the community and at the same time improving the market 

systems to work better for the poor. 

Besides that, gender mainstreaming will contribute to the empowerment of women and 

improved situation of women entrepreneurs. The mainstreaming of DRR will contribute to 

protect the assets that the target households could establish with the support of the project. 

4.5 Strategies 

Consolidation and institutionalisation 

Consolidation of successful previous interventions will be at the centre of Samriddhi with a view 

to make the system function sustainably without project interventions. The interventions 

targeted for consolidation are mainly: 

• Community empowerment and building social capital through HID. 

• Strengthening competitiveness of rural products, value addition at producer level and 

improved chain performance through value chain development. 

• Enhancing the capacity of rural MSEs in business management and in the acquisition of 

financial capital for their operations through capacity building and collaboration with 

microfinance institutions, banks and private companies. 

• Strengthening local service provision through capacity building of SPAs and 

collaboration with government line agencies and private companies. 

5 

See: Human and Institutional Development. A Process of Capacity Development for socio-economic 

empowerment. The experience of Intercooperation in South Asia. 2007. 



Consolidation and institutionalisation efforts are especially crucial for established structures like 

CBOs and their cluster platforms as well as service providers and their associations. With a 

view on the post-intervention situation, the project will strengthen its role as facilitator and hand 

over direct activities to the system stakeholders. Thus, capacity building will wherever possible 

be done by system actors like community facilitators, LSPs, government agencies or private 

companies. Besides these actors, the project will also make use of private companies as 

service providers. Those include private firms and free-lance consultants. They will be mostly 

utilised for providing support in market and value chain activities that were previously done by 

NGOs. Their intervention will be done on ad-hoc basis and according to specific needs, not as 

long-term contributors. The project’s support for this modality of collaboration should decrease 

in the phasing-out phase, expecting service providers to be increasingly directly engaged by the 

beneficiaries. 

As described in the vision, the project aims at strengthening and transforming the cluster 

platforms into community platforms. To do this step, the cluster platforms will be encouraged to 

open their membership base to representatives of the civil society, good kings (progressive, 

positive minded better situated persons), MSE representatives, LSPs, and female mentors. 

Through sensitisation by the project, the newly formed so called community platforms will target 

equal participation of women as well as the participation of poor and extreme poor, minority 

groups, and disadvantaged in their activities and decision making process. The project will 

develop the capacities of community facilitators and female mentors. The community facilitators 

will be the main player in organising and facilitating the annual planning exercises and 

subsequent sharing events with relevant organisations. The female mentors will lead the 

participatory gender analysis in the community and will be the focal point for all gender relevant 

issues. 

The changing constitution and roles of the cluster/community platforms will take place during the 

first phase of Samriddhi, with the support of PNGOs and community facilitators, whose 

capacities will be developed in this regard. The responsibility of mobilising community platforms 

in new communities will be handed over to the community facilitators who will be remunerated 

for this task, whenever he or she is active outside hi/her own community. In the phasing-out 

phase, the facilitation of community platforms will be done only by community facilitators. 

The project will continuously analyse the capacities of individual community platforms, MSEs 

and SPAs and phase out its support when conditions are met that they can sustain their 

operation on their own. The support to present MSEswill be phased out after a process of 

consolidation during the third year of the phase. For SPAs enrolled during the first phase of 

SAAKTI, the phasing-out process will start from the third year of the first phase of Samriddhi. 

For those who came later the process will start with the phasing-out phase. Phasing-out 

scenarios will also be developed for value chain interventions. 

The modality of collaboration with line agencies at national level already evolved during the 

second phase, passing from the idea of institutional reforms to the provision of services to the 

projects. As the government agencies have now the experience of pro-poor technology 

development, the project will start to phase out the collaboration from the first phase of 

Samriddhi. 



To consolidate the achievements of Samriddhi, a continuous process of experience 

capitalisation and knowledge sharing will be organised. Several tools developed and 

experiences capitalised under LEAF and SAAKTI have already been published, raising interest 

in the development community. For the next phase, this process will be continued. 

Pro-poor orientation 

Although LEAF and SAAKTI have been able to significantly contribute to improved living 

conditions of the poor, more efforts will be made for their inclusion. Experiences shown however 

that it is extremely difficult to reach the poorest level of the society, i.e. the bottom 10% without 

specifically targeted interventions like safety net support or asset transfer. Since Samriddhi will 

not include this type of interventions, it will not be able to specifically target the economic 

development of this segment of the population. Nevertheless, through increasing the social 

responsibility of communities, local governments and enterprises, these poor households can 

eventually profit from the project interventions. 

This also implies to better target value chain interventions in terms of sector and geographic 

location. To achieve this, the eight existing value chains have been ranked following twelve 

criteria in order to assess their economic viability together with their poverty orientation. 

Additionally, new value chains were selected according to the same criteria. In an iterative 

process, the eleven most poverty relevant value chains that have a significant potential to bring 

income and employment opportunities to the poor and extreme poor in the intervention areas 

have been selected for further analysis, which will build the basis for the intervention design. 

Six existing value chains have been selected for scaling up in existing and new regions 

(medicinal plants, milk, vegetables, fruit, fish and poultry). Those value chains showed very 

promising progress in the last phase, reaching a total of nearly 100,000 households. In the 

medicinal plants value chain, many poor and extreme poor households are involved, since no 

initial investments are needed; the potentials for more value addition at producer level and 

increased outreach are high. The milk value chain will be continued and consolidated in Bogra 

and Rangpur region, where it has worked well in including poor and extreme poor; the potential 

to further improve the value chain performance is high. Both, fruit and vegetables value chains 

show high numbers of beneficiaries whereof, however, only a limited number are poor or 

extreme poor. Nevertheless, through improved production technologies and chain performance, 

inclusiveness can further be improved. Fish has been selected as value chain due to the high 

demand of fish and its potential to include poor and extreme poor through the use of public 

ponds. Back yard poultry (chicken) also offers a high potential for poor and extreme poor, since 

they can raise the chicken on their homestead land. However, for pond fish and chicken, a more 

comprehensive analysis has to be performed. Because of its limited potential to scale up, it has 

been decided that the spices value chain will be phased out. 

Apart from the existing value chains, five new value chains will be introduced, namely beef, 

goat, cotton craft, jute craft, and plant craft. Cotton craft covers mainly tailoring, embroidery, 

handloom, etc., whereas plant craft covers work with raw materials being bamboo, grass, leafs, 

etc. The latter three value chains show a high potential of including women as well as poor and 

extreme poor since they usually don’t need any initial investments with raw materials often 

provided by the traders nor any land. LEAF already gathered experience in working with 

handicrafts, using a value chain approach. Beef and goat value chains are attractive because 



they show high levels of value addition at producers level, need only little land and can include 

also poor and extreme poor by introducing new modalities like service contracts where service 

providers make initial investments and render services whereas the poor provide the labour; 

eventually the profit is shared accordingly. With a high demand of value added jute products 

both on national and international markets, jute crafts still have a high potential of scale. Also 

jute handicrafts can be produced by men and women in rural areas with low initial investments 

but a high potential of value addition. 

For a more detailed rational of value chain selection, the planned value chain analysis, and a 

description of the ranking tool see annex 7. 

Besides the targeting of value chain interventions, an increased inclusion of the poor and 

extreme poor in both social and economic activities will be targeted through sensitisation and 

capacity building of community leaders, MSEs and SPAs. The development of human and 

institutional capacities also aims at giving poor and disadvantaged members of the society a 

voice to be able to take responsibility for their own development by representing and defending 

themselves. 

Income generating activities (IGAs) have been promoted more for poor and extreme poor who 

cannot invest in business but at least can engage in small scale economic activities. The 

promotion of IGAs will continue in the first phase of Samriddhi. In order to support the extreme 

poor, the project will promote a model of service contract where service providers provide inputs 

and training to the poorest, and share a part of the profit as service costs. In line with the IGAs, 

the project developed the marketing extension tool, which is now seen as a service to the 

producers, and will therefore gradually be phased out in the first phase of the project, 

considering that there is now a large number of LSPs that can train groups and MSEs in 

marketing. 

Enabling environment 

It is considered crucial for the sustainability of the achievements of Samriddhi that value chain 

and market development takes place within an enabling environment. Similarly, for social 

empowerment and inclusion of the poorest into the society, an enabling and empowering 

environment is essential. An increased involvement of the communities in local governance is 

necessary to achieve this. 

Through the focus on human and institutional development, where one important aspect is to 

empower the people to lead their own development while at the same time institutions will be 

strengthened to make them more responsive, effective and efficient towards the individuals or 

organisations they serve. It is estimated that community platforms and UPs will, after a phasing 

out process, establish continuous collaboration. However, not only communities are important 

actors to achieve an enabling environment, but also local enterprises, i.e. MSEs, and other 

market actors, e.g. SPAs. When building the organisational capacities of the MSEs and SPAs, 

their role in the local governance system will be assessed and strengthened. 

Wherever possible, Samriddhi will work closely together with Sharique and it will also use the 

synergies with the Improvement of Local Government Services project (ILGS). See section 

alliances for further details. 



Gender mainstreaming 

Gender equality will continue to be addressed by Samriddhi through its gender mainstreaming 

strategy with the following objectives: 

1. To ensure equal access to resources and services, and inclusion in economic activities. 

2. To engage women and encourage their participation in the local development process. 

3. To ensure active participation and benefits for both women and men at programme and 

organisational levels. 

The Participatory Gender Analysis tool developed by LEAF will be updated so that it can be 

implemented by the community platforms, touching gender issues in the whole community. 

Instead of field facilitators of the PNGO, the community facilitators and female mentors of the 

community will lead the planning. Action plans will be developed and implemented in all working 

communities with active involvement of the civil society, UP and local enterprises. In addition, 

fostering active participation of women in local governance (UP, standing committees), local 

traditional structures, and other relevant committees and networks will be promoted in 

collaboration with Sharique. Community platforms will be encouraged to select an equal number 

of women and men as members and include women in their decision making processes. 

In both, the capacity building for SPAs and MSEs, gender sensitivity will be one of the 

cornerstones. The inclusion of women as partners, employees or local service providers will be 

fostered and both SPAs and MSEs will be sensitised to include women in their decision making 

processes. Women will be trained to effectively take leadership in enterprises, associations and 

other relevant committees. 

DRR mainstreaming 

During the recent phases, impressive results could be achieved in terms of increased assets of 

the beneficiaries through the improved IGAs, stronger MSEs and better performing value 

chains. Those assets are however threatened by the imminent natural disasters that threaten 

many communities in Bangladesh. The capacities of the individual households as well as the 

communities to take necessary measures for their protection are considerably low. The 

mainstreaming of DRR activities is therefore seen as imperative to protect the improved assets 

of the beneficiaries from natural disasters. A systematic mainstreaming and strengthening of 

DRR in the most vulnerable communities, focused on the assets gained through project 

interventions, will contribute to the sustainability of the interventions and help to avoid a relapse 

of people into poverty and extreme poverty. 

In order to mainstream DRR in the planning and sharing process of the communities, the project 

will build the capacities of community facilitators in analysing natural hazards and risks and lead 

the process of the community to plan prevention and protection activities. The project will 

support the community platforms in building the awareness of the whole community about their 

possibilities of protecting themselves and their assets from disasters and get connected to 

government bodies and other relevant actors for local resource mobilisation. The use of DDR as 

an approach should be ensured by the community platforms at the end of Samriddhi. 

Targeted hardware interventions could enhance the effect of the software components 

implemented by the project. One way of supporting such interventions would be through a 



matching fund, where community platforms could apply for financial support for their protection 

projects. However, the provision of money for hardware has to follow strict criteria with the aim 

to demonstrate the capabilities of the communities to protect themselves from disasters by 

establishing hardware installations on their own. The main criteria to receive hardware support 

by the project are the relevance of the activity to protect the achievements of project activities; 

the possibility for other communities to replicate similar hardware activities without project 

support; the ability of the communities to maintain the hardware installations without project 

support; and a community contribution of more than 50% for physical inputs and 100% for 

labour. Hardware support should be directed towards the most vulnerable communities, which, 

however, have to be mature enough to handle the support in a meaningful way. 

4.6 Objectives and Interventions (Logical Framework) 

The overall goal of the project is 

To contribute to sustainable well-being and resilience of poor and extreme poor households of 

Rajshahi Division and Sunamganj District through social and economic empowerment. 

To achieve this goal, the project has formulated two outcomes. 

Outcome 1: Market and value chain development 

Poor and extreme poor men and women in the project intervention areas make use of improved 

employment and income generating opportunities facilitated through value chain and enterprise 

development, and have sustainable access to quality services (information, skills, technology, 

etc.), both private and public. 

Outcome 1 focuses on the market system, applying an M4P approach to achieve systemic 

changes leading to a more pro-poor market environment. The main systemic changes are a 

better performance of rural MSEs in terms of business management, market linkages in order to 

provide local income and employment opportunities; improved performance of value chains in 

terms of value addition, chain performance, etc. with a view to allocate more value addition at 

the local level leading to a higher share of the overall margin remaining with rural MSEs; and 

better performance of rural service and input markets as a crucial supporting function for all 

rural MSEs, providing updated knowledge, technology, information, business development 

services in combination with inputs and financial services. 

Outcome 2: Community organisation and governance 

Poor and extreme poor men and women in the project intervention areas define, manage, and 

lobby for their own development priorities and are able to secure access to a more enabling 

environment for their livelihood improvements. 



Outcome 2 incorporates the HID component of the project. Through the development of human 

and institutional capacities of the community platforms, the communities are empowered to lead 

their own social and economic development process. An improved integration of the community 

priorities in local governance leads to an empowering and enabling environment. The resilience 

of the communities against natural and economic shocks is strengthened through the improved 

economic situation in combination with appropriate measures to reduce the risk of natural 

disasters. Improved social capital in the community leads to a higher degree of inclusiveness 

within the communities, especially targeting the inclusion of poor and extreme poor, ethnic 

minorities as well as disadvantaged, and improved gender equality. 

Outcome 1 is subdivided into six outputs: 

Output 1.1: Product competitiveness at producer level is enhanced. 

Output 1.2: The value chain performance of specific sub-sectors is strengthened. 

The first two outputs are targeting the development of selected value chains. The focus in propoor 

value chain development will be put on two areas: 

• Improvement of the competitiveness of the products: More competitive products will 

bring a higher income to the producer both in terms of quantity (more volume sold) and 

quality (higher margin). This includes the promotion of value addition through 

processing, grading, etc. at producer level. 

• Improved chain performance: Both vertical integration through better organised 

processes and horizontal integration through building producer networks and collection 

centres lead to reduced transaction costs and, thus, higher margins for all actors in the 

chain. Through horizontal integration, the outreach of the interventions can be increased. 

Output 1.3: SPAs are capable to organise and support the LSPs and to establish collaboration 

with the public and private sector. 

Output 1.4: Efficiency and coordination of service transactions between SPAs and their clients 

are improved. 

Outputs 1.3 and 1.4 focus on the service market and the support provided to the SPAs. Two 

major areas are covered by these outputs: 

• The capacity of the SPAs to organise the LSPs and to improve their coverage in the 

respective Upazillas. The incentive for the LSPs to become member of an SPA is the 

ability of the SPA to organise the capacity building of the LSPs through linkages with 

public agencies and private companies. The SPA can also organise inputs from large 

input sellers that can be sold to farmers through the LSPs. The capacity building of the 

SPAs also includes gender aspects; the SPA are supposed to have a certain number of 

women in their decision making bodies and effectively include them in their decision 



making processes. The SPAs are also selecting and recruiting new LSPs, with a special 

focus to recruit women LSPs. 

• The capacity of the SPAs to effectively organise the service transactions between them 

and their clients. This includes business management aspects like business planning as 

well as negotiation skills and service contracting. 

Output 1.5: The business management capacities and social responsibility of MSEs are 

strengthened. 

Output 1.6: Access to financial services for the MSEs improved. 

The last two outputs for outcome 1 focus on enterprise development. Two major aspects are 

covered: 

• The capacities of the MSEs in terms of business management are strengthened. This 

includes training by service providers on business planning, production management, 

financial management, etc. Furthermore, the MSEs are sensitised regarding their social 

responsibility to be gender sensitive and give poor and extreme poor people of the 

community the chance to become economically active. 

• The project is aiming to strengthen the access to capital through two ways. First, it aims 

to improve the existing products and access to those products in collaboration with the 

Palli Karma-Sahayak Foundation (PKSF), the biggest provider of funds for micro-finance 

institutions in Bangladesh. Second, it works together with private companies that are 

interested to invest in rural MSEs like for example venture capital companies. 

Outcome 2 is covered by three outputs: 

Output 2.1: Human and institutional capacities of the community platforms are built to 

represent and advocate for the interests of all segments of the community, giving 

special attention to poor and extreme poor, and minority groups. 

Output 2.2: Coordination and exchange between community platforms and relevant 

development partners (UP, UDMC, LA, BMO, etc.) are strengthened. 

The two first outputs of the second outcome focus on the human and institutional development 

of the community platforms. 

• The project will select community facilitators in every community and build their capacity 

in facilitating the annual planning process of the community platform and also the 

exchange between the community platform and local government bodies or other 

relevant institutions. Community platform leaders will be sensitised to the importance of 

including all segments of the community in order to become a strong voice for the whole 

community when negotiating with local government bodies. The inclusion of women into 

decision making process will be stressed. 



• In areas where Samriddhi is newly entering, the capacity building of the new community 

facilitators will whenever feasible be done by his or her peer from another community. 

The community facilitator providing his or her services to another community will be 

remunerated by the project accordingly. 

• The project will facilitate the community facilitators to organise match making workshops 

with different relevant partners like the UP, UDMC (specifically for DRR activities), line 

agencies for the provision of information and technology, etc. 

Output 2.3: Capacity and awareness of communities in disaster prone areas to tackle disaster 

risks improved. 

Output 2.3 is specifically targeting DRR mainstreaming in the community planning processes. 

The interventions follow the same principles as in social organisation and planning. 

• Community facilitators will be trained to analyse disaster risks based on secondary 

information collected from appropriate sources and to include DRR aspects in the annual 

planning process. Specific sharing events for DRR activities will by organised by the 

community facilitator between the community platform network of one Union and the UP. 

• The main cornerstone of DRR is awareness raising in the whole community. This will be 

done mainly through the community platform who takes the responsibility to organise 

awareness raising events like cultural programmes, special meetings, demonstrations, 

etc. 

• For specific cases, the project will establish a matching fund for hardware projects. The 

community platforms can access the funds under certain preconditions as outlined in the 

strategy chapter above. 

The logical framework of the project is attached in annex 1. 

5. Beneficiaries and intervention areas 

5.1 Target households 

At the community level, the project will deliver its support through the community platforms. 

Each community platform will cover the geographical boundary of one Ward. Consequently, the 

target households of each community platform are the whole community of the respective Ward. 

Hence, the individual households of the Wards covered by community platforms supported by 

the project will be seen as the ultimate beneficiaries of the project. The project currently is 

working with 300,000 households but expects to organise community platforms covering around 

700,000 households or roughly 3 million people. 

Of these households, about 450,000 households (65%) are expected to be involved in 

economic activities through small scale IGAs and involvement in MSEs, mainly in the 11 subsectors 

selected for value chain development. 



It is estimated that an additional 500,000 households outside the geographical area of the 

project will benefit through the interventions of market actors of the value chains, and through 

the services delivered by SPAs. These actors work at Upazilla and therefore can collaborate 

with households outside the Unions covered by Samriddhi, according to the same modalities as 

the households supported by the project. Hence, the overall coverage of the project will be more 

than 1,200,000 beneficiary households or roughly 5 million people. 

5.2 Geographical intervention areas 

Samriddhi will work in 16 districts of Rajshahi division and in the Sunamganj district of Sylhet 

division, covering 58 Upazillas in total. The project will increase its outreach by vertically 

expanding inside the existing wards and horizontally expanding its intervention into new areas 

The result will be to include 655 new Wards, 43 new Unions, and 2 new Upazillas., 

LEAF and SAAKTI are currently working in 168 Unions and within these it presently covers 82% 

of the Wards. In the next phase, Samriddhi will work in all 1899 Wards of 211 Unions, 

representing an increase of over 50% in the area serviced by the project (see Table 2 and 

Figure 4) 

Table 2: Overview of the geographical areas covered by LEAF/SAAKTI and Samriddhi, respectively. 

Project Upazillas Unions Wards % Wards 

covered 

LEAF/SAAKTI 56 168 1244 82 

Samriddhi 58 211 1899 100 

Figure 4: Increase in Unions and Wards in Samriddhi compared with LEAF/SAAKTI 



Though the project will only touch two new Upazillas, significant horizontal and vertical 

expansion will take place within the existing Upazillas through the following three steps: 

1. Within the existing Wards there will be expansion to the untouched communities. 

2. Within the existing Unions there will be expansion to the untouched Wards. 

3. Within the existing Upazillas there will be expansion to the untouched Unions 

Samriddhi will not move into totally new Upazillas as it will build upon the existing network of 

stakeholders having already built a critical mass over previous phases. During this consolidation 

phase the facilitation will be based on current assets (e.g. presence of local service providers, 

community facilitators and local market actors). With the reduction of involvement of partner 

NGO in the project and the limited capacities of project structure, a large geographical extension 

to new areas could not envisaged. This is due to the fact that going to areas that are not 

adjacent to areas already covered by the project would require considerable resources and time 

for building relationship and rapport with local stakeholders. A more limited geographical 

extension, mostly to adjacent wards, would not require so much resources and time since the 

present stakeholders can be involved, and will anyway increase the outreach of the project in 

areas where poverty prevail at the same level as present areas of intervention. 

The project will continue with the current situation of a division of the geographical area into four 

regions. These divisions will be the three regions in the Rajshahi division and the remaining one 

in Sunamganj district. 

A more detailed geographical map showing the selected Unions and Upazillas is presented in 

the annex 2. 

6. Partners and Alliances 

6.1 Project partners 

Partners should be seen as key actors of a “system” (vision) that are used by the project as an 

entry point to achieve systemic changes according their capacities and incentives. They are the 

players that will contribute to the well being of the final beneficiaries. 

The community platforms will be the partners which will address social issues of the community 

, particularly the women and the poorest. They will contribute to establishing an enabling 

environment for socio-economic issues. The coordination role they will play at community level 

and the linkages they will establish with other support organisations will benefit different 

initiatives undertaken by CBOs and MSEs. 

SPAs are the local key actors which will play a critical role in building the capacities of producer 

groups and MSEs in the field of technical, managerial, marketing and organisational skills. The 

good functioning of the system, and hence, the benefit to the poor, considerably depends on the 

quality of services these actors will deliver. 

The private sector will increasingly take part in the system, and is seen as an important partner 

of the project in the view of sustainability of interventions, particularly in the field of value chain 

promotion. The collaboration with private firms and companies will be therefore further 

developed in order to achieve the sustainability of the system. 



Public institutions and agencies will remain partners of the project, particularly with regard to 

extension services and capacity building of SPAs. 

NGOs, which have been for years the main implementing partners of LEAF and SAAKTI, will 

see their role decreasing with a transfer of some of their functions to other actors and partners. 

Regarding the community platforms, partner NGOs will still contribute to develop their 

organisation capacities. At the same time, they will build the capacity of local community 

facilitators, who should ensure after a transition period, the role of community platform 

mobilisers and facilitators. For a limited time, partner NGOs will also build and strengthen the 

capacities of SPAs. The project will undertake a process of phasing-out the collaboration with 

NGOs once the capacities of other partners become strong enough. However, some of the 

NGOs may at the same time transform themselves and take up new functions, which they will 

then continue to perform after the phasing-out of the project support. 

6.2 Alliances 

Coordination and collaboration with other relevant projects will be strengthened. 

Regarding AFIP, synergies will be used to ensure the flow of quality planting material as well as 

technical support from nurseries and nursery associations to community platforms, CBOs and 

MSEs. On the other hand, community platforms will play a role in placing their demands to the 

nursery associations in relation to their needs concerning planting material as well as technical 

agroforestry advice. 

Though the collaboration with Katalyst in value chain development came to an end in March 

2010, contact will be kept with the project in order to exchange relevant information on 

successful approaches, possibility of local collaboration, results of sector analyses, etc. 

In addition, a new collaboration could be developed through the Improved Local Government 

Services (ILGS) project, a component of Katalyst implemented by Intercooperation. ILGS is 

conceived as a means to consolidate and sustain sub-sector interventions operated with other 

partners of Katalyst. The ILGS project aims at improving the technical skills of producers 

through the establishment of public-private initiatives between local line agencies and business 

membership organisations (BMO). In common interventions areas, the ILGS project and 

Samriddhi will develop synergies, but at the same time avoid overlapping activities. Samriddhi 

and ILGS will work in 26 common Upazilla. Whenever SPAs supported by Samriddhi are 

selected as BMOs by ILGS, the latter will organise their organisational development instead of 

Samriddhi. Where ILGS works with other BMOs, Samriddhi can contribute to the organisational 

development of MSE samities represented in BMOs. Modalities of collaboration and 

coordination should be adjusted according to the development of interventions. 

Since the two intervene in common geographical areas, Sharique and Samriddhi will continue to 

collaborate and strengthen their cooperation. Collaboration between the two projects is 

particularly important in terms of participation of communities in local governance issues, and 

the establishment of an enabling environment to sustain the development of economic activities 

and activities related to social and empowerment issues. The interface between Sharique and 

Samriddhi is the community platform, channelling the interests of the community from the 

citizens to the relevant government bodies, mainly the UP. Through the human and institutional 

capacity building of Samriddhi, the community platforms will be enabled to plan their own 



development priorities and share these with the UP through the appropriate channels. Sharique 

will support the communities to assess how they can contribute to improve local governance 

through the local governance self-assessment exercise. If they take up specific local 

governance issues in the communities’ annual plans and require technical support in 

implementation, Sharique will provide this. It is crucial that the community platforms share their 

overall plans either in separate events with the UP at a time where the UP can still adopt the 

communities’ priorities and/or through the ward level planning meetings, i.e. the Ward 

Assemblies (Ward Shava) organised by the UP. 

For clear assignments of roles and responsibilities between Samriddhi and Sharique and ILGS, 

respectively, see annex 9. 

The collaboration with the two Shiree Innovation Fund Projects 6 , funded by DFID and 

implemented by Intercooperation, will continue on the present basis. This collaboration allows 

extreme poor members of CBOs and communities supported by Samriddhi to access productive 

assets provided in the form of grants, and subsequently start economic activities. These 

extreme poor belonging to the “bottom 10%” usually cannot start any economic venture due to 

their lack of assets and working capital. 

Other opportunities of alliances exist and will be explored. This has already been and can still 

be the case with the Char Livelihoods Programme in the field of medicinal plants or other 

products. Collaboration with the National Agriculture Technology Project (NATP) of the Ministry 

of Agriculture, financed by the World Bank, in promoting value chains is another possibility. 

NATP already replicates approaches that were developed in the frame of SAAKTI. 

The decision about the merger of LEAF and SAAKTI and the new orientation taken by 

Samriddhi will have to be clearly communicated to stakeholders, particularly the present 

partners of the two projects. LEAF and SAAKTI will organise during the current phase initial 

workshops with partners (NGOs, line agencies, private companies) about the merger of the 

project and the inception of Samriddhi. Written information will be provided regarding the 

reorganisation of the projects and the consequences for the partners in terms of vision, 

evolution of functions, transition strategy, activities and resources. At the commencement of 

Samriddhi, new workshops will take place in order to orient project and partner staff on the 

changes in applying the project approaches, in coordinating activities. These workshops will 

also provide the guidelines to NGO staff on how they will to inform the communities, service 

providers associations and MSE currently supported by LEAF and SAAKTI. 

6 Shiree supports the economic empowerment of the extreme poor belonging to the bottom 10% of the 

population in terms of poverty. The Innovation Fund awards proposals innovative proposal in order to 

graduate the extreme poor from extreme poverty. 



7. Project Management 

7.1 Institutional Set-up 

In accordance to Samriddhi approaches and strategies, the project’s institutional set-up will 

have to be significantly reorganised. Due to the phasing-out of NGOs’ role with regards to 

market development interventions, the increase in the number of value chains and the 

increased interaction with the private sector, the project structure will remain similar to that of 

LEAF and SAAKTI. The staff will have a stronger facilitation role, which should put together the 

stakeholders according to the vision of Samriddhi. 

Samriddhi will have a Project Management and Support Unit (PMSU) and four Regional Offices 

(RO). 

The PMSU will comprise six operational persons: 

• Project Coordinator 

• Coordinator Social Development and Deputy Project Coordinator 

• 2 Coordinators Value Chains 

• Coordinator Service Provision and Enterprise Development 

• Monitoring Specialist 

• International Adviser 

The Project Coordinator will be in charge of the overall management of Samriddhi. S/he should 

combine knowledge on both livelihoods and market development issue with programme 

management, including human and financial resource management. The Coordinator Social 

Development and Deputy Project Coordinator will assist the Coordinator in the project 

supervision and monitoring, as well as establishing collaboration with other projects and 

organisations, and in policy dialogue. Furthermore, he will coordinate the activities in social 

development, especially HID, and DRR. Two Coordinators Value Chains will lead the value 

chain teams, coordinate the overall value chain interventions and ensure the interaction with 

large private companies involved. A Coordinator Service Provision and Enterprise Development 

will support the regional offices for the promotion of Service Providers Associations and MSE 

promotion and will supervise the collaboration with National Institutions (line agencies), as well 

as the collaboration with ILGS project. The Monitoring Specialist will support the regional offices 

in collecting and processing data and be responsible for the outcome monitoring process. The 

International Adviser will render technical advice concerning institutionalisation processes, 

market development, and local governance, and take up methodological and technical 

backstopping support to the project team. He will furthermore support the project management. 

Each of the four regional teams will be composed of: 

• Regional Coordinator 

• Associate Coordinator Social Development 

• 3 Value Chain Specialists 



The Regional Coordinator will ensure the general management of the regional office and the 

overall supervision of project’s interventions. S/he will be assisted by an Associate Coordinator 

Social Development who will coordinate the interventions in the field of community platform 

strengthening in partnership with local NGOs. The Associate Coordinator Social Development 

will also have the responsibility to supervise the mainstreaming of gender and DRR in the 

project interventions. Three to four Value Chain Specialists will look after three value chains 

each. Their main role will be to coordinate the interventions with private sector actors, service 

providers and SPAs. Although they are based in the regional offices, they will work together in 

value chain teams led by the respective Coordinator Value Chains. Each value chain team will 

be responsible for a set of related value chains. 

The organisational set-up is presented in annex 5. The terms of reference of the staff, as well as 

the qualifications required are presented in annexes 11 and 12. 

7.2 Steering and Management 

The project will be steered and controlled by a steering committee, composed of SDC, 

Intercooperation and project representatives. The main task of the committee is to ensure 

strategic guidance to the project, and its coherence with the SDC cooperation strategy and 

government policies. Other tasks of the steering committee include the approval of planning and 

reporting documents, including budget and financial aspects, special issues internally or 

externally affecting the projects, as well as exchange of information about recent developments 

in the fields of agriculture and market related policies. 

The steering committee is a platform for exchanges, looking for consensus and mutual 

agreement. However, final decisions regarding the strategic programme orientation, including 

the formal approval of annual reports and plans of operations, are vested with SDC. 

The steering committee will organise six-monthly meetings. From time to time, it will invite 

important stakeholders or key individuals for consultation. Common joint field visits of steering 

committee members can be organised during or besides the six-monthly meetings. 

Intercooperation will have the overall responsibility for financial and programmatic management, 

supervision and guidance. The Delegation of Intercooperation, based in Dhaka, provides 

thematic and strategic guidance, and encourages cooperation and coordination with other 

projects in the employment and income programme of SDC. It also has a role of backstopping 

and coaching, particularly towards the PSMU. It organises support from international 

consultants. 

7.3 Monitoring, evaluation and reporting 

The monitoring system will be developed on the basis of the indicators defined in the logical 

framework and it will focus on outcomes as well as on outputs. The monitoring of outcomes will 

be presented in a summary form in the annual reports, according to the requirements of SDC, 

while the monitoring of outputs will be included in the half yearly project reports. Both qualitative 

and quantitative aspects will be considered and analysed in the outcome and output monitoring. 

The monitoring system of the project will also consider the indicators of SDC’s cooperation 

strategy related to its income and employment thematic priority. 



The collection of data will be organised in such a way that it fulfils diverse requirements: that of 

a general livelihood and market development monitoring in the project areas, and specific 

requirements concerning project implementation as well as that of the SDC monitoring tool and 

cooperation strategy monitoring. Partner NGOs and for specific purposes local stakeholders will 

collect the data, while Samriddhi will cross-check data collected by partner NGOs or 

stakeholders in order to verify their validity. The compilation of the data and the analysis will be 

done again by Samriddhi. 

Besides the usual collection of monitoring quantitative and qualitative data, which will be 

disaggregated according to gender and poverty level, special studies will capitalise the 

experience of the project regarding its approaches, behavioural changes, institutional 

development, impacts on the context, etc. This will be particularly important in relation to the 

knowledge management. 

Monitoring and evaluation will be the responsibility of all programme staff and will be led by the 

PSMU. Backstopping for the improvement of the M&E system, as well as the knowledge 

management system, its operation and data analysis, will be provided by Intercooperation, while 

the PSMU will develop capacities at regional level for the implementation of the system. There 

will be an annual joint-assessment involving partners and stakeholders to determine the 

progress and adjustments that are required to be made. The monitoring results achieved by the 

project will be shared amongst partners, participants, public institutions and relevant 

stakeholders. 

An extended baseline survey for Samriddhi will be initiated at the end of the current phase of 

LEAF and SAAKTI in order to have the baseline information ready at the beginning of the 

phase. 

Existing monitoring tools like well-being and ill-being analysis, joint review of communities and 

partners, socio-economic observatory, specific exercises with communities and partners, 

experience capitalisation etc. will be continued to monitor the changes and impacts at the direct 

beneficiaries’ level within the geographical intervention areas of the project. Efforts will be made 

to simplify the tools and if required include new tools in order to make the system more efficient 

and effective. In addition, results measurement methods (e.g. result chain) will be introduced 

and applied to monitor the impacts at the beneficiaries’ level in relation to interventions in value 

chain and service provision, since their implications and coverage would not be limited only 

within the project’s intervention area. 

The project will produce six-monthly activity progress reports based on the reports from the 

partner organisations, stakeholders and project information system. The project will submit a 

half-yearly progress report and an annual report to SDC. The annual reports will be provided 

together with the respective Annual Plan of Operations (APOs). The annual reports will contain 

progress of both outputs and outcomes. A phase end-report will be submitted to SDC. Best 

practices and lessons learned related to leading change processes within state institutions will 

be capitalised and disseminated. 

An external evaluation will be conducted at the beginning of the third year of the project. A 

process of self-evaluation will take place before the external evaluation, and will be used as 

instrument for decision making. The self-evaluation and the external evaluation together form 

the mid-term review, which will provide inputs for necessary adjustments of the project during 



the remaining period of the phase and for preparing the phasing-out of the project. The mid-term 

review process will include the participation of stakeholders, project team, Intercooperation and 

SDC. 

The budget will be established following the calendar year. Financial reports will be provided on 

a six-monthly basis to SDC. Financial audit will continue on half-yearly basis in order to fulfil 

both SDC and NGO Affairs Bureau requirements. Moreover, the Delegation of Intercooperation 

will maintain a system of financial monitoring (internal audit) concerning the financial statements 

and budget. 

The detailed monitoring and reporting plan is attached in annex 6. 

8. Budget 

The total cost borne by SDC amounts to CHF 8.3 million. A summary of the budget (in CHF) is 

presented in Table 3. 

Table 3: 3 year budget (August 2010 to July 2013); 60 BDT = 1 CHF 

Part 1 

2010 2011 2012 2013 

Aug-Dec Jan-Dec Jan-Dec Jan-July 

Total 

Services 

Headquarters 17,140 21,010 18,710 22,360 79,220 

Part 2 Local Office 23,140 47,650 47,650 33,610 152,050 

Part 3 

Project 

Implementation 624,505 1,376,084 1,347,554 756,469 4,104,612 

Part 3a. Long-term experts 401,305 877,400 877,400 508,095 2,664,200 

Part 3b. Short-term experts 15,700 47,790 33,370 4,350 101,210 

Part 3c. Local support 207,500 450,894 436,784 244,024 1,339,202 

Part 4 

Administrated 

project funds 603,130 1,453,852 1,315,962 591,156 3,964,100 

Total Budget CHF 1,267,915 2,898,596 2,729,876 1,403,595 8,299,982 



9. Risk and mitigations measures 

Social and political stability in Bangladesh is fragile. The current elected government has been 

in power since January 2009 and has already come under pressure at different occasions. As 

time passes it is expected that pressure will mount on the current government and it has to be 

seen how it will handle this pressure. On the other hand, the present government has been 

elected with a large majority, and therefore, the political situation should remain stable for the 

time of its mandate. Bureaucracy, corruption and the lack of an appropriate policy framework 

linger and hinder development initiatives. It is however expected that policy dialogue with 

development partners should mitigate this risk, and that it should not affect the project’s 

interventions. 

The project depends to a large extent on the support it receives from government staff at 

National, District, Upazilla and Union level, especially regarding the development and 

introduction of new technologies as well as the regular updating of the local service providers. 

With the high turnover and the general resistance to decentralisation among civil servants there 

is a risk that the project will not get the required support from government officials. The project 

will mitigate this risk by remaining engaged with government officials at different levels by 

regularly meeting them and updating them on the project’s plans and progress. From earlier 

experience, the level of support and commitment of government servants is higher, when a MoU 

is signed between the project and the concerned ministry. Therefore, this strategy will be 

continued. 

The unwillingness of local government officials and their non-acceptance of community 

platforms as the voice of the population, especially on Union level, can negatively affect the 

ability of community platforms to advocate the interests of their constituency with local 

governments. This hampers the community platforms ability to include their development 

priorities into the local governance system and thus the project’s thrust for a more coordinated 

and better managed local socio-economic development. This risk will be mitigated on the one 

hand through the collaboration with Sharique, and, on the other, by strengthening the capacities 

of community platforms and establishing functional linkages with Union Parishad. 

Vested political interests, corruption, pressure by syndicates and low ethical standards of 

market actors hinder the progress and dynamism of community organisations and MSEs and 

cause price fluctuations and high transaction costs. The lack of commitment of the private 

sector to contribute to local development may cause less economic growth and influence the 

success of value chain and market development activities. The project will mitigate this risk by 

consequently analysing the market actors in terms of their capacities and incentives, and 

approach them with offers that contain a clear profit improvement for them and for the 

producers. It will also strengthen the capacities of CPs and MSEs so that they can claim they 

can equitably negotiate with market actors, facilitate linkages between actors, raise their 

awareness about the importance of win-win situations, and advocate for an enhanced corporate 

social responsibility of big value chain actors. 

The legal situation often proves to be a large hurdle to start, organise and improve economic 

activities at the community level. The current legislation hinders CBOs to use their own savings 

as seed money for loans to extreme poor to start their own economic activities. MSEs face 



problems in expanding their activities, e.g. when trying to get a legal registration. The project will 

mitigate this risk by transparently informing the community platforms and MSEs about the legal 

situation and building the capacity of local service providers to support MSEs to carry out the 

necessary steps for registration. 

Bangladesh is a disaster prone area with frequent floods and cyclones affecting the country. It is 

also at risk of being affected by earthquakes. The risk of large scale natural disasters is real and 

poses a threat to poverty alleviation. This risk will be tackled by the mainstreaming of DRR 

activities amongst the communities. 

It was always a goal of the projects to coordinate its activities with development partners. 

However, different mandates and agendas of the different development partners often lead to 

unwillingness to cooperate and may cause the discontinuation of alignment activities and 

synergies and thus stop any coordination efforts. This risk will be mitigated by the 

implementation of a coordination system and measures between relevant projects funded by 

SDC (e.g. AFIP, Sharique, Katalyst) and the establishment of policy dialogue with other 

concerned stakeholders. 



Annex 1: Logical Framework 

Narrative Summary Indicator Target MoV Assumptions 

Overall Goal: 

To contribute to sustainable well-being and 

resilience of poor and extreme poor 

households of Rajshahi Division and 

Sunamganj District through social and 

economic empowerment. 

Planned outcome 1: 

Market and value-chain development 

Poor and extreme poor men and women in 

the project intervention areas make use of 

improved employment and income 

generating opportunities facilitated through 

value-chain and enterprise development, 

and have sustainable access to quality 

services (information, skills, technology, 

etc.), both private and public. 

Output 1.1 

Product competitiveness at producer level is 

enhanced. 

Outreach (by poverty status and gender) 3 million Project reports 

Economic situation (by poverty status and gender) 

- income and assets 

- overall satisfaction (qualitative) 

Empowerment (by poverty status and gender) 

- participation in local decision making processes 

- overall satisfaction 

Control over resources by women 

Shock absorbing capacity of poor and extreme poor 

Number of direct and indirect beneficiary 

households of value chain activities (by poverty 

status and gender) 

Increase of physical assets and savings (by poverty 

status and gender) 

8 

450,000 direct 

60% PEP 

40% women 

VC database 

30% Sample survey 

Case studies 

Increase of income (by poverty status and gender) 50% Sample survey 

Level of satisfaction by men and women producers 

about usefulness, quality and availability of services 

and inputs 

Case studies 

80% Sample survey 

Case studies 

Increase in jobs created by MSEs 50% MSE survey 

Increase of quantity sold in the target market per 

product (by poverty status and gender of the 

producer) 

% gross margin increase at producer level (by 

poverty status and gender) 

30% Producer survey 

40% Producer survey 

% increase of buyers linked with MSEs 100% MSE survey 

• Political situation is 

stable 

• No major natural 

disaster happen 

• Policies and 

government 

strategies have to be 

favourable for pro 

poor development 

• Legislation is 

favourable for pro 

poor MSEs 

• Infrastructural 

facilities are 

favourable 

• Market environment 

is conducive 

• Political situation 

allows the market to 

work properly 

• Market situation 

remains stable 

• No sharp increase in 

inflation



Major lines of activities 

• Involve private companies to build the capacities of the producers in terms of product quality, value addition, etc. according to their needs and incentives. 

• Establish partnerships between private companies and research institutions for research on new or improved products and production technologies. 

• Collaborate with private companies, MSEs, and SPAs to promote new products to increase market demand. 

Output 1.2 

The value chain performance of specific 

sub-sectors is strengthened. 


Number of functional MSE networks established 250 MSE database 

% of turnover increase per value chain at outlet level 30% Value chain 

survey 

% increase of margin share of the producer in the 

respective value chain (by poverty status and 

gender) 

Cost of the value chain development activities 

shared by private companies 

10% points Value chain 

survey 

30% Agreements with 

private 

companies 

• Private companies 

are proactively 

participating in the 

value chain 

• Market situation 

remains stable 

• Build the capacity of appropriate chain actors (if possible involve lead firm) to optimise the chain performance in a way to reduce the transaction cost for all 

chain actors (vertical integration at market level). 

• In collaboration with private companies and SPAs, organise value addition (e.g. bulking, primary processing, and packaging) where economically feasible 

at the producer level (vertical integration at producer level). 

• Strengthen the collaboration in the value chain to improve organisation and governance through lobbying, awareness raising, etc. 

• In collaboration with private companies, MSEs and SPAs, organise producer networks to increase scale (horizontal integration at producers’ level). 

Output 1.3 

SPAs are capable to organise and support 

the LSPs and to establish collaboration with 

the public and private sector. 

% of male and female LSPs that are member of an 

SPA 

Number of functional linkages established between 

one SPA and public and private entities to develop 

the LSPs’ capacities and procure inputs 

% of women involved in decision making processes 

in SPAs. 

Level of satisfaction of LSPs with the services of the 

SPA 

80% for both 

women and 

men 

SPA database 

10 SPA database 

25% SPA database 

Survey LSPs 

80% Survey on LSPs 

• Public organisations 

are in a position to 

work together with 

SPA for their 

capacity building 

8




• Build capacity of SPA on organisational capacity: internal management (membership, inclusiveness, organisational structure, etc.) and external 

management (negotiation with line agencies, private companies, to organise capacity building and input contracts). 

• Work with public and private sector to improve the capacity of LSP (updating, specialisation, and diversification). 

Output 1.4 

Efficiency and coordination of service 

transactions between SPAs and their clients 

are improved. 


Number of service contracts established by one 

SPA with MSEs and private companies 

Number of poor and extreme poor men and women 

linked with LSPs 

Number of additionally covered unions per SPA 

outside project working area 

% increase in male and female LSPs’ income by 

selling services 


250,000 (50% 

women) 

CP survey 


50% Survey on LSPs 

• Good market 

potentials for MSEs 

• No sharp increase in 

inflation 

• Build capacity of SPA on business management, negotiation skills, service contract, etc. (selling of their services, negotiation and contracting with clients, 

business planning, etc.) 

• Support SPA to establish appropriate business models to work with extreme poor. 

• Equip the SPAs with tools and practices to better organise and promote the service market. 

Output 1.5 

The business management capacities and 

social responsibility of MSEs are 

strengthened. 


% of MSE that developed and implemented a 

business plan (by men and women led MSEs) 

% of poor and extreme poor men and women 

involved in MSEs 

- involvement as labour 

- involvement as entrepreneur 

% of MSE with women actively involved in decision 

making processes 

80% MSE database 

60% (80% as 

labour, 20% 

as 

entrepreneur) 

MSE database 

CP planning 

80% MSE database 

MSE survey 

• Market situation is 

favourable for rural 

MSE 

• Policy framework is 

favourable for rural 

MSE 

• Cultural environment 

enable women and 

minority groups to do 

business 

• Build entrepreneurial skills of women, poor, and extreme poor to participate in economic activities. 

• Capacity development of business management and social responsibility of MSEs (business planning, financial management, negotiation, legal 

framework, inclusion of poor, gender, etc.) 

8


Output 1.6 

Access to financial services for the MSEs 

improved. 


% of MSEs that could cover at least 50% of their 

finance requirements as per their business plan 

Level of satisfaction of MSEs with financial 

services. 

• Involve private sector to develop business model with MSEs for co-financing 

• Identify and establish collaboration with MFIs, bank, and CBOs to provide financial services to MSEs 

Planned outcome 2: 

Community organisation and governance 

Poor and extreme poor men and women in 

the project intervention areas define, 

manage, and lobby for their own 

development priorities and are able to secure 

access to a more enabling environment for 

their livelihood improvements. 

% of poor and extreme poor men and women of 

the community feel that the CP represents their 

development priorities 

% of development projects of the CP that were 

integrated in the UP plan 

% of poor and extreme poor women and men 

received services and resources from public and 

private sectors 

80% for both 

male and 

female 

headed MSEs 

MSE database 

80% MSE survey 

60% Community 

survey 

20% CP survey 

Case study 

50% Community 

survey 

% of women members of CPs are also members of 30% CP survey 

strategic bodies 7 

• Money for credit to or 

investment in rural 

MSE is available 

• Credit policy are 

favourable for 

financing rural 

businesses 

• Political situation 

favours community 

empowerment 

• UPs are enabled and 

take responsibility of 

local development 

taking into account 

the communities’ 

priorities 

% of CPs in vulnerable areas that have adopted 

prevention and preparedness measures against 

natural hazards taking into account special 

vulnerabilities of poor and extreme poor man and 

women 

100% CP survey 

7 UP, SC, UDMC, LTC 

9


Output 2.1 

Human and institutional capacities of the 

community platforms are built to represent 

and advocate for the interests of all 

segments of the community, giving special 

attention to poor and extreme poor, and 

minority groups. 


% of CP that develop and implement plans on their 

development priorities independently 

% of plans that include issues and priorities related 

to gender and poverty reduction 

% of CPs that raised local resources to implement 

their development plans 

70% CP survey 



• UPs and other 

government 

organisations 

recognise that the 

CPs represent the 

community interests 

• CPs are dynamic 

enough to lead the 

local development 

process, Local 

government bodies 

are cooperative and 

supportive 

• Organise organisational development and management training to CP members and sensitise the CPs regarding the rationale of the CP covering the 

whole community including poor, EP and most disadvantage groups 

• On job coaching and mentoring to the CP members in their planned activities and events 

• Mandate CFs to organise and build the capacity of new CPs within untouched wards. 

• Strengthen local capacity to address gender issues as well as inclusion of poor and extreme poor priorities in local planning. 

• Simplify local development planning process so that they are self-adoptable by the local people 

Output 2.2 

Coordination and exchange between 

community platforms and relevant 

development partners (UP, UDMC, LA, BMO, 

etc.) are strengthened. 


No. of joint initiatives by CPs and development 

partners per year 

% of CPs that are representing the community in at 

least two relevant committees and fora (UP-SC, 

LTC, UDMC, etc.) 

• Organise training on facilitation and negotiation skills of the CP members 

• Organise match making events between CP and the relevant local development actors 

2 CP survey 

60% CP survey 

• UPs and other 

government 

organisations 

recognise that the 

CPs represent the 

community interests 

10


Output 2.3 

Capacity and awareness of communities in 

disaster prone areas to tackle disaster risks 

improved. 


• Building capacity for local DRR planning 

• Raise awareness of communities on DRR 

• Support smart hardware interventions 

% of CPs that plan and implement DRR activities 

as part of their annual planning process 

% of women and men in the community that are 

aware of disaster risks and vulnerabilities in their 

local context 


80% for both 

women and 

men 

Community 

survey 

• Events are on a 

scale that can be 

handled by 

communities (no 

major disasters) 

• Relevant 

government 

organisations are 

responsive to the 

needs of the 

communities 

11

Samriddhi Project Document Phase 1 

Annexes 

Annex 2: Location maps 

The following maps will be presented in this annex: 

1. Bogra region Upazilla level map 

2. Bogra region Union level map 

3. Rajshahi region Upazilla level map 

4. Rajshahi region Union level map 

5. Rangpur region Upazilla level map 

6. Rangpur region Union level map 

7. Sunamganj region Upazilla level map 

8. Sunamganj region Union level map 


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Annexes 


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Annexes 


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Annexes 


Page L


Annexes 


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Annexes 


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Annexes 


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Annexes 

Annex 3: Detailed programme activities 

Outputs Activities Unit Target Aug-Dec 10 Jan-Dec 11 Jan-Dec 12 Jan-Jul 13 Responsibilities 

Output 1.1 

Product 

competitiveness 

at producer 

level is 

enhanced 

through quality 

increase, value 

addition, 

product 

diversification, 

product 

development, 

etc. 

Output 1.2 The 

value chain 

performance of 

specific subsectors 

is 

strengthened 

through vertical 

integration, 

Organise workshop, 

and coordination and 

exchange meeting 

with private 

companies 

Workshop/ meeting 279 ⇔ ⇔ ⇔ ⇔ 

Organise training for 

producers Batch 186 ⇔ ⇔ ⇔ ⇔ 

Organise 

demostration on 

technologies 

Develop IEC 

materials/training 

module on 

technology 

dissemination 

Establish agreement 

between private 

public secotr and 

MSE for product 

development 

Organise trade fair 

Conduct value chain 

assessment and 

design interventions 


market actors 

Demo 279 ⇔ ⇔ ⇔ ⇔ 

Material 33 ⇔ ⇔ ⇔ 

Agreement 33 ⇔ ⇔ ⇔ ⇔ 

Trade fair 174 ⇔ ⇔ ⇔ ⇔ 

Samriddhi, private 

sector, MSE network 








sector, NRI, MSE 

network 

Samriddhi, MSE 

network, private 

sector 

Value chain 11 ⇔ 


Batch 186 ⇔ ⇔ ⇔ ⇔ 

Samriddhi, Private 

company, 


Page LIV


Annexes 


horizontal 

integration, 

chain 

governance, 

market 

information, etc. 

Establish 

production/collection 

centre 

Coll/Prod centre 116 ⇔ ⇔ ⇔ 

Organise workshop/ 

meeting with MSE 

networks Workshop/ meeting 93 ⇔ ⇔ ⇔ ⇔ 

Private company, 

Samiddhi, MSE 

network 

MSE network, private 

sector, Samriddhi, 

SPA 

Output 1.3 

SPAs are 

capable to 

organise and 

support the 

LSPs and to 

establish 

collaboration 

with the public 

and private 

sector. 

Organise 

OD/HID/BP training 

for SPA-leaders Training 348 ⇔ ⇔ ⇔ ⇔ 

Organise exchange 

visit and 

demonstration, and 

development IEC 

materials. 


LSP by public and 

private sector 

Event 174 ⇔ ⇔ ⇔ 

Batch 522 ⇔ ⇔ ⇔ ⇔ 

PNGO, SPA, 


PNGO, SPA, 


sector 

Public sector ,Private 

sector, SPA, PNGO, 

Samriddhi, 

Output 1.4 

Efficiency and 

coordination of 

service 

transactions 

between SPA 


Publish module, 

technical materials, 

hand books, 

mannuals etc for 

LSPs. 

Organise match 

making workshop 

and experience 

sharing with public 

and private 

organisation. 

Organise business 

management 

training for SPA 

Topic 36 ⇔ ⇔ ⇔ 

Workshop 174 ⇔ ⇔ ⇔ ⇔ 

batch 116 ⇔ ⇔ ⇔ 

Public sector, private 

sector, Samriddhi, 

SPA, PNGO 

SPA, PNGO, 


sector 


sector, SPA, PNGO 

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Annexes 


and their clients 

improved. 

Output 1.5 The 

business 

management 

capacities and 

social 

responsibility of 

MSEs 

strengthened. 

Organise 

entrpreneurrial skill 

development training 

for MSEs 

MSE 2,000 ⇔ ⇔ ⇔ ⇔ 

Samriddhi, SPA, 

MSE 

Output 1.6 

Access to 

financial 

services for the 

MSEs 

improved. 

Output 2.1 

Human and 

institutional 

capacities of 

the CPs built to 

represent and 

advocate for 

the interests of 

all segments of 

the community, 

giving special 

attention to 

poor and 

extreme poor, 

and minority 

groups. 

Organise workshop 

with private sector 

and micro finance 

institutes. 

Upazilla 58 ⇔ ⇔ ⇔ ⇔ 

Samriddhi, MFI, 

private sector, MSE, 


CP leaders on OD. CP Leader 8,000 ⇔ ⇔ ⇔ PNGO, CP 

Establish mandate 

with CFs and 

facilitate community 

development of 

neighbouring 

wards/unions by the 

CFs 

Organise facilitation 

skill development 

training for CF on 

community planning 

process 


FM to address 

gender issues 

UP-ward 655 ⇔ ⇔ ⇔ ⇔ 

PNGO, CP 

CF 4,000 ⇔ ⇔ ⇔ 

PNGO, CP 

FM 4,000 ⇔ ⇔ ⇔ 

PNGO, CP 


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Annexes 


Output 2.2 

Coordination 

and exchange 

between CPs 

and relevant 

development 

partners (UP, 

UDMC, LA, 

BMO, etc.) 

strengthened 

Output 2.3 

Capacity and 

awareness of 

communities in 

disaster prone 

areas to tackle 

disaster risks 

improved. 

Organise negotiation 

skill development 

training for CP 

leaders. 

CP Leader 8,000 ⇔ ⇔ ⇔ 

PNGO, CP 

Organise match 

making events with 

UP UP 211 ⇔ ⇔ ⇔ 

PNGO, CP, UP 

Organise awarness 

raising campaign on 

DRR and CC 


CP leaders on 

disaster 

preparedness. 

Union 211 ⇔ ⇔ ⇔ ⇔ 

PNGO, CP, UDMC 

CP 2,000 ⇔ ⇔ ⇔ ⇔ 

CP, UDMC, PNGO 

Project's 

results, 

knowledge and 

experience 

shared and 

disseminated 

Tools and 

guidelines (in 

line with 

institutional 

aspect) 

developed and 

simplefied. 

Publish "Shekor" on 

quarterly basis 

Publish experience 

capitalisation 

documents 

Share and 

disseminate project's 

results, knowledge 

and experience 

through print and 

electronic media, 

and websites 

Develop a simple 

planning and 

reviewing tools that 

can be practiced by 

the communities 

without external 

support 

Issue 12 ⇔ ⇔ ⇔ ⇔ 

Topic 7 ⇔ ⇔ ⇔ 

Topic 7 ⇔ ⇔ ⇔ 

Samriddhi, AFIP, 

SHARIQUE 


sector 


sector 

Tool 6 ⇔ ⇔ ⇔ 

Samriddhi, PNGO 


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Annexes 


Capacity 

building of 

project and 

PNGO staff in 

line with new 

approaches 

and strategies 

Coordination 

and exchange 

strengthened 

Project's results 

monitored, 

Organise trainingworkshops 

and 

exchange visits for 

the PNGO staff on 

new dimensions of 

the project 

Provide 

accompaniment 

support to the PNGO 

staffs to make them 

capable of dealing 

with the new 

challenges 

Organise trainingworkshop 

and 

exchange visit for 

the project staff on 

new approaches and 

strategies 

Organise 

coordination 

meetings with 

government, nongovernment 

and 


organisations 

Organise experience 

sharing events with 

government, nongovernment 

and 


organisations 

Organise 

coordination 

meetings with IC's 

other projects 

Conduct baseline 

survey 

Staff 140 ⇔ ⇔ 

Samriddhi, PNGO 

Staff 140 ⇔ ⇔ ⇔ ⇔ Samriddhi 

Staff 24 ⇔ ⇔ ⇔ Samriddhi 

Org. 60 ⇔ ⇔ ⇔ ⇔ Samriddhi 

Event 12 ⇔ ⇔ ⇔ Samriddhi 

Meeting 6 ⇔ ⇔ ⇔ ⇔ Samriddhi 

Survey 1 ⇔ Samriddhi 


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Annexes 


evaluated and 

reported 

Finance 

management 

system 

established 

Develop M& E tools 

and guidelines in line 

with the new log 

frame 

Collect, process and 

analyse M &E data 

Prepare annual 

report 

Accompany mid 

term review 

Prepare annual 

budget 

Prepare financial 

statements and 

reports 

Conduct internal 

audit 

Assist external audit 

Tool 

Need 

based ⇔ Samriddhi 

Time 4 ⇔ ⇔ ⇔ ⇔ Samriddhi 

Report 4 ⇔ ⇔ ⇔ ⇔ Samriddhi, PNGO 

Time 1 ⇔ Samriddhi 


Reort 12 ⇔ ⇔ ⇔ ⇔ Samriddhi, PNGO 




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Annexes 

Annex 4: Institutional analysis 

a. Core system 

Function Who does Who pays Who will do Who will pay 

Core 

Value chain analysis Project Project Lead firm Lead firm/other VC actors 

Value chain upgrading 

Value chain coordination 

Project, lead firm, other 

VC actors 


VC actors 


VC actors 


VC actors 

Supporting Functions 

Lead firm, other VC 

actors 


actors 

BDS (ME, BP) LSP, MM Project, MSEs LSP MSE 

Financial services MFI, CBOs Individual producer, 

MSEs 

Market information 

MSE formation 

Product development/R&D 

Quality promotion (products) 

Technical services 

MSE, LSP, MM, private 

companies 

Project, CBO, self 

formation, MFI 

Public institutions, 

private companies (as 

embedded service and 

as service provider), 

MSE 

Project, MSE, private 

companies (buyers, 

embedded) 

LSP, private companies, 

public institutions 


companies 

Project, MSE 

Project, public 

institutions, private 

companies (if embedded 

service), MSE 

Project, private 


embedded) 

Project, MSE, individual 

producers, public 


companies (embedded) 

MFI, CBOs 

MSE, LSP, MM, private 

companies 

CP, CBO, self formation, 

MFI, private companies 

Public institutions, private 

companies (as embedded 

service and as service 

provider), MSE 

MSE, private companies 

(buyers, embedded), LSP 




actors 


actors 

Individual producer, 

MSEs 

MSE, individual producer, 

private companies 


Public institutions, private 

companies (if embedded 

service), MSE 


(buyers, embedded) 

MSE, individual 





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Exploitation of CSR 

opportunities 

DRR PIM 

Human and Institutional Capacities 

- - CP, MSE Private companies 

CP (community), 

UDRRC, UP/UDMC, 

project 

Project, CP 

(community), UP 

PGA PIM Project, CP/CBO Project (planning), 

CBO/CP (planning, 

implementation) 

Community development 

PIM 

Representation of various 

segments of the community 

at LG 

Local resource mobilisation 

for social and economic 

activities 

Inclusion of PEP/DAG 

(social, economic, safety 

net, etc.) 

Organisation of common 

events at community level 

(awareness raising and 

information exchange) 

Coordination/promotion of 

exchanges between local 

development initiatives 

Setting standards and 

certification 

CBO/CP, project 

Project (planning), 

CBO/CP (planning, 

implementation) 

CP, UP/UDMC 

CP, UP/GSC 

CP, UP (implementation) 

CP, UP/UDMC 

CP, UP 

CP, UP 

CP, project Project, CP, UP CP CP, UP 

CBO, CP, project, UP, 

MSE 

CBO, CP, project, MSE, 

UP 

CBO, CP, project, UP, 

MSE 

CBO, CP, UP, MSE 

CBO, CP, UP, MSE 

CBO, project, MSE, UP CP, CBO, MSE, UP CP, CBO, MSE, UP 

CP, project, LA, UP CP, project, LA, UP CP, UP, LA CP, UP, LA 

Project, CP, CBO Project, CP, CBO CP, UP CP, UP 

Authorised public 

agencies (mainly input 

side) 

Private companies 

Enabling Environment 

Authorised public and 

private agencies 

Private companies, MSE 


Page LXI


Annexes 


Formal registration of 

MSE/SPA 

BSCIC, Commerce 

Ministry 

MSE, SPA 

BSCIC, Commerce 

Ministry 

Acquiring trade license UP, municipality MSE UP, municipality MSE 

Formal registration of CBOs 

Taxing (trade tax, product 

tax) 

Minimising social exclusion 

of ethnic minority groups 

Minimising discrimination of 

women 

Protecting rights and 

entitlements to access 

resource and services 

DoSW, DoWA, DYD, 

DoC 

CBO 

DoSW, DoWA, DYD, 

DoC 

UP, municipality MSE UP, municipality MSE 

MSE, SPA 

CP, CBO, project CBO, project CP, UP, CBO CP, UP, CBO 

CP, CBO, project CBO, project CP, UP, CBO CP, UP, CBO 

Project, CP, UP Project, CP, UP CP, UP CP, UP 

CBO 

b. Service market 


Coordination between service 

providers and MSE/CBO 

(IGA) 

Coordination between service 

providers and private 

companies for input 

procurement 

Promotion and expansion of 

service market 

BDS (ME, BP, VC analysis, 

market linkage) 

Core 

MSE, CP, SPA, project Project, CP, SPA, MSE SPA, MSE MSE 

Project, SPA, private 

companies 


companies 

SPA, private 

companies 

SPA, Project Project, SPA SPA SPA 

private companies 

Project, LSP, MM Project, MSEs LSP, SPA MSE, private 

companies 

Market information MSE, LSP, MM, private Project, MSE, private SPA, private MSE, individual 


Page LXII


Annexes 


MSE formation (for 

inclusion/scale up) 

Quality promotion (products) 

Technical services (service 

contact, embedded, …) 

Capacity building on BDS 

(BP, BM, finance mgt, Market 

Info mgt, VC analysis) 

Capacity building on technical 

know-how 

Quality promotion (inputs) 

Quality promotion (services) 

companies companies companies producer, private 

companies 

Project, CBO, self 

formation, MFI 



embedded) 




companies 


companies, public 

institutions (RRP) 

Private companies (input 

supplier), public 

institutions, 

Project, Private 


institutions, SPA 

Project, MSE 



embedded) 

Project, MSE, individual 




Supporting Functions 

SPA, private 

companies 

LSP/SPA 

LSP/SPA 

Project Private Sector SPA 


companies 

Project, Private 


institutions 

Private companies, 

SPA, project 

private companies, 



(input supplier), SPA 


public institutions, SPA 

MSE, private 

companies, MFI 

MSE, private 


embedded) 

MSE, individual 




SPA, private 

companies 



public institutions, SPA 

Representation/protection of 

the interest of LSPs 

Linkage development, 

negotiation… 

Internal organisation 

(membership, income, fund 


Human and Institutional Capacities 

Project, SPA Project, SPA SPA SPA 



Page LXIII


Annexes 


mgt, service centre) 

Coordination/promotion of 

exchanges between service 

stakeholders 

Project, SPA, LSP Project, SPA SPA SPA 

Setting standards and 

certification/recognition of 

services 

Formal registration/licence of 

SPA 

Project, public agencies 

and private sectors 

Project ,Private 

companies, 

Enabling Environment 

Public agencies and 


Public agencies and 


Commerce Ministry SPA Commerce Ministry MSE, SPA 

Taxing (trade tax, income tax) - - Tax authority LSP,SPA 

Minimising economical 

exclusion of extreme poor, 

women ethnic minority groups 

Protecting rights and 

entitlements to access 

resource and services 

Project, SPA, CP Project, SPA SPA, CP, MSE SPA, MSE 

Project, SPA Project, SPA SPA 


Page LXIV


Annexes 

Annex 5: Organisational set-up of the project 

- Donor Agencies 

- Key individuals 

SDC 

Steering and controlling 

- Strategic steering 

- Relevance with CP and 

other initiatives 

- Overall supervision 

Steering 

- Strategic orientation 

- Monitoring (general, relevance, 

harmonisation) 

- Information sharing 

- Approval of planning / reporting 

Steering committee 

IC 

Supervision and overall management 

- Guidance 

- Strategic support 

- Backstopping 

- Networking and liaison 

- Selected advisory inputs 

Project 

Management & 

Support Unit 

Coordination 

- Overall coordination 

- Administrative / financial management 

- Planning, M&E, Reporting 

- Representation, networking, advocacy 

- Conceptual and methodological support 

- Knowledge management 

Implementation 

Regional Unit 

Rajshahi 

Regional Unit 

Bogra 

Regional Unit 

Rangpur 

Regional Unit 

Sunamganj 

- Manage regional & local partners and 

service providers 

- Regional representation, networking 

- Capacity building, thematic support 

- Regional planning, monitoring and 

reporting 

Legend of arrows 

Project support flow 

Participation in steering committee 

Information sharing 


Page LXV


Annexes 

Annex 6: Monitoring and reporting plan 

Task 

Review existing M&E system 

and tools 

Adjustment and finalisation of 

the M&E system 

Design baseline survey method 

and tools and plan 

Organise baseline survey ↔ ↔ 

Share revised M&E system with 

partners and stakeholders 

↔ 

Share baseline survey report 

with SDC and other 

↔ 

stakeholders 

Simplification, adjustment and 

development (if require) of M&E 

tools 

↔ ↔ 

Capacity building of project 

staff, partners and stakeholders 

on M&E system and tools 

2010 2011 2012 2013 

Q-1 Q-2 Q-3 Q-4 Q-5 Q-6 Q-7 Q-8 Q-9 Q-10 Q-11 Q-12 Q-13 

↔ 

↔ 

↔ 

↔ 

↔ ↔ ↔ 

Half yearly activity monitoring ↔ ↔ ↔ ↔ ↔ ↔ 

Outcome and output monitoring 

exercises and analysis of 

↔ ↔ ↔ ↔ 

progress 

Result measurement of value 

chains and service provision 

↔ ↔ ↔ ↔ 

interventions 

Self evaluation by Community 

Platforms 

↔ ↔ ↔ ↔ 

Annual joint review with 

partners and stakeholders ↔ ↔ ↔ ↔ 


Page LXVI


Annexes 

Develop Annual Report and 

share with SDC and partners 

and stakeholders 

2010 2011 2012 2013 

↔ ↔ ↔ 

Develop Annual Plan of 

Operation (APO) and share with 

SDC and partners and 

↔ ↔ ↔ 

stakeholders 

Organise specific studies and 

share report with partners and 

↔ ↔ ↔ 

stakeholders 

Develop capitalisation of 

experience documents and 

shared with SDC, partners and 

↔ ↔ 

stakeholders 

Financial monitoring IC 

delegation office ↔ ↔ ↔ ↔ ↔ ↔ 

Half yearly external financial 

audit (project) 

Annual external financial audit 

(partner) 

Half yearly financial report to 

SDC 

Self evaluation by project 

External evaluation 

Phase end report 

↔ ↔ ↔ ↔ ↔ 

↔ ↔ ↔ 

↔ ↔ ↔ ↔ ↔ 

↔ 

↔ 

↔ 


Page LXVII


Annexes 

Annex 7: Value chain selection, analysis, and ranking 

a. Selected value chains for each region 

Value chain 

Current situation of pre-selected VCs 

Rajshahi Bogra Rangpur Sunamganj 

Medicinal plants New Ongoing 

(2007) 

Not 

considered 

Fish New New Not 

considered 

Vegetables 

Fruit 

Phasing out 

(2005) 

Ongoing 

(2009) 

Ongoing 

(2009) 

Ongoing 

(2009) 

Overall 

strategy 

Main potentials 

New Scaling up Inclusiveness of P&EP is high, profitability limited 

but potential to increase value addition at 

producer level introducing through processing is 

high, demand is high, potential to reach scale is 

high. 

Ongoing 

(2007) 

New New Not 

considered 

Scaling up 

Internal capacity is medium, partnership with big 

market actors (e.g. Square, ACME) is established. 

For Sunamgonj: Main livelihoods, potential to 

improve value addition at producer level through 

drying at local level is high, inclusiveness of P&EP 

is high (open water), potential to reach scale is 

high. 

For Rajshahi and Bogra: Demand is high, scope 

to increase chain performance is high. 

Internal capacity is medium. 

New Scaling up Potential to reach scale is high (almost all HHs 

involved), market actors are available, demand is 

high, inclusiveness of EP is medium (field) to high 

(homestead). 

Scaling up 

Internal capacity is high. LSPs are developed and 

MoU with DAE/BARI is established. 

Potential to reach scale is high (papaya, jujube), 

value addition potential is high, scope to increase 

the chain performance is high, demand is high, 


Page LXVIII


Annexes 

Milk 

Poultry 

Not 

considered 

Chicken 

New 

Ongoing 

(2007) 

Chicken 

New 

Beef New Not 

considered 

Goat New Not 

considered 

Cotton Crafts 

Ongoing 

(2009) 

Ongoing 

(2009) 

Ongoing 

(2009) 

Chicken 

New 

Not 

considered 

New 

Ongoing 

(2009) 

Not 

considered 

Duck 

Ongoing 

(2009) 

Scaling up 

VC analysis 

(chicken) 

and 

consolidatio 

n (duck) 

inclusiveness of EP is limited. 

Internal capacity is high. LSPs are developed and 

MoU with DAE/BARI is established. 

Potential to reach scale is high, demand is high, 

potential to improve chain performance is high. 

Inclusiveness of EP limited. 

Internal capacity medium, LSP and MoU with 

DLS/BLRI. 

Inclusiveness of P&EP is high, women’s 

involvement is high, (backyard poultry), potential 

to reach scale is high (almost all HHs involved), 

both public/private service (technical) service 

available. 

Experience in IGA and MSE is good, LSPs are 

developed and MoU with DLS/BLRI is 

established. 

New VC analysis Profit margin is high, potential to create asset is 

high, demand is high, public and private service 

(technical) services are available, inclusiveness of 

EP is limited. 

Not 

considered 

Not 

considered 

VC analysis 

VC analysis 

Experience in MSE is high, LSPs are developed 

and MoU with DLS/BLRI is established. 

Inclusiveness of P&EP is high, potential to create 

asset is high, demand is high, public and private 

service (technical) are available. 

Experience in IGA is good, LSPs are developed 

and MoU with DLS/BLRI is established. 


involvement is high, potential for value addition is 

high. 

Experience is medium, partnership with traders 

and retailers established. 


Page LXIX


Annexes 

Jute Crafts New New Not 

considered 

Not 

considered 

VC analysis 


involvement is high, potential for value addition is 

high. 

Experience is medium, partnership with traders 

and retailers established. 

Plant crafts New New New New VC analysis Inclusiveness of P&EP is high, women’s 

involvement high, potential for value addition is 

high. 

Spices 

Not 

considered 

Not 

considered 

Phasing out 

Total per region 9 9 7 6 

Not 

considered 

Phasing out 

Experience is medium 

Very limited potential for scaling-up. 


Page LXX


Annexes 

b. Rational for value chain selection 

All existing value chains have been ranked following twelve criteria in order to assess 

their poverty orientation. Additionally, every region selected new value chains according 

to the same criteria. In an iterative process, the eleven most poverty relevant value 

chains have been selected for project interventions. The rationale for selecting these 

specific value chains is described below. 

Medicinal plants 

The project will scale up med plant value chain in Samriddhi. As a part of this process, 

interventions will be expanded to Rajshahi and Sunamganj. The interventions already 

going on in Bogra will be consolidated. There is a huge demand for medicinal plants in 

Bangladesh; at the moment, the largest part of the medicinal plants is imported from 

India. In this value chain, the inclusiveness of poor and extreme poor is very high due to 

the fact that the plants can be grown by the poor and extreme poor using less fertile and 

fellow land like for instance roadsides. Furthermore, there is a large potential to increase 

profitability through adopting small scale processing at producer level. SAAKTI has 

already been working with large private companies like Square and ACME for training 

the producers and organising the supply chain. 

The project developed an inception report of the medicinal plant value chain through 

conducting a value chain assessment. As the inception report is mostly based on the 

findings of Bogra region, a further assessment will be done in both Rajshahi and 

Sunamganj regions, at the same time updating the information on the national market. 

Fish 

Based on the first experiences in Sunamganj, the project will scale up the interventions 

in the fish value chain and include also pond fish culture in Bogra and Rajshahi. Aside 

from this, the project will consolidate the activities in Sunamganj. As the main livelihood 

strategy of poor and extreme poor in Sunamganj there is a huge potential to reach 

critical mass in terms of inclusion of poor and extreme poor. On the other hand, the 

demand both in Bogra and Rajshahi is high and the potential to include poor and 

extreme poor in pond fish culture through investments by the community or CBOs is very 

promising. 

Although the project has developed an inception report conducting assessment for 

Sunamganj, more information on the specificities of the pond fish value chain as well as 

on the general incentive structure among the value chain actors is needed and will be 

collected while in an in depth assessment. 

Vegetables 

The project will phase out vegetable value chain in Rajshahi as the system has reached 

a point where it can function successfully without the involvement of the project. The 

project has started implementing vegetables value chain in Bogra and Rangpur regions 


Page LXXI


Annexes 

in 2009 and as there is big potential to reach a high number of beneficiaries, Samriddhi 

will continue and consolidate the activities in Bogra and Rangpur. 

The project will conduct an assessment in both Bogra and Rangpur regions following 

road map outlined below. 

Fruit 

Apart from consolidation of fruit value chain in Rajshahi, the project will expand it in both 

Bogra and Rangpur regions. High potential to reach critical mass, add value, scope to 

increase chain performance, good level of collaboration with BARI and DAE, developed 

LSPs etc. are the justifications of expanding fruit value chain in Bogra and Rangpur 

regions. In Sunamganj, the demand for vegetables is generally high, while the 

production is low due to the limited availability of land, mainly during the rainy season. 

Intercooperation has introduced a variety of innovative approach that enable mainly the 

poor and extreme poor to grow vegetables on their homestead land or by using floating 

vegetable beds. To further support those small scale producers, Samriddhi will assess 

the possibility to improve the performance of the vegetable value chain in Sunamganj. 

Based on the lessons learned from Rajshahi, an assessment of the yet untapped 

potentials of the vegetable sectors in Bogra and Rangpur will be done. At the same time, 

an in depth analysis of the vegetable value chain in Sunamganj will give the basis to 

analyse the potential of value chain intervention in this region. 

Milk 

The project will consolidate achievements of its activities in the milk value chain in both 

Bogra and Rangpur. The milk sector shows a significant contribution to the livelihoods of 

poor, high demand, and a huge potential to improve the chain performance, especially 

when working together with large processing companies. A certain critical mass of 

produce has to be guaranteed in order to convince private companies to invest in cooling 

infrastructure. SAAKTI could already establish partnership with large processing 

companies as well as DLS and BLRI for technical support. 

As the project has conducted at least three assessments covering both formal and 

informal sectors, the intervention design will depend mostly on those reports. 

Poultry 

Due to high potential in terms of inclusiveness of poor and extreme poor, the project will 

start promoting backyard poultry, particularly chicken, value chain in all three regions of 

Rajshahi division while consolidating the activities in the duck value chain in Sunamganj. 

Due to the low requirement of space, also poor and extreme poor can engage in poultry 

production. Since the birds are kept on the homestead, especially women are actively 

involved. Regarding the production of duck, it is highly suitable for Sunamganj, since the 

birds don’t need to be kept on the homestead for the whole time but can swim in the 

flooded haor. Thus, poultry has great potential to contribute on livelihoods of the poor 

and extreme poor. 


Page LXXII


Annexes 

The project will conduct an in depth assessment in all three regions of Rajshahi division 

while the using the existing inception report for Sunamganj region. 

Beef 

LEAF and SAAKTI have been very successful in supporting beef fattening activities as 

income generating activities, especially through MSE development and by building the 

capacity of livestock LSPs. Based on these experiences, Samriddhi will initiate beef 

value chain interventions both in Rajshahi and Sunamganj, considering its high 

profitability, high demand, and the availability of public and private services for the 

producers. Since it is a rather short term activity (3-6 months), it has a high potential for 

service contracting on a profit sharing basis, where service providers provide 

investments, inputs and services, and poor or extreme poor households provide their 

labour for fattening the animals. 

The project will conduct an in depth assessment of the value chain. 

Goat 

Similar to the beef fattening, LEAF and SAAKTI gained experiences in the production of 

goat. The project will develop the goat value chain in Rajshahi and Rangpur considering 

its high potential for inclusiveness of poor and extreme poor, high profitability, and 

availability of public and private services. 


Cotton Crafts 

The project has started implementing cotton crafts value chain in all three regions of 

Rajshahi Division in 2009 and subsequently gained considerable experiences in working 

with different kinds of traders and private companies. It has high potential for 

inclusiveness of poor and extreme poor since most often the inputs are provided by the 

traders or private companies and the work can be done at home. There is an especially 

high scope for women to engage in the production of cotton crafts. 

The project will conduct an in depth assessment with the objective to better understand 

the very disorganised market and identify the incentive structure of the value chain with 

the goal to establish long term sustainable and fair relations between the producers and 

the buyers. 

Jute Crafts 

Due to its work in MSE promotion, LEAF has worked with many producer groups 

producing jute products like bags, floor mats or value added jute fabrics for further 

processing. Taking in to consideration of high inclusiveness of the value chain for poor, 

extreme poor and also women as well as the high potential to increase the value 

addition through improved quality production, Samriddhi will initiate jute craft value chain 

development in Bogra and Rajshahi. 

As part of the promotion of jute crafts value chain, the project will conduct an 

assessment of the existing chain. 


Page LXXIII


Annexes 

Plant crafts 

Due to the low cost of raw material, the plant craft value chain has a high potential to 

include poor and extreme poor, especially women. Furthermore, there is a high potential 

of value addition at producers’ level. The project has good level of experience in the 

promotion of MSEs on plant crafts (i.e. bamboo products) and established linkages with 

private companies, including exporters. 


c. Plan and road map for VC analysis 

Part of the promotion of value chain, the project will conduct a value chain analysis for 

most of the value chains following the road map outlined below. 

The following aspects will be looked at: 

1. Current structure and characteristics of the market 

a. Map and characterisation of value chain actors, especially lead 

organisations including their capacities 

b. Characteristic and typology of producers involved in the production 

(poverty status, gender balance, etc.) 

c. Current level of capacities of producers (individual, group, MSE) 

d. Current margin structure on different levels of the value chain 

e. Motivation/incentives of key actors to invest in value chain development 

f. Framework condition and policy environment 

g. Analysis of risks and conflicts 

h. Potential for income and employment creation 

2. Technical characteristics of the production and potential for value addition 

a. Potential of production 

b. Technologies used 

c. Potential to generate added value at producer level 

3. Market potential 

a. Demand potential 

b. Characteristic of demand (price, quality, volume, seasonality) 

c. Characteristic of the offer (price, quality, volume, seasonality) 

d. Competition 

4. Systemic constraints and feasibility for project interventions 

a. Systemic constraints in the value chain, focusing on causes 


Page LXXIV


Annexes 

b. Feasibility of changes induced by project interventions 

c. Quantification of offers to value chain actors (preliminary budget) 

Following table contains the road map of the value chains analyses: 

Major steps 

Preliminary Timing 

Review existing inception reports as well as 

secondary information 

June 2010 

Design and finalise assessment tools June-July 2010 

Orientation of staff members about the 

assessment 

July 2010 

Conduct assessment July-August 2010 

Analyse assessment findings and prepare 

analysis reports 

September 2010 

Design strategies and intervention September 2010 

Develop APO October 2010 

d. Description of VC ranking 

The objectives of this Value Chain (VC) ranking exercise were to – 

- assess the performance of each value chain with an Extreme Poor (EP) focus, 

i.e. how much each VC contributes to the livelihoods of extreme poor 

- set the next course of action in developing value chains 

Methodology 

For the VC ranking exercise one tool was developed by a team at PSMU. A field test 

with one value chain was carried out and the results used to make adjustments. The tool 

was shared with all regional colleagues and, through a workshop all feedback and 

comments were collected and the tool further adjusted. 

The tool consists of two parts, one being the VC Performance Sheet and the other the 

Ranking sheet. 

Performance sheet 

This consists of 12 criteria which include a number of indicators through which 

performance of each VC was evaluated. Specific indicators were rated with the 

achievements or progress obtained in 2007, 2008 and 2009. For qualitative information, 

ratings were calculated on a scale of 1 to 5 (where 1 has the lowest significance and 5 is 

the highest significance). 


Page LXXV


Annexes 

Ranking Sheet 

All qualitative and quantitative information gathered from the performance sheet was 

rated and transformed into the ranking sheet and each criterion across the value chain 

was multiplied with a weighting value. 

Weighting was fixed with respect to EP focus, where 1 is minimum; 1.5 is moderate and 

2 is maximum. The total score for each VC then could be calculated as being (rating 

score for each VC) X (fixed Weight for each criteria). 

Limitations 

All value chains are not equally mature. Due to time constraints all data was not 

available for all value chains. Furthermore, there is a regional variation with respect to 

livelihoods context, infrastructure, nature of chain actors etc. Therefore, it is not wise to 

make any concrete comparison to each other value chain. Rather, this exercise has 

given a good reflection on the compliance of value chain towards inclusiveness of 

extreme poor. 

Conclusion 

The ranking tool was not only measuring the performance of value chain, it was 

recognised by all as a learning tool to have more insight about the inclusiveness of 

extreme poor. Through this exercise everybody has realised where to give more focus if 

we want make the value chain more responsive to poor and extreme poor 


Page LXXVI


Sl. 

No 

Criteria 

1 Coverage by no of households (HH) 

involved catagorically in this value chain 

2 Geographical concentration of VC 

activities (weight of critical mass) 

3 Job or employment opportunities created 

in VC activities like in production, 

processing and marketing of VC 

products; and also consider seasonality 

Weight 

Annexes 

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 

Milk Medplant Spices Fish Fruit Duck Vegetable Vegetable Handicraft Handicraft Handicraft 

BRO ROR RRO BRO ROR 

Vegetable 

RRO 

Ranking exercise of VC 

2 7.67 6.33 6.33 3.67 5.33 5.00 6.67 5 4.67 6 6.33 6.67 5.33 

1.5 5.25 2.63 2.63 2.25 2.25 3.75 1.88 3.75 1.88 3.38 3.75 1.5 1.5 

2 5.5 5.2 7.9 5.6 5.07 5 8 5.6 4.8 7.07 8.4 8.4 7.1 

Handicraft 

SRO 

4 Growth trend of the VC product 2 4.75 5.63 8.5 7 4.00 6.25 7.5 3 4.5 7.83 5.5 5.75 4.5 

5 Market linkages for sale of produces (% 

of volume by market) 

6 Private sector involvement in the 

respective VC and their trend and 

outreach 

2 8 2 10 4 2 4 2 4 2 10 4 4 6 

1.5 5.1 6.3 5.4 5.4 3.9 3.9 6.6 4.2 5.4 7.2 4.5 5.1 3.3 

7 Profitability of the VC at producer level 2 6 6 6.5 4 6.5 4 6.5 6.5 3 6.5 7 4.5 8 

8 Availability of BDS for technical 

backstopping, infrastructure, safety-net, 

synergy potentials, etc. 

9 Scope of intervention by the project for 

value addition and innovation 

10 Inclusiveness of the VC regarding EP and 

difficulties faced by EP 

11 Investment perspective and scope for 

access to finance 

1 3.05 3.1 2.2 3 1.67 2.1 3.2 2.8 2.7 2 2.5 2.4 1.1 

1 3.75 3.17 3.5 3.13 3.92 4.5 3.75 2.25 3 4.17 3.88 3.5 2.5 

2 6.00 5.08 7.67 6.17 5.67 6.67 7.67 6.33 5.67 7.67 6.33 9.67 5.75 

2 6.8 2.8 4.4 4.4 7.2 6.4 9.2 7.6 1.6 3.2 6.8 6.4 6.8 

12 Market reflection – potential or 

1 4.13 2.63 4.5 3 2.83 3.5 3 2.5 3.25 3.83 3.75 4.44 2.25 

commitment given by big traders, 

processors 

Total Scores 65.99 50.86 69.53 51.61 50.33 55.07 65.96 53.53 42.46 68.84 62.74 62.32 54.13 


Page LXXVII


Annexes 

e. Selection of new value chain by regions 

Objective 

The objective of this selection exercise was to identify a number of value chain by region and 

prioritise those value chain in accordance to the inclusiveness of poor and extreme poor. 

Methodologies 

The old VC selection matrix was reviewed and adjusted to bring make it consistent with the VC 

ranking tool. In a workshop, all regional staff was implementing the tool. After adjusting the tool 

following specific feedback, it was finalised and send back to each region for carrying out the 

selection process in regional team. Regional team made the exercise with all concerned and 

finalised the selection of new value chain for the respective region. 

In the regional team candidate VC were selected on the baseis of their regional context and 

livelihoods. It should be noted that two major area was considered for selecting candidate value 

chain. One is on-farm activities and another is off-farm activities. 

Result 

Each region came up prioritised selected value chain by using the VC selection tool. The result 

is as follows - 

Ranking 

grade 

RRO BRO ROR SRO 

R-1 Poultry Cotton craft Poultry Boro rice 

R-2 Cotton craft Poultry Rice Cattle 

R-3 Goat Rearing Fish Fruit Sheep 

R-4 Beef Fattening Beef Fattening Goat Rearing Plant craft 

R-5 Fish Jute craft Beef Fattening Poultry 

R-6 Plant craft Plant craft Cotton craft Cotton craft 

R-7 Jute craft Wood craft Plant craft 

R-8 Wood craft 

It is observed that poultry got importance in all region, followed by cotton craft, plant craft, goat 

rearing, beef fattening etc. Sheep is chosen in Sunamganj, similarly fruit in Rangpur. 


Page LXXVIII


Annexes 

Annex 8: Relationship between LEAF, SAAKTI, AFIP and Sharique 


Page LXXIX


Annexes 

Annex 9: Coordination overview with AFIP, ILGS, and Sharique 

a. Coordination between AFIP and Samriddhi 

Activity 

Ensure the flow of 

QPM as well as 

technical support from 

nurseries / nursery 

associations to 

community platforms, 

CBOs and MSEs 

Encourage the 

community platforms 

to place demand of 

farmers to nursery 

associations regarding 

their needs in term of 

fruit and timber trees. 

Main 

responsibility 

AFIP 


Comments 

The main responsibility lies with the individual 

nurseries and nursery associations. AFIP’s main 

responsibility is to ensure the system of QPM 

delivery to work. 

The main responsibility lies with the individual 

farmers and community platform. Samriddhi 

supports them to place their demands to the 

nursery associations as part of their human and 

institutional development. 

b. Coordination between Sharique and Samriddhi 

Activity 

Coordination of overall 

community platform 

APO development 

process 

Encourage community 

platforms to include all 

segments of the 

community as 

members 

LGSA as part of 

community platform 

APO elaboration 

Support to community 

platforms in 

implementing their 

APOs 

Main 




Sharique 


Comments 

Samriddhi will communicate the dates of annual 

planning set by the community platform to 

Sharique. 

Samriddhi will, through its human and institutional 

development process, encourage the community 

platforms to have a representative membership 

base. 

Sharique will ensure that facilitators are well trained 

and that exercises are conducted according to 

guidelines. 

Community platforms may or may not include 

governance activities in the APOs. 

Samriddhi will coordinate the support required for 

community platforms as they implement their plans 

Support to specific Sharique Based on the request of Samriddhi, Sharique will 


Page LXXX


Annexes 

local governance 

issues in APOs of 


Day-observations led 

by UPs 

Day-observations led 

by the community 

platforms 

Specific orientation of 


on their right to 

information 

Specific orientation on 

local elections 

Cultural teams to 

communicate local 

governance issues 

CBO leader/ youth 

networks 

Involvement of 


in UP planning 

processes 

Union Development 

Coordination Meeting 

(GO-NGO 

Coordination meeting) 

by UP 

Support from UP to 

promising local 

economic activities 

Support from UZP to 

promising local 

economic activities 

Sharique 

Community 

platforms 

Sharique 

Sharique 

Sharique 

Sharique 


Sharique 

Sharique 

Sharique 

support community platforms in implementing 

specific governance issues 

Sharique will coordinate with Samriddhi to mobilise 

and/or co-organise these day observations jointly 

with community platforms 

Members of the community platform will take the 

lead in organising day observations for relevant 

topics and involve also local government officials. 

Samriddhi will be setting the dates with community 

platforms based on Sharique’s request, while 

Sharique will provide facilitators and lead the whole 

event. 

Samriddhi will be setting the dates with community 

platforms based on Sharique’s request, while 

Sharique will provide facilitators and lead the whole 

event. 

Samriddhi may request cultural teams to perform at 

certain occasions (e.g. day observations) 

Sharique will seek conceptual support from 

Samriddhi and coordinate activities of these 

networks as they emerge. 

Sharique will inform Samriddhi about the dates of 

UP planning events. Samriddhi will build the 

capacity of the community platforms to be prepared 

and play an active role in the planning process. 

Samriddhi builds the capacity of the community 

platforms to be prepared to participate in meetings 

organised by UP. 

Sharique will expose the UPs to promising local 

economic activities of community platforms. 

Sharique will further strengthen the UPs 

engagement in local economic development, which 

would include their support to local groups, 

entrepreneurs (including such supported by 

Samriddhi) involved in such activities. 

Sharique will encourage the Upazilla Parishad to 

extend their support and influence the Upazilla 

level line agencies to support the communities in 

local economic activities. 


Page LXXXI


Annexes 

c. Coordination between ILGS and Samriddhi 

Activity 

Organise 

organisational 

development training 

of SPAs 

Organisational 

development of 

MSE/farmer samities 

linked / represented in 

BMOs 

Establishment of Local 

/ District Resource 

Pools (line agencies) 

to update knowledge 

and information of 

LSPs 

Development of a 

sustainable model to 

update the knowledge, 

technology and 

information of LSPs 

Main 


Samriddhi/ILGS 


ILGS 

Samriddhi/ILGS 

Comments 

Whenever SPAs are selected as BMOs by ILGS, 

then the latter will organise their organisational 

development instead of Samriddhi. 

Samriddhi will include this in its interventions 

regarding capacity building of MSEs. 

Samriddhi will leave the responsibility to ILGS in 

common areas of intervention to organise the 

update of LSPs regarding their knowledge, 

technology and information. The SPAs should still 

be seen as the main actors in organising capacity 

building of LSPs. 

Together, the project will capitalise their 

experiences and develop a common model for the 

update of LSPs through line agencies and private 

actors. 


Page LXXXII


Annexes 

Annex 10: Timeline 


Page LXXXIII


Annexes 

Annex 11: Terms of references 

a. Intercooperation Head Office 

ICHO-01 Institutional supervision and steering 

(Philippe Vaneberg, Head of Operations) 

This position will be overall responsible for ensuring the institutional supervision of the 

programme. It will also include the following tasks: 

• Overall programme steering taking into account institutional experiences in regard to 

consolidation and strengthen 

• Supervision of the coherence of IC of programmes in Bangladesh funded by SDC 

• Supervision of project cycle management at IC Head Office level 

• Communication and negotiation with SDC in Switzerland 

Qualification: 

• Postgraduate in the field of genetic improvement of trees 

• At least 15 years experience in the field of development and international cooperation 

• Comprehensive knowledge of Bangladesh development issues 

• Good knowledge of Bangladesh stakes in the field of rural development and local 

governance 

• Strong analytical capacities and strategic understanding 

• Confirmed experiences with SDC vision, policies, strategies and procedures 

• Strong experience in project cycle management 

ICHO-02 Technical backstopping 

(Lionel Giron, Programme Officer) 

• Thematic backstopping and inputs to the project team (key staff) 

• Capacity building of the project team in specific fields jointly identified, based on 

institutional experience of IC 

• Provide information on relevant market development initiatives managed by IC or other 

development partners 

• Promote possible exchanges, collaboration and collaboration with other programmes 

• Regular monitoring and assessment of project progress in specific issues related to 

market development and in regards to institutionalisation processes 


Page LXXXIV


Annexes 


• Postgraduate in the field of sustainable development 

• Master in the field of marketing 


• Comprehensive knowledge of Bangladesh development issues 

• Experience in the field of market development framework (M4P), value chain promotion, 

enterprise development and local economic development 

• Strong analytical capacities 

• Knowledge of SDC vision, policies and strategies 

ICHO-03 Accounting and controlling at IC HO level 

(Sreeram Koottala, Financial Controller) 

• Accounting and controlling at Head Office level 

• Invoice of IC fees to SDC Financial and budget controlling of documents prepared by the 

IC Delegation concerning the project 

• Treatment of fund request by Delegation 

• Monitoring of fees accounted by Delegation 

• Backstopping to Delegation Finance and Admin Manager regarding IC procedures 


• Masters degree in Chartered Accountancy Articleship 

• At least 10 years of experience in financial management of large funds, including 

controlling, consolidation 

• Confirmed experience with SDC and IC administrative and financial procedures 

• Capacity of coaching and steer finances and administration managers 

b. Intercooperation Delegation in Bangladesh 

ICLO-01 Programme steering and management 

(Felix Bachmann, Delegate, Intercooperation Bangladesh) 

• Steering of the programme in line with the Project references documents 

• Overall project management 

• Communication and negotiation with SDC Bangladesh 

• Participation in strategic meeting and steering committee meetings 

• Representation of IC in relation to the programme at institutional level 


Page LXXXV


Annexes 

• Guidance, coaching, and backstopping to, the national coordination team, in relation to 

strategic options taken, decisions made by the steering committee meetings, 

negotiations with SDC, and programme management 

• Overall monitoring of programme progress 

• Networking and liaison with relevant institutions and initiatives in Bangladesh and South- 

Asia region 

Qualification 

• Master in relation to development issues 


• Knowledge of Bangladesh development issues 

• Knowledge of Bangladesh stakes in the field of rural development and local governance 

• Strong analytical capacities 

• Experiences with SDC vision, policies, strategies and procedures 

• Strong experience in project cycle management 

• Capacity of coaching and guiding project teams 

• Capacity of negotiating with partners 

ICLO-02 Thematic backstopping 

(Shamim Ahamed, Programme Officer, Intercooperation Bangladesh) 

• Guidance, coaching, and backstopping to the coordination team, in relation to specific 

market development, institutionalisation, and HID issues 

• Advisory support in relation to the coordination with other projects (e.g. SDC funded like 

AFIP, SHARIQUE, IGLS…..) 

• Capacity building of coordination unit in the field of human and institutional development 

and development approaches 

• Participation in steering committee meetings 

• Contribution to the knowledge management and monitoring systems 

• Networking and liaison with relevant institutions and initiatives in Bangladesh 


• Master in relation to development issues 

• At least 10 years experience in the field of development 

• Knowledge of Bangladesh stakes in the field of institutional aspects 

• Solid analytical capacities 

• Capacity of coaching and guiding project teams 


Page LXXXVI


Annexes 

ICLO-03 Accounting at Delegation level 

(To be recruited, Head-Finance and Services, Intercooperation Bangladesh) 

• Ensure transparency and accountability in financial operations including strong internal 

control within the project 

• Ensure compliance with IC Head Office procedures, SDC and statutory requirements 

• Support Project Management Unit and partners in developing periodical budget, review 

expenditures, review financial reports, exchange feedback, analyse and contribute to 

strengthen their system and procedures 

• Coordinate in obtaining government approval of project and their ensure timely 

compliances including related statutory compliance 

• Coordinate in implementation of timely internal and external audit to project and partners 

accounts and support for implementation of audit recommendations 

• Coordinate and support project in human resource management including staff 

recruitment and staff contract management, formal and on-job training to project and 

partner staff 

• Maintain links and liaison with project teams, IC HO and SDC country office in relation 

to project matters 


• Masters degree in Commerce/Business Administration/Economics 

• Minimum 10 years of professional experience in business administration in national and 

international NGO, donor organisation and/or private sector. 

• Strong background in financial management of donor funded programmes and 

knowledge of international accounting standards 

• Thorough knowledge and practical experience on provisions under FDR ordinance 

(NGO Affairs Bureau) Income tax and other applicable local laws 

• Proficient in Accpac accounting software 

c. Project 

PROJ-01 International Advisor 

(to be recruited) 

• Support the project team with regard to the whole project cycle management 

• Advise the project team with regard to the project management, strategic orientation, 

programme concepts, approaches and methodologies 

• Develop and accompany the implementation of programme methodologies, tools and 

procedure, particularly in the field of market development, HID and institutionalisation 


Page LXXXVII


Annexes 

• Assist the programme team in developing monitoring systems and use of monitoring 

information 

• Encourage exchange with like-minded programmes in the region 

• Promote innovations by drawing on experiences beyond Bangladesh 

• Support networking with relevant stakeholders at national level to promote programme 

experiences and lessons 

• Act as resource person for other SDC funded market programmes 


• Masters in Agriculture, Economical or Social Siences or relevant subjects 

• At least 10 years experience in rural development 

• Experience in coaching and advising project teams and partners 

• Knowledge on “making market work for the poor approach” and value chain analysis 

• Strong experience in institutionalisation processes 

• Strong analytical and facilitation skills 

• Good level of management and coordination skills 

• Strong participative behaviour and goo team work abilities 

PROJ-02 Project Coordinator 

(Adwyait Kumar Roy) 

• Ensure planning, implementation, coordination, monitoring, reporting and evaluation of 

project activities, 

• Ensure human resource management i.e. recruitment, performance appraisal, etc, and 

financial resource management i.e. budgeting, expenditure tracking, etc, 

• Ensure that necessary systems, methods, tools, and procedures are in place for smooth 

execution of the project, 

• Support and supervise the Deputy Project Coordinator, Manager-Finance & Admin and 

Regional Coordinators, and provide them proper guidance for project operation, 

• Establish and maintain collaboration with different government, non-government and 

private sector organisations, 

• Ensure regular contact with DIC, SCO-B Dhaka, and the partners and stakeholders of 

the project, 

• Support further development of planning, technical and facilitation capacities of the 

project staff, partners and stakeholders, 

• Represent project in diverse forums and networks, and 

• Coordinate knowledge management, monitoring, reporting and experience capitalisation 


Page LXXXVIII


Annexes 


• Masters in Business Administration or Agriculture or relevant subjects 

• At least 10 years experience in relevant field 



PROJ-03 Coordinator – Social Development and Deputy Project Coordinator 

(Madhab Chandra Das) 

• Coordinate social development activities, 

• Provide backstopping support to the Associate Coordinators - Social Development so 

that they can perform their responsibilities properly, 

• Develop concepts, approaches, strategies, tools and operational guidelines to facilitate 

the community level planning process, gender mainstreaming, DRR and other thematic 

aspects of the project, and ensure that those are being practiced at the field level, 

• Assist project management in planning, implementation, coordination, monitoring, 

reporting and evaluation of thematic activities like market development, social 

development, service provision, etc, 

• Support and supervise the Coordinators- Value Chain, Coordinator-Service Provision 

and Enterprise Development, Monitoring Specialist and Publication Officer, and provide 

them proper guidance for performing their responsibilities, 

• Ensure monitoring of project’s results, and capitalisation and dissemination of project’s 

experience, and 

• Plan and implement training and other capacity development initiatives for the thematic 

coordinators, associate coordinators and specialists. 





• Good level of conceptual abilities 

PROJ-04 Coordinator – Service Provision and Enterprise Development 

(Md. Shamim Hossain) 

• Coordinate service provision and enterprise development activities, 

• Provide backstopping support to the regional specialists so that they can perform their 

responsibilities properly, 


Page LXXXIX


Annexes 

• Develop concepts, approaches, strategies and operational guidelines in the area of 

service provision and enterprise development, and ensure that those are being practiced 

at the field level, 

• Establish collaboration and maintain regular contact with different government, nongovernment 

and private sector organisations, 


experience in the area of service provision and enterprise development, and 

• Identify training needs of the regional specialists, and arrange training, exchange visits, 

etc for them. 


• Masters in Agriculture or Marketing or relevant subjects 




PROJ-05 Coordinator – Value Chain 

(2 Persons) 

• Coordinate value chain development activities, 

• Provide backstopping support to the regional specialists so that they can perform their 

responsibilities properly, 

• Develop concepts, approaches, strategies and operational guidelines in the area of 

value chain development, and ensure that those are being practiced at the field level, 

• Establish collaboration and maintain regular contact with different government, nongovernment 

and private sector organisations, 


experience in the area of value chain development, and 

• Identify training needs of the regional specialists, and arrange training, exchange visits, 

etc for them. 


• Masters in Agriculture or Marketing or relevant subjects 





Page XC


Annexes 

PROJ-06 Regional Coordinator 

(4 Persons: 1. Ms. Archana Nath, 2. Mostafa Nurul Islam, 3. Md. Mamunur Rashid, 4. A.K. 

Osman Haruni) 

• Ensure planning, implementation, coordination, monitoring, reporting and evaluation of 

project activities at the regional level, 

• Ensure that the principles, approaches, strategies, tools and methodologies are 

translated into actions at the field level, 

• Support and supervise the Associate Coordinator-Social Development, Value Chain 

Specialists, Finance and Admin Officer, Drivers and Peons at the regional level, and 

provide them proper guidance to ensure their performance up to the mark, 

• Ensure collaboration with and synergy amongst the different government, nongovernment 

and private sector organisations at the regional level, 

• Conduct performance appraisal and undertake necessary initiatives to improve the 

performance of the regional staff, 

• Prepare regional budget and monitor the expenditures on a regular basis, 

• Represent project in different forums and networks at the regional level, and 

• Monitor the results and capitalise experiences at the regional level. 






PROJ-07 Monitoring Specialist 

(Md. Humayun Kabir) 

• Develop M&E system, tools and guidelines for the project and ensure that those are 

being practiced at the field level, 

• Ensure that the M&E database management system is in place using an appropriate 

software, 

• Ensure error free data collection, data entry and data analysis of the project, 

• Develop project’s M&E capacity through providing accompaniment support to the 

regional teams, and 

• Establish a baseline of the project at the beginning of phase and monitor the progress on 

regular basis. 


• Masters in relevant subjects 


Page XCI


Annexes 


• Strong analytical and statistical skills 

• Good level of computer software operating skills 

PROJ-08 Associate Coordinator – Social Development 

(4 Persons: 1. Ms. Jannat Noor, 2. Ms. Samsad Najnin, 3. Ms. Nazmun Naher, 4. Md. Abu 

Sayeed) 

• Coordinate social development activities at the regional level, 

• Provide backstopping support to the PNGOs so that the staff and Community Facilitators 

can perform their responsibilities properly, 

• Develop tools and operational guidelines to facilitate the community level planning 

process, gender mainstreaming, DRR and other social development aspects, 

• Establish collaboration and maintain regular contact with partners and other relevant 

stakeholders at the regional level, 


experience in the area of social development at the regional level, and 

• Develop the capacity of the PNGO staff in line with the new approaches and strategies 

of the project. 


• Masters in Social Science or relevant subjects 


• Strong facilitation skills 


PROJ-09 Value Chain Specialist 

(12 Persons: 1. Ms. Noor Akter Naher, 2. Ms. Molla Sabiha Sultana, 3. Md. Moksed Ali, 4. Md. 

Anisur Rahman, 5. Md. Azizullah Al Mahmud, 6. Md. Kamruzzaman, 7. Md. Shahjahan, 8. Md. 

Monayem Hossain, 9. Md. Ataur Rahman, 10. Mufazzal Hossain, 11. Md. Kamrul Hossain, 12. 

Kingkar Chandra Saha) 

• Ensure value chain analysis and identify relevant value chain actors, 

• Coordinate interventions with private sector actors, service providers and SPAs, 

• Plan and implement interventions, which enhance products’ competitiveness and value 

chain performance, 

• Develop tools and guidelines to facilitate the process of service market development for 

the LSPs/SPAs, 

• Establish collaboration and maintain regular contact with public and private sector 

organisations, 


Page XCII


Annexes 


experience in the area of value chain development, and 

• Develop the capacity of the PNGO staff in line with the new approaches and strategies 

of the project. 


• Masters in Marketing or Agriculture or relevant subjects 


• Strong facilitation skills 


PROJ-10 Manager – Admin and Finance 

(Md. Belayet Hossain) 

• Establish and ensure a standard financial management and accounting system at the 

partner organisations, regions and project levels, 

• Ensure that IC’s administrative and financial rules and regulations are followed at all 

levels of the project, 

• Prepare budgets, disburse fund to the regions and partner organisations and monitor the 

expenses on a regular basis, and ensure regular financial reporting at all levels, 

• Ensure proper transaction and procurement procedures, and external and internal audits 

of the project and partner organisations, 

• Establish and ensure maintaining a proper filing system and a transparent inventory 

management system at the project, region and partner organisation levels. 

• Maintain liaison and regular contact with IC Delegation Office regarding Administrative 

and Financial matters 

• Supervise and provide capacity building support to the admin and finance personnel at 

the projects, regions and partner organisations levels. 


• Masters degree in Commerce 

• At least 8 years experience in relevant job 

• Strong analytical and resource management skills 

PROJ-11 Publication and Communication Officer 

(Md. Sultan Mahmud) 

• Based on the needs of the farmers/producers of the project, prepare annual plan for 

training/promotional materials to be developed and published, 

• Identify resource persons/organisations for the production of the training/promotional 

materials, 


Page XCIII


Annexes 

• Capture case study reports, success stories, experiences, etc from all IC-projects and 

ROs to be published in the newsletter “Shekor”, and edit the write-ups for publication, 

• Establish relations with the most important media organisations (news papers, television, 

magazines, etc.) and inform them on a regular basis on successes by the project. 

• Communicate and contract with the press for printing of the newsletters and 

training/promotional materials, 

• Conduct opinion survey of users/readers to improve the quality of training/promotional 

materials and newsletter, 

• Manage and maintain the project’s library. 


• Masters in Social Science or relevant subject 


• Good level of documentation skills 

PROJ-12 Finance Officer 

(A.S.M Ruhul Islam) 

• Calculate salary and benefits of the staff members, check the claims of the staff, 

consultants, vendors and other claimants, and recommend for payment, 

• Ensures that the vouchers are correct and complete, and the transactions are correctly 

recorded and posted in ACCPAC 

• Check the call forwards from the partners and ROs, and recommend for disbursement, 

• Monitor the expenditure trend and suggest the regions to keep expenses within the 

approved budget 

• Establish a standard filing and record keeping system, and maintain and update the 

books of accounts, files, etc, 

• Review the financial reports of partners and ROs and prepare financial statements and 

progress reports at the project level, and 

• Visit partners’ offices and ROs, review their books of accounts and vouchers, provide 

them with necessary suggestions and facilitate the external audits of the project. 


• University degree in Accounting or Finance or relevant subjects 

• At least 4 years experience in relevant jobs 



Page XCIV


Annexes 

PROJ-13 Admin Officer 

(2 Persons: 1. Ms. Sharmin Zaman, 2. Ms. Nahida Tazkira) 

• Ensure office utilities e.g. electricity, water, gas, telephone, etc in a cost-effective 

manner, 

• Establish/renew contracts of agreements with the land lords, office security companies, 

fuel pumps, office suppliers, etc as per the government as well as IC’s rules, 

• Prepare an annual procurement plan for the project, and ensure that all procurements 

comply with standard procurement policy, 

• Ensure physical verification of the project assets and prepare/update the assets 

inventory both at the RO and project levels on a regular basis, 

• Ensure proper servicing and maintenance, and effective use of vehicles as per IC’s 

vehicle management rules, 


personal files, asset inventories, etc, 

• Visit partners’ offices and ROs, review their procurement procedure, store maintenance, 

assets inventory management, etc, provide them with necessary suggestions and 

facilitate the external audits of the project. 


• University degree in Management, or relevant subjects 



PROJ-14 Admin and Finance Officer 

(4 Persons: 1. Ms. Jesmin Akter, 2. Ms. Masuda Akhter, 3. Md. Anamul Hoque, 4. Ashim 

Kumar. Roy) 

• Ensure that all transactions are made correctly and recorded accurately as per IC’s 

rules, 

• Prepare regional budgets and monitor the expenditures to keep the expenses within the 

approved budget 

• Check the call forwards, financial reports, etc from the partners and put forward for next 

steps, 

• Ensure that all procurements comply with standard procurement policy and all resources 

are used effectively, 


books of accounts, files, etc, 

• Visit partners’ offices to make sure that they follow standard administrative and financial 

procedures, and 


Page XCV


Annexes 

• Facilitate the external audits of the project’s partners. 


• University degree in Accounting or Finance or relevant subjects 



PROJ-15 Field Liaison Officer 

(2 Persons: 1. Ms. Ismot Ara Laboni, 2.Md. Zahid Hasan) 

• Maintain liaison between Samriddhi and Shiree Innovation Fund Projects in Sunamgonj 

and Rangpur regions, coordinate activities with common beneficiaries 

• Share Shiree’s experiences of addressing the bottom ten extreme poor households in 

the communities with Samriddhi, 

• Identify suitable income generating activities for the bottom ten extreme poor households 

in the context of project’s working area, 

• Capture the synergic impact of combining two approaches together, 


• Masters in Agriculture or relevant subjects 


• Strong analytical and interpersonal skills 


PROJ-16 Secretary 

(Ms. Sultana Dilruba) 

• Operation of PABX, FAX and Scanner machine, 

• Maintain inventories of durable and consumable items, and gate-passes of the moveable 

assets of the project, 

• Prepare monthly vehicle reports and update staff and partners’ directory including their 

addresses, telephone numbers, etc. 

• Arrange venue and logistics for meetings, training, workshops, seminars, etc, and 

accommodation for the guests and visitors. 

• Ensure internal and external circulation of memo, letter, notice, newsletters, leaflets, 

posters, booklets and any other project documents, and maintain registers of incoming 

and outgoing documents, and 

• Prepare monitoring data entry template, check and give entry of the data. 


• University degree in Social Science or relevant subjects 


Page XCVI


Annexes 

• At least 3 years experience in relevant job 

• Good level of PABX, FAX and Scanner machine, computer operating skills 

d. Consultants 

CONS-01 Thematic backstopping on making markets work for the poor (M4P) 

(To be determined) 

• Assessment of the project’s progress and advice to the delegation and the project team 

to improve effectiveness and efficiency of the interventions. 

• Guidance, coaching, and backstopping to the national and regional coordination team, in 

relation to making markets work for the poor approach. 

• Technical backstopping to the project team regarding value chain and enterprise 

development, and service market provision. 

• Support the teams of the delegation and the project to plan an effective phasing out of 

the project activities. 

• Capacity building of national and regional teams in the field of systemic approaches 

including collaboration and negotiation with large market actors. 


• University degree in socio-economics, business administration, finance or international 

relations. 

• Knowledge and experience in the domain of private sector development with a particular 

focus on value chains, local economic development and M4P. 

• At least five years of working experience in the domain in development and/or transition 

countries. 

• At least two years experience in consultancy work. 

• Strong advisory and training skills. 

CONS-02 Thematic backstopping on Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR) 

(2 Persons: Nicole Clot and Rupa Mukerji) 


to improve effectiveness and efficiency of the DRR mainstreaming activities. 


relation to DRR and climate change. 

• Capacity building of national and regional teams in the field of DRR, climate change and 

adaptation. 


• University degree in environmental sciences, geography or related subjects. 


Page XCVII


Annexes 

• Knowledge and experience in the domain of community based disaster risk reduction, 

and climate change, including mitigation and adaptation. 


countries. 



CONS-03 Thematic backstopping on gender 



to improve effectiveness and efficiency of the gender interventions and gender 

mainstreaming processes. 


relation to gender equality and gender mainstreaming. 

• Technical backstopping to the project team regarding gender interventions. 

• Capacity building of national and regional teams in the field of gender mainstreaming. 


• University degree in social sciences or international relations. 

• Knowledge and experience in the domain of livelihoods, human and institutional 

development, including strong experience in gender mainstreaming. 


countries. 



CONS-04a Baseline Study for Samriddhi 


• Design an appropriate methodology for the baseline study in consultation with Samriddhi 

personnel 

• Select the study sites and participants to be surveyed through using a well accepted 

sampling methodology 

• Develop the questionnaire, checklists and other tools to collect data from the 

stakeholders of the project 

• Field trial of methodology, questionnaire, checklists and other tools, and make 

necessary adjustment 

• Organise survey and collect data from all stakeholders through using the agreed upon 

tools/methods 


Page XCVIII


Annexes 

• Analyse the data through using appropriate software 

• Present the major findings of the study to the project people 

• Prepare the final report through incorporating comments and feedbacks from the project 

people. 


• Practical experience of doing similar type of study 

• Professionals having solid understanding on institutional aspects 

• Competent staff members having solid analytical capacities 

• Track record and reputation to produce quality outputs in similar study. 

CONS-04b Assessment of project’s effects on indirect beneficiary households 


• Design an appropriate methodology for the assessment in consultation with Samriddhi 

personnel 

• Select the assessment sites and participants to be surveyed through using a well 

accepted sampling methodology 

• Develop the questionnaire, checklists and other tools to collect data from the 

stakeholders of the project 

• Field trial of methodology, questionnaire, checklists and other tools, and make 

necessary adjustment 

• Organise survey and collect data from all stakeholders through using the agreed upon 

tools/methods 

• Analyse the data through using appropriate software 

• Present the major findings of the assessment to the project people 

• Prepare the final report through incorporating comments and feedbacks from the project 

people. 


• Practical experience of doing similar type of assessment 

• Professionals having solid understanding on institutional aspects 

• Competent staff members having solid analytical capacities 

• Track record and reputation to produce quality outputs in similar study. 

CONS-04c Interim staff replacements (e.g. due to maternity leave) 


• Review relevant documents to understand and learn the vision, goal, objectives, 

approaches, strategies and practices of Samriddhi project 


Page XCIX


Annexes 

• Visit the activities and events related to enterprise development, value chain 

development, service market development, community organisation development, DRR, 

gender mainstreaming, etc. 

• Provide support to the regional offices in order to maintain project activities 

• Provide accompaniment support to the partner NGOs and other stakeholders of the 

project 

• Attend/organise regular meetings, workshops and trainings, and coordinate the ongoing 

activities 

• Contribute to monitor the progresses, prepare the reports and capitalise the experiences 

on a regular basis 


• Fresh graduates/post graduates in relevant subjects 

• Strong willingness to develop career in NGOs 


Page C


Annexes 

Annex 12: Organigram project staff 

Intercooperation 

Head Office, Berne 

Delegation of Intercooperation 

Bangladesh 

Philippe Vaneberg (Head- 

Field Operation) 3% 

Felix Bachman (Delegate) 

Steering 

Lionel Giron (Programme 

Officer) 3% 

1 Project Coordinator 

1 Coordinator Social Dev + 

Deputy Coordinator 

10% 

Shamim Ahamed (Programme 

Officer) 14% 

To be recruited (Head Finance 

and Services) 5% 

Financial Control 

Sreeram Kottala 

(Controller - Finance) 2% 

1 Expat Adviser 

1 Finance and Admin Mgr 

2 Coordinators Value Chains 

1 Coordinator Enterprise Devt 

Project Support and 

Management Unit 

1 Monitoring Specialist 

Sunamganj Office 

Rangpur Office 

Bogra Office 

Rajshahi Office 

1 Regional Coordinator 




1 Associate Coord – Social Dvp 




3 Value Chain Specialists 




1 Field Liaison Officer (30%) 

1 Field Liaison Officer (30%) 

1 Finance and Admin Officer 




2 Drivers 

2 Drivers 


Page CI

Samriddhi

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