Samriddhi

Samriddhi Project Document
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.
Key lessons learned:
• 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,
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