JICA: Rural Development Engineering Center Setting-up Project in Bangladesh
REVISED VERSION-Sept 22, 2011
Context
The development and maintenance of rural infrastructure is a priority of the Bangladesh government. The Local Government Engineering Department （LGED）conducts undertakings according to national policies and strategies. However LEDC had not created a structure to implement projects based on the unified technical criterion. Therefore the unification of technical standards and the technical improvement of staffs were needed to manage projects adequately and effectively. JICAis cooperatingto organize and systematize the Rural Development Engineering Center (RDCE), which was established bythe Bangladesh government, as a technical center in LEDC.
Development Results
Existing technical documents and materials were corrected, which were apt to be kept individually in Bangladesh, made the available in the library. As of August 2005, about 5000 technical documents and books have been accumulated in thelibrary.Previous design papers have been collected and some of those materials have been digitized and the technical information is shared among the staffs. JICA conducted prepare of 31technical manuals and standard books based on the results of the assessment study of applied technology and the identification of differences and shared areas in technical methods.
JICA performed Training Needs Assessment (TNA) and created eight training courses (STTAD-PRO, ARCGIS, Auto-CAD, GIS Software, Road Roughness, Total Station, Quality Control, Trainer’s Training), and 20 training materials have been prepared for above-mentioned training courses.
Guidelines for technical management in RDEC were also prepared as Step-up plan.
Enhanced performance
The technical knowledge and previous experiences obtained through implemented project are accumulated in RDEC to be set for disseminating in LGED project. The training courses were also created. According to these approaches by the JICA project team, some performances were enhanced as follows.
Adaption of rural road maintenance and management system by utilizing roughness Index largely contribute to appropriate and efficient road maintenance and management. Development of progress monitoring system contributes to precise speedy project progress management and reporting. Improvement of quality control system on road construction enables to make long–lasting road and contributes to reducing the maintenance cost. Introduced date management system for rural infrastructure design enable to reduce workload in LGED district office.
Because of GIS and Auto CAD training, the transfer of technology and its importance were widely spread with in LGED. The request for such training was made not only from target group of the Project but also from the outside stakeholders. Staffs themselves newly created two important training curriculums, such as Project Management and Construction Management by theirhighly request.LEDG training system is activated by the Project activities.
Under the Project, staff capacity was developed and quality of rural infrastructure was enhanced.
Support to the capacity development process
a)National investment
Rural development has been one of the highly prioritized sectors in order to tackle with the poverty in Bangladesh where two-thirds of its population lives in rural area. However rural infrastructure development was still insufficient. Although LGED was a highly functional organization with flexibility, its administration had been rather transient, which hampered to accumulate its rich organizational experiences. JICA’s Project Phase-Ⅰachieved its purpose to satisfactory level in terms of their capacity of maintenance and collection of technical. Now the Phase-II project is implementing in order to develop more capacity of engineers and reinforce of each technical section in RDEC.
The Bangladesh sides has arranged 19 high officials for Phase-Ⅰand 11 including the Present Chief Engineer of LGED as counterparts. The budget for personnel expenses and equipment are paid by the Bangladesh side. The system of the working-group and unit was set up among engineers including counterparts, and organized effectively and regularly. It might be very effective to enhance LGED ownership by organizing working -group and implementing Project activities with their own initiatives. Such a meeting attended from different units was useful to proceed the activities effectively and strengthening a sense of unity.Currently, the national revenue budget started to cover a part of the budget tor RDEC activities and the amount increases year by year.
b) Development partners’ support
Phase-Ⅰ: 4 long-term experts for Rural planning, Rural Infrastructure Design, Training and Coordinator worked together with local Bangladesh Counterparts over the entire period.10 short-term experts were dispatched according to local needs,such as the field of Laboratory Test & Quality test, Technical Information Management, etc. With these experts they achieved their purpose to satisfactory level in terms of their capacity of maintenance and collection of technical. More than 20 Bangladesh engineers were sent to Japan or Cambodia or Philippines to receivetechnical trainings. The result of these trainings were disseminated by the counterparts at the Seminar in Bangladesh, with the participation of Ministries and local organizations that engage in Rural Development such as Bangladesh Academy for Rural Development, Bangladesh Water Development Board, etc. The 19 trainings organized by theworking-groupsmentioned a) above were implemented for the engineers in each districts.
Equipment like computers, cars which necessary for the project’s activities were provided by JICA.
The RDEC building and its equipment were procured by the Japan Bank of International Cooperation (JBIC).
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