QUALITATIVE MONITORING OF SHIREE INTERVENTIONS: CMS5 INTERVENTION TRACKING

Shiree Q2 Research on Extreme Poverty in Bangladesh
Author / Nikhil Chakma
Institution / Tarango
CMS1 Reference / 203-89-19-42-007
Interviewee name / Laboni Tripura / Sex
Female / Age
56 / Ethnicity/Religion
Tripura/ Christian
Union, Upazilla and Zilla / 3 no. Rowanchari sadar union, Rowanchari upazila, Bandarban
Dates of Interview / May 15, 2013
Before the intervention June 2012 / May 2013
Well-being Status / Working extreme poor (2) / Moderate Poor (3)
Livelihoods before and after the intervention / 1 Daily labour
2. Jhum cultivation / Laboni Tripura
1.  Jhum cultivation
2.  Daily labour
Husband
1.  Jhum cultivation
2.  Manual day labour
3.  Collecting forest products
Productive Asset or IGA owned working capital / Three hens / 1.  Two pigs
2.  Chickens (3)
3.  Mango trees (5)
4.  Gamari trees (10)
5.  Bamboo sapling (10)
6.  Stored Jhum crops
Marital status and household composition / Married lives with husband (70)
Daughter (20) - mentally disabled
Son (15) - class 7
Daughter (12)
Daughter (6) - class 1 / Husband (70)
Daughter (21) - mentally disabled
Son (16) - class 8
Daughter (14) - class 6
Son (7) - class 2
Keywords / Improved food security, waist loom, traditional crafts, malaria, heavy wind, increased productive assets, and Jhum cultivation.

reflections on the intervention FOR Laboni Tripura

Introduction

This is the first reflection on the intervention for Laboni Tripura, a beneficiary of the Tarango-shiree project, and her husband Subra Tripura (70). This paper attempts to draw out the reasons behind the changes in her livelihood during the first year of the intervention. More information on her husband’s life history is available on the Shiree website:

http://www.shiree.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/02/Subra-Tripura-LH.pdf

Life history and recent past

The life history was of her husband Subra Tripura (70) because at the time of interview, it was assumed he was the beneficiary. However, the ROI below is taken mainly from the voice of the true beneficiary, his wife, Laboni.

From her husband’s life history, we came to know that he was born into an extreme poor household. There was no productive assets in their family. Jhum cultivation was their main livelihood. During his childhood, his parents separated due to father’s leprosy. His mother went to another house along with sister. He then lived in his uncle’s house, where life was miserable. Then he married a girl whose parents were also extreme poor and stayed at father in law’s house for four years. While staying at father in law’s house, livestock numbers grew and sufficient food was available. He gave loans to farmers in exchange for rice. He also did petty business by marketing dried shark fish.

Their family’s livelihood was changed dramatically when resettled by Govt. by force. At that time, they lost assets due to an attack by wild animals and sold remaining the goats and pigs in the market in order to avoid another attack by wild animals. His livelihood deteriorated further when rats destroyed his jhum crops.

NGO graduation design

Figure 1: Graduation Model of Tarango beneficiaries

Graduation process

The project targets sustainable livelihood improvement of 750 extreme poor households (70% women) from the indigenous community of Bandarban through crafts-based skill training, production and marketing of traditional crafts-based on a fair trade business model.

The graduation process (Figure-1) takes off by selecting beneficiaries based on six different crafts (handloom, sewing, waist loom, bamboo craft, wood craft and nature based craft). The selected beneficiary will develop skill further in the craft through training and orientation. An emporium will be developed to accommodate training & production centre, craft museum, display and sales centre and project office. The emporium will play a vital role in preserving and promoting traditional handicrafts produced by the beneficiaries. In addition, all products produced by the 750 beneficiaries will be marketed through the crafts emporium.

The production process will start from the second year of the project while the beneficiary’s income simultaneously accrues. So, to ensure beneficiary income from the initial stage, agricultural inputs will be provided to the beneficiaries at the beginning of the project period. It may be mentioned that the graduation process intends to guarantee not only liberating the beneficiary from extreme poverty, but also to promote sustainable income over the long term through production, technical support and inclusion in the market chain.

The craft emporium will be a social enterprise owned by the project beneficiaries and it will be operated in collaboration with Tarango and project beneficiaries. Profit from the craft emporium will be shared 80% for the beneficiaries and 20% will be for Tarango. Tarango will act as management agent for better operation of fair trade business of the Emporium. A 20 member board will be elected by 750 beneficiaries and will lead all the beneficiaries. A constitution will be developed in consultation with the 20 board members, which details roles, regulation, legal status, ownership identity etc. will be elaborated within the project period.

The project is expected to generate several direct and indirect economic benefits for project beneficiaries. There will also be benefits for other people, including raw material suppliers, equipment suppliers and other suppliers involved in construction. It will also create backward and forward linkage between beneficiaries and trade businessman.

A craft emporium will be established at the Bandarban sadar upazila which is concentrated for roll-up economic wheel of the beneficiaries (Figure -2).

Figure 2: Sustainability strategy

What happened?

The intervention sequence

The project was designed to select extreme poor households (70% women) in Rowanchari Upazila of Bandarban Hill District through the baseline survey and also knowledge of craft skills such as handloom, sewing, waist loom bamboo craft, wood craft and nature based crafts. This selection took place in November-December 2011.

A project orientation session for new beneficiaries was then held in May 2012. Beneficiaries were informed about project activities, selection of IGAs, savings mechanisms and family card. Each beneficiary then chose their IGA according to their craft capability. After the orientation each beneficiary got a family card.

In August 2012, beneficiaries started to receive skill training based on their selected crafts. The duration of the training was handloom-55 days, sewing-50 days, and waist loom - 25 days, bamboo craft - 25 days, wood craft - 25 days and nature based crafts-14 days. Each beneficiary was paid 150 taka per day for training purposes. The production equipment, raw materials and other necessary support to produce market-oriented products at their homes were provided to the beneficiary after completion of the skill training.

In September, 2012 beneficiaries received agricultural income generating inputs to accrue some additional earning to support their livelihood improvement from initial stage of project. The type of agriculture inputs provided to the beneficiary based on their primary needs and demand. The supplied agricultural inputs were mango saplings, Gamari (Gmelina arborea) saplings, bamboo seeds to plant in their land. However, goat/pig, chickens and ducks were also provided separately to the beneficiary according to needs and demand. The project staff regularly monitored the beneficiary IGA and other input supports condition for effective implementation.

Simultaneously a crafts Emporium was being established with facilities for (a) Training-cum-Production unit, (b) Craft Museum, (c) Display & Sales Outlet, and (d) Project Office in a rented house at Bandarban sadar Upazila, Bandarban.

The below table is shown Laboni intervention sequences of the project.

Date / Assets/Inputs / Cash Received / Purchased By
November and December 2011 / Identification of vulnerable groups / 0
January 2012 / Selection and verification of targeted beneficiary / 0
27 March 2012 / CMS 1 survey / 0
5 May 2012 / Orientation / 55 taka
26 June 2012 / Pig / 1 / Project
28 August, 2012 / Mango sapling / 5 / Project
28 August, 2012 / Gamari sapling / 10 / Project
17 September, 2012 / Bamboo seeds / 10 / Project
22 October to 24 November 2012 / Received waist loom training for 25 days (per day 150 taka) / 3750 taka / Project
24 November 2012 / Waist loom instrument / 0 / Project
Total / 8305 taka

Narrative

Early Stages

In January 2012, Laboni was selected as a Tarango beneficiary based on selection criteria and her previous traditional knowledge of craft skills. She was an expert in using a traditional waist loom and was selected for this IGA. Her husband also knew how to make coarse mats, baskets and household utensils. Previously Laboni had only handicrafts for her own household use, and was very happy to be included in the project. In May 2012, after being selected, she attended a day-long project orientation session where she was informed about the project, the marketing of crafts, other available income generating activities, the establishment of emporium and the saving mechanism. During the orientation session Laboni selected a pig to rear in the household as she had experiences in pig rearing. After completion of the orientation Laboni received a family card and got 55 taka for attending the training session.

Meanwhile her husband was preparing some land for subsistence cultivation of Jhum crops. They cultivated rice, sesame, chilies, maize, ladies finger, cucumber, bean, white gourd, sweet gourd, turmeric, ginger, and banana in the Jhum field. They received these crops from their relatives, who also owned the land. They did not have to pay them any money to use the land. Laboni also helped her husband with cultivation after the completion of the orientation training. In June 2012, Laboni received the pig from the project.

After cultivation of the Jhum crops both husband and wife did manual labour to earn household income. Although their three youngest children went to school, they have to look after their mentally disabled daughter (age 21) in the household.

While working as a day labourer, her husband became sick with malaria. He was unable to work for seven days and they had to spend 500 taka for treatment before he recovered. While her husband was sick, Laboni was responsible for weeding in their own Jhum field.

Middle and later Stages

Between August and September 2012, Khubaraun received five mango saplings, 10 Gamari saplings, and 10 bamboo seeds from the project and planted them in their homestead.

From September to October 2012, her family started to harvest their Jhum crops and got 60 Hari’s of paddy, 40 kilograms of sesame, 80 kilograms of maize, 30 kilograms of ladies finger, three mounds of cucumber, 10 kilograms of bean, three white gourds, two sweet gourds and other leafy vegetables. These Jhum crops ensured subsistence food security of their household, and were able to sell some in the local market. However they did not produce chilies which are important cash crops in the Chittagong Hill Tracts. Through selling in the market they earned 3600 taka from sesame, 1200 taka from maize, 1000 taka from cucumber and 500 taka from ladies finger.

The money they earned was mostly used for household costs. However, they had to provide money, 2000 taka yearly for their children who are studying in the school. They had sufficient Jhum crops which meant that her family was able to afford three meals a day accompanied by fruits and vegetables, but they only ate meat and fish once a month.

In late October and November 2012, Laboni received 25 days of skill training on the waist loom. She got 150 taka per day for training purposes which was paid fortnightly. After completion of the training she received all the necessary equipment for making quality waist loom products. She learned how to prepare quality waist looms for marketing in the training, but did not receive working capital to produce waist loom product for marketing. She said that she will get the working capital next month.

The family’s wellbeing had improved due to their successful Jhum production. Sometimes they also did manual day labouring after harvesting their crops. In December 2012, they started to harvest turmeric and ginger which took one month. After harvesting they received 15 mounds of raw turmeric and two mounds of raw ginger. They kept two mounds of turmeric and 30 kilograms of ginger for future cultivation, and sold the rest in the local market. They had to dry the raw turmeric to prepare it for marketing. They earned 4000 taka from selling the turmeric and 1700 taka from the ginger. With the money they bought three chickens from the market to rear in the household as well as household utensils. Laboni also went to Dhaka for the first time to attend the extreme poverty day organized by Shiree. She was very happy to join this programme.

In January 2013, their pig gave birth to seven piglets, which they were very pleased about. However, there was no house to rear the pigs in and one of the piglets died. They therefore decided to sell the piglets. They sold the first three piglets for 2000 taka, and then a few days later sold another piglet along with its mother for 3000 taka. They kept the remaining 2 piglets in their household to rear.

In February 2013, they started to prepare land for cultivation. Laboni’s husband received 80 decimals of new hilly land for long-term use from relatives without any terms and conditions. Up until to the reporting period they had planted banana, mango, turmeric, chilies, sesame, rice and other Jhum crops.

In late April 2013, heavy wind caused damage to their house, especially the roof and they had to sleep outside one night. Her husband bought tin from the nearest market which cost 800 taka and used it to repair the house. Shortly after this 5-6 chickens died, which they assumed was done by wild animals

Despite these shocks, their overall livelihood had gone well during this period and they had experienced an increase in wellbeing. However during the interview the family was packing all their households’ assets away, including cloths, utensils, foods and rice, to avoid damage since they had heard that a cyclone was on its way.

Summary of change in key indicators since intervention

Laboni’s wellbeing status changed moderately after the project intervention. It was the family’s traditional Jhum cultivation that was the main reason for the improvements in the family’s livelihood and food security. They can now afford three meals a day, accompanied by fruits and vegetables and their children go to school regularly. Furthermore, they increased their productive assets and received an economic return from them, especially the pigs. Both husband and wife have ownership of the productive assets.