Bangladesh

A-Card Preliminary Assessment Report

For smallholder farmers (SHFs) with limited savings and assets, agricultural spending is largely facilitated through two credit models, the micro-finance and bank models. The banking system while enabling access to credit at low interest rates of 9-10% average, has failed to reach 80% of SHFs; as SHFs lack collateral and have limited understanding of various procedural complexities. Micro-credit Programs (MCPs) due to high interest rates of between 25-31%, smaller loan sizes and inflexible and short repayment periods have also failed to address needs of SHFs. Furthermore, since both formal (bank) and informal (MCP) credit is extensively cash-based, there is a tendency for its use in nonfarming activities, negatively impacting agricultural productivity and profitability.

To address these challenges, A-Card was designed to digitalize and re-engineer Micro-Finance to enable formal financial Inclusion of smallholder farmers (SHFs). A-Card model was designed by Mr. Bidyuth Mahalder, Chief of Party of the AESA Project and USAID reserves its IP rights. It was piloted in three USAID’s Feed the Future districts of Bangladesh by three implementing partners-Dhaka Ahsania Mission, Care and mPower. A-Card is a debit card specially designed for SHFs, which facilitates financial access to credit for digital purchase of farm inputs at low interest rate (10%), no collateral requirement and flexible payback period (6 month tenure).

This evaluation was conducted in October-November 2017 on A-Card holders who took and repaid their loans before May 2017 in order to assess the product’s impact on productivity and profitability. The evaluation also involved one to one interviews with 200 SHFs, key informant interviews with 5 input retailers and 2 MFI agents who were all part of A-Card to assess the overall impact beyond productivity and profitability and recommendations for A-Card. Read More...

Assessing the Impact of Digitally-Enabled Microcredit for Smallholder Farmers

mSTAR/Bangladesh, working with the Agriculture Extension Support Activity (AESA) led by Dhaka Ahsania Mission (DAM), conducted pre and post assessments in Faridpur district to understand the impact that a micro-credit product (called A-Card) delivered to smallholder farmers through Bank Asia’s agent banking had on participating farmers, associated ag-input retailers, and other relevant stakeholders, as well as to understand what further action can be taken to improve uptake of these services.

This report includes findings from the pre and post assessment surveys, beginning with farmers and retailers’ demographic information, including age, sex and education; as well as their mobile phone ownership, access and usage patterns. It also examines the knowledge and perceptions that stakeholders have of digital financial services (DFS), in addition to their perceived benefits from A-Card, associated challenges, and opportunities to scale up. In addition, this report includes some findings from a separate survey conducted solely by AESA. It concludes with recommendations based on the findings and feedback from stakeholders. Read More...

USAID – AESA: A-card Progress and Prospects

Financial constraints are more pervasive in agriculture and related activities than other sectors, reflecting both the nature of agricultural activity and the average size of farms. Despite the rapid development of financial services, a majority of smallholders worldwide lack access to the key services they need to compete and improve their livelihoods.

This report identifies the A-card process pilot in Bangladesh. The A-card is a brand new micro-credit mechanism aimed at providing smallholder farmers financing to digital purchase of farm inputs at a low cost. Read More...

Evaluation of ICT Component of the Agricultural Extension Support Activity

The Institute for Computing in the Humanities, Arts, and Social Sciences at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign was charged with evaluating the information and communication technology (ICT) component of the Agriculture Extension Support Activity (AESA). Funded by USAID and implemented by the Modernizing Extension and Advisory Services (MEAS) Program at the University of Illinois, Dhaka Ahsania Mission (DAM), CARE, and mPower Social Enterprises of Dhaka, the goal of AESA is to strengthen extension and advisory services in Bangladesh.

This evaluation addresses the important questions connected to this project and identifies the extent to which ICT related goals were reached. Read More...

USAID Agricultural Extension Support Activity: Study on Gender Impact (AESA)

The USAID Agricultural Extension Support Activity (AESA) is a five years’ project funded by USAID that aims to enhance access to and utilization of agricultural extension services by smallholder farmers – both men and women. It is working for building capacities and creating support to a farmer demand-driven agricultural extension system, synergized by the use of information communication technology (ICT).

This research paper identifies the gender impact of this project. The research used both quantitative and qualitative approaches to understand the gender awareness and dynamics within the project. [50 pages] Read More...

AESC – Model Towards Strengthening Agricultural Extension Service in Bangladesh

In order to sustain the productivity in the agricultural sector in Bangladesh, there is a need to cope with rapid population growth, limited land base, and climate change effects, through the adoption of appropriate technologies, skills and knowledge.

Accordingly, USAID-AESA project has introduced agricultural extension services towards strengthening this service. This report provides an assessment of the performance of the AESC-Model. Read More...

AESA Performance of Mungbean in the South-Central Region of Bangladesh

Bangladesh has been experiencing a shortage of land for pulses, whereas its demand is increasing day by day. This, increasing yield remains to be the option for elevating pulse production in the country. In this regard, mungbean can play an important role especially in the South-Central Region of Bangladesh.

This study was undertaken for scoping increased yield and profitability of the crop in the region. Field experiments were conducted using three genotypes, four locations environments, two seasonal environments, and two managements. Read More...

Outcome Harvesting evaluation OIKKO (Unity): Bangladesh

OIKKO (Unity in Bangla) was a 3 year project (March 2015 – February 2018) delivered by CARE Bangladesh with support from CARE Austria, with funding from the European Union and the Austrian Development Agency. The overall objective of the project was: a strong and united civil society promotes the implementation of fundamental labour rights in the ready-made garment (RMG) sector in Bangladesh.
OIKKO was implemented through the following actors: CARE Bangladesh and 3 partners Sheva Nari O Shishu Kallyan Kendra (SHEVA, Gazipur), Agrajattra (AJ, Chittagong), and Karmojibi Nari (KN).
The main interventions of the project were:
• Forming solidarity groups of women RMG workers known as EKATA (Empowering Through Knowledge and Transformative Action).
• EKATA members with a high leadership potential were selected to form larger Community Worker Associations (CWA) to facilitate engagement and participation in trade unions and federation.
• Form Community Support Groups to help foster a supportive environment for the project.
• A national platform to engage civil society.
• Gender sensitisation training for trade union and federation leaders.
• Publications including commissioned research on, for instance, minimum wage.
• A national convention to take stock of OIKKO and share achievements. Read More...

Measuring Social Norms and Girls’ Empowerment Report of the SenseMaker study of the

This report presents the findings from a SenseMaker story collection process conducted as part of a qualitative evaluation of CARE International’s Tipping Point project in Sunamganj, Bangladesh. Tipping Point aims to reduce the incidence of child marriage through shifting social norms at the community level, addressing the root causes of the practice and seeking to holistically effect change at the level of individuals, communities, and the broader enabling environment. The SenseMaker study was conducted by the Overseas Development Institute and researchers from Jahangirnagar University, in close cooperation with Tipping Point’s two local implementing
partners, JASHIS and ASD in Sunamganj district. The evaluation team collected 875 stories in total: 325 from girls; 214 from boys; and 336 from mothers and fathers of adolescents.

The primary analytical approach for assessing the nature of change within Tipping Point communities was comparing the data from Boundary Partners (girls and boys who participate in Tipping Point ‘Fun Centre’ groups, and parents of adolescents who participate in Fun Centre groups) with data from non-Boundary Partners from the same village. Read More...

Desk review to conduct assessment of ‘value for money’ provided through CARE International’s programmes to vulnerable and marginalised populations in Asia

This case study has been prepared as part of a study commissioned by CARE International (CI) to assess its long-term impact achieved in the Asia Pacific region between 2005 and 2010. As part of this process CI explored the extent to which socio-economic cost benefit analysis could be applied on a sample of CI projects, using an adapted form of the Social Return on Investment (SROI) methodology1.
The aim of the study was to gain a better understanding of CI’s ability to deliver added benefit and value to participating communities and their societies, given invested resources, whilst testing the feasibility of applying an adapted form of SROI to projects. The study is also expected to contribute to a wider discussion on the usefulness, and applicability, of demonstrating value for money within the contexts CI works.
Given CI’s focus on empowerment, and especially of marginalised and vulnerable women, this case study presents the analysis and findings of four projects: Plantation Community Empowerment Project (PCEP), Sri Lanka Social & Economic Transformation of the Ultra Poor (SETU), Bangladesh Integrated Rural Development and Disaster Mitigation (IRDM), Cambodia Poverty Alleviation in Remote Upland Areas (PARUA), Laos
It is important to note that the projects selected for analysis were initiatives within wider programmes and, as such, were not intended to be illustrative of the overall programme’s magnitude or effectiveness. The SROI methodology is a good fit for CI’s projects due to its participatory nature and valuation of things that matter to stakeholders. However, due to the desk-based nature of this study, these findings should be seen as purely indicative as field research would be required to build a definitive and an accurate picture of impact. Read More...

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Keywords

Adolescents Agriculture AIDS Basic and Girls' Education Cash Vouchers Child Health child marriage Child Nutrition Civil Society and Governance Climate Change Conflict Mitigation COVID 19 COVID 19 RGA Disaster Risk Reduction Economic Development Education Emergency and Humanitarian Aid Entrepreneurship Environment FFBS Food Security Gender Gender Based Violence Gender Equality Health Livelihoods Maternal Migrants and Refugees Natural Resources Nexus Nutrition Resilience RGA Sexual Sexual and Reproductive Health Shelter Social Norms Usaid Value Chain VSLA WASH Water Women's Economic Empowerment Women's Empowerment Youth