MIS AND GIS ................................. 2

GIS AND PROJECT

PLANING ..................................... 3-5

GIS AND THE WAY

FORWARD ................................... 11

GIS in focus U S I N G G E O G R A P H I C I N F O R M A T I O N S Y S T E M S ( G I S ) T O B O L S T E R

E F F E C T I V E P R O J E C T M A N A G E M E N T .

The Canadian Hunger Foundation (CHF) is using a type of technology in Bangladesh and Sri Lanka which helps to strategically plan and evaluate development interventions using Geographic Information Systems (GIS). This brief focuses on our lessons in GIS from Bangladesh.

Project Information CHF and a local partner jointly

implemented the “Sustainable

Livelihoods for the Ultra

Poor” (SLUP) project in

Chandpur District, Bangladesh

from 2006 to 2011. The project

worked directly with10,500

ultra-poor households,

providing a broad range of

asset and capacity building

support with a goal to

sustainably improve and

diversify beneficiaries’

livelihoods, increase their

incomes and achieve food

security. In addition, 19,500

households benefitted from

community projects. The

project was funded by the

Canadian International

Development Agency.

As a Canadian international development non-profit organization, the Canadian Hunger Foundation has been relentless in its mission to enable poor rural communities in developing countries to attain sustainable livelihoods and address the persistent cycle of rural poverty. In the last 50 years, CHF has implemented over 800 projects in more than 50 countries, helping millions in Asia, Africa and the Americas to improve their daily lives.

GIS AND PROJECT

MONITORING ............................. 6-10

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Management Information System (MIS) The project’s Management Information System (MIS) was created to monitor livelihood activities in each household and to track the impact of the project. The MIS is a computerized access database system which continuously processes, integrates, stores and analyzes project information. Project beneficiaries were supported in designing

livelihood plans and trained in measuring and recording their income, sales, expenditures and production quantities in a simple family information book. Project staff visited households regularly and continuously built beneficiaries’ capacity in business record keeping and planning to ensure the accuracy of the family book records. Each month field staff collected this information using standardized data collection formats and sent it to the monitoring and evaluation

team to screen and input into the MIS system. Checks and balances were in place for senior staff to spot check household information collected by beneficiaries to ensure validity. Questionnaires were tested in the field for fine-tuning and regular follow-up support was provided to data enumerators by CHF to ensure the accuracy of the data collection and data analysis process.

Project information in the MIS was geographically referenced through a Geographic Information System (GIS). During the project planning stages a Participatory Rural Appraisal (PRA) was conducted in each village that the project targeted. Community members were involved in designing village maps and marking their resources and mapping out household locations. On particular occasions this process was facilitated through the use of Geographic Positioning System (GPS) technology. These village maps were then overlaid onto digitized government land maps and linked into

the MIS. By establishing a comprehensive monitoring system that efficiently and accurately captured project information and by easily linking this information to the local geography and resources, the project was able to enhance its planning, monitoring, analysis, reporting processes, ultimately increasing implementation effectiveness and deepening impact.

Snapshot 1. The database Interface provides information on each beneficiary and their change throughout the project on a number of variables including income, food security, access to services, gender roles within the household, decision making and access to assets, business development and training attended, etc.

Geographic Information System (GIS)

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GIS and Project Planning Targeting of Sanitary Latrines The project strived to comprehensively support ultra-poor households to attain sustainable livelihoods. One of the

project’s activities was to deliver sanitary latrines and hygiene and sanitation awareness to the most vulnerable

communities. With the assistance of GIS, project staff were able to determine which communities had the highest

proportion of households with no sanitary latrines and, as a result, establish a cost-effective distribution strategy.

Through its targeted approach, the project was able to build and distribute 1,851 sanitary latrines and provide training

and hygiene promotion to those households located in the most critical clusters (areas with the greatest percentage

of households lacking latrines). Proper use of sanitary latrines increased from 35% at baseline to 83% by the end of the

project.

In order to mitigate the effects of shallow tube well arsenic contamination in the Chandpur District, the project

installed 400 deep tube wells into the deep aquifer, providing access to drinking water to slightly over 15,000

households. Staff used GIS maps to effectively target the well locations and to better coordinate with local

Government and other NGOs working in the area on issues related to safe water. The maps pinpointed the location of

existing wells, assisting all stakeholders to ensure adequate distribution and avoid overlapping and replication.

Targeting of Deep Tube Wells

Snapshot 2. This map shows the location of existing deep tube wells in the project areas (in pink) and new wells installed by the project (in blue) and government and other NGOs (yellow)

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GIS and Project Planning Targeting of Link Roads In order to better link beneficiaries to markets and government services, rural paths and narrow roads were constructed and pre-existing ones were upgraded and

maintained in the project area. In total, 18 kms of link roads were constructed or refurbished benefitting over 3,000 Households. The establishment of link roads had many multiplier effects, ensuring year-round access to schools and

medical care and catalyzing project beneficiaries` small businesses. Using the project’s GIS, senior staff ensured that link roads were being constructed or repaired in strategic areas; essentially in areas that benefited the most vulnerable population, that were closest to livelihood groups and

potential marketing clusters, and that provided a link to main roads, preferably those connected with local markets or government services.

Snapshot 3. This map shows two planned link roads (circled in blue) planned for construction. The potential road circled in red was flagged by staff as not suitable for construction, as it did not link to other main roads.

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Establishing Livelihood Groups and Marketing Clusters

Snapshot 4. This map shows the clustering of

livelihood groups that are in close proximity and close to markets. The white stars

represent the location of livelihood groups. The

green circle shows three livelihood groups in close proximity that have been

clustered and organized into one larger marketing.

Early in the project, beneficiaries were organized into livelihood

groups (livestock, agriculture, business) which were composed of 15

-20 members. These groups allowed for efficient transfer of

technical assistance and training, provided a platform for

information exchange and boosted social capital. During the

project’s final year, a key focus was to group the most successful

livelihood groups into larger clusters in order to capitalize on

economies of scale. Two to three livelihood groups were clustered and their strengths and confidence harnessed and re-

directed towards economic initiatives such as value addition, bulk purchasing and selling, and linkages with private

sector and government service providers.

The success of the Marketing Clusters was based on a sound understanding of their environment, particularly the

economic context and infrastructure. With this in mind, project staff used the MIS/GIS to select and group Marketing

Clusters. GIS maps were used to assess which groups were within close proximity of each other and were connected to

infrastructure networks (i.e. roads, market centers, health centers, government services etc.).

GIS & Project Planning

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GIS & Project Monitoring Monitoring Income Change As a result of its holistic and targeted intervention, incomes of benefiting households more than doubled over the project period (real income increment of 142% for female-headed households and 133% for male-headed households).

GIS maps provided the capability of layering project data and geographic information simultaneously and helped project staff understand potential reasons (cause and effect) behind differences in income increases and trends across different areas of the project. For instance, the project found that flood

prone areas had lower income increases (yellow areas), except in those places where households specifically chose livestock rearing as opposed to paddy production as a livelihood strategy. On the other hand (dark brown) were generally located in higher lands -beneficiaries could harvest 3 crops in a year - and were close to main commercial roads and networks.

Snapshot 5. This map shows the unions in the project areas highlighted by income increases. Those areas that are dark brown represent the unions where on average project beneficiaries experienced an income increase of over 120% throughout the lifetime of the project. Those areas that are light yellow represent unions where beneficiaries experienced an average income increase of between 0 and 90%.

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GIS & Project Monitoring Monitoring Livelihood Activities Beneficiaries worked with field staff to establish an individualized Livelihood Plan - a long term strategy to capitalize on their strengths in order to improve the

wellbeing of their households. This was based upon a comprehensive analysis of a household’s assets (Financial, Social, Physical, Natural and Human) and aspirations. As part of this Livelihood Plan, households chose a specific

economic enhancement activity (i.e. cow rearing, beef fattening, short-term land leasing to cultivate rice, fish trading, rickshaw pulling etc.) which the project then supported them in.

After one year of implementation, analysis of the profits of these economic activities resulted in low return on

investment for agricultural land leasing. Using MIS and GIS, project staff

determined that these low profits were exclusively related to flood prone areas (where rice can only be harvested once a year) and devised a strategy to ensure

that future beneficiaries (to be selected in years two and three) located in these flood-prone areas directed their aspirations towards more profitable and geographic-appropriate economic activities, such as beef fattening and/or cow rearing initiatives.

Snapshot 6. This map shows the target beneficiaries who choose agriculture as their main livelihood activity, in relation to the flood prone areas.

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GIS & Project Monitoring

A significant percentage of targeted households could not afford to build, repair or reconstruct their houses after they were damaged or destroyed by monsoon

rain and other tropical storms.

The project therefore mapped those households that were in need of work and provided support on home repair in order to protect beneficiaries’ health, security and well-being. Elevating homes off the ground was also undertaken for 20% of households in low land/

flood affected areas to ensure they were protected from perennial floods. GIS maps were used by project staff to showcase improvements in beneficiaries’ housing conditions to local authorities and to channel

additional government support to under-serviced areas.

Snapshot 7 (right above). This map shows the housing status of beneficiaries in Uttor Gohat Union prior to project interventions. The photo below shows a homestead with unsafe housing.

Snapshot 8 (right). This map shows the housing status of beneficiaries in Uttor Gohat Union after project interventions. The location of households that were still in red status (poor housing) were given to Government departments to address post-project.

Monitoring Housing Conditions

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GIS & Project Monitoring Monitoring Graduation from Ultra-Poverty The overall impact of the project on the well-being of targeted households was assessed through a series of comprehensive graduation surveys covering all 10,500 target households. The survey was designed to capture the proportion of households ‘graduating’ out of ultra-poverty after almost 4 years of project implementation. Beneficiary

households were assessed throughout the project based on a stringent set of six weighted parameters (see Figure below).

Households received points in each category, which were then added and averaged based on a weighting system. For example income made the biggest difference to a household’s graduation score (30%) followed by Food Security and Resilience (both 20%), whereas the Education of children had the least impact (5% of total). In the project, there was a greater focus on income building activities therefore it received a greater weighting. Based on their score households

were placed into three categories: green, yellow and red.

Green: Scored 76-100 points (Household has graduated out of ultra-poverty)

Yellow: Scored 61-75 points (Household is moving towards graduation)

Red: Scored 60 points or below (Household is lagging)

Green households were considered to have graduated, as they have surpassed all set targets on the above parameters and are progressing well. Yellow households were yet to achieve some of the targets but were on the right track for eventually graduating out of ultra-poverty. Meanwhile, red households were far from reaching graduation targets, had many hurdles to cross before approaching graduation, and, as a result, would likely remain ultra-poor.

GIS maps helped project staff to physically locate and identify households by graduation status, and also enabled staff to better understand the drivers and constraints associated with achieving graduation.

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CHF’s Graduation scheme also provided critical feedback to improve programing as staff used GIS to design more effective follow-up strategies for targeted areas or

households. The Graduation classification (green, yellow, red) facilitated a targeted approach to project implementation in terms of capacity development and support mechanisms during the final year of the project. Project staff intensified

follow-up support, asset management training and coaching to red and yellow households, whereas interventions for green households’ focused on value-addition training and linking green households to producer groups and markets.

Snapshot 9. This map shows the exact location of households and their graduation status—Green (Graduated from ultra-poverty), Yellow (moving towards Graduation) or Red (requiring extra support).

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GIS & the Way Forward Learning Managers need an effective way to plan, monitor and evaluate development interventions. GIS provides an added value by enabling managers to:

Effectively plan and target interventions (locations of wells, latrines, roads, infrastructure);

Plan business and marketing initiatives;

Improve Resource allocation;

Monitor and evaluate interventions;

Create a learning environment; and

Enhance community participation.

GIS is particularly pertinent for initiatives that depend on geography and location, such as Climate Change Adaptation, Disaster Risk Reduction and Value Chain Development projects. The analysis of the trends and lessons learned on GIS and MIS are valuable in CHF’s continuous efforts to improve its Sustainable Livelihoods model in Bangladesh and elsewhere and can inform other organizations working in similar geographic and thematic areas.

For adequate integration of GIS into traditional project monitoring and evaluation systems consider the following recommendations:

Be clear about which staff will be using MIS/GIS and hire and train accordingly. Provide intensive upfront support on data collection, management and analysis for staff. Provide training to M&E staff on interpreting

and analyzing data (particularly in relation to GIS). This needs to be coupled with adequate time, outlined in their job descriptions, for data analysis.

Maintain a balance between complexity of data collection tools and systems (which provide greater accuracy) and ease of use (keeping it simple and user-friendly).

Use simple and common technologies for data collection with project staff. Current technologies allow for

accurate geo-locating data using smartphones and traditional maps. As technology advances it is less likely that external consultants with complicated GPS devices would be needed to set up MIS/GIS systems.

Create regular feedback and reporting sessions amongst staff to review and assess data.

Ensure laptop and internet connectivity in the field offices in order to share maps/GIS information with staff.

Consider feedback mechanisms to government and communities. Maps can make a real difference in community level discussions and beneficiaries themselves can explain and interpret the results shown.

Create a clear plan for the use, analysis and sharing of information both internally and externally. This can include a knowledge sharing strategy which outlines the methodology and responsibilities of staff for sharing and disseminating lessons and results to

other stakeholders so information sharing goes beyond reporting purposes.

Recommendations

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At CHF, we take a different view – seeing assets instead of liabilities, opportunities instead of scarcity, and power instead of helplessness. CHF engages local organizations and individuals as partners in development, supporting them to achieve locally defined results.

MAKING A DIFFERENCE.

The Canadian Hunger Foundation’s fundamental approach is to respect and empower local populations as architects of their own development.

This approach helps identify hidden assets, untapped potential, networks

of people, skills and resources — all of which give communities the power

to transform themselves and create stable and sustainable livelihoods.

When communities own development — when families drive change with

their insights and enthusiasm — we can tap vast reservoirs of potential

and see change that lasts for generations.

Entire communities are working closely with CHF to design and

implement projects, while also providing advice throughout the process.

The result is that CHF’s programming is building sustainable results and

resilient communities.