Nobo Jatra Project

Background of the project

From the last few years’ natural disaster have been increases in the south-west coastal part of Bangladesh. On the contrary food security, nutrition and resilience is being decreases. This adverse impact is leading around 1 million people towards uncertain livelihood. South-west coastal belt is officially disaster-prone and vulnerable area of Bangladesh. ‘Nobo Jatra-New Beginning’ is a five year USAID Food for Peace Title II Development Food Assistance Project that seeks to improve gender equitable food security, nutrition and resilience in southwest Bangladesh. World Vision Bangladesh, together with the World Food Program and Winrock International and 3 local partner NGOS namely Shushilan, Nabolok and CODEC, undertook the program in September 2015, integrating interventions in MCHN, WASH, agriculture and alternative livelihoods, DRR, good governance and social accountability and gender to achieve its objectives. Nobo Jatra is jointly implemented in partnership with the Ministry of Disaster Management and Relief (MoDMR) of the Government of Bangladesh in Dacope and Koyra Upazila in Khulna and Shaymnagar and Kaliganj Upazila in Satkhira. Under the Nobo Jatra project, Nabolok has covered 16 Unions in Dacope upazila-9 and Koyra Upazilla-7 union. Where total household is 82347 and covering population 346247 direct and indirect beneficiaries. Nabolok is working as co-operating partner of World Food Program (WFP) for Disaster Risk Reduction through strong social structure, enhance socio economic status and improve livelihood security of poor and extreme-poor communities. Nabolok commenced its involvement in Dacope and Koyra Upazila with “Nobo Jatra-New Beginning” project with the guidance and assistance of World Food Program which will be end in September 2020.Goal and PurposeThe main goal and purposes of Nobo Jatra project are shown in the figure-

Purpose 1: Improved nutritional status of children under five years of age, pregnant and lactating women and adolescent girls

Purpose 2: Increased equitable household income

Purpose 3: Strengthened gender equitable ability of people, households, communities and systems to mitigate, adapt to and recover from natural shocks and stresses

Purpose 4: (Cross-Cutting): Improved social accountability and national policy engagement of service provision for vulnerable men and women

GOAL: Improved gender equitable food security, nutrition and resilience of                         vulnerable people in Bangladesh

 

1. Improved nutritional status of children under five years of age, pregnant and lactating women and adolescent girls

• Improved utilization of WASH practices

• Reduced adolescent pregnancy

• Increased equitable intake of nutritious food

• Increased practice of gender equitable norms in the household (food distribution, work load, supporting environment, and decision making)

2. Increased equitable household income

• Increased diversification of livelihoods for graduation participants

• Increased production of safe, diverse and nutritious-foods

3. Strengthened gender equitable ability of people, households, communities and systems to mitigate, adapt to and recover from natural shocks and stresses

• Strengthened disaster preparedness and response of communities

• Strengthened disaster preparedness and response of government institutions and private organizations

4. Improved social accountability and national policy engagement of service provision for vulnerable men and women

• Increased responsiveness of market-based local service providers (WASH & Agriculture) to meet the needs of vulnerable men & women

• Increased responsiveness of government service providers (H&N, DRR, AgE, social protection) to meet the needs of vulnerable men and women

• Vulnerable communities raise demand on social & technical services

Main beneficiaries

Nabolok is working in Dacope & Koyra Upazila of Khulna District as cooperating partner of WFP to cover a total no. of 1,36,679 beneficiaries. Among them 53,993 beneficiaries are directly involved in DRR activities and the segregation are as UzDMC- 89, UDMC- 645, Youth Volunteer Group – 800, VDC members 4712, School awareness raising program- 35666, Dry Run session performer-70, DRR HH level Preparedness- 12,011. Besides these 2480 MCHN beneficiaries and 206 PG beneficiaries, Community People-80,000 (Pot songs, Cyclone Simulation, Acceleration Fund, IDDR, NDPD (@ 16 Union) has been covered throughout the project year.

Finally, under the DRR resilience program all the population of the 2 upazila of Khulna District are considered as beneficiary and implemented an adapted graduation program for the most vulnerable households (60% female) and support increased use of formal savings.

Duration of the project

February 01, 2017 to September 30, 2020         

Major Interventions of the project

1. Conditional cash transfer to pregnant and lactating women

To address food access for pregnant women and children under 5 years of age, Nobo Jatra project is providing a monthly conditional cash transfer (CCT) of 2,200 taka per month for 15 months to a total of 23,600 pregnant women (PW) over the life of the project. As we know that increases in household food consumption and increased intake of animal proteins as well as an eight percent reduction in child stunting when a combination of direct cash assistance and nutrition BCC were provided. The CCT is conditional upon participation in nutrition education, three GMP visits and up to four ANC visits, and cover a 15-month period starting from enrollment.

The conditional cash transfer activity is implementing under the NJP in all the targeted upazila (Dacope & Koyra) using mobile banking technology. Given the variety of foods available in local markets and the strong integration of local and national markets the cash transfer has been effectively improve dietary diversity without disrupting local markets or leading to inflation. The project is include regular market monitoring of staple crops, including nutrient-rich fruits and vegetables, animal protein and oils, so that any challenges related to food availability or inflation can be identified and addressed early.

1. Promotional graduation

Nobo Jatra is implementing an adapted graduation programme for the most vulnerable households and facilitate graduation programme for the extremely poor. The goal of the graduation programme is to create a pathway out of poverty for 7,000 extremely poor families under 16 unions of 2 upazilas where at least 60 percent of the graduation programme participants chosen are women. The participants jointly through WFP Nobo Jatra staff, local communities and government in consultation with World Vision and Winrock International by using participatory tools and methodologies. Nobo Jatra is implementing a number of  activities  as mentioned in the activity section to make the promotional graduation successful and bring the targeted extreme poor families out of poverty as well as enjoy improve living standards.

B.1. IGA selection and development

B.1.1. Identify locally potential IGA/Enterprise and develop IGA/enterprise profile (research cost)

B.1.2. Organize and conduct beneficiaries training on entrepreneurship development and     business plan

B.1.3. Organize and conduct technical training on specific IGA/enterprise

B.1.4. Organize and conduct accounts keeping training for women entrepreneurs/ cost benefit analysis

B.2: Productive asset development (Cash transfer)

B.2.1.1. Selection of financial institutions (Bank)

B.2.1.2. Selection of mobile company

B.2.1.3. MOU with financial institution and mobile company

B.2.1.4. Open mobile bank account at selected financial institution (bank)

 

B.2.2: Asset development

B.2.2.2. Workshop on Linkage with input and output suppliers

B.2.2.3. Effective linkage with technical service providers including government, Product exhibition and Visibility of business

B.2.2.4. Monitoring and follow-up of IGA activities

B.2.2.5. Ensure accounts keeping of every individual business of beneficiaries

1. Strengthened community disaster preparedness and response

 

Increased capacity of UzDMC and UDMC to develop and implement RRAP and CDMAP, Community participation and decision-making in disaster preparedness & response activities and increased community knowledge on DRR.

Improvements in household and community resilience in the southwest coastal context is required the coordinated and focused support of multiple actors, the most of whom are households and communities themselves. The project is making improvement the functionality of local-level governance structures that can plan and coordinate resilience-building activities to effectively target and benefit all segments of society, support modification and adaptation of community-based plans, and facilitate meaningful coordination with district, Upazila and Union governance structures. All DRR activities include appropriate representation of men, women, boys, and girls in committees/ leadership positions, trainings, and gender sensitive identification of risks and response plans.  Through these processes, Nobolok facilitated to enhance the role of local populations, LGIs, youths, women, government agencies and other stakeholders through a series of activities. The major activities are addressed in the year of 2019:

• Disaster Preparedness Refreshers training for VDCs, DMCs

• Refresher Training for the CRA Team to conduct RRAP Review Session at Greater Ward level on PRA tools, CRA, RRAP and CDMAP Revision

• Conduct Risk Reduction Action Plan Review Session at Greater Ward level by the trained Youths, VDC & UDMC Members

• Disaster Preparedness training

• Observing National Disaster Preparedness Day and International Day for Disaster Reduction

• DRR Dry Run Session & Display, Cyclone Simulation

• Youth/CPP Volunteers logistics/transportation to assist HH level disaster preparedness

• Awareness Rising Session for Primary School and High School Students and community on Disaster Risk Reduction

• Organizing Pot Songs to aware community peoples on Disaster Preparedness & Risk Reduction

 Major Achievements

CCT MCHN E-money account opening for pregnant & lactating mother:  To address nutritious food access for pregnant & lactating mother and children NJP has taken initiatives and resulting 1477 no of E-Money account opened for MCHN beneficiaries in both Dacope & Koyra Upazila. Each and all beneficiaries received Banglalink SIM card along with open bKash accounts at the same time CP staff facilitated to 1498 CCT account opening process and provide training/orientation on E-money account operating systems at union level. During the period of account opening, NJP staff Field Facilitator provided orientation/ training to the beneficiaries on how to operate bKash account and the main topics were how to check balance, cash out process, challenges and how to keep their account safe.

UPG E-money account opening for pregnant & lactating mother: For PG beneficiaries like pregnant & lactating mother the NJP opened CCT E-money account as financial support. The beneficiaries got a Banglalink SIM and open bKash/ e-money account. NJP CP staff provided orientation all of them during the e-money accounts open time on operating systems and procedure, cash withdrawal process, confidential PIN Code and other issues. Disaster preparedness at their Households and community level also discussed during the orientation accordingly. Up to July 2019 the NJP opened 299 CCT E-money Account and trained on it total 312 beneficiaries.

UDMC Meeting: To make regularization the UDMC meeting at union level, Nobo Jatra Project conducted 105 meetings through the project, and total 2780 members participated, among them male was 2173 and female was 607 in both all unions of Dacope and Koyra Upazila.

UzDMC Meeting: Upazila Disaster Management Committee is the second tyre of Disaster management Committee, so to active the committee and regularization their interventions, the NJP organized total  6 meetings conducted through the  project, and total 116 members participated, among them male was 100 and female was 16 in both Dacope and Koyra Upazila.

Cyclone Simulation: Cyclone Simulation is the major part of Nobo Jatra Project. To build up awareness against of disaster, and to reduce its risk, Cyclone Simulation can be a sign able demo for the community especially on disaster prone area. So to serve this purpose Nobo Jatra organized a Cyclone Simulation in both 16 unions of Dacope and Koyra Upazila. Total 39,303 people watched this session and aware about disaster preparedness, among them male was 20686 and female was 18617.

School Awareness Program: School Program of NJP is the awareness raising program of DRR. So to serve this purpose the NJP staff arranged a session on DRR. The program was facilitated through power point presentation, video presentation on DRR/ cyclone simulation, and end of the session all students participated in quiz competition. Up to July 14, 2019 total 25 session conducted in both area, and total 12,576 people e.g. students, guardian, teachers and local communities participated here.

Observing National Disaster Preparedness Day for Disaster Reduction: Nobo Jatra Project observed 18 National Disaster Preparedness day at district, upazila and union levels. All level people like Deputy Commissioner of Khulna, ADC Khulna, DRRO, UNO, PIO and other govt. official of district and upazila level, Upazila Chairman, Union Parishad Chairman, local elite person and communities participated in the program. Total 13,649 people participated in the program, among them male was 6908 and female was 6741.

Strengthened capacity on disaster preparedness and response of UDMC, VDC, YVG and communities: To build up capacity on disaster preparedness and emergency response of disaster, the Nobo Jatra Project organized different types of program like training, orientation and meeting to the Union Disaster Management Committee, Village Development and Youth Group Volunteers. In both Dacope and Koyra Upazila total 230 Village Development Committee (4370 members) and 16 Youth Group Volunteer (800 members) is working on disaster preparedness. The NJP is building their capacity through providing different training, orientation and meeting. In this training and or orientation the UDMC members also involved and provided their support/ contribution.