Summary of Terminal Evaluation
1.

Outline of the ProjectCountry: People’s Republic of Bangladesh

Project title: Participatory Rural Development Project(Phase 2)

Issue/Sector:

RuralDevelopment

and Cooperation scheme: Technical Cooperation

Governance
Division in charge: JICA Bangladesh OfficeTotal costs:550milion yen(as of Terminal Evaluation)

Period of(R/D):JuneCooperation

2010

1,

2005-May 31, Partner Country’s Implementing Organization：
Supporting Organization in Japan:
Center for Southeast Asian Studies, Kyoto University,
Institute of Developing Economies, Japan External
Trade Organization, and Shaplaneer

Related Cooperation: Japan Overseas Cooperation Volunteers (JOCVs)
1. Background of the Project
In Bangladesh, where over 70% of the population resides in rural areas, vertically structured
administration and insufficient administrative resources have been preventing rural population fromreceiving necessary services.
In response to this issue, “Link Model”, which is a framework to link village and local government
institutions concerning rural development for incorporating needs of villagers in the development
process, as a strategy to connect local administration and rural villages was proposed based on theexperiences of the Joint Study on Agriculture and Rural Development (JSARD) in 1986-90 and the Joint
Study on Rural Development Experiment (JSRDE) in 1992-95. The Participatory Rural Development
Project (PRDP) was implemented from 2000 to 2004 with technical cooperation of JICA to establish theLink Model in four Unions of Kalihati Upazila, Tangail District. The Link Model consists of the Village
Committee (VC)* for each village; the Union Coordination Committee composed of Union Parishad(UP) chairman and members, VC representatives, extension workers of Nation Building Departments(NBDs) and NGOs; and the Union Development Officers (UDOs). The Link Model promotes
coordination among administrative services, and link administrative services to villagers. Villagers’
initiative is most valued in establishing these horizontal and vertical links.
Based on these experiences, JICA and BRDB have started Participatory Rural Development Project
Phase 2 (PRDP2) in 2005 aiming to achieve the project purpose ‘Link Model functions in the project
area and the extending system of the Link Model is established’* Village Committee (VC) was renamed as Gram Committee (GC) in the course of the Project.
2. Project Overview(1) Overall Goal
Link Model* is extended in Bangladesh in accordance with the regional characteristics.

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* A framework to incorporate the needs of rural population in the process of development by linking
villages and local government institutions concerning rural development.
(2) Project Purpose
Link Model functions in the project area and the extending system of the Link Model is established.
(3) Outputs
Output 1: Union Development Officers (UDOs) and Organizers responsible for overall coordination atUnion Coordination Committee (UCC), are institutionalized in BRDB
Output 2: UCC functions as a platform to facilitate overall coordination among Upazila, Union, andVillage
Output 3: Gram Committee (GC) functions as an organization to ensure villagers’ participation in ruraldevelopment process in order to contribute to the improvement of the villagers’ quality of life
Output 4: The operational system of the Link Model is established in BRDB
Output 5: The system of human resource development for stakeholders of Link Model is established andenhanced.
(4) Inputs
Japanese side：
Long-term Expert: 11

Equipment: Machinery and Equipment

Short-term Expert: 5Local cost (Up to November 2009): 75,852,053 TK

Trainees received: 13 for Training in Japan and 99 for Training in India and Thailand
Bangladeshi Side：Counterpart: 26
Land and Facilities: A project office at Headquarters and three field offices and a training centerLocal Cost: 38,814,000 TK local currency
2. Evaluation TeamMembers

Bangladesh Side:ofMs. Zahida Khanam

Team Leader, Deputy Secretary, RDCD

Evaluation Ms Nasreen Akhtar Chowdhury

Deputy Secretary, ERD

Team

Senior Assistant Chief, Planning Commission

Mr. Ranjit Kumar Sarkar
Mr. Mohammed Ariful Haque

Assistant Director, IMEDMr. Mustafa Kamal

Joint Director, BRDB

Japan Side:Mr. Eiichiro ChoTeam

Leader,SeniorRepresentative,

Bangladesh

Period ofMr. Masanobu Kiyoka

Rural Development

Mr. Tetsuro Tsutsui

Participatory Development

Ms. Mitsuru Kayama

Governance/Evaluation Planning

Ms. Shimako Narahara

Evaluation Analysis

14 January - 4 February, 2010

Type of Evaluation: Terminal Evaluation

Evaluation
3. Results of Evaluation
1. Project Performance-Project Purpose

xiiJICAThe first portion of the Project Purpose, “Link Model functions in the project area”, has been achieved.
The latter half, “the extending system the Link Model is established” is most likely to be achieved by theend of the project period, as the Succeeding Phase by BRDB, which will apply the Link Model in 200
unions nationwide, is expected to be approved by the government of Bangladesh soon.
-Implementation Process
Some of the issues in regards to the implementation process are noted below:(1) Japanese experts and counterpart personnel, as well as project staff including UDO/Os, havecommunicated and collaborated smoothly;(2) Since the end of 2008, the project has intensively communicated within BRDB and with other donor
projects/programs resulting in the awareness of and interest in the Link Model and its components
being increased in Bangladesh’s development circle;(3) Some of the activities in Titas and Meherpur Sadar, including the implementation of the GC
schemes, were not conducted in a timely manner due to the delayed disbursement of the budget by
the Bangladeshi side. As delays in budget disbursement frequently occur in Bangladesh, it isadvisable for BRDB to design a flexible annual working plan in the Succeeding Phase so that
activities can accommodate the change of schedule corresponding to changes in budget availability;(4) JCC has contributed to redefining the direction of project activities. As PDM had assumed thatproject activity would not have effects beyond the project area, JCC, considering the project
achievements, and surrounding political and social environment, had advised the following for theproject:(a) to expand the project area from the original 15 unions to the current 20 unions with the activities
in the new 5 unions being conducted solely by BRDB;(b) to design a Succeeding Phase implemented by BRDB after the completion of the project;(c) to clarify on how best to promote national institutionalization of the UCCM system, such asincluding it in a national legal document;(5) JOCVs dispatched to some of the unions where the project operates have developed constructive
relationships with the local people and the UDO/Os who are in charge of the unions. They haveencouraged villagers to actively participate in project activities such as GC formulation, GCM, andfield proposal type training provided by the project and thus contributed to the smooth
implementation of the project. Some JOCVs intensively support the work of UDO/Os and otherproject personnel at the field level. Although JOCVs’ input is not defined in PDM, theircontributions to the successful implementation of the project and to the achievement of outputs
should be noted.
2.

Summary of Evaluation Results

2-1. Relevance - highly relevant(1) Consistency with Bangladeshi policy and appropriateness of the project approach
The National Rural Development Policy (NRDP; 2001) identifies union and upazila level coordination to
be an issue to be addressed through rural development. The National Strategy for Accelerated Poverty
Reduction II, which was in the process of being finalized at the time of the study, incorporates NRDP
contents in rural development. The strategy also highlights the strengthening of local government, suchas through introducing local planning, budgeting, and monitoring, and ensuring access to information onxiii

government services. Aligned with these policy and strategy, the project has pursued rural development
through the strengthening of local governance with an approach to link local government (union andupazila) with the local people, through which governmental service delivery is able to become moreaccessible, and union level governance is strengthened with people’s participation in the planning andmonitoring of local development activities.
(2) Consistency with Japan’s aid policy
JICA’s Country Assistance Strategy (2009) and Country Assistance Program (2006) for Bangladesh
identify both local governance and rural development as priority sectors for assistance. As such, theproject is consistent with Japan’s aid policy.
2-2. Effectiveness – Relatively HighUCCM system (Output 2) has proved to be especially effective in improving people’s access togovernment services and in increasing people’s participation in local governance procedures, such as theplanning and implementation of local development work. UDO/Os (Output 1) and GC (Output 3) havealso contributed to the achievement of the project purpose.
It should be noted that the latter half of the project purpose, “the extending the Link Model isestablished”, has not been fully achieved as of the time of this study. BRDB, the counterpart agency,
developed the Succeeding Phase plan in 2009, which is expected to be approved in a few months.
2-3. Efficiency – Middle
The Japanese side inputs have been effectively utilized though it could be argued that some of it,
specifically the allocation of Japanese experts and Bangladeshi project-employed staff, wascomparatively larger in scale than similar projects in Bangladesh. The Bangladeshi side inputs weresufficient although the delay in budget disbursement has caused problems in the implementation of someactivities.
2-4. Impact – Highly Positive(1) Impacts at the overall goal level:
The Link Model and its core aspects (specifically UCCM) have been appreciated and adopted by otherdonor projects as well as governmental projects and are likely to influence union level governance inmany parts of the country. Incorporation of the UCCM system into the country’s legal system can be said
to be reasonably probable.
(2) Impact on other projects outside of JICA cooperation:
The design of the project, as described in PDM, had assumed that the impacts would not reach beyond
the project area and/or BRDB. However, due to intensive communication at the central levelgovernmental and the donor personnel, and promotion of the Link Model, by the project team, especiallyafter the mid-term evaluation, the awareness of and the interest in the Model has greatly increased to thecurrent semi-national level.
(3) Impact at the field level:
Villagers have started to notice the lack of transparency in union budget utilization by UP members.
Through implementation of GC schemes, villagers have shown that a local development activity. The
villagers wonder why UP conducted work is less cost-effective and want to have reasonable explanation.
No negative impacts have been observed by the evaluation team.
2.5 Sustainability – Hopefully HighThe sustainability of the project’s effect is considered hopefully high as it is difficult to judge the effects

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at the moment due to the current circumstances surrounding the project being highly dynamic over theremaining 4 months. The evaluation team has deemed the following points to be worth noting:(1) Throughout the project period for the BRDB Succeeding Phase (up to July 2014), a complete set ofLink Model will continue to be implemented and will be expanded to 200 unions nationwide.
(2) Should BRDB Succeeding Phase retain the capacity of the project staff through daily activities, andutilize their experience and field based knowledge, the quality of operations should be stable andhigh.
(3) GCs’ sustainability largely depends on whether they have active relationships with the people
outside the village, such as UDO or NBD extension workers. It would be important for theSucceeding Phase to encourage both existing and newly formed GCs to continue to attend theUCCM so that they would keep in contact with the society outside the village.
(4) Outside the BRDB Succeeding Phase, the core aspects of the Link Model (specifically UCCM) areexpected to be expanded through other projects including the HL program (World Bank) and the One
House One Farm project (RDCD/BRDB). In the unions that adopt UCCM through these channels,
the role of UDO would be primarily played by the UP secretary. It would be desirable for these UP
secretaries and other stakeholders to learn from UDOs with project experience.
(5) As for the incorporation of the UCCM system into the national legal framework, when realized, thisshould be a great encouragement to unions that are interested in adopting the Link Model.
3. Factors promoting sustainability and impact（１）Factors concerning to Planning-A consensus on focusing on the Link Model expansion in the latter half of the project:

It was agreed by BRDB, the project, and JICA that the project activities for the latter half of the project
would focus on the promotion of the Link Model and preparation for its expansion given that the Link
Model which had been established in the 15 unions in the then project area. The decision effectively
shifted the direction of the project, which contributed to the semi-national impact the project has created.
（２） Factors concerning to the Implementation Process-Effective involvement of management level officials of the Bangladeshi government.

Since 2008, the project has effectively promoted the Link Model to management level officials of thekey governmental agencies, such as RDCD (supervisory authority of BRDB), ERD, Planning
Commission, and LGD, by having intensive communication, and inviting them to project sites as well as
Third Country Training in Thailand. This effort has contributed to the officials’ support for therealization of BRDB Succeeding Phase.
-Bengali-fluent Experts

Most Experts dispatched for the project have been able to communicate in the Bengali language, which
has made collaboration with counterparts, project staff, and project beneficiaries smooth and more in
depth.
-JOCVs as field catalysts:

JOCVs have worked as de-facto counterparts to UDO/Os in the field, and encouraged the stakeholders,
including beneficiaries, to actively participate in the activities.

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4. Factors inhibiting sustainability and impact（１）Factors concerning to Planning- Government procedures required for approving the Succeeding Phase.
The lengthy procedures and uncertain prospects for the Succeeding Phase to be funded from the Japan
Debt Cancellation Fund (JDCF) have caused: (a) difficulty in concrete preparations for the Succeeding
Phase; and (b) anxiety over future prospects especially among the field level project staff including
UDO/Os.
（２）Factors concerning to the Implementation Process(No particular factors found.)5. Conclusions
The Evaluation Team concluded that the Project has attained its project purpose. The Link Model
operational system and human resource development systems for future extension have become
functional. The Project has contributed to build a basis for improving public service delivery to villagers
while reinforcing public transparency and accountability. The Link Model is expected to be extended to200 unions by BRDB soon. In addition, UCCM, one of the components of the Link Model, has alreadybeen introduced to and incorporated into other unions through other government/donor/NGOs projects.
Further, if the institutionalization of UCCM, which is likely to be achieved, is realized, more unions aswell as other projects would be encouraged to adopt the UCCM system, thus extending the Link Modelconcept throughout the country.
6. Recommendations
6-1. Recommendations – Overall-Reinforcing linkage among Villages, Union, and Upazila- Coordination between Rural Development and Local Governance- Continuous efforts to incorporate the basic concepts of the Link Model into the legal system- Exploring alternative ways to fulfill UDO function- Monitoring focused on the quality of the operations
6-2．

Recommendations for the on-going project (up to end of May 2010)-Early approval and implementation of the Succeeding Phase-Strengthening a functional operations system for the Succeeding Phase(a) Reinforcing staffing of Link Model Cell(b) Taking project activities ahead of the Succeeding Phase(c) Maintaining coordination channels with other initiatives, as well as learning from, otherprojects/organizations(d) Remaining tasks of the on-going project such as the project compile a glossary, both in Bengali
and in English, of the Link Model terms and finalization of the preparation of various manuals andguidelines in regards to the Link Model operations.

-BRDB contributions to training targeted UPs

6-3. Recommendations for after the completion of the project- Baseline survey for the Succeeding Phase- Transfer of the existing project staff to BRDB as permanent staffxvi

- UDOs experience sharing- Coordination between the headquarters of the Succeeding Phase and LMTC- NBD extension workers’ involvement in the Succeeding Phase- Experience sharing by the various stakeholders- Application of PRDP2 know-how in other BRDB projects- Continuous promotion of the Link Model through existing networks- Establishing a support system for the unions and upazilas out of the project area
- Progress of the Succeeding Phase to be shared by the Japanese sidexvii