This document outlines a strategic plan to strengthen community resilience in Barguna District, Bangladesh through coalition building. The plan's mission is community resilience, with the goal of establishing a Center for Cooperative Sustainable Development to empower communities. Key stakeholders like community members, local authorities, and NGOs will form coalitions in areas like sustainable agriculture, housing, water safety, and economic development to collaborate and leverage resources. The plan will be implemented in three phases over 5 years, with the first two years focused on information gathering and infrastructure, years 3-4 on action, and years 5+ on maintenance.
2. Strategic Plan
Mission: Community
Resilience
Goal: Center for
Cooperative
Sustainable
Development
Objective:
Community
Empowerment
3. Partnership Centers
Key Stakeholders …
◦ Community members
◦ Local authority
◦ NGOs
form coalitions…
◦ Sustainable Agriculture
◦ Housing Development
◦ Water Safety
◦ Economic Development
in order to collaborate and leverage resources .
5. Timeline of Coalition Progression
Phase I
• Information gathering & Infrastructure
• Years 1 and 2
• 40% of budget
Phase II
• Action
• Years 3 and 4
• 20% of budget
Phase III
• Maintenance
• Year 5 and beyond
• 40% of budget
6. PHASE I: Information Phase
Year 1
◦ Construction of Partnership Centers
◦ Network with NGOs working in the
community
◦ Communicate with community members
Year 2
◦ Establish coalitions
◦ Conduct coalition and community needs
assessments
◦ Coalitions develop plans to address needs
7. PHASE II: Action Phase
Assist coalition members in seeking
funding opportunities
Execute plans developed by coalitions
in Phase I
UNDP – Training
construction
workers
Practical Action –
Rainwater
catchment
Kiva – Microloans
to start diverse
businesses
Housing Economy Water
Mercy Corps –
Linkage to markets
Practical Action –
Saline tolerant rice
Practical Action –
Floating gardens
Agriculture
8. PHASE II: Action Phase
Increase Partnership Center functions
◦ Continuing education for community
members
Grant writing
Leadership training
Subject matter experts for focus areas
◦ Use local FM radio station to disseminate
information about
NGO activities within upazilas
Disaster preparedness
Educational programs
10. Evaluation
Phase I
◦ Community center constructed
◦ Number of organizations participating in coalitions
◦ Needs assessment across coalitions identifying gaps in
expertise and services
Phase II
◦ Each coalition responsible for semi-annual reports on
number of people served, costs
◦ Qualitative data from focus groups with community and
coalition members
Phase III
◦ Number of grants applied/obtained/completed
12. Benefits
Benefits of strategic plan
Self sustaining
Highly replicable
Efficiency – prevention of duplication of efforts and
leverage resources
Benefits to the community
High community involvement
Integration of existing NGO and community resources
Community empowerment
Increased disaster resilience
Economic growth and diversity
13. Anticipated Challenges
Corruption
Land rights
Construction workers and supplies
Transportation
Weather
Cultural barriers and disparities
Low literacy rates
15. Item Cost (USD) Quantity Years Total(USD)
Land 40,000 20 1 800,000
Main
Community
Center
200,000 5 1 1,000,000
Branch
Community
Center
100,000 15 1 1,500,000
Computer 1,000 25 1 25,000
Generator 5,000 20 1 100,000
Staff 3000 90 5 1,350,000
Foreign staff
fee
10000 30 5 1,500,000
Travel for
outside
specialists
2,000 20 2 80,000
Maintenance/
Security
100,000 1 5 500,000
Radio 2,000 5 1 10,000
Notas do Editor
Just over a year ago, a cyclone struck Bangladesh affecting over 8.7 million people and killing 4,000 people. One of the hardest hit districts was the Barguna Distruct and while initial relief efforts have gone well, serious challenge remains with regard to physical and economic redevelopment. We were tasked with partnering with the Barguna District Management Center to in establishing a strategic plan to address redevelopment and recovery in the district over the next 5 years.
Our focus is on creating a system to increase community resilience through ongoing, sustainable community development. This will be done through the construction a partnership center where community members, partnered initially with outside staff, learn how to identify the needs of the community, facilitate collaboration between NGOs & government organizations, and find funding methods to implement solutions to address the needs of the community.
5 Partnership Centers (one in each upizila) and 3 additional branch centers in each upizila
Objective: Enable the coalition of community members, NGOs, local governmental organization to…
Identify needs
Identify mechanisms to address needs
Leverage resources and reduce redundancy
Provide education
Key stakeholder form coalitions in order to collaborate to leverage resources to address the main concerns of the community,
The activities (agricultural diversity) that the coalitions will be focusing on will impact each of these for components, which are interconnected and will increase the overall community resilience of the community.
For example – agricultural diversity will increase economic development and diversity
Establishing coalition and facilitating coordination between parties will increase access to information and communication.
between communities Which includes:
Social capital = pride in community, citizen participation, social support
Community competence = skills of community members, community empowerment
Economic development = agricultural diversity - diversity and equity of economic resources
Information and communication = trusted media, information sources collaboration through NGOs
Phase I will consist of information gathering, ex. Identifying partners, existing NGOs, start to form coalitions. This will take up the majority of the budget because that will be where will build establishing the infrastructure.
Phase II will consist of preparing plans for the community, securing funding, and executing the plan.
Phase II will consit of maintenaince.
Coalition needs assessment = overlap and need areas, how to best leverage resources and increase efficiency
These coalitions will progress through 3 phase. The main goal in forming a framework where coalitions of community members and NGOS can gather information about community needs and identify mechanisms to address those needs and implementing plans to address the needs of the community.
Phase 1 is composed of two segments. The first part is the construction of a Partnership center which will have facilities in which coalitions can meet, and resources for communication and education such as internet access and teleconferencing equipment. During this time potential partners among community members and NGOs will be identified and networking will begin for the formation of coalitions. In the second segment formal coalitions will be established and needs assessments will be conducted to identify areas of need both in members of the coalition and in the communities they plan to serve.
Function of community center in phase 1 – emergency housing, education (ag, health, construction), internet access, literacy coalition
Partnerships with: mercy corps, UNDP, local governments, practical action
Coalition needs assessment = identify overlap among partners to better leverage resources
IncreaseCommunity center functions – seed bank, livestock emergency shelter, education by subject matter experts – grant writing
Multiple evaluation methods built into the phases of our program. In phase I, needs assessment across coalition to identify gaps in expertise and services. Each coalition
Staff
Consulting
Construction – CC
Phase 1 – partner travel
Phase 2 – needs assessment costs