(1) Organization Building among the Poor

481 primary groups each comprising an average membership of about 24 have been formed in over 286 villages and slums. The primary groups are federated at Village, Union and Thana levels to form broader organizational networks. These form the basis for the participatory development and spurs on acquisition of human, socio-economic and cultural capital by the poor.

(2) Development Education, including:

To date, 0.90 million people have completed the development education process by participation in the formal and non-formal human development, practical skill development training courses and the staging of gonosangskriti, or popular cultural programmes.

(3) Employment and Income Generating Activities, including:

These are initiated through building savings, provision of credit (Tk.7 million) and extension of technical assistance. These enterprises have created over 28,000 employment/self employment opportunities to date.

ETDA is committed to sustainable development by both mitigating the worst excesses of conventional exploitative development practices and initiating ecologically sensitive development programmes. Its aim is to establish a viable human and natural environment. ETDA group members have planted 2 million trees in the past 6 years in roadside, embankment slopes and alongside railway lines. Over 98 percent of trees have survived. Ecologically viable production options for agriculture and also paving the way for the replacement of deleterious intensive chemical-input based agriculture.

(5) Universal Education Programme

Through some 119 adult literacy centres, ETDA has helped to increase enrolment and significantly reduce dropout rates bringing the benefits of functional literacy to the adults.

With the sinking of nearly 749 manually operated shallow tube-wells and establishing 1,488 low-cost sanitary latrines to date, ETDA has been able to introduce a safer and more hygienic environment to village groups by bringing many diseases and illnesses to bay.

Gender inequity still exists as a pernicious obstacle to the participation in development of the females, half of Bangladesh's population. The orientation of men, and not just of women, to the positive but ignored socio-economic contributions to be made by women at all levels of society and the subsequent creation of opportunities, is the objective of this programme. In ETDA women groups constitute 55% of all groups and are recipient of all development services in corresponding proportions.

Poverty is increasing in the cities. With the expansion of urban populations, the pressure on resources of land and water together with the increased 'squeeze' on employment opportunities, life for the urban destitute becomes even more tenuous. ETDA now has nearly 2.40 groups and 94 projects in the bustees (slum areas) of Dhaka, creating employment and income opportunities, and developing sanitary infrastructures for the urban poor.

(9) Housing Programme

Using RCC Pillars, which provide solid resistance to the extremes of the Bangladeshi climate, ETDA has erected some 415 houses for homeless families. Training has also been imparted for the construction of such RCC-based structures, which in turn has created employment opportunities for 600 members to date. Training has also been given for maintenance of these structures.

(10) Disaster Management Programme

ETDA has provided disaster relief to natural calamities such as cyclones, cold spells , tidal bores and the rehabilitation of the victims of communal riots, since 1990.

IDPAA undertakes path setting policy research, develops and delivers policy education and advocates for sustainable development based upon poverty alleviation and the creation of a productive and a just society. It is ETDA's institutionalized response to the requirement of a national and international policy environment more conductive to the needs of the poor. A multidisciplinary team works on issues of poverty alleviation, governance and democratization, gender issues, sustainable development, human resource development and income and employment generation.

In Bangladesh ETDA is the only non-government organization working for the extension of biogas technology. Since its establishment, ETDA is working with this technology. By this time ETDA constructed about 300 biogas plants in different areas of Bangladesh based on cow dung and night soil. 95% of the plants are working successfully. ETDA has trained up more than 100 masons and about 50 supervisors. ETDA constructed first night soil based biogas plant in Bangladesh. Initially there was social and cultural barrier in popularizing night soil based biogas plant. ETDA could overcome the situation through motivational activities.

(13) Solid Waste Management :

Solid waste disposal is a global problem. In developing countries like Bangladesh, the problem is more acute. ETDA, in co-operation with the Local Government, took initiative of improve the solid waste management system in one city corporation and 6 secondary cities. System can improve the situation without increasing the expenditure. It has taken up a programme to separate garbage at source use organic garbage in Biogas plants to produce gas and fertiliser. The inorganic garbage will be collected once a month, separated manually and sent to industries for re-cycling.

(14) Labour Contracting Society (LCS) Formation and Training Programme :

To stop exploitation on labourers, an innovative mode of construction has been developed by Local Government Engineering Department in 1983 under Integrated Rural Works Programme (IRWP). Through this model, quality of work could be improved without increasing project cost. In this system, there is no middleman to exploit the poor workers, as a result, proper wage could be ensured. ETDA is working with the LCS system for the last 10 years successfully. During the past ten years ETDA has organised 10,000 Labourers in LCS groups of 20-25, provided training to them, encouraged them for savings, provided skill training and operated micro credit programme for employment generation. By this time ETDA sponsored group members have saved about Tk. 10 million.

(15) Training Programme:

ETDA conducts different types of training like training of health workers on primary health care, of community organisers on institution building, of teachers on skill development, Biogas technology etc. It has so far imparted training to following:

1. institutional buildings - 273 Nos
2. community health workers - 787 "
3. community health supervisors - 234 "
4. skill development training - 387 "
5. LCS training - 2580"
6. women development - 337 "
7. accounts keeping - 72 "
8. disaster management - 43"

A large-scale cross-sectional study was conducted in order to assess the impact of ETDA's intervention on the socio-economic profile of its beneficiaries. ETDA's Impact Monitoring and Evaluation Cell conducted the study.

The study adopted a cross-sectional sampling survey design. Two separate samples were selected - one for ETDA households and the other for non-ETDA households. The household was chosen as the unit of survey. Through a two-stage cluster sampling technique, 500 ETDA households and 500 non-ETDA households were randomly selected with a confidence interval of 95%, a marginal of error of no more than 4%.

Two broad sets to indicators were chosen to understand the impact of ETDA programmes. The indicators are:

The social empowerment indicator includes eight specific indicators. They are:

1. literacy,
2. health, education and awareness,
3. family planning,
4. infant mortality,
5. empowerment of women,
6. environmental awareness and practice,
7. access to public resources, and
8. participation in local institutions.

The economic empowerment indicator consists of the following five specific indicators:

1. asset and indebtedness,
2. income,
3. savings,
4. investment and
5. market mobility and power.

The empowerment indicators as shown by the impact assessment data demonstrate positive impacts by ETDA’s programmes. The literacy rates are higher, however they are assessed. In the health sector, ETDA households are found to be better trained in health education and are able to afford better health care, although their immunization rates are about the same as non ETDA households and have received more health education and training than non ETDA households and have better latrines generally (more water sealed and pit latrines) although their sources of drinking water are not much different than non ETDA households. A higher proportion of ETDA women use contraceptives, and on an average they have fewer children per women, the exception being the 30-34 age group and they have a much lower infant mortality rate. The infant mortality rate among ETDA households quite close to the national average (according to 1984-estimate -81). The national average, however, is an estimate based on weighted averages of all socio-economic strata of the society, including higher income rural dwellers and urban dwellers with better access to health facilities. For poor rural ETDA households to come close to matching the national average is a clear indication of achievement which contrasts sharply with the infant mortality rate of 164 among non ETDA households.

A much higher proportion of ETDA households than non ETDA households have dowryless marriages, although the divorce rates are about the same between the two populations.

It is observed that in the area of dowryless marriages, the result has been spectacular for ETDA households, compared to those of ETDA’s. It has been observed that more marriages have taken place without dowry among ETDA households.

They survey also reveals that there has been substantial attitudinal change amongst the male members of ETDA households. It has been found that refusal to marriages by the male members because of lack of dowry in much less for ETDA households than for non-ETDA households.

The incidence of physical abuse is only marginally lower among ETDA women than non-ETDA women, but more ETDA women are involved in income generation, and hey have more decision making power in all major aspects of the family.

The proportion of ETDA households that have received environmental education and training is almost four times higher than non-ETDA households and higher proportion of ETDA households are involved in tree plantation. Yet these training and education do not seem to have much impact in terms of promotion of organic and chemical fertilizers and insecticide uses.

A lower proportion of ETDA households have access to khas land, although the situation is the reverse in the case of khas water bodies and strip plantation. A higher proportion of ETDA households participate in the running of local institutions and their representation in village courts are twice as high as the non ETDA households, demonstrating their abilities to exert influence and control over important local institutions through their better organizational networks and improving economic power. It is important to note that it is not ETDA’s explicit policy to encourage its members to involve in local politics.

Such a phenomenon can only be construed as an indirect but significant outcome of ETDA’s empowerment programmes.

From the perspective of economic empowerment, ETDA households perform substantially better than non-ETDA households. Their average households asset is about 57% higher than ETDA households, their income over 27% higher, their savings 39% higher and the size of their investment are 40% higher. The overall rate of return on ETDA household investment is also 25% higher.

It has been found that over the years the dependency of ETDA households on the non-institutional loans (form money lenders and others) have reduced substantially. While over 32% non ETDA households borrowed from institutional sources, it was only 7% in the case of ETDA households.

Average loan size of ETDA households is also much smaller than non ETDA households.