Institute of Integrated Rural Development (IIRD)

Organisation name 

Institute of Integrated Rural Development (IIRD)

Country 

Bangladesh

Contact details 

Website http://www.iird.interconnection.org/
Email iird@bdmail.net

Financial resources

US$990,000 (2006)

Geographical focus

Bangladesh/Asia

Issue focus

Poverty alleviation

Key achievements

• Works in partnership with the poor, local government and the environment
• Non-formal education programme has reached 63,706 children of the poor
• Reforestation programme has helped 900,000 poor people build their own sustainable livelihood while improving biodiversity and local environments

Mission

IIRD seeks to eradicate poverty through social and economic empowerment of what it calls the 'hard-core' poor. It has the vision of a strong and united village society where there is good quality of life for all, fully respecting the environment. The mission of IIRD is to create a model of upazila (sub-district) development for Bangladesh that can be replicated for the development of the poor in other countries. Based on a poverty identification system - on the basis of asset ownership, income, number of daily meals, and health conditions - IIRD categorises target families as:

1. Extreme hard-core poor
2. Hard-core poor
3. Very poor
4. Less poor

Since IIRD works to help these families uplift themselves, IIRD considers them development partners (DPs) rather than beneficiaries.

Background

Founded in 1987, IIRD now has five major projects located in five different upazilas in Bangladesh, and has new projects in six other upazilas. It provides both social services and economic uplift activities. Social services include primary education, human development and skill training, health and nutrition, housing, drinking water, sanitation, disaster management and relief distribution. Economic uplift projects include reforestation, agriculture, horticulture, rural industries, livestock/poultry rearing, micro-credit and savings, fish ponds, landless resettlements, and the development of essential infrastructure such as flood protection embankments, irrigation and drainage canals.

To families owning some land, IIRD engages them in productive agricultural and animal rearing activities. To the landless, IIRD enrols them in resettlement projects and non-farm activities such as fishery, sericulture, and garment production. To development partners who demonstrate sufficient capacity, IIRD provides them with micro-finance.

Examples of key projects include:

• The reforestation programme, which aims to reduce environmental degradation and prevent erosion by bringing all available roads and fallow land in rural areas under tree cover. This promotes bio-diversity for a healthier eco-system and environmental stability, helps the rural poor develop fruit and timber tree nurseries as small businesses providing employment opportunities and environmental ownership
• The non-formal education programme, which aims to provide an alternative to formal schooling while strengthening formal programmes. It aims to prevent children from dropping out before finishing primary schooling, and to ensure a better quality primary education for all, particularly girls

Partnerships

IIRD's main partner in all its projects is the local community. Examples of how it works with its development partners include:

• Working with mothers to implement, formulate and support non-formal education programmes by providing suitable premises for the school, helping fund materials and site maintenance
• Giving groups of 15 Development partners responsibility for caring for and monitoring trees in the aforestation programme.

The second major partner is the Bangladeshi government. Some examples include:

• Working closely with educational personnel of the formal schools and of the primary education departments of the government for the non-formal education programme
• Working with local government to provide land, roads, and law enforcement support for the aforestation programme.

Impact achieved

IIRD's main accomplishment has been to play a significant role (alongside the local community and other NGOs) in reducing extreme poverty in Dhunot from 37.4 per cent to 15.2 per cent. IIRD's leadership and full focus on poverty eradication has played an essential part in this success. Other accomplishments include the provision of:

• Two (2) flood protection embankments of 7.5 and 5.0 kilometres 
• Two hundred and thirty (230) kilometres of rural link roads, nine bridges, 122 culverts
• Land raising above flood levels for 1,559 families and 308 institutions.
• Twelve (12) resettlement projects covering 480 families. Resettled families receive sufficient incomes from fishery as a basis for their long-term development. These families have grown into cohesive communities who will take over full ownership of the lands and projects within ten years
• 140 private fish ponds, 100 mini-ponds
• Roadside and homestead plantations covering 900,000 poor families and many non-poor and providing them with environmentally and economically sustainable livelihoods
• A non-formal education programme which 63,706 children of the poor have benefited from, of whom 95.2 per cent completed the two-year Child Development Center (CDC) course