The asset transfer programme is seen by the CLP as a spring board, enabling households to escape from extreme poverty. The CLP supports this by implementing other forms of short-term social protection activities to act as safety nets, preventing people from slipping even deeper into poverty.

Employment Creation During Monga

The lack of job opportunities available during monga , and subsequent declining household incomes, make the provision of seasonal employment opportunities critical for char households.During monga 2006, in Kurigram, Gaibandha and Jamalpur, the CLP created over one million person-days of employment in labour intensive earthwork activities (primarily homestead plinth-raising). Over 25,000 men and 12,000 women were employed in the cash-for-work (CFW) programme. CFW was implemented both by local CLP partners and Union Parishads. Each CFW scheme was overseen by a Scheme Implementation Committee, comprised of people selected from the local area. Members of the committee supervised the labourers, resolved any conflicts and reported irregularities and misconduct to the CLP.

During the monga period of 2007, an expanded programme renamed Infrastructure and Employment Programme (IEP), created nearly 2.7 million person-days of employment for over 50,000 men and women across all five CLP working districts. Employment on the IEP was self-selective: with local CLP partners identifying the neediest households if too many people were available for work. A minimum of 35% of job cards were reserved for women, and a maximum five-day work week was introduced to allow time for rest and domestic activities. An IEP impact survey showed that IEP participating households made fewer distress sales of assets, took fewer loans and migrated less for work during the period.

The 2008 IEP scheme has just been completed, with over 755,000 work days created. This year, an innovative IEP pilot scheme was run allowing CLP core beneficiaries to manage the raising of their own household plinths.

Responding to Need: the IEP Safety Net

The CLP acknowledges that a selected number of households are unable to participate in the labour-intensive activities of the IEP. Given this, a small cash grant was offered to qualifying households in IEP designated villages in 2007 and 2008. The grant was offered to households with pregnant and lactating women (with babies under three months old), disabled or elderly members with no other adult productive household capacity. In 2007, a grant of Tk. 175 was paid weekly for a twelve-week period supporting over 3000 households; this year the grant was raised to Tk. 200 to account for rising costs and inflation. The impact of the grant on beneficiary households in 2007 saw a substantial reduction in household use of loans, food credit and distress sales.

Giving Cash Stipends to the Poorest Households

When core beneficiary households receive their income generating assets, they also receive a monthly stipend of Tk. 350 for 18 months. This provides beneficiaries with cash that can be spent immediately to increase and maintain their food consumption, while they wait for their new assets to begin generating an income stream. It also allows households to face crises, like health shocks, without being forced to sell their assets to meet unforeseen expenses.

Emergency Erosion Grants

If a household living in a designated CLP char village is forced to move their home because their homestead land has been eroded, they are eligible to receive a fixed grant of Tk. 3500. Without this emergency erosion grant, extreme poor households might be forced to resort to negative, short-term coping strategies; such as the distress sales of their assets. Every qualifying island char household in CLP designated working areas is entitled to this grant.

The demand for erosion grants peaked last September, after the second major flood of 2007; however, grant allocation is continually ongoing and is undertaken as and when households are identified. Since July 2007, over 12,800 emergency erosion grants have been distributed.

Temporary Food Transfers

Char households are considered to be the most vulnerable to food insecurity in Bangladesh, often following fluctuating seasonal food consumption patterns. Responding to the rising food prices on the chars, since August 2008 the CLP has offered 44,000 core beneficiary households a temporary food transfer allowance of up to 200 Tk per month. It is hoped that through this provision families will not be tempted to sell their income generating assets to meet household consumption needs.

Beneficiaries Becoming Donors

As a longer-term social protection initiative, the CLP is developing and promoting the concept of the Community Safety Net. Under this scheme, groups of core beneficiary households contribute Tk. 2 per week (in cash or in kind, i.e. a handful of rice) to create a locally-funded equivalent of the Government of Bangladesh old-age pension. This is given by the group to a selected household living in their community who is not receiving investment capital from the CLP, or benefiting from any government social protection programme.

Currently there are 1,852 Community Safety Net Beneficiaries, with the number growing weekly.