DAM has been implementing its Micro-Finance Programme (MFP) since 1993. At the time of inception, the programme was initiated as a supportive component of Education Programme by the project entitled “Institution Building for Income Generation”. The initial objective was the livelihood development through community mobilization, creation of grassroots organization, human resource development, promotes agricultural diversification and ensure easy access to micro finance. Gradually it becomes as an independent program. Over the years, MFP increases its working area in different location of the country with diversified savings and credit products that includes savings, insurance, rural micro-credit, micro-enterprise development, agricultural extension, rural housing, water and sanitation, disaster risk reduction and special credit support for ultra poor. Presently Micro-Finance Programme becomes one of the core development programme of livelihood sector of DAM. According to DAM sectoral development strategy, Microfinance program focus on Financial Service, Skills Development Service, Agricultural Extension Service and Employment Support Service. In recent times, DAM has taken different steps to move ahead MFP for meeting up current requirement of MF market. Under the development process, DAM is going to automate its MF branches with microfinance software to provide efficient service to the clients. By this time, to provide agricultural extension loan of the government, DAM established five separate branches with the partnership of First Security Islami Bank Ltd. Moreover, DAM establishes three separate branches to provide Skills Development Training and Financial Services to undertake Income Generating Activities for the vulnerable groups through the project entitled “Vulnerable Group Development Project (VGDP)” with the support of Department of Women Affairs, Government of Peoples Republic of Bangladesh. At present, DAM has been Implementing MFP in 38 upazillas of 13 Districts covering 1097 villages through its 44 branches and serving 53,103 members of 2486 groups.

With the aim of transforming the lives Poor and Extreme Poor (PEP) households in poorest and most marginalized districts in Bangladesh by reducing their vulnerability to food insecurity, the SHOUHARDO project has emerged. SHOHARDO-II is a long term program and it has the central focus on the people and their empowerment to increase access to services and entitlement. Among the indicators of empowerment, decision making and access to control over resources, negotiation and problem solving capacity are important. The project from the beginning will plan an exit strategy by involving target beneficiaries. It will be transparently shared with the people what SHOUHARDO could do and what will be the role of people to participate in the programme and how they will be gradually be independent from the project. Community capacity building will be the key to address these issues. The VDCs formed will be the platform where the CBOs will be organised, food distribution points will be located, ECD centres will run, awareness sessions will be organised, community meeting will be held for decision making for various development matters. VDCs will also be used for service delivery points for different public and private service providers. All CBO groups formed during the life time of the project will be institutionalised as community based organisations in the long run. The rotating leadership development initiatives within VDC and CBO groups will continue throughout the project. The project is being implemented in Phulpur and Nandail upazilas of Mymensingh district. SHOUHARDO-II started operation on 1 March 2011 and will continue till 28 February 2015.

“A Disaster Resilient Future: Mobilising Communities and Institutions for Effective Risk Reduction project” has been awarded under DIPECHO’s 6th Plan of Action for South Asia. The project has been financially assisted by the European Commission Humanitarian Aid & Civil Protection (ECHO) and Cordaid. Dhaka Ahsania Mission (DAM) and Concern Universal (CU) are jointly implementing the project. It directly addresses the limited informational and organizational capacity of vulnerable and marginalized communities to effectively mitigate the impact of recurring natural disasters in targeted localities. This project focuses on strengthening the capacity of local communities to cope with and respond to disasters. It is working to increase their resilience and reduce vulnerability in the targeted areas. The project primarily targets people living in flood and earthquake prone areas. The Districts of Jamalpur and Dhaka are amongst the most the disaster prone areas in Bangladesh for flood and river erosion. These areas are identified as under threat of severe earthquake. The project therefore primarily targets to extend its activities in both the districts. This project has launched its operation in March 2011 and will be winded up in September 2012.

Community Managed Disaster Risk Reduction (CMDRR) Forum, Bangladesh is a coordinating organization of CMDRR practitioners under the umbrella of Cordaid supports and technical assistance. All the 13 Member organizations (Concern Universal Bangladesh, Dhaka Ahsania Mission, Caritas, RDRS, POPI, YPSA, ADD, VARD, Friendship, Pidim Foundation, INDAB, PGUK and FFH) work in the areas of Disaster Risk Reduction in Bangladesh gathered in Mymensingh on the occasion of the 1st Learning Cycle Meeting during March 29 to April 02, 2009. The member organizations felt the need of forming such an organization in line which will strengthen the conceptual realm of community for leading disaster risk reduction efforts in Bangladesh and thereby decided to form the CMDRR Forum. Since its initiation, the forum has been playing a vital role to build resilience in reducing disaster risk among the Bangladesh community people by improving the capacity of NGOs enthusiastic ability to reduce disaster hazards and uphold coping mechanism.This project aims to enhance the capacity of partner organizations and bring necessary policy issues to a dialogue through information exchange, experience sharing, organizing training and advocacy meeting with an intention to operate and incorporate CMDRR concept in Bangladesh DRR management procedures.

Improved Food and Livelihood security in Bagerhat district, Bangladesh in the context of Increased Disaster Risk and Climate Change (IFLS-EU -CAFOD) project is being implemented by Dhaka Ahsania Mission (DAM) in Mongla, Rampal and Sharankhola Upazilla of Bagerhat district supported by European Union and CAFOD, UK. The other partners of the project are: Caritas Bangladesh, ADD international, and ITN-BUET. The project started its operation in March 2010 and will be ended in February 2013. The major objectives of the project include 1) enable households to increase their income through promotion of agro-fishery, livestock and alternative livelihoods practices, 2) increase household level food production in the target districts, thereby improving overall nutrition levels of target beneficiaries, 3) strengthen advocacy initiatives and promote engagement with the Government in order to address issues relating to climate change and livelihoods security, 4)Develop capacity at household and local Union and Upazila level in disaster preparedness and management.

With the objective to improve food security and nutrition for the poorest and most vulnerable in South Asia to contribute to MDG 1, the project has come into being. It has targeted to replicate and disseminate an efficient and sustainable model of public-private cooperation to reduce poverty for the most vulnerable. This cross-border project will undertake activities including Technology Transfer, Market and Enterprise Development, Human and Institutional Development (“HID”) and Knowledge Transfer. All activities, results and objectives of the action are in support of the target group of 20,000 vulnerable, resource-poor smallholder households (“HH”) of which 15,000 are proposed in Bangladesh and 5,000 in India, with the overall number to be split into approximately 1,000 groups of 15-25 HH each, depending on the local situation. The Action will further benefit the final beneficiaries which include, in addition to the target group, 400 local advanced farmers (private local service providers or “LSP”), 36 trainers of governmental agricultural extension agencies (“AEA”), 200 selected value chain actors in the input and output markets, rural farmers not included in the target group, as well as NGOs operating in developing countries and especially in South Asia. The insights of five agricultural research institutes in Bangladesh and two in India will be utilized and shared between the Bangladeshi and Indian partners. The model for the Action as a whole is based on a seven year tested and proven model in Bangladesh and specifically modelled on the experience of the EU Food Facility project “Reduction of Food Insecurity for 10,000 poor and extreme poor households” (EUR 3,887,480, January 2010 – October 2011) in which three of the four partners (CU, DAM, IC) are successfully participating. The Action is now intended to be scaled up to a larger number of beneficiaries (15,000) in the five sub-districts in Bangladesh, and extended to 5,000 beneficiaries in six districts in Assam, India (see Section 1.1.2.1) providing greater human and geographical coverage of the model. The partners of the project include Dhaka Ahsania Mission (DAM), Rashtriya Gramin Vikas Nidhi (RGVN), Intercooperation (IC), Swiss Foundation for Development and International Cooperation and Concern Universal. The project is financially supported by the European Union. Dhaka Ahsania Mission is implementing the project in Jamalpur district while Rashtriya Gramin Vikas Nidhi (RGVN) is implementing the project in Indian state of Assam.

With the objective to mount proportional, timely and effective response which meets the immediate and recovery needs of women, men, children and other vulnerable groups affected by natural disasters or conflicts in Bangladesh, the OHCB project has emerged. In order to improve surge capacity in major technical areas such as EFS-VL, WASH, logistics and finance, appropriate personnel will be selected for imparting required training. After finalization of staff selection, a staff capacity assessment will be conducted on the basis of minimum standards of skills and competencies required for each of the areas to understand the needs and type of capacity support required. The project is targeted to generate following outcomes including creating a resource pool for the organisation for responding disaster effectively complying the SPHERE standard. This resource pool is also targeted to spread learning to the community level. The personnel selected will receive training both in Bangladesh and aboard. The project is being supported by OXFAM and will be implemented for a period of three years starting from July 2011 to June 30, 2014.