| Overview : I. Background
The Chittagong Hill Tracts (CHT), consists of the three hill districts of Rangamati, Khagrachari and Bandarban, is one of the most diverse regions of Bangladesh in terms of geography, ethnicity, culture and traditions and lies in the extreme south-east of the country. The total area of the CHT is 13,295 square kilometers, which is about 10% of the total area of Bangladesh and the estimated population is approximately 1.5 million, which is about 1% of the total population in Bangladesh. There are eleven ethnic groups/ indigenous communities in the CHT (defined as 'tribes' as per CHT Accord) speaking distinct languages. These are Bawm, Chak, Chakma, Khyang, Khumi, Lushai, Marma, Mro, Pangkhua, Tangchangya and Tripura. The three largest of these (Chakma, Marma and Tripura) represent about 90% of the total 'indigenous'/'tribal' population, which altogether make up only about 50% of the overall population of the CHT at present, with the rest consisting of Bengalis, the majority of whom were relocated into the CHT a little over three decades ago. The majority of the CHT population lives in rural areas.
The region is geographically distinct from the plains, made up of very steep, rugged hilly terrain and in many places, dense bamboo jungle. The rough terrain, remoteness of villages and various political issues associated with a protracted conflict have seriously impeded the economic development of the region.
The government signed accords with the civilian indigenous leaders of the three CHT districts in 1988 which resulted in the creation of the three Hill District Local Government Councils in 1989. Finally, the government signed a Peace Accord with the Parbattya Chattagram Jana Sanghati Samiti (PCJSS) in 1997 to end the war in the CHT.
UNDP through its Chittagong Hill Tracts Development Facility (CHTDF) has been working for the promotion of peace and confidence building in the CHT since 2003 and, as in its present form, will continue to do so until September 2013. The project’s goal is to improve socio-economic conditions and overall development of the CHT in line with the principles of self-reliance, decentralization and sustained peace. In particular, the CHTDF aims to:
- increase the capacity of CHT institutions to deliver services and support community development
- empower the local organizations and communities to manage their own development
- establish and promote access to a quality primary education system in the CHT
- improve the living conditions of poor marginal and small farmer households through enhanced, integrated and sustainable agricultural productivity
- improve access to health facilities and quality services
The Facility’s strategies consist of community empowerment, capacity building of CHT institutions, confidence building, multi-level participatory planning and implementation, awareness raising on gender and adoption of partnership approach. As per needs of the indigenous people of Chittagong Hill Tracts region, the project provides various support and services e.g., economic empowerment through community level organizations like Para/Village Development Committee (PDC), Para/Village Nari/Women Development Group (PNDG), multi-lingual education and primary health care along with referral system. In addition, it provides support to local government institutions, traditional institutions, and national level institutions and/or actors. The communities living in remote areas are prioritized.
The project provides support to enhance both the communities’ and the government’s capability to deliver services and implement development actions that are applicable to the specific conditions of CHT. Up to March 2012, 3,258 PDCs and over 1,686 PNDGs have been created and supported as the basic institutions for community based development activities, and almost 300 school management committees in community established schools have been supported and about 1,000 community health service workers, with supporting 80 community clinics, have been trained and supported. CHTDF is now embarking on a programme of sustainability for the institutions and models created by the project through greater integration into government systems, together with enhanced governance structures and processes at all levels.
The UNDP is the executing agency and the co-operating Bangladeshi agency is the Ministry of Chittagong Hill Tracts Affairs. The project is being implemented in partnership with the three Hill District Councils (HDCs), national and CHT based NGOs. CIDA and DANIDA contribute to the program alongside the main funder, the European Union.
The program provides support and services to the community people in various forms. There is a need to assess the beneficiaries’ perceptions and satisfaction with the services delivered through CHTDF as well as the specific contribution that these services make to the beneficiaries’ lives. Although there are ongoing monitoring activities that aim to capture the changes achieved, a household level survey is the best way to record impact as households are the ultimate beneficiaries of all CHTDF interventions.
A comprehensive socio-economic baseline survey was conducted in 2009 and should be used as the benchmark for all further assessments which aim to track progress attained through CHTDF interventions.
II. Project Implementation Area
At present, the CHTDF project operates in 20 out of the total 25 upazilas in the three hill districts. In Khagrachari CHTDF covers 6 out of 8 upazilas, in Rangamati 8 upazilas out of 10 and in Bandarban 6 upazilas out of 7. However, the Facility plans to cover the 5 remaining upazilas under the component “Supporting Local Development in the CHT” and therefore the household survey will also assess the situation in these remaining 5 non-implementing area upazilas.
III. Sectors/Intervention Coverage
CHTDF has been implementing development activities under five major sectors as per nature of actions. The sectors are (i) Policy Advocacy and Confidence Building, (ii) Capacity Development, (iii) Community Empowerment & Economic Development (iv) Education, and (v) Health. Gender and Knowledge Management are cross cutting clusters. Alongside, Natural Resource Management (NRM) works under CE&ED cluster.
The Households’ Survey will cover beneficiaries of all components but for the Education and Health components only those data/information will be collected that could be possible to collect at household survey.
IV. Overall Objective
The main overall objective of the survey is to assess the progress and results of CHTDF support and services, including the progress made towards the achievement of the MDGs.
Specific Objectives
The specific objectives of the assignment are the following:
1. Assess the changes in the lives of beneficiaries and the contribution made to MDG achievement made by the CHTDF intervention, using the established indicators (specified in Annex IV)
2. Assess the beneficiaries’ access to and perceptions (satisfaction and challenges) on the services provided by CHTDF/CHT Institutions;
3. Find out the changes taken place at community level as result of CHTDF intervention;
4. Establish baseline information for the indicators those do not have a baseline
V. Scope of Work
The contracted agency/research firm will be responsible for carrying out the household survey with the following specific tasks but not limited to:
- Review of project documents and other relevant documents.
- Liaising and working closely with UNDP-CHTDF
- Undertaking overall responsibility to conduct training for data enumerators, developing the survey instruments, conducting pre-test and finalizing survey instruments, conducting and supervising the surveys, analyzing the data, presenting the results and submitting the final report.
For further details please refer to the attached solicitation document | 
