Addendum to CARE Bangladesh Long Range Strategic Plan Explanatory

Note on the Replacement of a 5-Year Program Goal with a Framework for 15-Year Impact Statements

Since the development of the LRSP, CARE Bangladesh has furthered its understanding of, and approach to achieving its Mission . This progress is largely a result of the work in fiscal year 2007 to establish the foundation for making the critical organizational changes required for generating and using our knowledge to have greater, more sustainable impact on the lives of poor and marginalized people. Building on learning from our work over the past few years CARE Bangladesh is now able to articulate what needs to be done and/or not done, what obstacles need to be overcome, and what needs to change in order to achieve our mission and have the impact we seek. To that end, the types of systemic changes referred to under the original five-year program goal remain highly relevant.

What we have learned

It is well established in the organization's experience that achieving greater impact means working in partnership with other actors and institutions. This intent will remain strong in CARE's future directions. What has become clearer in CARE Bangladesh and CARE globally is that the commitment to addressing underlying causes of poverty and marginalization with its greater attention to structural and systemic change will be more challenging and will require a longer time horizon than we have planned in the past. This was endorsed by findings from our Strategic Impact Inquiry on Women's Empowerment that was conducted in 2005 and 2006.

Thus, while it may be possible to make progress in five years in the areas of change illustrated under the original program goal, in order to have deep, sustainable impact we need to be able to commit to and envision changes over a longer time horizon. We have also learned that we will need to have a deeper understanding of the social, political and economic dynamics and drivers of poverty and marginalization in order to influence sustainable change. This will mean all of our work will need to be consistently guided by high-quality institutional and context analysis and knowledge that we invest in building over time.

Commitment to 15-year impact visions and the development of impact statements

With this in mind, CARE Bangladesh dedicated time in fiscal year 2007 (the first year of its LRSP) to begin a process of conceptualizing 15-year impact visions for the population groups that best represent our enduring commitment. This has given us a framework and forward direction for the changes we seek. Programming towards our impact visions also outlines for CARE Bangladesh the core areas of knowledge upon which we will build our reputation and expertise.

To summarize, this long-term commitment to impacts for specific poor and marginalized groups stems from the commitment to:

•  Achieve deep and sustainable impact in the lives of poor and marginalized people, as our program principles state

•  Stand in solidarity with poor and marginalized people and hold ourselves accountable to them

•  Address underlying causes in order to have a chance of lifting the poorest and most marginalized people out of poverty

•  Achieve these changes through deep, sustained engagement in partnership with a diversity of other players , including being part of coalitions and movements

Four population groups have been selected and the draft impact visions that correspond to each one of them are as follows:

•  Socially and economically marginalized women. We seek the empowerment of the most socially and economically marginalized women (while not excluding women more generally).

•  Marginalized groups in urban areas who have limited livelihoods choices, poor living conditions, and are subject to exploitation, social exclusion and discrimination. For them we seek safer and more viable livelihoods and being increasingly treated as equal citizens by state and society.

•  Extremely poor people in rural areas whose well-being in political, economic and social realms obtains the “lowest” ranking and who are trapped in a set of unequal power relations . Our vision is that they sustainably overcome the barriers that prevent fulfillment of their rights.

•  The most vulnerable people and communities prone to disasters and environmental change. Our vision is that they will build resilient livelihoods in the face of disaster and environmental change.

While the impact visions are compelling, articulating the visions alone is not enough for us to align our work towards achieving them. We must articulate and hold a shared understanding amongst ourselves of how we hope to achieve these visions. CARE Bangladesh is therefore constructing what we call impact statements . An impact statement consists of i) an impact vision ; ii) analysis of the underlying causes that affect the population group identified and the identification of key causes that CARE believes need to be overcome to achieve the vision articulated; and iii) a path of change that describes our assumptions and knowledge about the main routes we intend to use to address the underlying causes identified, and to achieve deep and sustainable change. In addition, we will articulate critical breakthroughs and a measurement and learning system for each impact statement.

CARE Bangladesh is at an early stage of identifying the path of change for each long-term impact vision. The path of change will be formulated around specific areas of focus. These are key changes that we identify as critical or symbolic of progress towards the impact vision. Changes in these areas will typically signify that other related significant changes are taking place, contributing to the achievement of the impact vision for that specific population group. For example, for the impact vision related to the empowerment of women, one such area of focus is reducing violence against women. If violence against women reduces significantly in a sustainable way, our knowledge and assumptions lead us to believe that a number of related changes are taking place towards the empowerment of women. Similarly, for the impact vision related to urban marginalized groups, one area of focus may be on planning for urbanization that is pro-poor. The path of change for each impact vision will be constructed around these key focus areas.

Indicators will be used to measure progress on each path of change. Knowledge will be built and shared progressively as we learn not only what is being achieved, but how and why it is achieved. This will enable us to contribute good practices in overcoming poverty and marginalization, as well as to influence development practice in Bangladesh . It is also envisioned that critical breakthroughs along the path of change that signal sustainable, forward momentum, e.g., a change in policy, will be identified. Critical breakthroughs can happen at different points in time on a 15-year timeline. Importantly, these will need to be carefully determined and will likely require adjustment as external conditions change. Thus, the precise impacts which CARE Bangladesh should expect to have on the four population groups by the end of this LRSP period (the five-year mark) will depend on the indicators of change and the anticipated timing of critical breakthroughs, which will be drafted in early 2008.

In Summary – Five year program goal to impact statements

The first draft of our LRSP articulated a program goal for a five-year period. The ideas represented in that goal statement are still relevant to the change we seek. However, from our work last year, we now understand the need for a longer-term horizon and commitment to ensure that the change is sustainable, and that it touches the poorest and most marginalized populations. In the timeframe of the LRSP therefore, what is most relevant in setting targets and holding ourselves accountable will be the critical breakthroughs that we expect in a five-year period. These will become clearer in the next few months. In addition, our choice of strategic directions articulated in the LRSP will ensure the necessary conditions to achieving progress towards our longer term impact visions and mission.

The original LRSP document also included a schematic that represented the key components of our strategic plan. This schematic has been updated to include our long-term program impact statements as a key vehicle for achieving our mission and vision. It is important to note that while our time-horizon is longer and our analysis deeper, we will still continue to implement shorter-term projects that achieve tangible outputs and results. The difference is that these projects will be woven together and relate to each other in more meaningful ways. In previous LRSP periods CARE viewed mid-course adjustments to the LRSP as a healthy sign that it is a living plan, that is being used to guide our work. This time is no different – during the round of annual general meetings in April 2007, all CARE Bangladesh staff had the opportunity to comment on the LRSP and the idea of impact statements. The feedback and suggestions gives us confidence that we are on a promising path to achieving lasting impact.

domestic violence, seasonal hunger, land/ water rights, public services, market access, dignified employment

CARE International Programming Principles: Promote empowerment; Work in partnership with others; Ensure accountability and promote responsibility; Address discrimination; Promote the non-violent resolution of conflicts; Seek sustainable results

Characteristics of the lowest wellbeing group are context specific. Some of the characteristics of the lowest well being group drawn from the wellbeing analyses done by our Social Development Unit in mainland rural northwest Bangladesh include: abandoned, widowed, and divorced women; work as maid servants and vulnerable to sexual exploitation; unstable employment; face seasonal hunger ( monga ), poor diet throughout the year, leading to chronic illnesses; search fields for food; eat meat only during Eid or other festivals; own one or two pieces of clothing, lack of confidence and fatalistic; no marketable skills or able-bodied family members; not invited as guests to community festivals, instead treated as servants; lack of access to micro-finance schemes; children forced to work; can be easily captured a vote bank for small amounts of money or gifts; dependent on elites and paid in kind, not wages.