Preparatory Survey on the Northern Region Rural Development and Local Governance Improvement Project in Bangladesh (NRRDLGIP)

The preparatory survey for the Northern Region Rural Development and Local Governance Improvement Project (NRRDLGIP) was conducted in March–October 2012 in collaboration with the Local Government Engineering Department (LGED) and with the support of the Japan International Cooperation Agency. The main objectives of this survey were to conduct a study on topics that were required for appraisal of the Project, and propose a Project plan to be implemented.

The main characteristics of the proposed Project are three fold. First, the Project will strengthen rural-urban connectivity and linkages from regional development perspectives. Integrating rural and urban development in one project is new to the LGED, since rural and urban interventions have been undertaken with separate projects in the past. Second, the proposed Project will allocate investment in urban infrastructure based on improvement in urban governance performance. This performance-based approach builds on successful experiences of the Urban Governance and Infrastructure Improvement Projects 1 and 2 (UGIIP-1 and 2) of the LGED. Finally, the Project will enhance sustainability of improved infrastructure by strengthening its operation and maintenance (O&M) systems and processes in rural and urban areas. The explicit incorporation of O&M in this Project reflects the lessons learned from the past projects of the LGED in which O&M of improved infrastructure has not been paid sufficient attention.

The Project Purpose was to expand access to rural and urban infrastructures and services, and improve urban governance in the northern region of Bangladesh. This will be achieved by improving and sustaining:1) rural infrastructures such as Upazila roads (UZRs) and Union roads (UNRs), and trading facilities such as Growth Centers and rural markets;2) urban infrastructures, service delivery and governance of target Pourashavas; and 3) linkages between rural and urban areas.

IC Net was awarded the Design, Supervision and Monitoring (DSM) implementation of the subsequent yen loan NOBIDEP project in December, 2013.  To read more, click Northern Region Rural Development and Local Governance Improvement Project.