A Longitudinal Study on Monga in Greater Rangpur:

InM along with PKSF is currently involved in a longitudinal study on monga affected people in Greater Rangpur. Institute and PKSF jointly coordinated the baseline survey in the 5 districts of greater Rangpur. The districts covered are Rangpur, Lalmonirhat, Kurigram, Nilphamari and Gaibandha.

The study has been undertaken with the following objectives in mind:

       •  Vulnerability assessment of the monga affected households;
       •  Identification and effectiveness of households’ coping mechanisms;
       •  Migration and remittance patterns of the poor; and
       •  Impact of PRIME interventions and  microfinance in monga mitigation.

The survey covered over 12 lakh households, of which around 6 lakh were identified as the target group. Institute is now analyzing the data collected from the survey and will organize a national seminar to disseminate the findings.

InM intends to monitor the situation of poverty and monga and the effectiveness of PRIME interventions in the region over the years. In order to collect the longitudinal data on this regard, InM will conduct survey on 10,000 randomly selected households from each of the five districts of greater Rangpur every year.

Duration: Six Years.

Impact Assessment of PRIME Interventions in Lalmonirhat District:

In 2006, during the first phase of PRIME, different interventions were implemented to mitigate the adverse effect of monga in Lalmonirhat District. Interventions included infrastructural work, emergency loan, microcredit etc. To assess the effectiveness of the interventions, InM initiated a research study on the impact of PRIME interventions in combating monga.  The sample included over 1500 households. The data have been analyzed and reports are being prepared to disseminate the findings through a national seminar.

As PRIME has been expanded to the other four districts of greater Rangpur in the second phase of the project, InM will continue to conducts such impact studies in the coming years.

Duration: Six Years.

A study on Overlapping in Microcredit Programs:

InM and PKSF are currently collaborating on a study of ‘Overlapping of Microcredit Programs’ in the Tangail district. The major objectives of the study are to identify:

a. the intensity of credit coverage;
b. utilization area of the credit;
c. extent of multiple memberships; and
d. stock taking liabilities.

Approximately, 7000 households were surveyed in this study. To this end, InM designed the survey questionnaire and also supervised the field survey. InM is now currently in the process of managing the data and will publish the findings through a national seminar in January, 2008.

Duration: Ten Months.

Assessment of the Impact of PKSF Interventions on Sustainability of Partner Organizations (POs):

InM is now conducting a small study on the ‘Impact of PKSF Interventions on the Sustainability of POs'. The study intends to find out the extent of impact of different interventions including training, institutional development, accountability and governance guidelines on the development and sustainability of POs. This study is also intended to have implication for PKSF in terms of effectiveness of the current non-financial interventions on sustainability, cost efficiency and governance of POs.

The study intends to collect data on financial structure and outreach, income-expenditures, nature and types of training received and also the governance of POs. The study will randomly select 75 POs of different lengths of transactional relationship out 219 registered POs. For this, POs will be classified into 4 categories with respect to length of relationship and then samples will be selected proportionally from each category.

Duration: Seven Months.

Is The Lending Interest Rate in Microfinance Sector Really High? – An In-depth Examination:

Although microfinance has come over a long way in Bangladesh, but a debate still rages on. The debate is of microfinance interest rate – whether the rate is high or not. In view of the ongoing debate, InM is planning a research on Microfinance Interest Rate. The specific objectives of the proposed study are:
 

To derive the required data approximately 1200 borrowers have already been interviewed; 25-30 opinion makers have also been interviewed. Five commercial banks and two development banks will be selected for the study.

Duration: Three Months