The Canadian Hunger Foundation used Geographic Information Systems (GIS) to strategically plan and evaluate its "Sustainable Livelihoods for the Ultra Poor" development project in Bangladesh. GIS helped target interventions like sanitation facilities and water wells. It also helped monitor outcomes like income increases, livelihood activities, and housing conditions. GIS enabled staff to understand factors influencing these outcomes and refine their approach. The document recommends how to effectively integrate GIS into project monitoring and evaluation to improve planning, implementation and learning.

1. MIS AND GIS ................................. 2
GIS AND PROJECT
PLANING ..................................... 3-5
GIS AND THE WAY
FORWARD................................... 11
GISinfocusUSING GEOG RAPHIC INF ORMATIO N SYS TEMS (GIS) T O B OLST ER
EFFE CTI V E PR OJE CT MA NA GEME NT .
The Canadian Hunger Foundation (CHF) is using a
type of technology in Bangladesh and Sri Lanka
which helps to strategically plan and evaluate
development interventions using Geographic
Information Systems (GIS). This brief focuses on
our lessons in GIS from Bangladesh.
Project Information
CHF and a local partner jointly
implemented the “Sustainable
Livelihoods for the Ultra
Poor” (SLUP) project in
Chandpur District, Bangladesh
from 2006 to 2011. The project
worked directly with10,500
ultra-poor households,
providing a broad range of
asset and capacity building
support with a goal to
sustainably improve and
diversify beneficiaries’
livelihoods, increase their
incomes and achieve food
security. In addition, 19,500
households benefitted from
community projects. The
project was funded by the
Canadian International
Development Agency.
As a Canadian international development non-profit organization, the Canadian Hunger Foundation has been relentless
in its mission to enable poor rural communities in developing countries to attain sustainable livelihoods and address the
persistent cycle of rural poverty. In the last 50 years, CHF has implemented over 800 projects in more than 50 countries,
helping millions in Asia, Africa and the Americas to improve their daily lives.
GIS AND PROJECT
MONITORING ............................. 6-10

2. 2
Management Information System (MIS)
The project’s Management Information System (MIS) was created to monitor livelihood activities in each household
and to track the impact of the project. The MIS is a computerized access database system which continuously
processes, integrates, stores and analyzes project information. Project beneficiaries were supported in designing
livelihood plans and trained in measuring and recording their income, sales, expenditures and production quantities in
a simple family information book. Project staff visited households regularly and continuously built beneficiaries’
capacity in business record keeping and planning to ensure the accuracy of the family book records. Each month field
staff collected this information using standardized data collection formats and sent it to the monitoring and evaluation
team to screen and input into the MIS system. Checks and balances were in place for senior staff to spot check
household information collected by beneficiaries to ensure validity. Questionnaires were tested in the field for fine-
tuning and regular follow-up support was provided to data enumerators by CHF to ensure the accuracy of the data
collection and data analysis process.
Project information in the MIS was geographically referenced through a Geographic Information System (GIS). During
the project planning stages a Participatory Rural Appraisal (PRA) was conducted in each village that the project
targeted. Community members were involved in designing village maps and marking their resources and mapping out
household locations. On particular occasions this process was facilitated through the use of Geographic Positioning
System (GPS) technology. These village maps were then overlaid onto digitized government land maps and linked into
the MIS. By establishing a comprehensive monitoring system that efficiently and accurately captured project
information and by easily linking this information to the local geography and resources, the project was able to
enhance its planning, monitoring, analysis, reporting processes, ultimately increasing implementation effectiveness
and deepening impact.
Snapshot 1. The database
Interface provides information
on each beneficiary and their
change throughout the project
on a number of variables
including income, food security,
access to services, gender roles
within the household, decision
making and access to assets,
business development and
training attended, etc.
Geographic Information System (GIS)

3. 3
GIS and Project Planning
Targeting of Sanitary Latrines
The project strived to comprehensively support ultra-poor households to attain sustainable livelihoods. One of the
project’s activities was to deliver sanitary latrines and hygiene and sanitation awareness to the most vulnerable
communities. With the assistance of GIS, project staff were able to determine which communities had the highest
proportion of households with no sanitary latrines and, as a result, establish a cost-effective distribution strategy.
Through its targeted approach, the project was able to build and distribute 1,851 sanitary latrines and provide training
and hygiene promotion to those households located in the most critical clusters (areas with the greatest percentage
of households lacking latrines). Proper use of sanitary latrines increased from 35% at baseline to 83% by the end of the
project.
In order to mitigate the effects of shallow tube well arsenic contamination in the Chandpur District, the project
installed 400 deep tube wells into the deep aquifer, providing access to drinking water to slightly over 15,000
households. Staff used GIS maps to effectively target the well locations and to better coordinate with local
Government and other NGOs working in the area on issues related to safe water. The maps pinpointed the location of
existing wells, assisting all stakeholders to ensure adequate distribution and avoid overlapping and replication.
Targeting of Deep Tube Wells
Snapshot 2. This map
shows the location of
existing deep tube
wells in the project
areas (in pink) and
new wells installed by
the project (in blue)
and government and
other NGOs (yellow)

4. 4
GIS and Project Planning
Targeting of Link Roads
In order to better link beneficiaries to markets and
government services, rural paths and narrow roads were
constructed and pre-existing ones were upgraded and
maintained in the project area. In total, 18 kms of link roads
were constructed or refurbished benefitting over 3,000
Households. The establishment of link roads had many
multiplier effects, ensuring year-round access to schools and
medical care and catalyzing project beneficiaries` small
businesses. Using the project’s GIS, senior staff ensured that
link roads were being constructed or repaired in strategic
areas; essentially in areas that benefited the most vulnerable
population, that were closest to livelihood groups and
potential marketing clusters, and that provided a link to main
roads, preferably those connected with local markets or
government services.
Snapshot 3. This map shows two planned link roads
(circled in blue) planned for construction. The potential
road circled in red was flagged by staff as not suitable for
construction, as it did not link to other main roads.

5. 5
Establishing Livelihood Groups
and Marketing Clusters
Snapshot 4. This map
shows the clustering of
livelihood groups that are
in close proximity and close
to markets. The white stars
represent the location of
livelihood groups. The
green circle shows three
livelihood groups in close
proximity that have been
clustered and organized
into one larger marketing.
Early in the project, beneficiaries were organized into livelihood
groups (livestock, agriculture, business) which were composed of 15
-20 members. These groups allowed for efficient transfer of
technical assistance and training, provided a platform for
information exchange and boosted social capital. During the
project’s final year, a key focus was to group the most successful
livelihood groups into larger clusters in order to capitalize on
economies of scale. Two to three livelihood groups were clustered and their strengths and confidence harnessed and re-
directed towards economic initiatives such as value addition, bulk purchasing and selling, and linkages with private
sector and government service providers.
The success of the Marketing Clusters was based on a sound understanding of their environment, particularly the
economic context and infrastructure. With this in mind, project staff used the MIS/GIS to select and group Marketing
Clusters. GIS maps were used to assess which groups were within close proximity of each other and were connected to
infrastructure networks (i.e. roads, market centers, health centers, government services etc.).
GIS & Project Planning

6. 6
GIS & Project Monitoring
Monitoring Income Change
As a result of its holistic and targeted intervention, incomes of benefiting
households more than doubled over the project period (real income increment
of 142% for female-headed households and 133% for male-headed households).
GIS maps provided the capability of layering project data and geographic
information simultaneously and helped project staff understand potential
reasons (cause and effect) behind differences in income increases and trends
across different areas of the project. For instance, the project found that flood
prone areas had lower income increases (yellow areas), except in those places
where households specifically chose livestock rearing as opposed to paddy
production as a livelihood strategy. On the other hand (dark brown) were
generally located in higher lands -beneficiaries could harvest 3 crops in a year -
and were close to main commercial roads and networks.
Snapshot 5. This map shows the unions in the project areas highlighted by income increases. Those areas that are
dark brown represent the unions where on average project beneficiaries experienced an income increase of over
120% throughout the lifetime of the project. Those areas that are light yellow represent unions where beneficiaries
experienced an average income increase of between 0 and 90%.

7. 7
GIS & Project Monitoring
Monitoring Livelihood Activities
Beneficiaries worked with field staff to establish an
individualized Livelihood Plan - a long term strategy to
capitalize on their strengths in order to improve the
wellbeing of their households. This was based upon a
comprehensive analysis of a household’s assets (Financial,
Social, Physical, Natural and Human) and aspirations. As
part of this Livelihood Plan, households chose a specific
economic enhancement activity (i.e. cow rearing, beef
fattening, short-term land leasing to cultivate rice, fish
trading, rickshaw pulling etc.) which the project then
supported them in.
After one year of implementation, analysis of the profits
of these economic activities resulted in low return on
investment for agricultural
land leasing. Using MIS
and GIS, project staff
determined that these low
profits were exclusively
related to flood prone areas (where rice can only be
harvested once a year) and devised a strategy to ensure
that future beneficiaries (to be selected in years two and
three) located in these flood-prone areas directed their
aspirations towards more profitable and geographic-
appropriate economic activities, such as beef fattening
and/or cow rearing initiatives.
Snapshot 6. This map shows the target beneficiaries who
choose agriculture as their main livelihood activity, in
relation to the flood prone areas.

8. 8
GIS & Project Monitoring
A significant percentage of targeted households could
not afford to build, repair or reconstruct their houses
after they were damaged or destroyed by monsoon
rain and other tropical storms.
The project therefore mapped those households that
were in need of work and provided support on home
repair in order to protect beneficiaries’ health, security
and well-being. Elevating homes off the ground was
also undertaken for 20% of households in low land/
flood affected areas to ensure they were protected
from perennial floods. GIS maps were used by project
staff to showcase improvements in beneficiaries’
housing conditions to local authorities and to channel
additional government support to under-serviced
areas.
Snapshot 7 (right above). This map shows the housing
status of beneficiaries in Uttor Gohat Union prior to project
interventions. The photo below shows a homestead with
unsafe housing.
Snapshot 8 (right). This map shows the housing status of
beneficiaries in Uttor Gohat Union after project interventions.
The location of households that were still in red status (poor
housing) were given to Government departments to address
post-project.
Monitoring Housing
Conditions

9. 9
GIS & Project Monitoring
Monitoring Graduation from Ultra-Poverty
The overall impact of the project on the well-being of targeted households was assessed through a series of
comprehensive graduation surveys covering all 10,500 target households. The survey was designed to capture the
proportion of households ‘graduating’ out of ultra-poverty after almost 4 years of project implementation. Beneficiary
households were assessed throughout the project based on a stringent set of six weighted parameters (see Figure
below).
Households received points in each category, which were then added and averaged based on a weighting system. For
example income made the biggest difference to a household’s graduation score (30%) followed by Food Security and
Resilience (both 20%), whereas the Education of children had the least impact (5% of total). In the project, there was a
greater focus on income building activities therefore it received a greater weighting. Based on their score households
were placed into three categories: green, yellow and red.
 Green: Scored 76-100 points (Household has graduated out of ultra-poverty)
 Yellow: Scored 61-75 points (Household is moving towards graduation)
 Red: Scored 60 points or below (Household is lagging)
Green households were considered to have graduated, as they have surpassed all set targets on the above parameters
and are progressing well. Yellow households were yet to achieve some of the targets but were on the right track for
eventually graduating out of ultra-poverty. Meanwhile, red households were far from reaching graduation targets, had
many hurdles to cross before approaching graduation, and, as a result, would likely remain ultra-poor.
GIS maps helped project staff to physically locate and identify households by graduation status, and also enabled staff
to better understand the drivers and constraints associated with achieving graduation.

10. 10
CHF’s Graduation scheme also provided critical feedback to
improve programing as staff used GIS to design more
effective follow-up strategies for targeted areas or
households. The Graduation classification (green, yellow, red)
facilitated a targeted approach to project implementation in
terms of capacity development and support mechanisms
during the final year of the project. Project staff intensified
follow-up support, asset management training and coaching
to red and yellow households, whereas interventions for
green households’ focused on value-addition training and
linking green households to producer groups and markets.
Snapshot 9. This map shows the exact location of households and
their graduation status—Green (Graduated from ultra-poverty),
Yellow (moving towards Graduation) or Red (requiring extra
support).

11. 11
GIS & the Way Forward
Learning
Managers need an effective way to plan, monitor and evaluate development interventions. GIS provides an added
value by enabling managers to:
 Effectively plan and target interventions (locations of wells, latrines, roads, infrastructure);
 Plan business and marketing initiatives;
 Improve Resource allocation;
 Monitor and evaluate interventions;
 Create a learning environment; and
 Enhance community participation.
GIS is particularly pertinent for initiatives that depend on geography and location, such as Climate Change Adaptation,
Disaster Risk Reduction and Value Chain Development projects. The analysis of the trends and lessons learned on GIS
and MIS are valuable in CHF’s continuous efforts to improve its Sustainable Livelihoods model in Bangladesh and
elsewhere and can inform other organizations working in similar geographic and thematic areas.
ForadequateintegrationofGISintotraditionalprojectmonitoringandevaluationsystemsconsiderthefollowingrecommendations:
 Be clear about which staff will be using MIS/GIS and hire and train accordingly. Provide intensive upfront
support on data collection, management and analysis for staff. Provide training to M&E staff on interpreting
and analyzing data (particularly in relation to GIS). This needs to be coupled with adequate time, outlined in
their job descriptions, for data analysis.
 Maintain a balance between complexity of data collection tools and systems (which provide greater accuracy)
and ease of use (keeping it simple and user-friendly).
 Use simple and common technologies for data collection with project staff. Current technologies allow for
accurate geo-locating data using smartphones and traditional maps. As technology advances it is less likely
that external consultants with complicated GPS devices would be needed to set up MIS/GIS systems.
 Create regular feedback and reporting sessions amongst staff to review and assess data.
 Ensure laptop and internet connectivity in the field offices in order to share maps/GIS information with staff.
 Consider feedback mechanisms to government and communities. Maps can make a real difference in
community level discussions and beneficiaries themselves can explain and interpret the results shown.
 Createaclearplanfortheuse,analysisandsharingofinformationbothinternallyandexternally.Thiscanincludeaknowledge
sharingstrategywhichoutlinesthemethodologyandresponsibilitiesofstaffforsharinganddisseminatinglessonsandresultsto
otherstakeholderssoinformationsharinggoesbeyondreportingpurposes.
Recommendations

12. 12
At CHF, we take a different
view – seeing assets
instead of liabilities,
opportunities instead of
scarcity, and power
instead of helplessness.
CHF engages local
organizations and
individuals as partners in
development, supporting
them to achieve locally
defined results.
MAKING A
DIFFERENCE.
The Canadian Hunger Foundation’s
fundamental approach is to respect
and empower local populations as
architects of their own development.
This approach helps identify hidden assets, untapped potential, networks
of people, skills and resources — all of which give communities the power
to transform themselves and create stable and sustainable livelihoods.
When communities own development — when families drive change with
their insights and enthusiasm — we can tap vast reservoirs of potential
and see change that lasts for generations.
Entire communities are working closely with CHF to design and
implement projects, while also providing advice throughout the process.
The result is that CHF’s programming is building sustainable results and
resilient communities.