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Independent Evaluation of Cyclone Sidr Response & Rehabilitation Program

31 July 2009
Super Cyclone Sidr (equivalent in intensity to a high-end Category 4 Hurricane) hit Bangladesh on November 15, 2007. Intense wind and storm surges left behind a ravaged landscape along the coast of Bangladesh. Bagerhat, Barisal, Barguna, Patuakhali, and Pirojpur are identified as the worst affected districts. More than 3,000 people were killed and hundreds were missing from these districts. Physical damage is even worse. Crops, fisheries, and livestock were either severely damaged or washed away by storm surges.

CARE Bangladesh intervened with emergency relief support in Bagerhat, Pirojpur, and Barguna Districts. The program was implemented through two Response Site Office, Bagerhat and Barguna. Initially the Bagerhat office covered Sharonkhola, Morelgonj, & Mathbaria upazilas and Barguna office covered Barguna sadar and Pathatghata upazilas. After first month’s operation CARE Bangladesh concentrated its response effort in 9 upazilas of Bagerhat and 2 upazilas of Barguna districts. At the end of March 2008, CARE’s assistance reached nearly 130,000 families in Bagerhat (including Pirojpur) and nearly 80,000 families in Barguna districts with food and non-food items, safe drinking water, and medical support.

Though CARE worked in this part of Bangladesh until 2004-2005, they were no longer operational in the disaster-affected areas when SIDR hit. However, CARE did have a number of existing and former local partner NGOs (PNGOs) that do maintain a permanent presence in those areas. Of these, CARE initially prioritized delivery through two “long term partners” with whom CARE has had MoUs in place since 2002, namely Prodipon and Resource Integration Centre (RIC). CARE approach with partners was not only to channel resources through them, but also to reinforce their capacity through secondment of CARE staff and capacity building approaches to ensure they can implement assistance programs using resources from CARE and other international partners with appropriate monitoring and accountability systems in place. CARE also supplemented these efforts during the immediate response with some direct delivery.

ALNAP Website: http://www.alnap.org/