The baseline Result and Impact (RIM) Survey of the Bangladesh Hoar Infrastructure and Livelihood Improvement Project (HILIP) was conducted prior to the start of the project recruiting beneficiary households for specific project activities. The HILP project is aimed at improving livelihoods and reducing vulnerability in the haor areas of five districts in the Sylhet basin, including Netrakona, Sumanganj, Habiganj, Brahanbaria and Kishorganj.

The objective of the survey was: 

• to gather data on key indicators of poverty and livelihood – both as a guide for project design and as a baseline for future impact evaluation.

Thus, a wide range of data was collected in the survey, pertaining to households in the project area made up of hoar unions in the five districts. The Survey was carried out with a randomly selected sample of 900 households drawn from the haor unions.

Sample design and size:

The Survey was carried out with a sample of 900 households drawn from the 151 haor unions. The sample was selected in three stages. At first stage, 30 haor unions were randomly selected, systematically selecting 11 out of 58 from Sunamganj, 06 out of 30 from Kishorganj, 08 out of 39 from Brahmanbaria, 04 out of 18 from Habiganj and 01 out of 06 from Netrakona district. At the second stage, 30 villages were selected, randomly picking one village from each of the selected unions. Households were selected at the third stage, including 30 households from a selected village (cluster) in order to yield the sample of 900 households for the survey.

The 2007 Knowledge, Attitude and Practice (KAP) Regarding Avian Influenza Among the General Public and Poultry Farmers in Bangladesh: A Baseline Survey

The primary objective of the survey was to have an overview of existing KAP regarding AHI of general public, backyard poultry farmers, and small and medium scale commercial poultry farmers and farm workers. The respondents of the survey consisted of the following groups:

1. adult male and female members of the general population from both rural and urban areas, 
2. backyard  poultry farmers, and
3. small and medium scale commercial poultry farmers and farm workers. 

Nationally representative samples were drawn for each of the above groups of respondents. For the general population, the sample was drawn from both urban and rural areas of all six divisions, and backyard farmers were selected from rural areas of six divisions. Small and medium scale commercial poultry farm workers were selected from six selected districts: Gazipur, Chittagong, Rangpur, Sylhet, Jessore and Mymensingh. There are reasons for selecting these areas, which includes location of poultry farms, migration of birds, cross-border trade, border surveillance and mixed-breed farming. Poultry farms did not grow uniformly all over the country. Gazipur, Chittagong and Rangpur are the major poultry belt of Bangladesh and were therefore selected as the major survey areas for samples of poultry farmers. The rationale behind selecting Sylhet was that many migratory birds visit this part of Bangladesh. Jessore was included considering the cross-border trade and border surveillance. Madhupur of Mymensingh district is the area where ethnic minorities (tribal people) keep pigs with birds. This area was considered to examine the poultry farming situation in ethnic groups where poultry are kept with pigs.         

The survey was sponsored and funded by IFAD (International Fund for Agricultural Development), Italy and Haor Infrastructure and Livelihood Improvement Project (HILIP), Local Government & Engineering Department (LGED), Government of Bangladesh