The overall purpose of the study was:

• To develop a socio-economic profile of the six priority rural areas of Bangladesh based on a logical framework of the linkages between food security, nutritional status, livelihoods, and socio-economic indicators.  
• The profiling study sought to characterize major issues and causes of food security and food insecurity, identify the poorest and most food insecure communities and households within the six priority rural areas of the country, understand the coping strategies of poor households vulnerable to transitory food insecurity, develop analytical indicators for measuring food insecurity, targeting beneficiary selection criteria for the next country program of the WFP, and provide recommendations on potential interventions to realize improved livelihoods, enhanced food security, and modified safety nets targeting the ultra-poor.

Methodology of the Study:  In order to triangulate information and develop an in-depth analysis of socio-economic profiles of the six WFP priority regions of the country, the assessment team employed a combination of data collection procedures, including:

1. secondary source review and institutional study
2. qualitative community profiles of 22 villages evenly spread throughout the six WFP priority zones based on (i) key informant interviews, (ii) focus group discussions with separate community groups of men and women, (iii) coping strategies exercise aimed at identifying the frequency and severity of major coping strategies employed during times of shock, and (iv) a wealth-ranking exercise
3. survey of 2,760 households of 138 villages across the six WFP priority zones

The sampling strategy included a two-stage procedure in order to ensure a random sample of all households within the six WFP priority zones. The household sample included 20 randomly-selected households per village and 23 villages per zone, meaning a total of 460 households per zone and 2,760 villages in the six-zone survey area. Sample villages were selected using the probability-proportional-to-size (PPS) technique. A separate weight factor was constructed for each zone to ensure that all households had the same probability of selection. Then purposively 22 villages were randomly selected as the qualitative sample from the quantitative sample of the six zones, including four villages in each of the larger five zones and two villages from the substantially smaller coastal zone.

Specific tasks that were carried out included:

• development of study methodology, 
• development of sample frame and drawing of sample, 
• development, translation, and pre-testing of survey questionnaires, 
• hiring and supervision of enumerators, (v) overseeing of the data collection process, 
• compilation of FGD reports, translation of the instruments used in the study, and implementation of the qualitative study, 
• development of a database software program, and 
• computerization, cleaning and submission of data sets. 

The survey was commissioned by TANGO International Inc., USA and funded by the WFP.