Monga (Bangladesh)

The risk of monga is identified by the Overseas Development Institute as resulting from/being:^[3]

• external shocks (e.g. an earthquake or financial crisis)
• stresses – predictable events that form part of the family life-cycle (e.g. old age or weddings)
• idiosyncratic
• covariate (large areas affected by one phenomenon such as drought)
• acute (e.g. an epidemic)
• chronic (e.g. degeneration of resource productivity under increasing population pressure)

Vulnerability is also a complex combination of the following:^[3]

• Physical: areas prone to natural disasters such as floods or cyclones
• Economic: caused by factors such as indebtedness and low, seasonal or unreliable income.
• Social: e.g. gender inequality and lack of social capital and/or networks.

There are many negative coping strategies employed and this can have both a short-term impact (e.g. reducing food consumption), but it also threatens households' long term ability to help themselves out of the crisis as they are forced to sell productive assets.^[3]

Preventing monga requires addressing the following issues:^[3]

1. reduce risk by protecting assets and household consumption/income;
2. prevent negative coping strategies (e.g. selling productive assets);
3. promote investment in livelihoods and productive assets;
4. increase voice and access to information.

In earlier years, efforts to counteract the effects of monga were made through Government test relief and other programmes, and by rural infrastructure `cash-for-work' interventions by long established NGOs such as RDRS Bangladesh which also carried out skills training and crop diversification from the mid-1970s. The spread of irrigation has reduced the impact of the early season monga (March, April) but is still a major factor in the September–October period before the amon rice harvest

The Bangladeshi government has been trying to assist the victims of monga by providing a US$295 million program which provides employment for two million heads of families for 75 days during the monga season. This also can be a big fail sometimes.^[1]

This involves the transfer of productive assets worth 8,000 to 13,000 Taka to the poorest households in northern Bangladesh.^[3] Furthermore, it provides intensive training and support on how to manage these assets, as well as a daily stipend until the assets start producing an income (approximately 300 Taka per month).^[3] In this way, the assets transferred are not sold as a coping strategy before those assets have started producing an income and securing the household from such an extreme measure (see Cash transfers).^[3] The programme also subsidises health and legal services, water and sanitation provision and the development of supportive community networks.^[3]

The poorest households in the Jamuna Chars region, an low-lying area prone to floods and erosion in northern Bangladesh, are provided with income generating assets worth approximately 13,000 Taka.^[3] This livelihoods intervention support includes a monthly stipend for 18 months of 300 Taka per month, infrastructure development, social development training, seasonal work and promotes entrepreneurship in the agricultural and non-farm sectors.^[3]

A national programme integrating food security and nutrition issues with development and income generating activities for poor households in food insecure areas.^[3] For two years this programme transfers monthly food rations, as well as services such as income generating skills training.^[3] The programme also works with micro-credit service providers.^[3]

This is the initiative of the Palli Karma-Sahayak Foundation (PKSF), a micro-finance institution, in northern Bangladesh.^[3] The PKSF provide employment opportunities for the monga season, emergency credit for households with a slightly higher income, consumption loans, remittance services and a carefully designed flexible credit support system.^[3] The aim is to build beneficiaries’ coping capacity, and their skills and resources to secure their own futures.^[3]