NGO Contribution in the development of country: Bangladesh

CHAPTER ONE

Introduction & Form of NGOs

Introduction:

Non-Government Organization (NGOs) started in this country in a limited scale as relief

provides following the devastating cyclone in 1970, which claimed colossal human lives and
properties in the coastal belt and the off-shore islands. Devastations caused by the War of
Liberation in 1971 prompted other foreign and newly established local NGOs to mount relief and
rehabilitation Programs.

Recognizing the need for development for alleviating endemic poverty in the country, NGOs
began to shift their emphasis from relief to socio-economic development and to pursue initially
rather haphazardly Programs aiming at health care, family planning, income generation and self-
reliance for the disadvantaged and the poor. As poverty continued to deepen and encompass
ever larger numbers of people, more foreign NGOs came to work in this country and at the same
time, the members of local NGOs grew fast.

Definition of NGO:

Generally speaking, the terminology may be used to include any institution or organization
outside the Government, and as such, may include political parties, private and commercial
enterprises, social and cultural organizations, academic and research institutions, youth and
sports clubs, and similar other organizations. In fact the terminology covers all those
organizations outside the government, which are involved in various development and welfare
activities with the objective of alleviating poverty of the rural as well as urban poor. In
Bangladesh, it includes all such organizations and institutions that are registered with the
Government under the Voluntary Social Welfare Agencies (Registration and Council)
Ordinance1961 and the Foreign Donation (Voluntary Activities) Regulation Ordinance of 1978.

In the contexts of Bangladesh, the term NGO has been defined as an association of persons
formed voluntarily through personal initiatives of a few committed persons dedicated to the
design, study and implementation of development projects at the grass root level. They function
outside the government framework but they are bound by and work within the laws of the land.
They are variously involved in multi-sectoral development projects combined with research
welfare services, human capability development through educational training, technology
development m exchange of information and social communication. Their broad objective is
poverty alleviation and their target groups are primarily the poor and the disadvantaged.

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 NGO Contribution in the development of country: Bangladesh

Types of NGO:

NGOs may be widely classified into the following broad groups, which are functioning in
Bangladesh.

1. Donor Agencies:
These comprise international NGOs dispensing funds they raise or receive from their
governments to various NGOs- national and expatriate-engaged in social, economic and
development activities. Apart from providing funds to the local and national NGOs, some of them
implement projects directly. Major such organizations operating in Bangladesh include OXFAM,
Swedish Free Church Aid (SFCA), Canadian University Service Overseas (CUSO),South Asia
Partnership (SAP), The Aga Khan Foundation (AKF), etc.

2. International Action NGOs:

Such NGOS are those expatriate organizations who operate on various geographic inspectoral
areas with areas with operating funds obtained from foreign donors. Some of these NGOs are
also acting as co-financing agents of their respective governments. Such major NGOs operating
in Bangladesh include Rangpur, Dinajpur Rural Services (RDRS), Mennonite Central Committee
(MCC), CONCERN, Voluntary Services Overseas (VSO), International Development enterprise
(IDE), etc.

3. National action NGOs:

There are many of these NGOs in the country. Some of them have earned reputation as effective
organizations helping the poor and the disadvantaged through health activities, educational and
training programs, and income generating activities. Prominent such NGOs include Bangladesh
Rural Advancement Committee (BRAC), Proshika Manobik Unnayan Kendro, Caritas
Bangladesh, Nijera Kari, etc.

4. Local Action NGOs:

There are organizations operating in local areas covering single or few villages, and are engaged
in traditionally specialized activities in the locality. Sources of funding of these NGOs include the
government and or nationally based donor agencies and other NGOs.

5. Service NGOs:
There does exist some service NGOs in Bangladesh. Generally, they work in the field of medical
service, education and family program.

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 NGO Contribution in the development of country: Bangladesh

The evolution of NGOs in Bangladesh

Historically, the non-government organizations (NGOs) started shortly after the 1971 war of
liberation, initially providing relief services and rehabilitation assistance to war- ravaged victims.
These NGOs then shifted their development programs and strategies towards community
development, giving special preference to the poor and to the powerless segments of
Bangladeshi society.

Dr. David Korten analyzes the evolution of the NGO sector in Bangladesh within the framework of
the Four Generations of NGOs, to wit:

First generation: NGOs put emphasis on relief and rehabilitation work (1971-72);
Second generation: developmental efforts of NGOs are aimed towards community
development (1973-75) with a number of sectoral activities (e.g., agrarian reform, health,
cooperatives, etc);
Third generation: also known as "sustainable systems development" where the NGOs
extend the breadth of their programs, ensuring sustainability through undertaking large-
scale programs, complementing the national development systems and involving various
organizations and institutions (1976-to date); and,
Fourth generation: which entirely depends on the development phase of NGOs in
realizing their vision of society characterized by strong People's Movements.

Over the past two decades, since 1971, the NGOs have made significant progress and
contributions to a country which is still struggling to survive and to rise as a truly independent
nation. Through their various development programs and projects such as health, agriculture,
agrarian reform, irrigation, credit assistance, among others, these NGOs have served as
catalysts, making their development interventions strongly felt in the urban and rural areas.

NGO Registration

NGOs in Bangladesh are registered under different Acts. These are

(1) The Societies Registration Act, 1860;

(2) The Trust Act, 1882;
(3) Voluntary Social Welfare Agencies (Regulation and Control) Ordinance 1961;
(4) Co-operative Societies Act, 1925 and
(5) The Companies Act, 1913 (amended in 1914). NGOs registered under these above
mentioned acts are controlled in accordance with (1) 3.

The Voluntary Social Welfare Agencies (Regulation and Control) Ordinance 1961; The Foreign
Donation (voluntary activities) Regulation Ordinance, 1978 (amended in 1982) and The Foreign
Contribution (Regulation) Ordinance, 1982. The highest number of NGOs is registered under The
Societies Registration Act, 1980. NGOs covered under this study are mainly those which are
registered under the NGO Affairs Bureau (NGOAB) attached to the office of the Prime
Minister/Chief Adviser.

In reality, the registration-providing government offices cannot efficiently monitor these NGOs.
Research has shown that registration often takes place allegedly without due process in
exchange of bribes of Tk. 5,000 to Tk. 10,000 many NGOs have got registration from government
offices such as Social Welfare Directorate, and Women and Children Welfare Directorate. At the
local level the Upazila and District administration authority is responsible for monitoring the
activities of NGO in their respective areas and send report to the NGOAB. The research shows
that because of heavy workload they have no time or resources to do so except holding of
monthly meetings, which also do not take place on a regular basis.

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 NGO Contribution in the development of country: Bangladesh

The Policy Environment for NGOs in Bangladesh

The attitudes of many government officials towards NGOs have been largely ambivalent. While
official pronouncements highlight the role of NGOs, government policies restrict the participation
of the NGOs in the mainstream of development.

Government attitudes have been found to be ambivalent. While on the other hand, the
government in their successive five year plan categorically emphasized the participation of NGOs
in national development, they on the other hand, promulgated a number of regulatory laws to
control NGO activities, inhibiting their smooth operation. The government bureaucracy and
political elites tend to exhibit a strong bias against the NGOs and most often, create bottlenecks
to impede their activities. Perhaps, this may be attributed to the very nature of the government
and the existing socio-economic and political structures which have been mostly autocratic and
non- democratic in nature. However, in recent years there have been some collaborative national
ventures which have been successfully undertaken by both NGOs and the Government.

Apparently, government is afraid that the growing number of NGOs may lead to the creation of
countervailing power blocs and eventually, the take-over of government functions. But these
negative perceptions towards NGOs by the government have been unfounded.

Below are several government legislations and regulatory laws which exhibit government's strong
tendency to regulate and control the activities of the NGOs in Bangladesh:

Indicating the Policy Environment for NGOs in Bangladesh

Key Issues/Legal Constraints Year

Initiated
1) Issues on Orientation
GO must approve any amendments to an NGO's constitution 1961
2) Financial Dimension
NGOs must formally register with gov't. in order to receive foreign aid 1978
NGO must report any foreign aid received to GO
NGOs must obtain GO approval in order to use foreign aid 1978
NGOs must file an annual report with the government 1982
Donors must obtain GO approval for any foreign contributions to NGO 1961/1978
Foreign aid in foreign currency must be deposited with Central Bank or GO - specified Bank 1982/1983
Central Bank provides bi-annual report on all NGO foreign currency accounts to key GO 1978
agencies
GO has the authority to monitor and audit NGO accounts
GO review required for an NGO's annual budget 1978
3) Organizational Dimension
NGO must formally register with GO to operate legally 1961
GO project approval required for NGO operations 1986
GO has the authority to monitor and inspect NGO projects and activities 1978
NGO must report and get approval for any expatriate involvement in its operations 1982/1988
GO has the authority to remove and appoint new board members to govern an NGO 1961
GO has the authority to suspend and dissolve NGOs 1961
Voluntary NGO resolution requires GO approval 1961

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 NGO Contribution in the development of country: Bangladesh

These aforementioned legal constraints initiated by the government to regulate and control NGOs
development activities in the areas of orientation, financial and organizational dimensions seem
to signify government's general lack of trust and appreciation of the developmental NGOs.

Sources of Funding for NGOs

NGOs have been able to flourish in Bangladesh due significantly to the availability of funding,
especially from foreign development agencies and INGO. Smaller NGOs tend to receive a greater
proportion of their financing from northern INGOs, while larger organizations receive more from
development agencies. Most NGOs rely on funds received from foreign sources, such as INGO s,
development partners, foreign private organizations, and multinational organizations. A World
Bank Report (20062009) indicated that 34.1% of the foreign aid ($379.4 million) received by
Bangladesh was allocated for the NGO sector. There are no estimates of funds from other
sources involved in this ever-growing sector. The NGO sector is also an important employment
generator. There is no estimate of the number of people employed in the sector, but BRAC, for
example, the second largest employer after the Government, employed 93,843 people as of June
2009.

Some civil society experts believe that Bangladesh NGO s rely too heavily on foreign
development partners. Mr. Rehman Sobhan of Dhakas Centre for Policy Dialogue suggests the
ubiquity of foreign funding has contributed to an enormous NGO sector, which has pushed the
Government out of the provision of public services through delegitimization of the State. The
reality of the matter is that NGO s cannot substitute the Government any more than the private
sector canso whilst this may not have been the intention of the donor community, the objective
results have been not just a downsizing, but also a devaluation of the State. And an increasing
reliance, at least in the social sector, on NGO s which has become a counterproductive
exercise.13 Members of the NGO community have argued that the Government does not have
the capacity to provide these services, regardless of NGO involvement.

Financing NGOs : Trends & Prospects

The total aid to NGOs rose from an average of $232 million (0.7% of GDP) between 1990-95 to $
326 million (0.7% of GDP) between 1996-2006 while total aid to Bangladesh fell from an annual
average of $ 1.72 billion ( 4.9% of GDP) to $ 1.35 billion (2.9% of GDP) during this period (1996-
2004). As a result the share of aid to NGOs as a portion of total aid to Bangladesh has risen from
14.4% in the first half of the nineties to 24.5% since then. On average 20% of aid averaging
around $77 million a year, that is provided to NGOs comes through Government from lending
agencies. Around 70% of private charitable contributions in Bangladesh go to religious institutions
with educational establishments (15%). Flow of foreign grant fund through NGO Affairs Bureau
(up to February, 2008) from 1990, the cumulative disbursement of foreign fund until February,
2008 is $3042, 583,759 and total number of projects is 11,962.

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 NGO Contribution in the development of country: Bangladesh

A Framework for NGO Activities

There are more than 2000 NGOs (development oriented & registered with NGOAB) in
Bangladesh and a small group are among the largest such organisations in the world. These big
NGOs BRAC, ASA and Proshika have nation wide programs with tens of thousands of
employees and multi-million dollar budgets.

Most NGOs are small and have limited managerial and staff capacity. For instance in a sample of
720 NGOs 90% had programs in less than five (out of 64 districts) districts and only three NGOs
had programs in more than 200 ( out of 507) sub-districts. The services of NGOs have grown
significantly over the last fifteen years (from 1990) and they have shown that it is possible to scale
up innovative antipoverty experiments into nationwide programs. Notable innovation that were
expanded include i) Delivering credit to the previously unbankable poor ii) Developing a non-
formal education program to cater to poor children particularly girls; iii) The use of thousands of
village based community health workers providing doorstop services in partnership with
Government.

The unique nature of Bangladeshs NGos is not confined to the delivery of social services and
pro-poor advocacy. NGOs have developed commercial ventures in order to link poor producers
with inputs and output markets as well as to develop a source of internally generated revenue.
The draft Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper (PRSP) views the role of NGOs as an integral part to
achieving national poverty reduction targets, particularly through delivering and facilitating pro-
poor services.

The range of activities undertaken is wide with NGOs known to be active in :-

i) Micro finance;
ii) Health;
iii) Education;
iv) Social safety net programs;
v) Agricultural extension;
vi) Social forestry;
vii) Environmental protections;
viii) Safe water & Sanitation;
ix) Disaster management & relief;
x) Legal & Human rights education.

Poor rural women constitute the large proportion of NGO beneficiaries. This is all the more
remarkable for having been made in the context of severe, interlocking constraints of extreme
poverty and the persistence of strong patriarchal norms associated with both South Asian culture
and Islam, as characteristics of Bangladesh Society.

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 NGO Contribution in the development of country: Bangladesh

CHAPTER TWO

Sustainable Agriculture and Rural Development (SARD)

Landless Farmers & NGOs

The NGOs made significant contributions in the areas of organizing the landless farmers, and of
providing education and training to increase farmers' knowledge and skills to enable farmers to
actively participate in the programs of the government. NGOs also provided some technical skills
to increase the farmers' productivity. But more specifically, the areas where the NGOs contributed
greatly to the government's land reform program were as follows:

identifying government land

identifying landless farmer beneficiaries
preparing basic policy documents
publicity campaigns
holding divisional and regional conferences with NGO fieldworkers, landless group
leaders and the government officials
training of the landless men and women who received government land.

The NGOs strongly believed that through the implementation of agrarian reform program,
they would be able to ameliorate the hardships of the people. According to the government, a
total of 16,843 acres of land have been distribute to benefit some 167,867 landless which
include the landless organized by the NGOs.

Agricultural Sectors Development:

In general, NGOs in Bangladesh focus their work on the very poorest sectors of society such as
the landless, women and the rural poor.

Undeniably, there is now a proliferation of NGOs in Bangladesh. According to the Association of

Development Agencies in Bangladesh (ADAB), an apex forum of NGOs founded in 1974 with the
objectives of facilitating information exchange among its member organizations, about 135 NGOs
are presently involved in agricultural programs alone.

NGOs with a Program on Natural Resource Management

Name of Programs International National Local Total

1. Agriculture 12 22 101 135
2. Sericulture 3 6 19 28
3. Horticulture 0 2 2 4
4. Fisheries 7 15 96 118
5. Social Forestry 6 20 92 118
6. Land Reform 0 3 2 5
TOTAL 28 68 312 408

Source: ADAB, Computer Data Base on NGOs, ADAB, Dhaka

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 NGO Contribution in the development of country: Bangladesh

However, there are only a few NGOs in Bangladesh that promote the importance of sustainable
agriculture among the farmers such as PROSHIKA-MUK, Friends in Village Development
Bangladesh (FIVDB), CARE International and Rangpur Dinajpur Rural Service (RDRS). Their
concept of sustainable agriculture "entails an eco- friendly agricultural system whereby people in
the community optimize the use of their resources through traditional, indigenous, as well as
modern science."

Because sustainable agriculture is still a new concept which at this point in time, and is still at the
experimental stage, NGOs' main strategy is directed at meeting the subsistence needs of the
farmers.

Real Work Done by Proshika for Rural Farmers:

Proshika Manobik Unnayam Kendra (Proshika) is a non-government organization (NGO) in

Bangladesh. Since 1976, it has been organizing the rural poor through education and training and
by providing various other support services such as credit extension. In 1989 a similar process
was initiated by Proshika in the urban areas.

Proshika's work priorities are grouped into themes which reflect a number of rural and urban
development concerns. These are:

1) organization of the rural poor

2) development and education
3) employment and income generating activities
4) rural health infrastructure
5) social forestry
6) ecological agriculture
7) urban poor development and,
8) disaster management.

The Ecological Agriculture Program was started in a modest way in 1978 concentrating on
vegetable growing. From 1990-91, experiments on rice production were conducted.

Using organic fertilizers and a natural control mechanism, Proshika's experiments in "ecological
agriculture" were designed to show that "organic" farming is capable of producing rice yields
comparable with those chemical farming, prevents disease and pest infestation and enhances the
soil's natural productivity.

Irrigation command areas

Demonstration plots
Chemical spry
Disease and pest infestation

Proshika's Ecological Agriculture Programme revealed that the "ecological agriculture" plots
required a significantly lower investment per acre while producing yields comparable to those of
"chemical agriculture" plots.

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 NGO Contribution in the development of country: Bangladesh

Government & NGOs Collaborations for Agriculture Development

The government and NGOs could conduct joint GO-NGOconsultation and policy workshops on
sustainable agriculture to come up with a common understanding and development frameworks
and approaches on sustainable agriculture.

1. The government's agricultural policy promoting the use of chemical agriculture and HYV
technology to address the country's food insufficiency has been proven to be ineffective by the
NGOs based on their comparative research and actual field experiments. Also, it is a well
established fact that chemical-based agriculture has negative effects on the people's health and
their environment.

2. An alternative way of doing agricultural development combining modern technology and the
indigenous knowledge and practices of the people has been found to be very effective in
increasing farmers' productivity. This has been called Sustainable Agriculture which utilizes
organic farming and integrated pest management systems.

3. Consequently, the government must review its present agricultural policies based on these
research findings. These experiments and other similar NGO field experiences could form one
concrete basis and topic for building GO-NGO dialogue and collaboration.

4. The government must closely collaborate with NGOs like Proshika and other NGOs which
have direct knowledge on organic farming and other forms of sustainable agriculture (e.g.
regenerative agriculture, etc.). The government must recognize the indigenous knowledge of the
people and therefore, consult them in programs and projects related to the promotion of
sustainable agriculture and rural development.

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 NGO Contribution in the development of country: Bangladesh

CHAPTER THREE

Environmental & Consciousness Activities of NGOs

There are some efforts in Bangladesh to deal with the environmental problems. The government
agencies, in collaboration with other organizations, are implementing several donor-financed
environmental projects. A good number of environmental NGOs are active. Many large, general-
purpose NGOs also now have environmental components. However, it is clear from the continued
environmental deterioration that these efforts are not proving adequate for the challenge that
Bangladesh faces. The efforts have to be raised to an entirely different level.

Environment & NGOs

As in many other areas of developmental activity in present day Bangladesh, NGOs play a
prominent role in the arena of environmental studies and protection. There are two types of NGO
involvement in environmental protection. On the one hand, there are specialized, environmental
NGOs that have been set up solely with environmental goals. On the other hand, many of the
general purpose NGOs also now have environmental components in their program.
Environment related NGOs (both specialized and not specialized in environment) have formed a
coalition, namely Coalition of Environmental NGOs (CEN). Many of these NGOs have
collaborated with the Government in formulating NEMAP. Some of these are now engaged in
implementation of NEMAP related and other environmental projects, such as the Sustainable
Environment Management Project (SEMP).

A number of NGOs have organized land less group also who collectively leased Khaslands and
dry riverbeds. Some NGOs organize and mobilize fishing communities to protect the fish released
into open water. Others promote production of seedling in village-based nurseries to protect-
sal (a local, self regenerating tree) forest.

The Changing Emphasis of Disasters in Bangladesh NGOs

Bangladesh is one of the most disaster-prone countries in the world, affected by cyclones and
floods, as well as chronic hazards such as arsenic poisoning. NGOs have played a major role in
bringing concerns related to risk management on to the national agenda and promoting a shift of
focus from mere relief response to disaster mitigation and preparedness. The government has,
after earlier skepticism, now accepted NGOs as major partners in these tasks. Innovative
approaches, such as the use of microfinance, have been applied; many of which are related to
preserving the gains of development efforts as part of rehabilitation. NGOs have pressured for
better co-ordination with government. Improved structures are now approved, but it is still too
early to judge their impact. Despite progress, neither NGOs nor governmental agencies have
clearly defined roles in the effort to link disaster management priorities. This will ensure that
longer-term development efforts build on local capacities and reduce vulnerabilities.

Peoples Consciousness & NGOs

As things appear at present, political systems, administrative dispensation, quality of

governance, access to redress of grievance and violation of human rights, universalizing of
economic gains and overall movement towards higher quality of life especially in the developing
countries world over are the areas needing immediate attention. These become the primary

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 NGO Contribution in the development of country: Bangladesh

concern of genuine NGOs. That speaks for the importance of the NGOs in the new order of
human society.
Therefore the first and foremost responsibility that falls on the shoulders of NGOs is of
disseminating education among the people at large. This is the biggest role and the biggest
challenge for the NGOs. How do we address this is what needs to be debated threadbare.
NGOs will also need to establish their astute neutrality as well as deep involvement. Their
neutrality as non-partisan organizations will highly increase their credibility with the peoples and
their governments. Their involvement will endear them to the masses of people who will repose
in them the trust, which they are somehow loath to repose in the governments when their
aspirations are not met. Obviously, the NGOs are made to do tight rope walking. They have to
be cautious in their business of alerting the governments, responding to the aspirations of the
people, conducting fruitful enterprise for educating people and finally giving direction to the civil
society.
The day has come when NGOs will no more be doubted. Their credentials have to be accepted
by national and international organizations and their word has to carry the full weight. As such
the NGOs have also to be alive to their responsibilities. This calls for a debate on the
restructuring of the NGOs themselves along a broad democratic base. They must, in due
course of time, become the icons for democratic ideology and dispensation.
The picture of the importance and role of the NGOs, which we are contemplating, eventually
necessitates considerable expansion of NGOs, their structure, their corpus of activity, their
accessibility and their fund of achievements. It is also a reality and a necessity that NGOs world
over confederate into a universal body with regional trappings and then co-ordinate their efforts
of building a new civil society in which justice and equity rule the roost.

Advocacy

The advocacy activities of NGOs have become somewhat controversial. Most NGO advocacy
focuses on issues affecting the poor, and is seen as fully legitimate. However, recently a few
NGOs were accused of stretching their advocacy work into partisan political activity and
electioneering, and funding for their service delivery programs was sequestered as a result. As
Government funding of NGOs services grows in importance, NGOs are less likely to want to
antagonize Government.

The Advocacy activities of NGOs focus on issues affecting the poor such as,

1) Violence against women;

2) Dowry;
3) Land rights;
4) Access to justice;
5) Housing;
6) Education.

Advocacy fulfils an essential function in a democracy such as Bangladesh, and must be given
space. Therefore, NGOs scope to do advocacy should be entirely unconstrained, expecting what
is partisan in nature. One option could be for NGOs to separate their advocacy and service
provider activities by undertaking them through separate legal entities, which would allow
financing strategies to be appropriately tailored for each activity.

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 NGO Contribution in the development of country: Bangladesh

Role of NGOs in HIV/AIDS/STD prevention & control

To determine the role of NGOs in HIV/AIDS prevention & control in Bangladesh. An NGO's
(CEDAR, Bangladesh) activities in the field of HIV/AIDS/STDs prevention and Control. CEDAR,
an NGO of Bangladesh, targeting truckers community (Drivers & Helpers) as a high risk behavior
group, has been working in the field of HIV/AIDS/STDs prevention and control since 1995. A
need assessment study was conducted by CEDAR before the project run. The result of the study
revealed that there are about 70,000 truckers working all over the country, who are one of the
core group in Bangladesh. The findings gave a vital insight into the lives and needs of the
truckers such as: long period of time spent away from wives; multiple sexual partners; no
recreational and washing facilities with little alternative to visiting brothels; high level of STDs, but
no treatment services, and little accurate awareness about HIV/AIDS and virtually no use of
condoms. Subsequently based on the findings, CEDAR has developed a package of support
which addresses the drivers and helpers needs and desires through the provision of a
recreational center with TV, indoors games and sanitation facilities. The center has helped
CEDAR to develop a strong relationship with the drivers and helpers and provided a venue for
disseminating general health information, STD treatment and condoms. CEDAR is also training
peer educators and carrying out outreach work through traditional folk dance. The present paper
is an example of NGOs activities and provides some insight into the facts as to HIV/AIDS/STDs
prevention and control program in Bangladesh.

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 NGO Contribution in the development of country: Bangladesh

CHAPTER FOUR

Micro- Finance & NGOs in Bangladesh

Introduction and Industry Coverage:

In Bangladesh there are mainly four types of institutions involved in micro-finance activities.
These ares-

1) Grameen Bank (GB), a member owned specialized institution,

2) Around 1500 Non- Governmental Organizations (NGO) like BRAC, Proshika, ASA, BURO-
Tangail, BEES, CODEC, SUS, TMSS, Action- Aid etc.
3) Commercial and Specialized banks like Bangladesh Krishi Bank (BKB), Rajshahi Krishi
Unnayan Bank (RAKUB) and
4) Government sponsored micro finance projects/ Programs like BRDB, Swanirvar Bangladesh,
RD-12 and others which are run through several ministries viz., Ministry of Women & Children
Affairs, Ministry of Youth & Sports, and Ministry of Social Welfare etc.

All the programs are targeted at the functionally landless rural poor. All the MFIs provide mostly
small, un-collateralized one-year term loans to individuals belonging to jointly liable peer groups,
and they use similar on-site loan disbursement and weekly collection methods by forming village
organizations or centers.

A research reveals that NGOs started credit program in mid eighties and their activities increased
noticeably higher after 1990 (CDF, 2000). With the increasing number of collateral free micro
credit disbursement by MFIs, some Nationalized Commercial Banks (NCBs), and Specialized
Banks like BKB and RAKUB have been encouraged to provide a considerable amount of their
rural credit to the poor without security. However, the amount is much less compared to the
deposit mobilization from the rural sector of the country. Today, some of the Private Commercial
Banks (PCBs) have also started direct and linkage programs with NGOs.

The following organizations are the main MC provider in Bangladesh-

Main providers: BWTP, CARE, CDF, Grameen Bank, INAFI, MFN, World Relief, World
Vision, WWB
Number of active borrowers: 20.5 million
Average loan per borrower: $114
Micro-Credit now reaches as many as 37% of all Bangladesh households and
around 60% of poor households.
Source: Microfinance Information Exchange 2010

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 NGO Contribution in the development of country: Bangladesh

Total loan disbursement (cumulative) by these four kinds of institutions till December 2010 was
taka 434.55 billion; of which disbursement under Government program was taka 37.77 billion
(8.69%), Grameen Bank disbursed taka 154.11 billion (35.46%), other Banks and MF-NGOs
disbursed taka 78.41 billion (18%) and taka 164.26 billion (37.80%) respectively (figure-1).
Recovery rate of all these organizations excluding formal banks and government sponsored
programs stood at 95 percent.

Figure-1: Institution-wise Cumulative Loan Disbursement

All the non-government organizations are involved in micro-finance activity but they are not under
the same regulatory authority / monitoring agency. Therefore, there is no single source of
information about them. However, Credit and Development Forum (CDF) an NGO who collects
information of MF-NGOs reveals that 629 MF-NGOs have mobilized about 13.85 million poor
people (11.24% of the total population who are under absolute poverty), among them 11.85
million are female and only 2 million are male. Out of 13.85 million of poor people near about 9
million are outstanding borrowers. About 90% of the borrowers of those MF-NGOs are from rural
area and only 10% are from urban area. These MF-NGOs disbursed taka 164.26 billion with
outstanding loan amount of taka 25.88 billion. The outstanding amount of micro-finance extended
under government program is taka 7.46 billion, the outstanding balance of Grameen Bank is taka
12.73 billion and that of other banks is taka 7.55 billion. Grameen Bank, BRAC, ASA and
Proshika are top four MFIs in terms of loan disbursement, outstanding loan and saving
mobilization (figure-2). It has been seen that top 4 institutions including Grameen Bank served
more than 70% of the market.

Figure-2: Top Four MFIs in terms of Disbursement, Outstanding loan and Savings in billion taka.

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 NGO Contribution in the development of country: Bangladesh

Impact of Micro-finance Services on Borrowers and on the Economy

The impact of micro-finance at macro level is not still clear (CPD, Task force Report, 2008), even
though it has some impact at micro level on the society both in terms of economy and social
value. There are a few studies on this impact assessment of micro-finance, findings of those
studies are as follows:

1. The dependency of poor people on the moneylender or richer people has been reduced
substantially in the society and people are getting access to institutional sources for credit. Even
the formal sectors have been keeping confidence on the poor for lending money, which is a
qualitative change in the rural society due to micro-finance intervention.

2. Employment opportunities of the poor have increased to a great extent in terms of both longer
working hours and new employment. The targeted households that are eligible for participation in
micro-finance programs have a higher probability of being self-employed than their counterparts
in non-program villages.

3. The labor force participation rate (LFPR) for more employment opportunity of the participants
was found higher than the non-participants. Before nineties the wage rate for women labor force
did not get importance because of social backwardness, women labor was sold at a very low non-
bargaining rate. This was equally true in case of male labor force before the eighties. But with
time passing situations have changed noticeably; it is recognized that there is now a days a
serious scarcity of labor in rural areas, especially in the peak season and this shortage even
hampers agricultural production. The intervention of micro-finance in the rural market is one of the
main reasons for this change. Therefore, the labor force of rural areas now has the ability to
influence rural wage rate.

4. As the main target group of micro-finance is women, they have gained a special financial
power over men. Though women are dominated by men culturally, their access to get credit and
do their own business has increased their confidence on their own ability. This is especially true
for the rural poor women of the country. Now more and more rural women move outside their
home after joining micro-finance program. They now go to office, banks, market and other places
without a male company. This is a positive indicator of women empowerment.

5. There is a controversy about the impact of micro-finance on poverty alleviation. The poverty
rate of the country did not decrease significantly in last few years. It did not increase though. The
main focus of micro-finance is to alleviate poverty, but it could not reach the poorest of the poor
till now. One of the reasons might be the failure to reach the hard-core poor by these programs.
Now MF-NGOs are seriously thinking about this issue and have started some programs to solve
this problem. But it is a challenging work to do, because this group of the population first needs
money for consumption. Without solving these problems they are not able to invest credit for cash
flow, which they need to repay the loan in time. Therefore, it has been seen that there are big
successes of micro-finance at micro level that do not show any significant impact at macro level.
In the recent literature it is often mentioned as the problem of Macro-Micro Mis-match To know
the real extent and to quantify the impacts of micro-finance mentioned above thorough study is
needed, which is time consuming and costly. However, government needs to do that to make a
correct decision. There is another problem to assess the real net positive impact of micro-finance
program, which is again impossible without assessing the real cost involved in operating this
financial service. Different MF-NGOs are charging different interest rates but none is based on
rational cost involved. A real positive impact of micro-finance program can be measured if and
only if the recipients of this facility pay the full cost of the services they receive.

15
 NGO Contribution in the development of country: Bangladesh

Regulatory Framework:

Two big provider of micro-finance are Grameen Bank and MF-NGOs. Grameen Bank follows the
Grameen Bank Ordinance, 1983 and MF-NGOs register under any of the following acts of the
Government of Bangladesh :

. Societies Registration Act of 1860

. Voluntary Social Welfare Agencies (Registration and Control) Ordinance of 1961
. Companies Act of 1994
. NGOs who are accepting grants/donation are required to take a certificate of permission from
the NGO affairs Bureau.

There is nothing in the registration act of any NGO/MFIs that prohibits them to undertake micro-
finance activities with the member clients. Therefore, there are two types of MF-NGOs operating
in the field of micro-finance. One type of them are those who have started their organization with
a single objective of micro financing, and the others are NGOs who have other objectives in
addition to micro-financing. A large number of NGOs did not start the organizations with a view to
perform micro financing activities, but later on they either shifted to or have added micro
financing. However, they need formal and legal permission from the Government in the form of
a special license for carrying out the micro-finance activities with the ultimate objective of poverty
alleviation. In spite of that, there is no single authority that provides licence/ permission and keeps
the information of all organizations involved in micro financing.

In this context, many agencies like GOB, donor agencies and policy makers of the country feel
that there is a serious need to monitor the activities of MFIs in Bangladesh. Since, members
savings is most important source of fund (near about 25%) of MFIs, which also is increasing as a
percentage; therefore, there is a need to protect the interest of small savers. In addition to that,
without a formal legal entity the sustainable growth of the NGO-MFIs would be hampered
seriously in a number of ways. Among those, the most important is the lack of access to formal
sources of national and international fund for effectively carrying out micro-finance program for
poverty alleviation on a sustainable basis. Therefore, there is an obvious need for certain form of
compatible and users friendly prudential norms/indicative guidelines in the shape of a concrete
code of norms/conduct for making this sector more institutionally organized and sustainable with
a specific legal identity.

The Government of Bangladesh has formed a committee named Micro-finance Research and
Reference Unit (MRRU) in 2000, which includes 11 members from different sectors who are
involved in this program to formulate a uniform policy for this sector. Ensuring transparency and
accountability of MF-NGOs would be the main objectives of this policy. This committee has also
given emphasis on observing uniform accounting policy and auditing, governance structure of
MFIs, policy on savings and investment, rational interest rate, credit rating etc of the MF-NGOs.
The committee is also discussing the issue NGOof licensing to those in
Contribution MF-NGOs who are accepting
the development of country: Bangladesh
deposits up to a certain amount from non-members or general public.

Challenges for MF-NGOs and for the Government

The current challenge of MF-NGOs is whether they could run the program without subsidy,
because the flow of donor fund is declining over the years. Since the main objective of micro-
finance is to alleviate poverty, the question is whether they would be able to charge real cost of
service on the recipients. If it charges full cost, what would happen to the other objective of
outreaching the poorest of the poor? On the other hand if full cost is not charged, would they be
financially sustainable in the long run? And the challenge for the government is to bring this huge
unorganized industry under a uniform umbrella where this industry would get proper direction and
support to run the business and at the same time serve the people who are the target group in

16
such a way that they would be benefited in the long run and would be able to overcome their
financial backwardness. Ultimately these institutions would become autonomous players in the
main-stream economy.

Suggested Reforms To Face The Future Challenge:

Since NGO-MFIs have to face the realities of declining subsidized fund, they should take effort to
reduce administrative and transaction cost which seems very high. Most of them do not practice
proper bookkeeping and accounting policies, lack professionalism in financial transaction,
therefore, training and capacity building in accounting and financial management plus greater
transparency in their operation is essential not only to make them attractive to the donors but also
to enable them to tap commercial markets and banks.

Formal commercial banks lack experience and expertise to operate in this market; they can
overcome this problem by linking them with NGO-MFIs who already have a ready set up of
operation and experience. This linkage program on one side can reduce operational cost of
commercial banks and on the other side can reduce the financial problem of NGO-MFIs.
Especially, smaller NGO-MFIs could be encouraged strongly to play the role of brokers between
the banks and the borrowers. Here the banks bear the credit risk by lending directly to the
borrowers and share a part of its spread with the NGO-MFIs. The NGOs will receive a
commission for identifying borrowers and ensuring repayments. Large NGO-MFIs can also be
integrated into this program of poverty alleviation by encouraging them to establish themselves as
banks.

Present legal framework of formal financial institution can be changed in favor of the rural poor.
Under this framework moveable property, accounts receivables, credit history or good previous
repayment performance etc. are not useable as security to access credit. But most of the rural
poor people have only these things to offer as security. These realistic changes in the legal
framework can help poor people to enter into the formal financial market easily.

Therefore micro finance sector will have to develop a concrete long run vision of a flexible, self-
sustainable, well-regulated and pro-people micro finance industry capable of facing all these
challenges. That means the industry will:

Design its product according to the market need - what kind of loan poor people really
need and which terms and conditions are applicable to them. They should not just follow
Grameen Bank model, rather they should be innovative in product designing,
Diversify its loan portfolio, not just depending only on the agricultural sector for
investment,
Identify the exact cost involved and find out reasonable service charge for each product
offered,
Apply internationally accepted accounting policy,
Formulate transparent policy for the stakeholders,
Acquire a corporate legal identity owned by the clients themselves or focus on a single
activity with corresponding single legal identity.

On the other side the government and the donors should try to help the industry to be sustainable
by developing infrastructure needed, providing training and technical assistance, providing correct
guidelines and regulation, offering proper incentive for positive contribution and punishment for
the opposite.

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 NGO Contribution in the development of country: Bangladesh

CHAPTER FIVE

Role of NGOs for Woman Development

In Bangladesh, women constitute about half of the total population. Recognizing this fact,
Government has changed its development policy. Government has recognized the fact that equal
participation of women in the development activities is inevitable to ensure a balanced socio-
economic growth and development in the country. Apart from this Government encouraged
NGOs and private sectors to undertake steps for the development of women by liberalizing its
policy. Therefore, the study has tried to unearth the present condition and activities of NGOs for
the development of women in Bangladesh.

Micro Credit & Woman:

A thriving global economy is linked to reduction of poverty. Micro credit loan programs have
affected the economies of many developing countries. Many of these loans are funded by non-
governmental organizations (NGO) and are made to marginalized groups, such as women.
Bangladeshi women face severe challenges due to their economic, social, and cultural positions
and the country's physiographic conditions. Bangladesh's physiography renders its economy and
people vulnerable, exacerbating the impact of poverty.

The micro-credit revolution pioneered in Bangladesh has in fact a double innovation because
women have been consciously targeted as the principal beneficiaries group. Currently over 80%
of the Grameen Bank and other credit giving NGOs are women.

Development & Growth of Woman:

Women- A majority of the worlds population, receive an insignificant share of development

opportunities. They are excluded from education, better jobs, and political system and even from
adequate health care (Human Development Report 2009).This paper explores issues arising in
relations between non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and women development. These
relations have a long history and are complex. When NGOs co-operate, their joint impact on
social and women development events can be quite powerful. Consequently, success or failure in
NGOs co-operation will affect the direction and the pace of women development. No discussion
of poverty, equality or development today is complete without considering the role of NGOs.
Whether in the North or the South, NGOs are a visible, respected and entrenched part of many
societies. Bangladeshi women contribute substantially to their households and to the country's
economy. The majority of women workers are primarily involved in the informal sector of the
economy. Within the formal sector, a large number of women work in export-oriented industries
(e.g., garments), the source of 70 percent of Bangladeshs foreign exchange. A significant
number of women also work as teachers, lawyers, journalists, government employees, and for
nongovernmental organizations (NGOs). Their activities, in turn, contribute to the transformation
of traditional values and gender roles of Bangladeshi women. There are over 1,000 local and
national organizations in Bangladesh that generate self-employ ment opportunities for over 8
million poor, mostly women, through micro credit and training in literacy, technical skills, and legal
rights. Civil society, particularly womens organizations, has been a strong force in bringing
forward womens issues and interests onto the countrys development agenda. Moreover,
Bangladesh has more than 18,000 registered NGOs of a diverse nature working on a broad
range of development issues (ADB Report 2009).

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 NGO Contribution in the development of country: Bangladesh

CHAPTER SIX

Role of NGOs for Households, Education & Health Development

The main NGO services are by and large successfully targeted to poor
households.

For instance as the following chart shows almost half the students in NGO primary schools are
from the poorest 20% of the population far higher than in other schools.

The impact of these services is also clearly positive, and highly valued by the communities that
they serve. For instance micro-credit programs that now reach around 70
percent of poor households, have led to significant improvements in female empowerment and
led to greater stability of incomes for the poor. Educational and health outcomes have improved
for NGO beneficiaries due to social sector programs. NGO advocacy campaigns have also led to
greater awareness, and some progress, on pro-poor issues. Hence the rapid growth of NGO
activity over the past decade is a positive development. Moving forward, NGO services will need
to be scaled up even further as NGOs can have a critical impact on Bangladeshs PRSP targets.

Education

The Directory has identified the following major trends:

NGOs in Bangladesh operate various types of education programs mostly as part of a

package addressing poverty and human development issues; however, it has been found
that 79.5% has non-formal primary education program, 35.9% has adult education
program, 28.5% are involved in education for the adolescents, 31.6% in the Post Literacy
Continuing Education (PLCE), 16.8% has pre-primary education and only 5.7% had Early
Childhood Care and Development (ECCD) program.

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 NGO Contribution in the development of country: Bangladesh

NGOs are operating a total of 86,029 learning centers, and serving 3,172,573 learners of
which nearly 65% are females/girls.

Teachers and Students by NGOs Primary School' 2008

Female
No. of No. of Teachers Teachers No. of Students
(%) Girl (%)
School

Total Female Total Girl

408 763 503 25.9 25872 13176 50.9

Source: Directorate of Primary Education, Government of Bangladesh, 2009.

About 1.5 million children-around 8% of primary enrolment-are in NGO schools (mostly

Non-formal Primary Schools).

Nearly 81% of the total staff is full time regular staff while others are part-time. Over 62%
of the regular staff and less than 40 percent of the part-time staff are males. In total,
almost 58% of the total staff is female and 42% are male.

Division wise analysis shows that in Dhaka division 52.1% of the NGOs has education
program, 22.1% are based in Chittagong division, 54.1% in Rajshahi, 36.7% in Khulna,
23.1% in Barisal and 3.3% in Sylhet division.

Annual budget for the education program run by the NGOs stands at about Tk. 3297.04
million equivalent of about 55 million US dollar (1 US dollar = 60 Taka). Education budget
of 10.6% of the NGOs is below Tk. 0.1 million, it is Tk. 0.10.5 million for 48.2% of the
NGOs. On the other hand, annual budget of 3.2 percent of the NGOs is more than Tk. 10
million. Analysis has also showed that top 10% of the NGOs has yearly education budget
of at least Tk. 3 million each and it is Tk. 5 million for each of the top 5% of the NGOs.
Nearly 88% of the total NGO education budget are provided by only 10% of the NGOs.
Its interesting to note that the top 5% of the NGOs cover nearly 84% of the total NGO
investment in education. About half of the total NGO education budget is spent by BRAC,
the largest NGO in Bangladesh alone.

Health

Expenditures by NGOs on health grew significantly since the mid-nineties and they constitute
about one-third (33%) of public sector expenditures and less than 10% total health expenditures
(that includes household spending on private care).

The impact of NGO interventions on a range of health and nutritional indicators is striking. Cure
rates averaged 85% in the tuberculosis programs malnutrition rates dropped by around 20%
among the poor due to the presence of NGOs in the community and neo-natal mortality among
NGO clients has been found to be significantly lower.

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 NGO Contribution in the development of country: Bangladesh

CHAPTER SEVEN

Leading Domestic, International NGOs & Activities in

Bangladesh

Domestic NGOs

Following is a sampling of some of the largest homegrown NGO s in Bangladesh.

The Bangladesh Rural Advancement Committee: It is known as BRAC, is the largest NGO in
Bangladesh and one of the largest in the world. BRAC was founded by Mr. Fazel Hasan Abed in
1972 to resettle refugees returning from India after the PakistanBangladesh war. A year later,
the organization turned to long-term poverty alleviation and empowerment of the poor, especially
women. Today, BRAC works in health, education, and microfinance. It is active in 68,408 villages
in all 64 districts of Bangladesh. It has 4.8 million group members, 4.2 million borrowers, and
31,000 single room, one-teacher schools. Eighty per cent of BRACs annual budget of $235
million comes from its own enterprises and 20% from external sources.

Key activities: Economic development; health; education; social development; human rights and
legal services.

Proshika was founded in 1976 and has grown to be one of the largest NGO s in the world. The
NGO s name is an acronym of three Bangla words, which stand for training, education, and
action. Proshika works in structural poverty alleviation, environmental protection and
regeneration, improvement in womens status, increasing peoples participation in public
institutions,and increasing peoples capacity to gain and exercise democratic and human rights.
Spread across 23,475 villages and 2,101 urban slums in 57 districts, Proshika now works with
about 2.75 million men and women members drawn from rural and urban poor households, and
has organized them into 146,798 primary groups.

Key activities: Peoples organization building; micro credit and savings services; employment and
income-generating program; practical skill development training; small enterprise development
program; social and natural resource development; human development training; universal
education; good governance and advocacy; social forestry; health program; legal aid; womens
development; disaster management

The Grameen Bank is one of the most well-known development success stories in Bangladesh.
The organization was founded in 1976 by Professor Muhammed Yunus, head of the rural
economics program at the University of Chittagong. There are now more than two dozen
organizations within the Grameen family of enterprises, including the replication and research
activities of Grameen Trust, handloom enterprises of Grameen Uddog, and fisheries pond
management by Grameen Motsho (the Fisheries Foundation).

Key activities: Income-generating loans; housing loans; education loans; struggling member
(beggar) loans; micro-enterprise loans; flexible loans; seasonal loans; student scholarships; life
insurance; savings programme; deposit pension scheme.

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 NGO Contribution in the development of country: Bangladesh

Bangladesh Womens Health Coalition (BWHC), is a national NGO, was established in 1980
with the vision of Equality of Women in a Just Civil Society. The organization aims to provide
mothers with access to health care services and the information required to make informed
choices.

Key activities: BWHC works in safe motherhood; child survival; family planning; management of
unwanted pregnancy; prevention and control of sexually-transmitted diseases, including HIV
/AIDS ; counseling; awareness-raising; and adolescent family life education.

Dhaka Ahsania Mission (DAM) is an NGO founded upon Islamic principles, working at the
grassroots and national levels to focus on poverty alleviation and socio-economic empowerment
of the poor, particularly women. Specifically, DAMs programs support human resource
development through formal and nonformal basic.

Key activities: higher education; environmental preservation; drug use prevention and
rehabilitation for drug users; prevention of human trafficking; and curative health services,
including establishment of general and specialized hospitals, health clinics, maternity and child
health centers, and homes for the elderly.

Thengamara Mohila Sabuj Sangha (TMSS) is a national NGO working for The beggar women
of Thengamara Village in the Bogra district established this organization in 1980. By 2004,
700,000 women were organized into groups within TMSSs operational area (covering 34 districts
throughout Bangladesh). Women, who are literate, have less than 0.50 acres of land in the family
and the worst victims of oppression and exploitation are the beneficiaries of TMSS.

Key activities: poverty alleviation, socioeconomic development, and empowerment of women.

International NGOs

Numerous international NGO s carry out operations in Bangladesh. Among the more important
are Action Aid Bangladesh, Care, Caritas Bangladesh, Concern Bangladesh, Concern Universal,
Damien Foundation, Handicap International, Helen Keller International, Leprosy Mission
International, Pathfinder International, Plan International Bangladesh, Practical Action, Save the
Children USA, Save the Children UK, Save the Children, Sight Savers Royal Commonwealth
Society for the Blind, Swedish Free Mission, and Terre Des Hommes.

22
 NGO Contribution in the development of country: Bangladesh

CHAPTER EIGHT

Overall Activities Analysis of NGOs

NGOs as Learning Community:

There was generally a spirit of cooperation among the NGOs working in Bangladesh. The
(international) NGOs in Bangladesh organised themselves into the Association of Development
Agencies in Bangladesh (ADAB) in 1974. ADAB became the peak body for organisations
involved in development (initially agriculture) in Bangladesh (Netherlands Ministry of Foreign
Affairs, 1998). In the early years ADAB was characterised by openness and willingness of its
members to learn from each other. It published a newsletter which later took on journal format,
organised conferences and coordinated training, much of the latter provided by BRAC's Training
and Research Centre (TARC) established in 1978.

ADAB also provided a forum for resolving differences between NGOs, going some way towards
self-regulation (World Bank, 2006). ADAB functioned best on behalf of the whole NGO
community during the periods when government oscillated in and out of military rule.
Paradoxically, the return to multiparty democracy dominated by the struggle between the
opposing Bangladesh Nationalist Party and Awami League coalitions led on the one hand to an
expansion of NGO activity, but also a split in the ADAB. An alternative Federation of NGOs in
Bangladesh was formed in 2003 by NGOs who felt that ADAB had been active in party politics
and partisan in voter education programs for the 2008 election.

Whos Sustainability

This essay has described the growth of NGOs, their increasing partnership with government for
delivery of services and their potential conflict with the commercial sector. I conclude with a brief
discussion of some of the issues and tensions which are important for the study of
sustainable development more generally as well as for the NGO sector in Bangladesh. The
growth of NGOs and the expansion of their delivery of key social services could lead to the
rehabilitation of an old and discredited agenda: the presentation of development as a techno-
bureaucratic project realized by specialist agencies, rather than a highly contested terrain in
which social, economic, personal and political interests are sought, compromised, denied and
achieved.

This has special resonance in the quest for sustainable development, for the threats and the keys
to sustainability are often emergent properties which are not immediately evident to the
'development a list' technocrats. Of far greater danger, as White argues, the separation of the
interests and the representation of the poor from the national political process is likely to mean
that political activity serves the interests of contending elites and that the instruments of policy
such as taxation, education, health and social security fail to be tuned to the development needs
of the nation. One of the results could well be continuation of sustainable development NGOs
whose existence serves the needs of the poor, the educated classes and the political elite, but
depends on ongoing subsidy from wealthy nations and potentially undermines national identity in
an era of globalize trade and ideology. Although government service continues to be the favored
employment for educated young people because of its connection to patronage and the pension
system, the NGO sector has become a major job market, especially for educated women. The
importance of this employment to such a large number of people with some education and

23
 NGO Contribution in the development of country: Bangladesh

influence brings its own inertia or agenda to the question of where NGOs are going in
Bangladesh.

Discussion of NGOs and their roles in Bangladesh needs to differentiate between the NGOs
delivering development programs and Community Based Organizations which are formed
through NGO activity. The former were mostly initiated by idealistic outsiders to the group they
seek to help, and their organizational evolution has been discussed above. However, there is
very little discussion in the literature of community-based institutions (such as Federations (Garry,
1999)) or people's organizations and their role in empowering the poor. Discussion about
'Bangladesh civil society' should also distinguish between those NGOs who are branches of
international organizations, the corporate NGOs on the one hand, and voluntary and community
organizations which truly represent particular sections of Bangladesh society on the other hand.
The quest for sustainability has not only led large NGOs to aim to recover the costs of their
programs, but like BRAC, to diversify into retail, publishing, agri-business, weaving, non-formal
and university education. In response, the commercial sector criticizes NGOs' ability to use tax
shelters and subsidies while engaging in commercial activities like pisci culture, dairy, poultry or
telecommunications. The current low level of opposition could develop into a 'full blown anti-NGO
lobby' in a few years. The solution proposed by stiles that NGOs 'include labor unions, chambers
of commerce and professional association in [their] boards of directors' seems naive in light of her
observation of the deeply entrenched patronage system within these institutions. However, for
NGOs to maintain a competitive advantage in particular market segments due to their non-
commercial regulatory status seems to undermine their goals of empowering the community and
nation-building.

Globally, support for NGOs is running high. Community support for campaigns such as Jubilee
2000 or Make Poverty History is evidence of this. The White Paper on the Australian
Government's overseas aid program released in 2006 is indicative of official aid agencies
willingness to channel international development assistance through NGOs. The Australian
government will 'expand support for NGO involvement with possibilities for international NGOs
and NGOs in countries other than Australia to access funds. The challenge for Development
NGOs and policies relating to NGOs is to ensure that the sustainable development of poor and
marginalized communities is realized rather than sustainability of NGOs who are simply
accepted ipso facto as representing the poor.

The external regulators of donations to NGOs (such as AusAID) and the Government of
Bangladesh face the challenge of allowing NGOs flexibility and creativity while ensuring good
governance. The potential of innovative programs to benefit communities should not be cut off
unreasonably by insistence on financial sustainability of NGOs. In development practice, a major
challenge is to find innovative ways for NGOs, government and the commercial sector work in a
synergistic manner to develop institutions that will meet human needs into the future. While
NGOs have filled gaps in the market and government service provision in the past, sustainable
development is facilitated by markets that respond to demand and government services which
are responsive to community needs. NGOs have an important role to play in facilitating their
development and need to balance these larger issues against their own concerns for
organizational sustainability.

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 NGO Contribution in the development of country: Bangladesh

NGOs Relation with the State

In spite of NGOs targeting their activities to the poor and using the language of empowerment
they have generally not provoked containment by the governments of Bangladesh. After an early
phase of relaxed regulation, NGOs were made more accountable for the funds they brought into
the country, but the arrangements which have lasted to date offer a lot of flexibility. NGOs have
been required to register under one of a variety of laws in a legal framework which a World Bank
report comments 'is outdated, obsolete'. Yet perhaps because of its weakness has enabled the
growth of the NGO sector and facilitated innovation.

In 1978 the Foreign Donations (Voluntary Activities) Regulation Ordinance was promulgated (by
President Ziaur Rahman) to exercise some control over the burgeoning NGO sector by
monitoring the use of foreign donations for voluntary activities. The most significant increase in
government regulation of NGOs commenced in 1990 when the NGO Affairs Bureau was created
as the contact point between the State and all NGOs receiving foreign donations.

Some NGOs such as CARE have always worked in partnership with Government through
programs such as food-for-work. Others like BRAC who adopted the conscientisation approach
have not developed the kid of advocacy and mobilization role that might have been imagined.
Instead they focused on economic self-reliance and got involved in delivering some of the
services needed to support that. The contracting of service delivery to NGOs by government has
led to a semi official status for some NGOs. The efficient and effective delivery through NGOs
acts as a spur to government, but the World Bank (2006) points out, as the leadership of NGOs
undergoes succession from the first generation, the potential for collusive relationships to develop
with the elite in the government system is increased.

Aid to NGOs is described by official aid institutions as empowerment of Civil Society, however
stiles (2002) points out that civil society in Bangladesh is penetrated by political forces through
which the elites maintain loyalty through patron client relations. To the extent that NGOs
themselves are not co-opted into partisan politics, they give the appearance of monopolizing civil
society while moving away from the grassroots mobilization that initially characterized them.

Complex and multi-layered problems such as flood management need institutions of participation
and plurality in problem analysis which are lacking. Policy in government is often in the hands of
technocratic elite. Although the NGO sector played a role in opposing the Flood Action Plan of
1988, the main NGOs are in danger of avoiding such issues, preferring to safeguard a loyal client
base through economic activities.

However, advocacy and community empowerment have been problematic in the history of
Bangladesh. NGOs in Bangladesh had a strong empowerment agenda in the 1970s and early
1980s, BRAC being a leader. However unlike comparable situations in India, empowerment and
advocacy were not able to leverage necessary services from government. Nijera Kori (Do it
ourselves) is one example of an NGO maintaining its focus on grassroots mobilization, eschewing
microfinance and service delivery. An advocacy role is increasingly viable as the level of service
delivery through government and partnerships with the big NGOs means there are services to
access.

Overall NGOs have worked on a basis of weak government and chosen to provide alternative
services such in informal education, or work with external donors to assist government deliver
services such as Extended Immunization Program, training for Traditional Birth Attendants and a
range of agriculture services.

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 NGO Contribution in the development of country: Bangladesh

CHAPTER NINE

Recommendation & Conclusion

Recommendation:

In order to further capitalize on the potential of the NGO sector, the report argues for a strategic
compact between Government, NGOs, donors and clients. The implicit compact would be where
each actor strengthens various areas that are within their own mandate. The combined impact of
these improvements will go a long way in achieving the common goal of improving services to the
poor in Bangladesh and help achieve the Millennium Development Goals.

Government: As part of this compact, the main role for Government is to facilitate the provision
of quality NGO services under a modernized regulatory framework, developed in close
consultation with NGOs. The regulatory focus should change from government micro-
management of NGOs foreign funds to support for better corporate governance, strengthened
accountability, and transparency by NGOs. Moreover regulatory reforms for NGOs need to be
linked closely to the new micro-credit law under consideration. The framework should recognize
that NGO advocacy fulfils an essential function in a democracy such as Bangladesh, and must be
given space, except for activities that promote one political party, or election candidate, over
another. Regulatory capacity must be strengthened significantly one option is that Government
set up an independent NGO Commission to perform many of the current regulatory bodies
functions. Government ought to strengthen contracting procedures to improve the effectiveness
of aid that is channeled to NGOs through the Budget. As part of this lessons from PKSFs
successful NGO contracting procedures could be mainstreamed within Government. The
Government-NGO Coordination Council (GNCC) ought to be revived to provide a forum for
regular Government-NGO discussions.

Donors: They should continue to support NGO activities in Bangladesh, both to improve pro-poor
service delivery and to promote a broad-based civil society, while ensuring that they do not
undermine the accountability of NGOs to Bangladeshi stakeholders. Moreover donors need to be
accountable for the occasions when poor project design or inadequate supervision contributes to
unsatisfactory implementation of projects involving NGOs and institute mechanisms to prevent
these from reoccurring. While financing social sector activities donors also need to develop a
clear strategy for sustainability, as has occurred in micro-finance. This strategy ought to be
developed in tandem with Government and NGOs where in the medium run the Budget
progressively absorbs the costs of financing of various social sector programs. In areas such as
advocacy, where the conflicts of interest with Government financing are significant, donors could
work with NGOs to tap the market for greater private charitable contributions. Donors should also
reduce the transaction costs of their financing by harmonizing reporting requirements, upgrading
financial management skills of their own staff, and retaining institutional memory within their
organizations.

NGOs: NGOs also clearly have an important agenda in front of them if they are to continue to be
effective partners in development. Priorities include the need to-

(i) Strengthen financial management and corporate governance;

(ii) Scale up efforts to provide public disclosure with respect to financial and program
information along with a public information strategy to address misconceptions about
NGOs

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 NGO Contribution in the development of country: Bangladesh

(iii) Make greater efforts to coordinate with local and national Government officials and
Act as facilitators of Government, private sector and community service provision
(iv) revisit strategic directions periodically based on national development needs and
internal capacity constraints
(v) Develop a middle management layer to oversee more complex development
programs.

Clients may also support the strategic compact using mechanisms that improve their capacity to
demand and monitor services, for example, through vouchers enabling choice between public,
NGO and private providers.

Conclusion

Non-Government organization (NGOs) have vastly expanded their programs and proved to
become effective change agents in the society. The NGOs are mostly involved in design and
implementation of direct action oriented projects at the grassroots level, often combined with
research, training, and other components. Their target population is the poor. Despite variation in
perception of the problems and resolution trust of the programmers. The NGOs mostly follow the
target group strategies where the poor with similar socio-economic interest are organized into
groups to achieve their objectives.

The NGOs have able to bring a positive change in the lives of poor largely following a process by
which members of a society can develop themselves and their institutions in such way so that
they can enhance their ability to mobilize and arrange resources to produce sustainable life. In
order to support social and economic empowerment of the poor, they have also included group
information, micro credit, formal and non formal education, training, health and nutrition ,maternal
and child health, family planning and welfare, womens development, agriculture ,fisheries,
poultry and livestock, environment, water supply and sanitation, human rights

There are some problems regarding the activities of NGOs, which includes rural development.
There is no common or ideal modus operandi about the activities of NGOs from government
officials in rural areas. It is a great failure that the policy makers and developers did not find yet
any ideal, socially viable and economically sustained mechanism for development action. Some
scattered efforts have been found in this respect. But to achieve a unified and ultimate goal in
poverty alleviation and human resource development, a unique ideal and unique mechanism can
promote the fragile situation. So it is highly recommended that, the overall activities of NGOs in
rural areas should be taken under deep observation by forming a especial department.

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 NGO Contribution in the development of country: Bangladesh

References

Asian Development Bank. (2009). A Study of NGOs: Bangladesh. Retrieved 16 Aug, 2006, from
http://www.adb.org/NGOs/docs/NGOBangladesh.pdf

AusAID. (2009). Australian Aid: Promoting Growth and Stability. Canberra: Australian Government;

BRAC. (2009). BRAC Annual Report. Dhaka: BRAC;

Bangladesh government laws & regulations: NGO activities;

The Societies Registration Act, 1860;

Association of Development Agencies in Bangladesh (ADAB) in 1974;

A People's History of Development: 25 Years in Northern Bangladesh. Dhaka: The University Press;

Government of Bangladesh. (2008). Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper: Unlocking the potential: National
Strategy for accelerated poverty reduction. Dhaka: General Economics Division, Planning Commission;

Publications. RDRS. Annual Report 2008. Rangpur, Bangladesh: RDRS Bangladesh;

Publications. Proshika. Annual Report 2008. Bangladesh: Proshika Bangladesh;

World Bank. (2008). The economics and governance of Non Governmental Organizations (NGOs) in
Bangladesh. Dhaka: World Bank;

World Bank. (2009). The economics and governance of Non Governmental Organizations (NGOs) in
Bangladesh. Dhaka: World Bank;

Directorate of Primary Education, Government of Bangladesh, 2009;

Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper(PRSP);

Association of Development Agencies in Bangladesh (ADAB);

Microfinance Information Exchange 2010: Published: Dhaka;

ADAB, Computer Data Base on NGOs, ADAB, Dhaka;

NGO Affairs Bureau: Bangladesh

Centre for policy dialogue: Press Released regarding NGOs Contribution: Bangladesh

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 NGO Contribution in the development of country: Bangladesh

Abbreviations:
NGO: Non-Government Organization
SFCA: Swedish Free Church Aid
CUSO: Canadian University Service Overseas
SAP: South Asia Partnership
AKF: The Aga Khan Foundation
RDRS: Rangpur, Dinajpur Rural Services
MCC: Mennonite Central Committee
VSO: Voluntary Services Overseas
IDE: International Development enterprise
BRAC: Rural Advancement Committee
NGOAB: NGO Affairs Bureau
PRSP: Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper
ADAB: Association of Development Agencies in Bangladesh
FIVDB: Friends in Village Development Bangladesh
GO: Government
CEN: Coalition of Environmental NGOs
SEMP: Sustainable Environment Management Project
HIV: Human Immune Virus
GB: Grameen Bank
BKB: Bangladesh Krishi Bank
RAKUB: Rajshahi Krishi Unnayan Bank
MFI: Micro Finance Institution
NCBs: Nationalized Commercial Banks
PCBs: Private Commercial Banks
CDF: Credit and Development Forum
LFPR: labor force participation rate
MRRU: Micro-finance Research and Reference Unit
PLCE: Literacy Continuing Education
ECCD: Early Childhood Care and Development
BWHC: Bangladesh Womens Health Coalition
DAM: Dhaka Ahsania Mission
TMSS: Thengamara Mohila Sabuj Sangha
TARC: Training and Research Centre
AusAID: Australian Aid
GNCC: Coordination Council
MI: Micro Finance

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