ngos in bangladesh. full&final by mr. jakaria

8/8/2019 NGOs in Bangladesh. Full&Final by Mr. Jakaria

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Course Title: Bangladesh studies

Course Code: GED-123

PREPARED FOR:

Mohammad Saifullah

Assistant professor, Faculty of Business

ASA University Bangladesh

PREPARED BY:

Mostafizur Rahman 071-12-422

Abu MD. Zakaria 071-12-454

Foyad Hossain Khan 071-12-452

Mohammad Rubayat Ahmed 071-12-425

Md.Nurul Islam 071-12-447

Bayzid Mukammel 071-12-455

DATE OF SUBMISSION

FEBRUARY 28, 2009


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February 28, 2009,

Mohammad Saifullah

Course Teacher

International BusinessASA University Bangladesh

Dear Sir,

SUBMISSION OF GROUP REPORT

We have the pleasure to submit the group report on ROLE OF NGOS AND SOCIAL

ENTREPRENEURSHIP IN BANGLADESH for your kind perusal and evaluation. It is a matter of immense pleasure for us to have the opportunity to analyze the ROLE OF NGOS AND SOCIAL

ENTREPRENEURSHIP IN BANGLADESH . We are grateful to you for allowing us to carry out

such project work. We are also grateful to you for necessary co-operation and assistance

from you during our assignment. We believe that the knowledge and experiences

acquired while conducting this study will help us in many ways and the readers as well in

future.

We tried our best to accommodate our ideas and findings as specifically as you askedabout within the time frame and resources available. We hope that the idea presented in

the report will provide a clear picture about the ROLE OF NGOS AND SOCIALENTREPRENEURSHIP IN BANGLADESH.

We would like to mention that there might be some errors in the report that is totally

unintentional and due to professional hazard. We believe that you will consider such

shortcomings while you evaluate the report.

Sincerely yours,

On behalf of the group

Mostafizur Rahman


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Acknowledgement

To prepare this assignment, we are grateful to a large number of people. Their insight,

counsel and suggestions have helped us to get better our text and made it even more

valuable and user friendly. We are extremely grateful to , MOHAMMAD SAIFULLAH,

Lecturer, Faculty of business, ASA University Bangladesh , our course teacher of GED-

123, for his cordial co-operation and spending valuable time for us. Thank you all for

your advice, time, and assistance.


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Executive Summary

Progress on a range of social indicators in Bangladesh over the last fifteen years has been

striking in certain areas and widely credited to the countrys pluralist service provision

regime. The services of Non Governmental Organizations (NGOs) have grown

significantly during this period and they have shown that it is possible to scale up

innovative anti-experiments into nationwide programs, developing a non-formal

education program to cater to poor children, particularly girls, and the use of thousands of

village based community health workers providing doorstep services, in partnership with

Government. The fact that poor women constitute a large proportion of NGO

beneficiaries, despite the persistence of strong patriarchal norms, also testifies toinstitutional innovation. 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 input and output markets as well as to

develop a source of internally generated revenue. As we look forward, 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.

Non-Government Organizations (NGOs) have emerged as an integral part of the

institutional structure for addressing poverty as well as rural development, gender

equality, environmental conservation, disaster management, human rights and other

social issues. The NGOs, in order to support social and economic empowerment of the

poor, have vastly widened their activities to include group formation, micro credit, and

formal and non-formal education, training, health and nutrition, family planning and

welfare, agriculture and related activities, water supply and sanitation, human rights and

advocacy, legal aid and other areas. These organizations mostly follow the target-groupstrategy under which the poor with similar socioeconomic interests are organized into

groups to achieve their objectives.


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INTRODUCTION:

Bangladesh has made striking progress on a range of social indicators over the last 15

years an achievement which is credited to the countrys pluralist service provision

regime, including the large network of NGOs. A recently released report by the World

Bank titled Economics and Governance of NGOs in Bangladesh recognizes these

contributions and addresses the current debates surrounding NGOs. Since the

independence of Bangladesh in 1971, the state has largely failed to assist the poor or

reduce poverty, while NGOs have grown dramatically, ostensibly to fill this gap. There

are more and bigger NGOs here than in any other country of equivalent size. The

Association of Development Agencies in Bangladesh (ADAB) had a total membership of 886 NGOs/PVDOs (Private Voluntary Development Organizations) in December 1997,

of which 231 were central and 655 chapter (local) members (ADAB, 1998). The ADAB

Directory lists 1007 NGOs, including 376 non-member NGOs. The NGO Affairs Bureau

of the Government of Bangladesh (GOB), which has to approve all foreign grants to

NGOs working in Bangladesh, released grants worth about $250 million US dollars in

FY 1996-97 to 1,132 NGOs, of which 997 are local and 135 are foreign (NGO Affairs

Bureau, 1998). NGOs have mainly functioned to service the needs of the landless, usually

assisted by foreign donor funding as a counterpoint to the state's efforts.


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OVERVIEW OF NGOs: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 femaleempowerment 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.

The share of aid to NGOs as a portion of total aid to Bangladesh has risen from 14% from

1990-95 to 24% between 1995-2004. At the same time micro-finance interest income and

profits from commercial ventures have become increasingly important for NGOs. The

scaling up of NGO activity will require different sources of funding depending on the

type of service provided. The micro-finance sector has matured to the point where the

sector ought to move towards commercial sources of funding. In the social sectors, there

is a strong case for financing of NGO programs through the Government Budget, using

donor funds or domestic revenue. However in order for this to be effective in practice,

contracting procedures need to improve significantly as part of an overall strengthening

of Government procurement. For advocacy type work, financing sources ought to be

independent of Government, raised from private donations or external grants. Several

NGOs have established commercial enterprises whose profit stream is earmarked to

support their development programs. This endowment model is an innovative solution

characteristic of charities elsewhere. However NGOs should incorporate such businesses

as independent entities to create a level playing field with the private sector.

Source: www.worldbank.org.bd

NGOs IN BANGLADESH:
http://www.worldbank.org.bd/http://www.worldbank.org.bd/


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NGOs in Bangladesh have not originated from Grass Roots Organizations (GROs) in

civil society. Rather, it is NGO workers who set up groups, which clients then join to get

micro credit and other services. Most Bangladeshi NGOs are totally dependent uponforeign funds. The volume of foreign funds to NGOs in Bangladesh has been increasing

over the years and stood at just under 18 percent of all foreign "aid" to the country in FY

1995-96. Donors increased their funding from 464 NGO projects in 1990-91 to 746 in

1996-97, a 60 per cent increase in six years; the total amount disbursed showed a 143 per

cent increase over the period (NGO Affairs Bureau, 1998). However, the disbursement of

funds to NGOs is highly skewed. The top 15 NGOs accounted for 84 per cent of all

allocation to NGOS in 1991-92, and 70 percent in 1992-93 (Hashemi, 1995). NGO

dependence on donor grants has kept the whole operation highly subsidized by foreign

capital. For example, the annual working costs of BRAC's (Bangladesh Rural

Advancement Committee, one of the largest NGOs in Bangladesh) branch-level units are

still more than three times their locally generated income (Montgomery et al., 1996).

Source: www.w3.org

THE ROLE OF NGOs:

Non-Government Organizations (NGOs) have emerged as an integral part of the

institutional structure for addressing poverty as well as rural development, gender

equality, environmental conservation, disaster management, human rights and other

social issues. The NGOs, in order to support social and economic empowerment of the

poor, have vastly widened their activities to include group formation, micro credit,

farmland non-formal education, training, health and nutrition, family planning and

welfare, agriculture and related activities, water supply and sanitation, human rights and

advocacy, legal aid and other areas. These organizations mostly follow the target-group
http://www.w3.org/http://www.w3.org/http://www.w3.org/


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strategy under which the poor with similar socioeconomic interests are organized into

groups to achieve their objectives.

CO-ORDINATING THE ROLE OF NGOs:

In order to meet the need for a one-stop service to the NGOs, the Government created the

NGO Affairs Bureau in 1990. Located in the Prime Ministers Secretariat, the Bureau

enables the NGOs to obtain their registration clearance, approval and permission through

a single agency of the Government within specified time frame. The aim of the Bureau is

to ends urea quality performance of the NGO sector and its accountability to the state.

With a view to providing a regular forum of dialogue between the Government and the

NGOs for increased mutual understanding and cooperation, the Government-NGO

Consultative Council (GNCC) has been formed with representatives from the

Government, NGOs and the civil society. The GNCC works as an advisory council

toward resolving issues arising out of Government-NGO interaction and collaboration.

THE NGO APEX BODY:

The Association of Development Agencies in Bangladesh (ADAB), as an apex body of

local, national and international NGOs, aims to play effective roles in facilitating greater

unity and coordination of the NGO sector and accelerating poverty alleviation and

sustainable development in the interest of the poor. ADAB primary concerns are to

establish inter-NGO relations, exchange ideas and experiences, expand fields of

cooperation, remove the overlapping tendency of programmes and working areas,

develop organizational skills and establish functional relations and communication with

the civil society

NGOs AND POVERTY ALLEVIATION:


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In respect of poverty alleviation, principal instruments of NGO programmers involve

micro credit, skill development and employment generation. It is estimated that nearly 80

percent of the villages in Bangladesh are now covered under NGO activities but not

necessarily 80 percent of the poor who need help. About 1,000 NGOs are engaged in

microfinance operations. The overwhelming majority of these NGOs are small: the few

large NGOs are BRAC, PROSHIKA and ASA. BRAC (Bangladesh Rural Advancement

Committee) happens to be the largest NGO in the world today. About 95 percent of micro

credit disbursed by the NGOs is in the rural areas. As of June 1999, the total number of

active members benefiting from NGO programmers stood at 8.7 million, 85 percent of

the beneficiaries being women. Micro credit is provided to the poor for self-employment,

income generating activities, afforestation and other poverty alleviating programmes.

Till June 1999, of all the NGOs, BRAC, PROSHIKA and ASA accounted for 60 percent

of active membership, 71 percent of each cumulative disbursement and net savings, 61

percent of revolving loan fund and 72 percent of outstanding loans.

The income generating activities, where substantial micro credit disbursement has been

made, include small trade (42 percent), livestock (18 percent), agriculture (13 percent)

and food processing (9 percent).

Source: www.microcreditsummit.org

ACTIVITIES OF NGOs:

Bangladeshi NGOs had a noticeable impact on society by program innovation in

developed efforts. The recognized success stories in micro credit, nonformal education

and primary health care, by the GRAMEEN BANK, the Association of social
http://www.microcreditsummit.org/http://www.microcreditsummit.org/


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advancement (ASA), the Bangladesh rural Advancement committee (BRAC), and

Gonoshahasthaya Kendra (GK), are being replicated in other countries. There are three

different perspectives regarding the significance of NGOs in Bangladesh:

NGOs are a force for democracy with alternative development models and

empowerment of disadvantaged groups and the community

NGOs have particular strengths in poverty reduction and sustainable development

NGOs enhance efficiency of public sector service delivery

NGOs in Bangladesh have concentrated their efforts in the following:

Micro credit

Employment and income generation

Formal and nonformal education of children and adults

To provide credit support to help the poor in increasing their income throughgenerating self-employment opportunity.

To help to increase social consciousness among the unconscious people

To increase the literacy rate through providing literacy and functional educationto the illiterate target people.

To promote planned families and reducing maternal and child mortality rate.

To mobilize and organize the helpless people around groups for the improvementof their living standard

To make people aware on sanitation and ensuring safe drinking water andhygienic latrines.

To develop a capable human resources through human and skill developmenttraining.

Health, nutrition and family planning


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Establishment of effective democratic processes at the grassroots level

Womens rights

Environment

Poultry and livestock Water supply and sanitation

Human rights and legal aid

NGOs are also becoming increasingly significant in their public policy advocacy roles.

Major issues taken up so far have been drug policy, breast feeding, reproductive rights,

land reform, rights of tribal, primary education, and flood action. With increasing

emphasis on policy advocacy, NGOs working in these areas are showing much promise.

EFFECTIVENESS OF NGOs:Credit (and savings) programmes are the major activity targeting poverty alleviation.

Two streams of activity have emerged. On the one hand, there are programmes which

supply regular and reasonably high amounts of credit to the moderately poor on a semi-

commercial basis. These achieve high repayment efficiency and help move these

beneficiaries out of poverty. Such operations do not reach the so-called hard core poor

who have insufficient productive investment opportunities to generate the loan

repayments. On the other hand, there are NGOs which supply small, or large but

irregular, amounts of credit. These achieve varying repayment rates and are not

sustainably alleviating poverty, but are rather providing a safety net.

Training has had a mixed impact on poverty among its clients. Skills-based training

associated with credit is seen by most of the poor as the combination necessary to offer

the potential for economic improvement. Training in the broad fields of empowerment

and health and nutrition can play a positive role, but are less valued by the clients than


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skills training. An area into which few NGOs have ventured, but which is commonly

cited as the real need of many of the poor, is the creation of non-farm employment

opportunities. Tribal communities in particular cited this as having far more potential

value than credit.

Social Empowerment achieved by the programs is not as dramatic as originally hoped for

by the NGOs. Even though NGOs provide a wide range of services and activities

covering much of the country and with millions of participants, these have not led to any

major change in the social order. Fundamental factors of rural society, notably the

unequal distribution of power and the prevalence of landlessness have not changed.

With regard to environmentally sustainable development, most of the programs of NGOs

are positive or neutral. Rural credit and training are mainly used for small-scale economicactivities such as trading or farming. Others have substantial programs of roadside tree

planting and maintenance. Several NGOs are active lobbyists for development and

adoption of sustainable land use policies in Bangladesh. Many NGOs are active lobbyists

against specific large-scale water resource management projects, notably some of those

under the Flood Action Plan, which they see as socially and environmentally damaging.

Source: www.euforic.org

EFFICIENCY OF THE NGOs PROGRAMMES:

Factors contributing towards efficiency include the following:
http://www.euforic.org/http://www.euforic.org/


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Specialized programs (concentrating on a small range of activities) are

easier to run efficiently than are holistic programs (which try to tackle

a broad range of dimensions of poverty).

nevertheless, even very large holistic programs are being run

efficiently by some NGOs;

programs of small NGOs often suffer from insufficient funding and/or

from lack of access to best management practice through training;

programs in which partial management responsibility (excluding

financial management) is given to member groups are being run

efficiently by several NGOs studied;

programs in which full hand over, including financial management, to

member groups is practiced have so far not been able to achieve

efficiency.

Source: www.euforic.org

CRITICISM NGOS FACESome NGOs have responded to criticism about the sectors neglect of hard-to-reach areas

and groups. Criticisms of NGOs frequently focus on whether they reach or even

attempt to reach marginal and very poor areas or groups. The regional imbalance of

NGOs led to concerns about overlapping NGO programs and under-served pockets33.

Micro credit coverage remains uneven, varying from 100 per cent of households below

the poverty line in Meherpur district to only 31 percent of poor households in

Sunamganj34. The 2003 World Bank survey also shows considerable variation: while 17

thanas35 have only one NGO, while Mohammadpur in central Dhaka boasts 192 NGOs.

The average number of NGOs per thana across the country is 15. Remarkably, over the

1995-2000 periods, the proportion of rural Bangladeshi communities with at least one

NGO program almost doubled (see figure 2.2). At the same time the average number of
http://www.euforic.org/http://www.euforic.org/


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NGO programs within communities trebled and coverage by BRAC, Proshika, Caritas

and the Grameen Bank more than doubled.36 Coverage by other NGOs rose even more

dramatically, but from a lower base, from 18 to 48 per cent of all communities. Credit,

education and family planning services were the major areas of growth over the second

half of the 1990s.

There are a number of issues that are currently at the forefront of the public policy debate

on NGOs. These include

(i) Perceived weaknesses in the regulatory framework and in the financial

accountability of NGOs;

(ii) The scope, impact and cost-effectiveness of NGO activities including the

trade-offs between service delivery and advocacy;(iii) The implications of shifts in NGO financing that has resulted in greater

financing through commercial activities and micro-finance revenues

(iv) The nature of Government-NGO partnerships, their respective roles and

contracting arrangements.

The evidence on service quality levels and development impact of NGO programs

remains limited. The scale, geographical coverage and type of activities that NGOs

engage is often described on an anecdotal basis or by focusing on a single institution.

Claims that NGOs in Bangladesh are a parallel Government has seldom been tested

against household and other survey data that are representative nationally and that

measure scale and access across a range of services. Moreover there is a paucity of well

designed impact assessments of entire programs and those that exist are often not

disseminated effectively outside the development and academic community.

CHALLENGES NGOS FACE:


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NGOs in Bangladesh work under many constraints and challenges. Some of these

challenges are:

(a) Lack of financial sustainability;

(b) Shortage of efficient employees and high employee attrition;

(c) Inadequate infrastructure;

(d) Undue interference and control by the government;

(e) Lengthy fund release process;

(f) Low level of inter-sectoral cooperation;

(g) Inadequate training and low level of true professionalism among employees often

aggravated by lack of job security;

(h) Lack of information and relevant research;

(i) Religious conservatism and militancy, and threat of terrorism;(j) Political pressure and political instability;

k) Unfavorable tax regime; and

(l) Natural calamities.

Source: www.icgbangladesh.org

CORRUPTION IN GOVERNMENT PROJECTSCorruption prevails in many stages of awarding government projects.

The government maintains a specific procedure to select NGOs but it is violated

through corruption. Request for project proposals is published in daily

newspapers with poor circulation.
http://www.icgbangladesh.org/http://www.icgbangladesh.org/http://www.icgbangladesh.org/


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Even after corruption or irregularities are identified in government projects,

donors usually do not take sufficiently strong position to avoid confrontation with

the government.

Sometimes high officials of the government form NGOs in the name of relatives,

and facilitate allocation of project fund.

PUBLIC AWARENESSMost NGO branches participate in public awareness campaigns designed to promote

mass awareness of issues such as sanitation, nutrition, rights and gender (93 per cent of

NGO branches according to the World Bank NGO survey). Here we can provide the list

of awareness that they are making

AIDS/STD

Sanitation

Livestock Disease

Tuberculosis

Malaria

Source: www.ti-bangladesh.org

CONCLUSION:

In Bangladesh, NGOs play a pivotal and pragmatic role when the state does not reach the

poor and meet their needs. Despite their numbers, NGOs have brought little change in

levels of poverty. Even the largest NGOs in Bangladesh when taken together cover only a
http://www.ti-bangladesh.org/http://www.ti-bangladesh.org/http://www.ti-bangladesh.org/


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fraction of the population- perhaps only 10-20 percent of landless households (Hasherm,

1995). This highlights the NGO need for reaching more poor and provision of services

given the limitations of the state and the laws. So, alleviation of poverty of the masses

should be at the top of the agenda of the NGOs, state and donors in Bangladesh.

However, the NGOs' umbrella body (which is required to elect its executive committee)

is not broad-based. Elections to the executive committee are often not properly held and

its membership is often confined to friends and relatives. This surely frustrates the

potential of NGOs as democratic voluntary organizations. Nevertheless, NGOs cannot

function in isolation from the mainstream of political, economic and social life in this

Country. They must conform to certain standards, adhere to state regulations and have

their work coordinated at the state level. NGOs can only complement the state's activity.Under the current system, the state cannot ask NGOs to become more transparent and

accountable or to cooperate more with the state due to donor pressure. The state is very

weak in Bangladesh. Instead, the state creates undue hindrances which only increase

transaction costs of NGOs without encouraging or forcing the NGOs to respond more to

the needs of the poor. But still NGOs need to be transparent to their clients, donors and

the state both functionally and financially if they really want to represent the interests of

the poor or at least provide services to them.

RECOMMENDATIONS:The following recommendations would improve the existing legal status of NGOs in

Bangladesh. These are:

Improving NGO Efficiency

Improving the Law


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Holding NGOs Accountable

reducing bureaucracy

removing legal contradictions

making NGOs more accountableState Rules, Acts and Ordinances should be replaced or modified to reflect the

current critical atmosphere

National Security Intelligence (NSI) should be aware

law should be changed accordingly and NAB should make sure that it is

implemented properly

The state should remove all administrative and procedural bottlenecks created through

promulgation of various Ordinances and streamline the existing working procedures,

enabling NGOs to complete all formalities within the shortest time possible. The state

should evaluate the strength and weakness of current measures for regulating NGOs and

ensure promulgation of flexible and effective rules and regulations.

The existing procedure that requires projects and clearance of funds be annually approved

by the state should be changed. NGOs that have approval for a project should be able to

use foreign funds until the project is completed, without annual renewal. Since the funds

must be received through specific NGO bank accounts, the state will be able to monitor

the flow of foreign funds to the NGO sector and to each NGO. It will be the business of

NAB officials to check whether an NGO has several bank accounts.

The National Security Intelligence (NSI) should be aware of each NGO's activities so that

it is ready to comment on an application without further inquiry. If the NGO has done

anything highly objectionable during the last 30 years, it should be closed and therelevant donor informed.

For NAB approval of projects, NGOs should be required to submit the names of its Board

Members and/or Executive Committee and the number of staff positions in each

category. Staff names, however, should not be required .


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Theoretically, the state is accountable to Parliament and ultimately to the public for its

activities and programs, but NGOs remains unaccountable. This is unacceptable. NGOs

must be regulated by Parliament. If the government can remain above narrow party

interests and if the opposition party can remain strong and responsible, then an effective

parliamentary committee could be created to scrutinize and evaluate the activities and

programs of the NGOs.

REFERENCES:

www.worldbank.org.bd

www.w3.org

www.microcreditsummit.org
http://www.worldbank.org.bd/http://www.w3.org/http://www.microcreditsummit.org/http://www.worldbank.org.bd/http://www.w3.org/http://www.microcreditsummit.org/


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www.euforic.org

www.icnl.org

www.bdyellowbook.com

www.bdiusa.org www.brsa.org.bd

www.ngoab.gov.bd

www.bsscrbd.org

www.bangladehsnews.com.bd
http://www.euforic.org/http://www.icnl.org/http://www.bdyellowbook.com/http://www.bdiusa.org/http://www.brsa.org.bd/http://www.ngoab.gov.bd/http://www.bsscrbd.org/http://www.bangladehsnews.com.bd/http://www.euforic.org/http://www.icnl.org/http://www.bdyellowbook.com/http://www.bdiusa.org/http://www.brsa.org.bd/http://www.ngoab.gov.bd/http://www.bsscrbd.org/http://www.bangladehsnews.com.bd/

ngos in bangladesh. full&final by mr. jakaria

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