User:Mehreen Hossain

A Glimpse into the Bangladeshi NGO Sectory: A Brief History

Mehreen Hossain

Bangladesh has relied on non-governmental organizations (NGOs) since its inception in 1971 as a means to elevate the welfare of its citizens (Sobhan 1). The NGO sector initially developed in response to much-needed relief and rehabilitation efforts after the nation’s War for Independence and natural disasters. Since then, the NGO sector has grown and become the “champions of ‘sustainable development’” (Davis 1).

History: Early Roots

Before becoming an independent nation, Bangladesh was known as Bengal and consisted of present-day Bangladesh and the state of West Bengal in India. It was a land rich with natural resources during the Moghul Era (17th and 18th Centuries)—it was a source of international trade for agriculture, textiles, and handcrafts, particularly for the British (Chaudhury 2). Tariffs placed on Indian products by the British undercut local textile manufacturers, leading to the collapse of the entire textile industry. By 1947, Bengal was known more commonly for its poverty. While NGOs were not formally present in Bengal, many voluntary associations existed. According to the Asian Journal of Administration, the Muslim community used zakat to develop social welfare and public infrastructure, such as Village Welfare Societies. During British rule in Bengal, foreign associations, such as the Baptist Missionary Society provided medical services and built schools and established educational programs (Davis 2). In 1944, the first registered voluntary organization was established 1944 following the Bengal Famine of 1943, which claimed 3 million lives (Asian Philanthropy). In the years following the transition of Bengal to East Pakistan, throughout the 1970’s, natural disasters ravaged the area. Noahkali, a port on the country’s southern coast, reported experiencing record-breaking floods between 1960 and 1970 (McKinley 19). The poverty level escalated as a result of a shortage in food and a lack of aid to the disaster-stricken area. It was these natural disasters that laid the foundation for the development of the NGO sector. During this time, the Academy for Rural Development (ARD) emerged as one of earliest institutions for rural development. As it was based in Comilla, a city in western Chittagong Division, it became known as the “Comilla Model” for small farmer cooperatives. (Davis 3) The Comilla Sadar Upazila , or the lowest administrative unit, was comprised of small farmers and placed emphasis on members’ skills training, regular weekly meetings, and small deposits. In addition, the Upazila worked strongly to invest in new technology, such as fertilizer and irrigation. As described on the official Bangladesh government site, “The village-based primary cooperatives were federated at the Upazila level and the federation was called Upazila Central Cooperatives Association (UCCA). This UCCA supported to provide training and credit support to the village-level primary cooperatives and to undertake ventures like storage, processing, marketing, mechanization, etc.” Despite owning little land, the cooperatives of farmers were successful and, eventually, the model gained acceptance and recognition from the Bangladesh Rural Development Board (BRDP). Following Bangladesh’s independence in 1972, the Government adopted this system and established cooperatives throughout the country. By 2005, approximately 67,000 village cooperatives, accumulating about Tk. 573 million in total capital, had been organized with over 20 million members. (Bangladesh Academy for Rural Development) In response to increasing poverty, inequality, and rural/coastal devastation facing East Pakistan, international NGOs emerged on the scene. CARE was one of the first international NGOs to provide overseas domestic aid and humanitarian relief. For example, in 1955, CARE distributed powdered milk to schools, and in 1962, it began providing lunches for school children. That same year, CARE opened its Dhaka office. After the cyclonic tidal wave of 1970, CARE was at the forefront of emergency relief in East Pakistan. Since Bangladesh’s independence, CARE has continually worked to provide disadvantaged and poverty-stricken communities with relief. (CARE Bangladesh) The Chittagong Organization for Relief and Rehabilitation (CORR), formerly known as the Catholic agency, CARITAS Pakistan, also offered assistance during the post-1970 tidal wave humanitarian relief efforts (Davis 3). With seven regional offices throughout Bangladesh, CARITAS continues to operate in development and social welfare (CARITAS Bangladesh).

The War for Independence and the Burgeoning NGO Sector

The cyclone of 1970 and the War for Independence prompted “a massive response in multilateral, bilateral and non-government aid” (Davis 3). The Lutheran World Federation’s R[angpur] D[inajpur] R[ehabilitation] S[ervice] (RDRS), for example, supplied relief efforts to over one million refugees returning to Bangladesh after leaving for India during the wartime. Initially, RDRS focused on providing food, shelter, and healthcare to refugees, and later diversified its services to restructuring farms, hospitals, and schools (Davis 3).

From Rehabilitation to Development

Local organizations began to take shape and crop up in the country as well. In 1972, Fazle Hasan Abed founded the Bangladesh Rural Advancement Committee (BRAC) as a relief and rehabilitation organization to provide assistance to those affected by the war. Realizing that relief was only a temporary solution to bettering the welfare of the poor, Abed looked for more long-term and sustainable means to improve the livelihood of those in poverty. In 1974, BRAC expanded its services to include skills development training and education and began providing small loans to the poor, the introduction of microfinance programs to Bangladesh. (Khandker 1998). Initially, organizations tended to focus on specific services; organizations now strived to attain a more comprehensive approach toward development. A number of organizations began to shift from relief efforts to addressing economic and social development conditions in Bangladesh.

Partnerships

Alongside a focus on development, NGOs in Bangladesh looked to form alliances with unlikely partners. Bangladeshi citizens and the international Quaker Peace and Service Organization formed Gono Unnayan Prochesta (GUP), an organization run by Bangladeshis and funded by the Quaker Peace and Service Organization. Since the formation of GUP, a number of grassroot NGO-international aid partnerships have emerged. (Davis 4)

Bangladesh: Leading the MFI NGO

Bangladesh has often been credited as the founding nation of the microfinance movement. In 1977, BRAC established a program to target the poor and landless. Setting up groups of twenty to twenty-five people, called Samity, based on land ownership status, BRAC determined that the village power structure needed to be broken. Too much power remained in the hands of the “elite,” and BRAC resolved to more evenly distribute this power within the village in order to mobilize the poor. According to John Davis, “The Samity were to eventually be linked ‘into a federation of the poor’ which would act as a buffer between the poor and the village power structure” (4). Thus, BRAC used the collective Samity to bridge the gap between the villagers and those in power. In addition, BRAC began providing vocational training to rural women (McGivering 1). More recently, the organization launched programs in Afghanistan, Sri Lanka, and many African countries, as well as an NGO and staff training and management center. Since its inception, BRAC has helped spearhead NGO development efforts.

Microfinance cannot be mentioned without referencing the Grameen Bank, which has become the leader in microfinance worldwide. Muhammad Yunus, winner of the 2006 Nobel Peace Prize, has been called the “father of microfinance.” In the midst of the 1974 famine, Yunus the head of the Economics Department of Chittagong University, began searching for ways to improve the lives of the villagers living adjacent to his university. In 1976, Yunus seized credit as a vehicle for development and poverty alleviation. Yunus introduced an experimental project lending money out of his own pocket to villagers in Jobra, a town near Chittagong University to test whether the poor were creditworthy and whether credit could be provided without physical collateral. Yunus found that not only was he repaid on time, but the villagers were benefiting from new opportunities that the loans had opened up (e.g. some villagers expanded their microenterprises and reported increases in their incomes) as well. The success of the project convinced Yunus that microcredit would help alleviate poverty and that providing loans to the poor could be achieved on a wide-scale basis. Yunus suggested to local banks that they make uncollateralized loans to the poor. The banks, however, refused, stating that the poor were “uncreditworthy” and that the proceeds from loans to the poor would be too small to cover administrative costs. In the face of these challenges, Yunus decided to establish his own institution, the Grameen Bank (gram means “rural” or “of the village” in Bengali). In 1983, Grameen became a specialized bank after the government passed a law allowing it to accept deposits. (Yunus) According to its official site, Grameen Bank currently has 7 million borrowers, 97 percent of whom are women (February 2007), and its model has been replicated worldwide. Despite its many successes, Grameen Bank has been the target of Islamic fundamentalists who criticize the institution’s mission to socially empower women. In 1995, local politicians supported by men in their communities pressured female borrowers to stop repaying their loans, which temporarily damaged Grameen Bank’s reputation. Both Grameen Bank and BRAC also suffered bombings in 2005. (BBC World News). The MFI sector in Bangladesh continues to thrive in spite of these hurdles, but its future sustainability may be under attack.

NGO Growth

The NGO sector has grown significantly since Bangladesh’s independence. In 2004, the Association of Development Agencies in Bangladesh listed a total of 2,152 NGOs in Bangladesh (World Bank). Notwithstanding, the political and social instability that plagues the nation threatens the sustainability of efficacy of the NGO sector. Bangladesh’s political climate has remained turbulent since the country’s independence. Despite strides in economic progress, critics of the Bangladeshi government cite corruption as one of the primary reasons behind the government’s inability to combat poverty and provide adequate social goods (Phillipson 1). Unquestionably, the NGO sector has filled the void: … the provision of what are normally regarded as public goods often fell through the cracks. It is this lack and vacuum that the NGOs filled, in a very diverse range of areas, from microcredit to education and from health to agricultural extension, aided in no small measure by reasonably steadfast international donors. If Bangladesh has moved from being an international basket case to a resilient economy, capable of coping with adverse environments and slowly but steadily climbing the human development ladder, some credit should go to its myriad NGO sector. (Mohanty 1) While the Bangladeshi NGO sector has made significant progress in the rural development of the country on its own, ultimately, a strong relationship between the Bangladesh Government and the NGO sector must be forged in order to reduce poverty within Bangladesh.

References

Bangladesh Academy for Rural Development. <http://www.bard.gov.bd/succsto.htm>

“Bangladesh: History of Philantropy.” <http://www.asianphilanthropy.org/countries/bangladesh/history.html>

CARE Bangladesh. <http://www.carebd.org/>

CARITA Bangladesh. <http://www.drik.net/memisa/html/caritas.html>

Chaudhery, S. European Trade, Influx of Silver and Prices in Bengal. <http:eh.net/XIICongress/>. 2002.

Davis, John K. “NGOs and Development in Bangladesh: Whose sustainability counts?” <http://www.sustainability.murdoch.edu.au/publications/antipoverty06/john_davis.html>

Grameen Bank. <http://www.grameen-info.org/bank/index.html>

Hailey, J. “Ladybirds, missionaries, and NGOs. Voluntary organizations and cooperatives in 50 years of development: a historical perspective on future challenges.” Public Administration and Development, 1999.

Hasan, S. “Voluntarism and rural development in Bangladesh.” Asian Journal of Public Administration, 1993.

Khandker

McGivering

McKinley, J. Death to Life: Bangladesh. Dhaka: Immanuel Baptist Church, 1979.

Mohanty, Mritiunjoy. “Microcredit, NGOs, and poverty alleviation.” OneWorld South Asia (15 Nov. 2006). <http://southasia.oneworld.net/article/view/142481/1/2252>

Phillipson, Liz. “Bangladesh’s fraying democracy.” OneWorld.Net (6 June 2006). <http://us.oneworld.net/external/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.opendemocracy.net%2Fdemocracy-protest%2Fbangladesh_3681.jsp>

RDRS Bangladesh. <http://www.rdrsbangla.net/FrontEnd/index.php>

Sobhan, Zafar. “Not a Moment Too Soon.” The Daily Star (24 March 2006).

Travel Bangladesh: Chittagong Division. <http://travel.discoverybangladesh.com/travel-ramu-teknaf-comilla.html#4>

World Bank. “The economics and governance of Non Governmental Organizations (NGOs) in Bangladesh (No. 11). Dhaka: World Bank, 2006.