Bangladesh - Belgium

Citizens’ Voice and Accountability Evaluation – Bangladesh Country Case Study
success on both demand and supply-side 3 , the opportunities for interface are limited and are
mostly project-driven. There is little evidence that the interface platforms have been
institutionalised. Furthermore, changes in service provision efficiency are difficult to attribute
directly to the interventions. Many changes seem to be facilitated by the project staff directly rather
than through the people’s organisations designed to negotiate their own demands. The Caretaker
Government’s crack down on malpractice and inefficiencies (with the threat of arrest and charges)
has had a significant impact on all public services. Many feel that this alone has had more impact
than any number of voice building programmes.
The Paris Declaration on aid effectiveness stresses both alignment and harmonisation. The
Bangladesh Poverty Reduction Strategy (PRS) (the main instrument for alignment) emphasises
the importance of good governance and states that it is promoted ‘by ensuring transparency,
accountability and rule of law’ and this strategy along with three others (ensuring participation,
social inclusion and empowerment of all sections, groups and classes of people and providing
service delivery efficiently and effectively, particularly to the poor) are essential to bring about
change. Although the current Caretaker Government has declared support for the PRS, there is
very little genuine ownership of the strategy and knowledge of the tenets of the strategy remain
meagre. Whilst donors quote the PRS widely in their strategy documents to justify alignment, there
is actually little substance behind what, despite the lengthy consultation process, is essentially a
consultant commissioned document.
There is a local Consultative Group convened amongst donors on the theme of governance.
Although there are a few examples of joint funding there is no coherent donor approach to
supporting CVA leading to duplication, gaps and competition.
The Millennium Declaration pledged Governments to give more aid and perpetuates a ‘more with
less’ agenda. This leads to swamping projects beyond their absorptive capacity, forcing
programmes to diversify (everything has to be under one project) and counters the principle that a
little money can achieve a lot in voice interventions in particular.
Recommendations can be summarised as follows:
• Harmonisation provides an opportunity for donors to develop a coherent theory of change
on enhancing CVA, with an accompanying strategy and set of interventions;
• If donors are serious about supporting diverse voices and contributing to a vibrant civil
society then they will have to be creative about funding. How can formal/informal
organisations, big voices/little voices, mainstream and unconventional voices be included?
One possibility is to provide funds for public access resources, such as online toolkits for
mounting local and national level advocacy, databases of alternative financial resources
and entitlements, resources on negotiating skills and other communication skills, and
generic civic education;
• Another possibility is to provide long-term funding without trying to control and measure
implementation (inputs-outputs) and instead focus on measuring outcomes (as a means of
evaluating the performance of the movement/process). Establishment of an accreditation
body which certifies ‘fitness for funding’ on simple basis would allow donors to fund more
open-ended programmes and promotes the notion that enhanced voice is valuable in its
own right;
3 Demand-side refers to voice- the action of making demands for provision of services and entitlements by
rights bearers (citizens) of duty bearers (primarily public sector) and thus ‘supply side’ actors.
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