Bangladesh - Belgium

Citizens’ Voice and Accountability Evaluation – Bangladesh Country Case Study
Watch report and this provides a sustainable tool for engaging with the Government on substantive
policy issues.
There is also a sense that donor activity has supported, and certainly not undermined, a shift in
CAMPE activity onto a more institutionalised and sustainable footing, with CAMPE stakeholders
arguing that CAMPE has shift from individualised activity in the 1990s to the “institutionalised voice”
of the education sector. As part of this institutionalisation process, CAMPE has reached out to a
network of civil society partners, claiming that it has a 1,000-strong NGO network that it can draw
upon.
Lessons Learned
Voluntarism and networking platforms work effectively when combining professional expertise and
group commitment to influencing and improving policy design and implementation.
Many of the kinds of institutional connections that generate demand amongst policy makers on the
supply side for advice and which generate accountability through the spotlight of monitoring and
media activity are beyond the design ambitions of donor projects.
This donor intervention illustrates how light-touch secretariat support and funds for designing and
implementing research and research tools, and producing and disseminating outputs, can be
positive in supporting and not diverting or undermining the institutional momentum generated.
The stated emphasis on facilitating local citizen voice and participation in policy process appears to
be less significant in CAMPE’s model of change although some activities do include local people In a
participatory process. It seems clear that CAMPE’s comparative advantage in the CVA field is clearly
in policy analysis and leverage and that it shouldn’t feel that it has to go into more populist CVA
areas of citizen participation, whether this be to satisfy a perceived donor demand for such activity or
whether to expand or overcomplicate its own model of change (see discussion below).
The effectiveness of the People’s Forum on MDGs (a broad based civil society platform which
monitors government’s progress towards realising the MDG targets) appears to have been less
effective. This may be in part due to the broad sectoral scope of the task. The effectiveness of EW
lies in its narrow focus and sectoral expertise in primary education.
III: Models of Change Developed
The model of change employed (see Figure 1 below) is based on the assumption that using the
experience and expertise of established professionals for citizen’s voice can, through advocacy and
policy dialogue, exert significant leverage on the policy process.
There is also a set of assumptions around the government as a participant in this dialogue. The model
assumes that policy makers are prepared to listen carefully to CAMPE in its advisory role and to
respond constructively to the advocacy role of CAMPE. It seems indeed there has been a growing
maturity and increased self confidence amongst education officials which allow it to listen to criticism
rather than dismissing or ignoring it. There is also a greater sense of partnership in policy discussions,
so that even though in the case of the PEDP II there was no acknowledgement of CAMPE’s
contributions, the Ministry was listening and distilling the evidence and ideas produced through
Education watch and other CAMPE tools.
The effect assumption that evidence-based discussions will filter through to increased allocations of
budget appears, however, to be one missing step in the CVA link to improved education outcomes.
On the one hand it appears that CAMPE’s advisory role is “empowering” MoPME in its internal
relationship of accountability with the MoF by enabling it to back up its sector budgeting with more
considered policy analysis. On the other hand, there are power relations and interests within the
centre of government that can remain immune to evidence-based policy approaches to budgeting.
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