Bangladesh - Belgium

Citizens’ Voice and Accountability Evaluation – Bangladesh Country Case Study
service delivery to facilitation modes of operation. Similarly some government
departments were embracing participatory approaches. It is not clear to what extent
these moves by both NGOs and government departments were internally driven or
were in response to changing demands and agendas of donors. But the upshot was
a surge in opportunities to finance local level participatory processes, particularly
related to planning. LGED and CARE led the way in terms of building capacity of UPs
to adopt participatory planning approaches regarding road and market construction
and maintenance. Through their projects and complementary projects (notably the
UNCDF-funded Sirajganj local government project) revenue collection by UPs was
encouraged and the possibility of the UP having to maintain some level of
accountability to the taxpayer and their constituents was promoted. These pilots
gained the attention of NGOs and donors and opportunities for strengthening the
interface between UPs and their constituents opened up. Most donors seem to have
at least one intervention now which relates to UP capacity building or UP/public
engagement (see Tables C7 and C8).
The obstacles to participation by women have been recognised in Bangladesh for
decades and many of the women’s movements and networks have long histories.
Support for these has been in the portfolio of donors since the 70s. As political
developments occurred, notably the provision for direct election of women to the UP
in 1998, donors have responded by supporting coalitions for women elected
members, provision of training to women UPs and women voter education.
The marginalisation of ethnic minorities has emerged as an important issue in the
public domain in the last ten years. Concomitantly, numerous minority-led rights
groups, NGOs and movements have been established and have provided donors an
opportunity, hitherto limited, for supporting their voice activities.
Donors have responded to the opportunities afforded by the gradual empowerment of
local government and have concentrated efforts to build capacity of UPs through
various means. This same opportunity has been supported by building NGO and
social movements to facilitate the voicing of citizen demands and participation of
citizens in development activities. The relative freedom of the press and the
proliferation of print and electronic media in the last few years have also presented
opportunities for donor support. Grassroots journalism has been particularly
successful in exposing malpractice and motivating service orientation amongst local
public servants.
Recently several independent research organisations and think tanks have been
established. These too have been successful in attracting donor interest as they
present an opportunity to provide independent research data and analysis.
The current Caretaker Government situation changes the context for CVA
interventions dramatically and donors are demonstrating mixed abilities (and agility)
at supporting interventions which respond to these emerging opportunities:
• The suspension of parliament and de-emphasis on partisan politics which has in
the past pervaded all aspects of life and livelihoods is regarded by many
grassroots citizens as a positive step which empowers them to make demands of
and lodge complaints with local service providers: “we would not have dared to
before for fear of politically motivated reprisal” (comments made in field October
2007). Donors might therefore find it appropriate to continue to fund social
movements and other informal constellations of citizens.
• Consultations with citizens (Sida Reality Check 2007) indicates that there is a
strong feeling that the Caretaker Government is “pro-poor” as evidenced by
timely resource distribution (e.g. benefits for the poor, school resources,
resumption of free medicine provision in hospitals etc) and a crack down on
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