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Citizens’ Voice and Accountability Evaluation – Bangladesh Country Case Study financial and technical capacity, but also political capacity, which relates to issues of political will, leadership and negotiating skills which are often key to effective CVA. The CVA evaluation considered the following questions: • How relevant is donors’ support for capacity development vis a vis the needs of different actors of CVA? • How effective is donor support for capacity building and training initiatives of state and non-state agents involved in CVA interventions? What are the expected, unexpected, positive and negative results (outputs or outcomes) of these initiatives? • How effective is donor support for advocacy and coalition building initiatives? What are the results (outputs or outcomes) of these initiatives? Are some individuals/groups more difficult to reach? • How sustainable is donors’ support to capacity development of CSOs? • What factors militate against increased capacity being translated into action? Below we consider whether donor interventions have effectively addressed the needs of state and non-state actors. Capacity needs of state actors The challenge for donors seeking to build capacity on the “supply side” of the CVA equation is that capacity requirements are both technical and political (see Box 4.1). Without this recognition, narrowly technical donor interventions will struggle or fail to make an impact. Donors in Bangladesh on the whole recognise and respond to this challenge of reconciling the political and technical. At the sub-national level they combine technical support for regional and local administrations with political support through creating “political spaces” for interaction with civil society. At the national level, due to the context described in section 4.1 above, donors have provided more narrow technical support, and in a limited number of cases. Box 4.1. State actor CVA capacity needs State actors, at both the local and national level, are largely responsible for formulating CVA policy and implementing programmes. Their skills requirements include not only technical management and financial competencies, but also the capacity to manage reform processes (e.g. decentralisation, including devolvement of decision-making responsibilities as well as technical functions), to improve transparency and the policy dialogue with civil society (including managing greater participation of civil society in decision-making processes). These forms of capacity needs are primarily of political rather than technical nature and often require leadership, vision and the capacity to think strategically. Source: Foresti et al, 2007. “Evaluation of Citizens’ Voice and Accountability: Evaluation Framework”, London, ODI, August Donor CVA activity in Bangladesh aimed at building the capacity of state actors is less conspicuous than interventions supporting non-state actors (see discussion below). What activity there is tends to be focussed on the level of sub-national government. In part this is because of the restrictions on national-level democratic process prevalent at the time of the interventions. But it is also because the donor model of change in Bangladesh sees accountability mechanisms impacting on 18
Citizens’ Voice and Accountability Evaluation – Bangladesh Country Case Study citizens most strongly at the daily interface between state and citizen; i.e. in the implementation of budgets and policies. Donor support to state actors focuses on the administrative technical capacity to implement policy and their transparency and accountability to citizens in this role. Direct support to state actors is illustrated by nation-wide intervention to build capacity (and encourage accountability) of Union Parishads (UPs) under the new UNDP/World Bank-funded Local Government Support Programme and encouraging them to become more responsive to and accountable to their elected constituencies. The case study intervention in this evaluation highlighted donor capacity building support to UPs via technical interventions in Local Government Engineering Department (LGED) rural development projects (RDPs) (see Box 4.2). These project interventions have bundled up support for governance capacity with support to infrastructure investments. LGED’s RDP capacity building has been largely implemented through subcontracting third party NGO training units, which brings its own set of challenges. Criticism abounds that where Government contracts NGOs, corruption is prevalent (e.g. bribes to secure contracts, nepotism favouring family backed NGOs). In addition to formally contracted support to state actors, some NGOs provide more informal means of capacity building support. Samata, for example, directly engages in UP capacity building and mentoring but although it has provided formal training on roles and responsibilities to UP Chairpersons and members, it is most effective in mentoring UPs on a more informal basis and with limited resources. By providing ongoing on the spot mentoring through its own resources Samata retains independence from Government and credibility with its members. We pick up on this issue of NGO- Government relations in capacity building in Section 5 below. Box 4.2. Local Government Engineering Department (LGED) Rural Development Projects: Direct donor capacity building for state actors DFID and GTZ have been providing continuing support to Union Parishads (UPs) through the LGED under a series of Rural Development Projects (RDPs). From the early 90s, these projects have introduced the notion of participatory selection of roads and small schemes for improvement which involved engaging in public consultation. The projects have supplied equipment, financial and technical support for monthly meetings, secretarial support for UPs and grant/seed money for revolving funds. UP members have been trained on their roles and responsibilities and supported to develop development plans and budgets. They have received gender and environment orientation. Source: Authors’ analysis Donor capacity building support to state actors extends to creating or expanding political spaces, which give government officials the enabling environment to expand beyond a technocratic role and be more open and transparent in their political actions. Donors have also been innovative in working to support citizens, particularly women, to get elected to local office so that the capacity building starts on the nonstate side and continues through to the state side. Recent national and local elections have seen an increase in women exercising their franchise and since 1997 there have been provisions for three reserved seats on the Union Parishad for women (each representing three wards). Women’s political empowerment is still constrained by their limited political awareness, limited access to public platforms, their inexperience in political process. 19
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Development partner Strategic inten
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IV Relevant Primary and Secondary d
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II: Overall Assessment of Intervent
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Impact According to the 2007 Impact
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Model of change Assumptions Activit
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D.8. Bangladesh Sanjukta Sramic Fed
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Effectiveness BSSF provides 22 trai
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. Model of change Assumptions Activ
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D.9. Rupantar Grassroots Women’s
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Impact Phase 1 resulted in a cadre
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Figure 1. Rupantar CVA Model of Cha
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Table 2. Most significant change an
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D.10. Samata - Empowerment Through
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Lessons Learned Important lessons l
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Table 2. Most significant change an
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D.11. GTZ brokered dialogue within
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Sustainability GTZ feels that the f
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Project (Donor) Partners/ PIUs Inte
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Project (Donor) Partners/ PIUs Inte
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Annex F. Summary of Stakeholder Deb
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