Bangladesh - Belgium

Citizens’ Voice and Accountability Evaluation – Bangladesh Country Case Study
Box 4.5.
Non-state actor CVA capacity needs
• Advocacy and engagement: This can depend on factors such as: (i) communication,
networking and policy influencing skills; (ii) capacity to engage with community or informal
organisations that represent the interests of poor or marginalised groups; (iii) the
openness and capacity of public officials/institutions to engage, and on which issues; and
(iv) the existence of formal or informal mechanisms for engagement.
• Knowledge/awareness of regulations, rights and entitlements: Awareness of formal rights
and entitlements is a precondition for exercising them but this knowledge may be
restricted to certain groups or awareness of particular type of entitlements may be more
widespread than others. Citizens also need to be aware of what channels and
mechanisms are available through which they can express their voice or demands.
• Capacity to participate in political processes: Individuals or organisations may be aware of
their rights and entitlements and have sufficient resources and skills but lack the
necessary political capacity or power to act upon these. This may be because the political
environment is not conducive to the expression of CVA (e.g. it is repressive or horizontal
accountability institutions are weak) or because formal rights/rules are in tension with
dominant social-cultural norms (e.g. those based on relations of hierarchy/exclusion).
Source: Foresti et al, 2007. “Evaluation of Citizens’ Voice and Accountability: Evaluation Framework”, London, ODI,
August
Strategies for advocacy and engagement are a key element of civil society activity in
Bangladesh and are an important area for donor capacity building interventions.
This type of capacity building takes two forms: (i) direct capacity building of civil
society; and (ii) funding to third party NGOs who have a capacity building mandate.
There is a stronger donor emphasis on the second form of intervention because of
the tradition of social mobilization in Bangladesh, with many NGOs engaged in
strategies of social mobilization with targeted population groups.
Social mobilization implies a process of bridging awareness – raising to organisation
and agency. It is generally facilitated by outside agents (by ‘mobilisers’, ‘animators’
or ‘field organisers’). Rupantar, “We Can” and Transparency International
Bangladesh (TIB) are active in this field, building networks of citizens and local
organisations. They achieve this by building local awareness of largely externally
generated agendas and providing forums for mutual support and combined action
around these at different tiers of the power structure. They are organisations that
often combine local level advocacy and watchdog functions.
Building knowledge and awareness of regulations, rights and entitlements often goes
hand in hand with non-state actor capacity building in Bangladesh. Through a
strategy of funding NGOs with a capacity building mandate, donors have helped to
create the precondition for effective advocacy by civil society actors.
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