Bangladesh - Belgium

Citizens’ Voice and Accountability Evaluation – Bangladesh Country Case Study
and national level advocacy with many documented achievements particularly at
local level. TIB also uses media exposure to great advantage. There is no doubt that
its international pedigree contributes greatly to the attention it gets from the national
media (of course it also helps that members of the Board are influential in the
media!). The report cards produced at local level get good local media coverage.
Rupantar and Samata have made significant achievements in political empowerment
of women. They exercise their franchise independently and increasingly contest
elections. Both CAMPE and Samata were active in influencing the Poverty Reduction
Strategy, the former as an invited advisor and the later invited after public protest
over non inclusion of land issues in the first draft of the document. Watchdog
functions have been supported at different levels and in a range of sectors.
However, there are concerns in relation to the results and outcomes. It is difficult to
confirm attribution, e.g. Rupantar operates alongside several other interventions (see
summary sheet), efficiency changes observed for example in hospital management
and school teachers punctuality may be due more to the current Caretaker
Government 28 than pressure from TIB’s CCCs or Samata’s local pressure or MMCs
(or others) media exposure.
Furthermore there is the very real possibility of double accounting. Organisations
working in the same thematic or geographic area are actually always meeting the
same people, e.g. with regard to Violence Against Women (VAW) work: who goes to
conferences? Who joins rallies? Same people? Does this result in provision of
support only for forums of the like-minded? There is no means to check how much
duplication of effort is actually taking place where there is reliance on traditional log
frame approach reporting (as required by many development partners and Manusher
Jonno Foundation (DFID funded foundation)).
The team also wonders if enhanced exercise of voice can be a sufficient end in itself
as an outcome of voice interventions. Is it reasonable, in an immature democracy
such as Bangladesh, to expect significant impact of that voice? Voice raising is a
process and needs to be monitored as such. For example, GTZ brokered dialogue
arguably may not have resulted in changes in the Labour Laws but it provided an
opportunity for diverse and dissenting groups to speak and to listen. Danida funds
one of the widest ranges of voice interventions with marginalised groups (sex
workers, fishermen, Adivasi groups) as does DFID via its MJF channel. BSSF has
supported the unionisation of rickshaw pullers, agricultural labourers, weavers and
fishermen thus providing them a collective voice for the first time. These voices are
relatively new ones to be heard in Bangladesh. Capacity and confidence building
followed by inclusion of these voices in different platforms and channels should be
the immediate objectives of such interventions. Furthermore, to avoid the ‘same old
voices’ (often urban–centric NGO ones) dominating, it may make sense to support
unusual voices (profession-based organisations, faith-based groups, political parties,
informal groups, youth organisations etc.) as important checks and balances in the
exercise of voice. Different voices are then valued in their own right (nothing changes
without dissent). Interventions can then be generic - providing a level playing field for
this eclectic mix of voices (e.g. as mentioned above, provision of public-access
capacity building resources such as ‘how to’ guides for advocacy campaigns and
support to ‘platforms’ rather than specific organisations).
There are positive signs that an enabling environment is emerging which is
supported by both legislative and procedural reform. LGED has regular consultations
with communities and these have procedures become enshrined in LGED
operational guidelines with moves to incorporate these into standing orders of UPs.
28 Fear of arrest, losing job.
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