Poverty Alleviation in Bangladesh

Assessing the effectiveness of this approach.

 Factors that affect PAPs

PAPs, like other development projects in Bangladesh suffer from numerous institutional and functional

dilemmas. Different evaluation reports, review mission and studies have identified some built-in institutional,

functional and structural limitations of such projects (Interchain, 1990, RESP, 1993; Aminuzzaman, 1994a) .

Following is a summary list of the problems identified by different studies:

" Most of these projects suffered from having too many objectives, weak management structure, unclear

division of responsibilities and two and even three lines of command.

" The project performance has been severely hampered by faulty project designs. Most projects did not have

any in-built monitoring system.

" Project interventions with respect to selection of specific activities, technology, skills development and

marketing network have been generally inadequate or disintegrated.

" Some projects also failed to achieve their target due to poor coordination/ performance of the participating

agencies and to a large extent, due to the absence of a well designed Project Operation Manual (POM).

" There have always been considerable delays in the flow of funds both from the donor as well as GOB

channels.

There is also a growing concern about the sustainability of the PAPs. Despite contending perceptions about

project viability and organizational roles in design and implementation, the institutional actors (GOB, NGOs and

the donor agencies) continue to collaborate in implementing more of the same type of projects. This paradoxical

outcome of what Sanyal (1991) calls "antagonistic cooperation" can be better explained by varying and

converging institutional interests than by the theory of comparative advantage.

Both GOB as well as NGOs seem to have no comprehensive plan for sustainability of the project impact on the

beneficiaries. The large NGOs have addressed this issue by defining withdrawal policies. While some NGOs

experimented with the formation of different forms of federation of groups and a gradual withdrawal of project

staff and by maintaining a loose follow-up links with the groups.

Sustainablility of PAPs to a great extent depends on project design and deployment of soft skills. In fact nonavailability

of professional staff soon after the formal completion of projects and consequent handing over to

GOB have caused considerable damage to some selected projects (RESP; 1992). Projects, in most cases get

disintegrated with the withdrawal of external support 9. Due to the strict recruitment rules and shortage of

revenue budget whatever technical competence is built by the project, these professional staff can not be

absorbed in the regular GOB operations.

Lessons Learned

What is the overall impact of the PAPs in Bangladesh ? What lesson have we learned so far? It is very difficult to

have precise answers to such questions. The impact of the entire gamut of poverty alleviation projects of both the

Government and NGOs, in fact, have still remained rather poorly documented. Moreover, on account of the

diversity in the focus of various projects, it has become rather difficult to arrive at a common denomination of

poverty alleviation, more specifically with regard to their impact on income, wages, employment and nutrition.

Notwithstanding some studies have even indicated some danger signals and noted that a number of these projects

have resulted in "a decline in the overall quality of village life and increased rural differentiation" (Hossain,

1984).

Findings of the available research indicate that institution building for grass root level development and poverty

alleviation in Bangladesh has suffered due to the lack of political committement. During the last two decades, all

successive regimes in Bangladesh followed a `populist' approach to set up different structures for local

participation and development. Each regime felt that it had to reach out beyond the political support of the rural

elite. The military regimes also became active and moved beyond the role of "maintaining stability" to initiate

"real development"(Blair, 1985) . As a result several parallel structures and institutions have been developed.

With the generous support from the Donor agencies, NGOs have become an active partner in rural development

projects. Though there are some reports of lack of coordination in conception and management of these projects,

some selected NGOs are doing well and have brought about significant changes in the socio-economic modes of

the lives of the target beneficiaries. Some NGO projects, on the other hand, have however developed a condition

of perpetual dependency. Due to the lack of planning and institutional framework and support, these NGOs, in

effect, addressed the problems of poverty mostly on "ad-hoc" basis.

All poverty alleviation projects depend heavily on foreign resources. Most of the background studies and design

works of the PAPs in the public sector appear to be controlled by donor appointed consultants. The Government

usually gets involved during fund negotiation and approval of the project. On the one hand, the donors make

much less of an attempt to influence the course of project formulation, design and implementation of poverty

alleviation projects of the NGOs (Aminuzzaman, 1994).

Recent experience indicates the emergence of two institutional development approaches in the domain of poverty

alleviation that need to be reviewed and examined. The first, is the collaborative ventures between large NGOs

and GOB line agencies which seeks to combine the extensive experience of NGOs with large scale capacity of

GOB line-agencies. The second approach, depicts the possibility and willingness on the part of leading Donors,

some GOB line agencies and large NGOs to strengthen and support small local NGOs for the purpose of creating

a more extensive network of development service delivery to the rural poor.

The process of institution building becomes smoother if the functional and strategic goals of the organization are

clearly spelled and understood by the participants. Chances of institutional development again improve

significantly in proportion to the effective linkages it can build with major client systems it intend to serve. The

stronger the degree of critical self-awareness that the institution can develop the better are its chances of selfrenewing

growth. The stronger the process of bottom-up planning, the better the chances of viable institutional

growth.

Based on the above framework one may argue that most PAPs could not emerge as an effective institutional

approach to address poverty in Bangladesh. All major poverty alleviation projects in Bangladesh are found to be

very loosely coordinated and lack clear and pragmatic goals, and effective linkages with the clientele is also

missing. Due to the lack of macro level coordination, poverty alleviation projects have been designed in

segmented sectoral lines. The projectization of rural development has also led to a fragmentation of efforts and

diversification of institutional arrangements.

Policy Implications

It is clear that PAPs have suffered sufficiently due to overlapping and parallel approaches. It is therefore

imperative to develop a coordinated institutional mechanism. Success of the PAPs appears to depend

Poverty Alleviation in Bangladesh

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considerably on the degree of flexibility in project design, institutional mechanism and management. The future

design of PAPs should seriously consider the institutional aspects, keeping in view the needs of the poor and

incorporating comprehensive packages of economic and social interventions. PAPs should also be flexible to

incorporate infrastructural components to create additional demand for unskilled labor. PAPs should contain

elements that empower landless and marginal farmers to participate in the non agriculture sector. Therefore the

scope and coverage of the PAPs should be reexamined.

An effective framework of poverty alleviation program should be centred around the following institutional

interventions : a. enhanced institutional capabilities of the GOB agencies, the local government bodies and the

NGOs ; b. effective and direct involvement of local government bodies; c. strengthening the planning and

implementation capabilities at the local level; and d. developing and strengthening the relationship among the

GOB agencies, local bodies and the NGOs.

As the lead GOB agency, role and functions of BRDB needs to be examined. BRDB should undergo strategic

institutional reforms in the following lines:

Broadening and redefining the role and scope to include non-cooperative groups and non conventional

programmes geared to income generation and employment for the rural population.

Reorganization of the structure of the BRDB is needed to make necessary adjustments consistent with its

responsibilities in the management of rural development programmes with an aim to create non-agricultural,

non-farm employment in the rural areas.

Keeping in view the institutional and management strengths of the NGOs to reach the poor and disadvantaged

clientele, there should be greater collaborative projects between GOB and large and regional NGOs. Thus,

there is a need to examine the institutional network of poverty alleviation projects of the NGOs, and to review as

to how these projects could be coordinated with the related projects of the GOB and the local government bodies.

Most important consideration to develop such collaboration will be to get the attention of policy-makers and

convince them of the usefulness, practicality, affordability and replicability of the approach.

PAPs are still based on top-bottom approach of planning and therefore not adequately responding the needs of

the clientele. There is a need to devise innovative measures to ensure the participation of the poor men and

women in the identification, planning and implementation of the projects.

Development can not be imposed from above and outside agencies. In order to broaden the institutional base at

the local level, there is a need to improve the capacity of local bodies. Institutional reforms should be made to

extend local responsibility for formulating and implementing poverty oriented projects.