Poverty Alleviation Projects of Large NGOs

The Poverty Alleviation Projects of the Large NGOs

The history of NGOs in Bangladesh can be traced way back to the British colonial period. Since the British era,

NGOs in its traditional form have been working in Bangladesh as different religious trust-based schools,

hospitals and orphanages. However, NGOs in Bangladesh got a radical transformation and turned into agents of

development in the post-independence era.

GOB had to face a Herculean task of renewal and reconstruction of the war torn economy immediately after its

war of independence. The GOB had neither the capacity nor had the appropriate institutional mechanism to

address the volume and diversity of such enormous problems single handed. At that point of time, a number of

international NGOs and voluntary organizations extended their helping hands to assist Bangladesh in its striving

efforts to rebuild the infrastructure and the economy. Thus, the decade of 1970s witnessed the emergence of

several local NGOs and also the arrival of several International NGOs in Bangladesh.

Since 1970s NGOs therefore become a part of the institutional framework of poverty alleviation in Bangladesh.

The NGOs, especially the large ones in effect, have infiltrated into an operational arena which has traditionally

been the `exclusive domain' of the government. Donors have played a significant role in advocating for the

NGOs as an active partner in poverty alleviation projects in Bangladesh (Sobhan and Bhattacharya,1990).

Though GOB does not have a clear and comprehensive policy framework on the role of NGOs but different

bilateral as well as multi-lateral donors somehow very strongly have made it more or less obligatory to

Bangladesh to opt for NGOs as a second channel for organization and management of PAPs. As a result several

donors are channelling substantially higher amount of resources through the NGOs. The proportion of total

foreign aid to Bangladesh disbursed through NGOs was about 1 per cent only in 1972-73 which by the end of FY

1986-87, reached to 17.4 per cent (Abed, 1984; Alam, 1988; Alam 1993).

The donors, frustrated and disillusioned by their attempts to work with conventional line agencies of the

government, have supported the NGOs at the risk of displeasing the Government with assumption that the NGOs

are efficient and committed, deliver services through targeted programs with transparency and accountability

(World Bank, 1990). This redirection of donor funds has resulted in considerable expansion of the programs of

the large NGOs as well as of their organizational capacity. In fact by the middle of the 1980s it was estimated

that the staff of NGOs would have exceeded more than three times of that of Bangladesh Rural Development

Board - the sole governmental body specifically assigned to address rural development and poverty alleviation

program in Bangladesh. By the end of the 1980s the constituency of BRAC, Proshika and Grameen Bank , three

leading national NGOs/ non-government rural credit institutions , accounted to around one million members. An

estimate made by the Association of Development Agencies of Bangladesh (ADAB), claims that the leading

NGOs have already been able to serve one-tenth of the country's 120 million people (ADAB, 1993).

Some leading NGOs by now have developed into large professional organizations and acquired the capacity to

provide more effective services. Their role in development is primarily advocated for five considerations

(Streefland, 1993): their ability and effectiveness to act as brokers between the needs of the rural poor and the

objectives of donor policies; their efficiency in reaching the poor; their innovative potential; their reliability and

efficiency in providing emergency aid to people afflicted by natural disasters; and their ability to provide

sufficient organizational support to the needy and poor.

Most of the NGOs in Bangladesh at the beginning focussed their attention on `consciousness raising' aspect at

the grassroots levels through mobilizing and forming groups among the poor, initiating a process of people's

collective analysis on their present situation, helping them to see the strength in their numbers and gradually

inspiring the poor to undertake continuous social and economic actions in order to change the existing dominantdependent

relationship between them and the rich. By multiplying such grass-roots groups and developing

networks among those multiplied groups, it was argued by the NGOs that the poor would emerge as a

Poverty Alleviation in Bangladesh

11countervailing power to the wealthy, with necessary strength for future social transformation.

Later during the late 1970s the pure conscientization approach has been largely abandoned. A new set of

assumptions were drawn by some leading NGOs. These are: (ADB,1993)

1. The absorptive capacity and self-reliance of the poor can be developed only progressively.

2. As result of combination of general scarcity of government resources and the capacity of the existing elite

to capture the major share of government services, "the barriers to entry" as faced by the poor are much

greater than what originally believed.

3. Provided certain precautions are taken, it is possible to render essential services to the poor without

jeopardizing their sense of self-reliance.

Thus from early 1980s most NGOs have opted for multi-sectoral projects primarily emphasizing the rural

employment and income generating activities for the disadvantaged and poor. Empirical evidence indicate that a

good number of NGOs have set standards of efficient delivery systems with substantial legitimacy from the

community (Aminuzzaman; 1993).

Some significant factors can be identified which may have been responsible for relative success of the NGOs

(Khan,1986; Rahman, 1985; Alam, 1988; Alam, 1993):

1. NGOs have been able to effectively organize the rural poor with similar socio-economic background

and made them more conscious of their own potentials that the local power elites do not take advantage

of them.

2. NGOs have also shown that the poor people are bankable if properly organized. There has to be a

strong saving component in the credit program for the poor. It is the "group pressure" which has been

used for both "motivation" as well as "self-discipline".

3. The NGOs have complemented credit program with conscientization as well as training. It is the

change in attitude which ensures high repayment of loans and group cohesiveness.

4. NGOs have also successfully blended the credit components with appropriate technology.

Empirical evidence also indicates that NGOs are more innovative than government agencies when it comes to

assisting the rural poor. Moreover: i. NGOs are more flexible in their approaches; ii. usually have better and

intimate knowledge of local conditions which shape the outcome of a development activity; iii. NGOs have a

higher degree of capacity to reach the intended target groups and tend to maintain close contact with the poor;

and iv. NGOs in general are committed as well as willing to spend more time experimenting to the extent that

they are not under pressure to disburse credit funds and are committed to a long-term involvement.

Limitations of the NGOs

NGOs in Bangladesh have increasingly become subject to questions and criticisms. Their roles, functions and

long-term objectives have been questioned by the Government, political parties, intellectuals and public in

general (Sobhan, 1982). Most NGOs with increasing availability of donor funds, tend to undertake programs

which are determined by, and devoted with, donors' demand and expectation. Such programs may have only

"little relevance to the critical needs and aspirations of the beneficiaries and may be far drawn away from their

stated long-term objectives and strategies" (Task Force,1991: 379). Some left-leaning political parties criticize

the NGOs for taking funds from western donors and serve their interests in a way to fulfill their objectives of

subverting the process of politicization and social revolution. Due to the lack of planning and or institutional

framework and support, some NGOs especially the smaller ones, in effect, addressed the problems of poverty

mostly on "adhoc" basis and developed a condition of perpetual dependency. Studies have also shown that some

NGOs are found to be inefficient managers of resources and are trying to implement a diverse set of programs

requiring a managerial competence for integration beyond their existing capacities (ADB, 1993).

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Evaluation reports of some NGO sponsored programs indicate that they do not have comprehensive plans for

sustainability of their projects. This leads to the main criticism against the NGOs is that they tend to become

"paternalist" about their clients by continuously investing in the same beneficiaries instead of setting time targets

for their graduation from poverty. The sustainability and replicability of NGO programs on a long-term basis

become difficult for the high unit operation costs. Available data suggest that major (large) national and

international NGOs usually have a larger operating cost per group member than its comparable government

administered poverty alleviation programs (UNDP,1988).

A UNDP sponsored study has made a thorough analysis of the NGO sponsored development programs in rural

Bangladesh. The study noted that some of the NGOs have gross institutional limitations and have not been costeffective.

Major observations drawn by the UNDP study are as follows (UNDP;1988):

1. The credit policy pursued by the NGOs comes only as a complementary component of a wider

consciousness raising program. It is said that the credit is given only after some time has elapsed and

that, too, is of small amounts. While NGOs argue that too much dependence on credit may distract the

poor from their human development, it can also be argued that people can not survive on

"consciousness" alone. They have abundant labor and if that can be matched by capital, they can be selfemployed.

So NGOs, in fact, slow down the pace of the development of the poor by withholding credit

for longer periods of time.

2. NGOs are heavily dependent on foreign resources. In the absence of accountability, too much money

from outside can make the NGOs corrupt, controversial and bureaucratic.

3. NGOs, despite a decade of their existence, have not made much dent. It is easy to show remarkable

success in a village or two with small projects, but it may not be possible to replicate these successes

throughout the country.

4. NGOs lack legitimacy and political leverage, hence they are ineffective in running big projects that

would affect significant number of rural poor.

Another study has summarized the critical issues related to NGOs in Bangladesh ( Aminuzzaman, 1994):

i. There is no clear-cut GOB policy on the role and functional coverage of the NGOs in Bangladesh.

Whatever guidelines are there, these seem to be ambiguous and contradictory;

ii. There is a general feeling of mistrust among the members of the public bureaucracy towards the

NGOs;

iii. Most of the NGOs alleged to have no long term plan which results in designing projects that

generates temporary benefits than tangible long term impacts.

iv. There is a noticeable lack of coordination among the NGO projects resulting in duplication and

wastage of NGO resources and efforts.

v. There are reports of lack of coordination between the NGOs and the local government bodies as well

as the field level bureaucracy of the national government;

vi. In many cases NGOs have faced resistance from the local interest groups.

vii. NGOs in general have become more and more dependent on donor support and have failed to

mobilize local resources. A number of the NGOs have to abandon their projects due to lack of