Written evidence submitted by the Bangladesh
Institute of Development Studies
These comments are given in response to the
request made by the International Development Committee of the
UK House of Commons to support an enquiry into DFID's assistance
to Bangladesh.
As mentioned in the communication, the key issues
for the enquiry include:
— appropriate size and scope of DFID's
programme in Bangladesh;
— DFID's support for more effective governance
and institution building in Bangladesh;
— DFID's strategy for reducing poverty
and inequality, including gender inequality;
— management of climate change impacts
and support for disaster risk reduction; and
— role of community-led initiatives in
reducing poverty and increasing access to basic services.
Our comments will touch upon some of the issues
mentioned above. However, before doing so it may be worthwhile
to highlight the socio-economic performance of Bangladesh in recent
years. This would provide the setting against which the role of
DFID's assistance to Bangladesh can be better understood, and
probably better evaluated.
Bangladesh has made significant progress in
poverty reduction in recent years, largely propelled by sustained
economic growth and social development with support from social
safety net programmes. Moreover, at a comparatively low level
development, it has reduced population growth including child
and maternal mortality, and increased life expectancy to a significant
extent. Despite such achievements, Bangladesh still remains one
of the poorest countries in the world with nearly 60 million
people living below the poverty line. Income inequality is rising
along with rapid urbanization putting pressure on delivery of
basic services (eg safe drinking water and sanitation). Bangladesh's
vision is to become a middle income country with much reduced
poverty within the shortest possible time (by 2015 or soon
thereafter). This is feasible but no doubt challenging.
SIZE AND
SCOPE OF
DFID'S PROGRAMMES
DFID's focus has been to support Bangladesh
to achieve social outcomes in a number of critical areas including
extreme poverty and vulnerability to disasters and climate change
so that by 2013, six million Bangladeshis could be lifted out
of extreme poverty, and by 2015, the underlying causes of monga
(acute seasonal hunger in specific locations) could be eliminated.
In this respect, progress indicators for March 2009 include
(i) direct assistance to 150,000 people to avoid monga hunger;
and (ii) Increased ownership of assets, including land and livestock.
To support this, DFID has been implementing several programmes,
such as raising homesteads for extremely vulnerable people living
in chars (sand islands) in the Jamuna River in northern Bangladesh
and protecting their houses and assets from flooding. In particular,
the Chars Livelihoods Programme (£50 million over eight
years) also transfers assets to households and provides access
to latrines and shallow tube wells. In addition, DFID is providing
£75 million over seven years (2007-14) to BRAC for its
"Challenging the Frontiers of Poverty Reduction" programme
which aims to lift four million people out of extreme poverty
in rural areas.
For urban poverty, the Urban Partnerships for
Poverty Reduction project intends to improve the livelihoods and
living conditions of three million poor and extremely poor people,
especially women and children. This will be administered by UNDP,
and will be implemented jointly by UNDP, UN-Habitat, NGOs and
the Government of Bangladesh (£60 million over seven
years). DFID is also providing £65 million Challenge
Fund for large and small NGOs to uplift one million people in
rural and urban areas from extreme poverty by 2015.
While these no doubt are laudable efforts, specific
focus on tackling inter-generational poverty could add an important
dimension to DFID's support to Bangladesh's fight against poverty.
It is recognized that women and girls matter most in poverty reduction
since they are instrumental in, for example, improving nutrition,
health or education. But women in poor households are marginalized
due to societal and intra-household inequality and a lack of empowerment
in making economic choices. They are largely excluded from formal
education and workforces. Major concerns such as malnutrition
and violence affect poor women disproportionately. DFID could
therefore adjust its work to include specific targets for women
and girls in all its programmes; provide support to government
and/or other organizations that are working to change unequal
policy and legal frameworks; and focus on developing a new generation
of women leaders through equality of access and outcome in education
and vocational support.
CLIMATE CHANGE
AND DISASTER
RISK REDUCTION
Large areas of Bangladesh are particularly vulnerable
to disasters and climate change. This is a major cause of current
high levels of poverty and a threat to future poverty reduction
strategies if not properly addressed. Bangladesh has already started
to take this problem seriously and there are a number of areas
where DFID can build on to improve the country's adaptation and
resilience.
For example, DFID could provide significant
funding for physical protection against environmental threats
and making assets "disaster proof"; support efforts
to better understand the impact of climate change and learn from
global best practices for adaptation; focus programmes on climate
resilient growth and livelihoods; and increase funding to disaster
management and disaster response.
COMMUNITY-LED
INITIATIVES
Community led initiatives can become important
conduit of supporting the provision of expanded and better basic
services—education, health, water and sanitation—for
the poor such that DFID could set some targets in partnership
with relevant institutions. For example, these targets could encompass
that 15% more students would complete primary education and all
people would benefit from improved hygiene practices and access
to improved sanitation as well as safe, reliable water, say by
2015. In this context, it may be added that DFID's progress indicators
for March 2009 include (i) increase to 55% of people benefiting
from access to sanitation and (ii) five million people have access
to better hygiene as a result of DFID programmes. To support these
activities, DFID currently is contributing £100 million
over six years (2004-10), through a pooled funding arrangement,
involving 11 development partners managed by the Asian Development
Bank (Primary Education Development Programme, PEDP II). The programme
targets to improve the quality of education for 17 million
primary school children in 78,000 schools.
Another important DFID initiative is the contribution
of £100 million over five years (2006-11) through a
World Bank multi-donor trust fund, for health, nutrition and population
sector programme (HNPSP) to create sustainable improvement in
health, nutrition and family welfare status of the population,
especially for the most vulnerable, eg the poor, women, children
and the elderly. DFID is also helping to provide safe drinking
water to some 2.5 million people currently at risk from arsenic
contamination (£36 million over five years 2007-11).
DFID'S PAST
INTERVENTIONS AND
LESSONS
The past history of DFID's involvement in Bangladesh
is a testimony to its significant contribution to promoting growth
and poverty reduction through developing sustainable livelihoods
especially for the extreme poor and other disadvantaged groups
in society including women. This positive performance has been
achieved through interventions in two distinct areas: direct assistance
to the poor and by influencing others in order to improve overall
aid delivery. The strategic focus has also changed over time with
unfolding poverty dynamics so that a multi-dimensional approach
is evident.
No doubt DFID has helped to improve the lives
of millions of Bangladeshis, through investments in crosscutting
and poverty focused areas including infrastructure, agriculture
and fisheries, education and health, women's empowerment and livelihood
promotion, and through providing emergency relief and rehabilitation.
It has also made a major contribution to the strategic planning
process through its catalytic role within the donor community
and the Local Consultative Group machinery. DFID's positive image
is due to its long history of engagement; growing size of its
financing envelop; intellectual strength and commitment of individual
staff; and a willingness to engage in new areas through strategic
choices. It would be important for DFID to strengthen such efforts
to build on past achievements through investing more professional
and financial resources in areas of comparative advantage to DFID.
Moreover, it would be prudent to make DFID's
programmes more effective and transparent through increasing focus
on delivery evidence, improving monitoring and evaluation systems
to establish success/failure of different projects in terms of
contribution to targeted areas and lessons learned, and bringing
a balance between knowledge creation, ground interventions, and
actual change in livelihoods and social position of the target
populations. The micro-meso-macro linkages are also important
to consider in DFID programmes especially in facilitating the
development of both horizontal and vertical forces of change.
This is particularly critical in areas such as governance and
budget support. Overall, it would be important for DFID not to
thinly spread its resources over too many priority areas; rather
the key to DFID's success in achieving its goal would be to create
a critical mass in specific support areas having comparative advantage
to DFID so that visible breakthroughs can be made to initiate
the desired waves of change.
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