Written evidence submitted by Dr Naomi
Hossain, Research Fellow, Participation, Power and Social Change
Team, Institute of Development Studies
[Note: This submission draws on research in Bangladesh
in which the author has been engaged since 2003, initially at
the Research and Evaluation Division of BRAC in Dhaka, and since
mid-2008 as a Research Fellow at the Institute of Development
Studies. Some relevant research outputs from this body of work
are cited along with references to other relevant documentary
evidence in Sources.]
DFID'S SUPPORT
FOR MORE
EFFECTIVE GOVERNANCE
AND INSTITUTION
BUILDING IN
BANGLADESH.
Poverty reduction amidst weak governance
1. It is necessary to consider efforts to
establish effective governance and strengthen institutions of
accountability in the context of persistent mass poverty in Bangladesh,
as this remains a defining characteristic of the polity and of
state-society relationships. Critical questions to ask of DFID's
support for strengthening governance and accountability in this
context include the extent to which this has a) supported processes
of poverty reduction and human development and b) strengthened
governance and accountability as experienced by poor and marginal
citizens.
2. The context here includes the paradoxical
relationship between governance and poverty reduction in Bangladesh
over the last 20 years. Gains were made in social and human development
(particularly improved basic education access and infant and child
mortality rates) and income poverty reduction through the 1990s
and first half of the 2000s. But these were achieved in the effective
absence of any significant governance reforms, including failures
to reform the public administration of the social sectors (health,
education, social protection) credited with delivering much of
the pro-poor gains.
3. The impact of recent global food, fuel
and financial crises, combined with the episodic environmental
shocks to which Bangladesh is exposed have already begun to reverse
progress on poverty and human development made up to the mid-2000s.
Simultaneously, the return to office of "political"
government in 2009 after a two-year non-party Caretaker Government
has halted efforts at political institutional and governance reform.
In a context of reversing human development trends and stalled
governance reforms, understanding how earlier poverty reduction
and human development gains were achieved, and how DFID's programme
strategy supported this, acquires added urgency.
DFID support to the big NGOs
4. Part of the explanation of the "Bangladesh
conundrum", as the World Bank calls this combination of good
poverty/human development performance with weak governance, involves
Bangladesh's unusual endowment of large, service-delivery NGOs.
DFID has been a major supporter of the big NGOs. Concerns have
been consistently expressed about the possibility that NGO service
delivery may undermine public accountability by substituting for
the state. However, there are strong reasons to believe that:
(a) the big NGOs mainly supply services that
the state does not (eg microfinance) or in areas and to populations
that the state cannot effectively reach;
(b) where NGOs and the state supply similar or
parallel services, this has created some positive competitive
pressures (mass education) and enabled some learning and new practice
within public agencies (social protection). There have also been
a number of successful social sector partnerships (preventive
and curative health programmes, social protection, pre-primary
education) between the big NGOs and public agencies which have
strengthened rather than weakening the responsiveness and accountability
of the Bangladeshi state to poor and marginal citizens; and
(c) where the big NGOs have established significant
sectoral programmes and expertise, they are beginning to play
a stronger role as civil society watchdogs. This includes significant
monitoring and analytical capacities, including production of
sectoral reports on health, education, and governance on which
this present submission has drawn (see Sources).
Demand for good governance
5. DFID's support to civil society has,
with considerable success, supported the raising of the profile
of governance issues within public debate in Bangladesh. Issues
of corruption and public accountability across the public sectors
are now widely and routinely scrutinised in the media and public
discourse. It is, however, less clear that support to civil society
has succeeded in generating demand for good governance among poor
citizens specifically, or for the dimensions of governance that
poorer citizens may wish to prioritise (similar criticisms have
been made of budget monitoring exercises in Bangladesh). An example
of this is the recent Right To Information (RTI) campaign, which
succeeded in achieving some high-end governance goals that should
in theory create legislation for greater transparency and thereby
strengthen public accountability. But the campaign was dominated
by elite debates among lawyers and journalists. This is in distinct
contrast to RTI movements elsewhere (eg India), where at least
part of the impetus for reform was stimulated by popular support
for/recognition of the material significance of greater transparency
with respect to livelihoods and access to public resources.
6. A related set of issues is the focus
of civil society activism on formal and official mechanisms of
accountability. This is problematic given the extent and severity
of poverty, which has tended to support the patronage basis of
party political competition. A focus on activism around formal
governance mechanisms in practice excludes much participation
from people who lack formal education and familiarity with official
procedures. Yet a body of scholarship has established the strength
of Bangladeshi society in relation to the state, and it is reasonable
to speculate that some of Bangladesh's social sector achievements
reflect the relative strength of citizen capacities for exerting
informal pressures for accountability on public sector service
providers. In a context in which reforms of formal governance
are likely to remain elusive, DFID's support for more effective
governance could valuably be strengthened in favour of the poor
by drawing on its experience with respect to social accountability
elsewhere to support similar efforts within Bangladesh.
7. In addition, governance programming at
the sectoral level could make more systematic efforts to support
the informal mechanisms of accountability that poor citizens already
use in their relations with public service providers. This could
include intervention on the `demand' side, for example, supporting
participatory monitoring of beneficiary selection in conditional
cash transfer or safety nets programmes. It could also include
intervention on the "supply" side, by designing incentive
systems for teachers and doctors that recognise and reward modes
of responsiveness that are currently either ignored or actively
discouraged within bureaucratic rule systems.
Human security and justice sector reform
8. One area in which aid to governance has
in general been inadequate in Bangladesh is in relation to protection
against everyday forms of insecurity. Based on their substantial
experience of field research with poor people across Bangladesh,
researchers within BRAC Research and Evaluation Division and BRAC
Development Institute concluded in 2006 that there was a compelling
and urgent need for an assessment of the situation regarding crime,
violence and everyday forms of insecurity in the population.
9. The conclusions of the multi-disciplinary
nationally-representative study undertaken to explore these issues
were that:
(a) Criminal and violent forms of insecurity
present a low-level but chronic threat.
(b) The experience of crime, violence and other
forms of insecurity is highly gendered, as well as differentiated
by rural-urban location, poverty level, ethnic and religious minority
status, and by environmental security.
(c) Strategies for coping with the threat of
criminal and violent forms of insecurity can lead to adverse incorporation
or "Faustian bargains" that are detrimental to wellbeing
and development.
(d) Informal institutions for protecting against
the threat of criminal and violent insecurities are widespread,
although these have to date neither been documented or analysed
by research, nor considered within policy debates.
10. Police and justice sector reform agendas
have not to date been informed by an adequate—or even a
partial—understanding of the everyday insecurities faced
by Bangladeshi citizens, and their impact on the poor and marginal.
These issues, particularly the potential value of informal and
community-based security arrangements, merit considerably greater
attention in any future DFID programme on governance in Bangladesh.
GENERAL ISSUES
RELATING TO
THE APPROPRIATE
SIZE AND
SCOPE OF
DFID'S PROGRAMME
IN BANGLADESH
11. An overall concern about the size and
scope of DFID's Bangladesh programme is that compared to the early-
to mid-2000s, DFID staff in Dhaka appear increasingly pressed
for time, partly because larger programmes are being managed with
fewer professional staff. Other reasons may include the transaction
costs of donor harmonisation, which DFID staff in Dhaka bear significantly
more of than other bilateral donors, because of the size and diversity
of the DFID portfolio. These observations arise from my role as
a regular DFID consultant and recipient of DFID research commissions,
based in Dhaka over the period 2003-08. They also draw on research
into the sociology of donor-recipient relations in Bangladesh
in which I was involved in 2003-4 (with Rosalind Eyben and Rosario
Leon). Even committed professional staff lacked adequate time
to engage with the evidence, travel beyond the capital city, or
to develop the relationships that would be necessary for a rounded
and fully-informed perspective on the issues on which they work.
SOURCES
On poverty and governance; crisis impact
Raihan, S (2009). "Impact of Food Price Rise
on School Enrolment and Dropout in the Poor and Vulnerable Households
in Selected Areas of Bangladesh", Dhaka: Bangladesh Institute
of Development Studies and Department for International Development.
Sulaiman, M, Parveen, M And Das, N (2009). "Impact
of the Food Price Hike on Nutritional Status of Women and Children",
Dhaka: BRAC Research and Evaluation Division monograph series
no 38.
World Bank (2008). Bangladesh: Poverty Assessment
for Bangladesh: Creating Opportunities and Bridging the East-West
Divide, Washington DC: World Bank.
On NGOs
Verulam Associates (2005). "The Impact of Big
NGOs on Poverty and Democratic Governance in Bangladesh",
Report to DfID Bangladesh.
World Bank (2006). The Economics and Governance
of NGOs in Bangladesh, Washington DC: World Bank.
On demand for good governance/informal accountability
FMRP (2007). Governance, Management and Performance
in Health and Education Facilities in Bangladesh: Findings from
the Social Sector Performance Qualitative Study, Financial
Management Reform Programme, Ministry of Finance, Government of
Bangladesh, Dhaka.
Hossain, N (2009). "Rude Accountability in the
Unreformed State: Informal Pressures on Frontline Bureaucrats
in Bangladesh", IDS working paper 319, Brighton: Institute
of Development Studies.
Institute of Governance Studies (2006). The State
of Governance in Bangladesh 2006: Knowledge, Perceptions, Reality,
Dhaka: BRAC University Institute of Governance Studies.
PPRC (2007). Unbundling Governance. Dhaka:
Power and Participation Resource Centre.
Human security and justice sector reform
IGS (2008). "Crime, Violence, and Insecurity",
chapter four in The State of Governance in Bangladesh 2007:
Expectations, Commitments, Challenge, Dhaka: BRAC University
Institute of Governance Studies (with colleagues).
Saferworld (2008). Human Security in Bangladesh.
London: Saferworld.
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