Written evidence submitted by One World
Action
1. One World Action has been working in
Bangladesh since 1989 and currently works with Nagorik Uddyog,
Partnership for Women in Action, Bangladesh Dalit Human Rights
and Gonoshasthaya Kendra. These programmes support excluded communities
in Bangladesh, and advocacy on gender justice and democratic reform.
The following comments and recommendations are based on consultation
with these partners and on input provided by the International
Dalit Solidarity Network.
2. DIFD's Bangladesh programme provides
critical support to the country and has the appropriate size and
scope given:
— Bangladesh's extreme poverty and inequality.
— The vital need for continued and targeted
pro-poor programmes if the country is to continue to make progress
on the MDGs, particularly on maternal mortality.
— DFID's focus on urban poverty, gender
equality, adapting to climate change and aid effectiveness.
RE: DFID'S
STRATEGY FOR
REDUCING POVERTY
AND INEQUALITY,
INCLUDING GENDER
INEQUALITY
3. Women's Rights
DFID's Country Strategy should explicitly state
how gender inequalities and discrimination will be addressed within
each objective and how it will relate to DFID's Gender Equality
Action Plan. Many donors are lagging behind in promoting gender
equality, and women's leadership is also low amongst civil society
organisations in Bangladesh. DFID should always try to ensure
a good gender representation in any group they engage with and
keep pushing for gender disaggregated data, within their own programmes,
as well as the multilaterals and NGOs with which they work.
As well as developing a new generation of women
leaders it is essential that DFID recognise that violence and
religious laws are major barriers in preventing women's political
participation. Development will not be effective if women are
excluded from decision-making processes and that is why One World
Action's More Women More Power campaign is recommending that properly
resourced strategies to increase the numbers of women in power
(electoral reform, gender quotas, democratising political parties)
become a key component of DFID's wider work on governance and
aid effectiveness:
DFID should focus on issues of reproduction;
focussing on women's livelihoods, incomes and employment and an
analysis of gender implications of budget priorities and public
spending. It is also essential to integrate the non-economic dimension
of poverty—vulnerability, powerlessness, voicelessness and
male-dominated governance systems—within economic dimensions.
Zakir Hossain, Director Nagorik Uddyog.
4. Social Exclusion
As DFID has recognised, social exclusion keeps
people poor and is a major cause of why women and men in Bangladesh
fall back into poverty. Women, men and children experience social
exclusion when they are discriminated against, based on their
gender, age, caste, religion, sexual orientation, disability,
HIV status, migrant status, where they live etc. In Bangladesh
these forms of discrimination exist within public institutions,
legal systems and in access to public services, and keep people
in poverty and excluded from decision-making processes that affect
their lives.
There are specific areas in Bangladesh that
are lagging far behind national averages in terms of poverty and
inequality and which DFID should focus on—these include
urban slums, hill tracts, coastal belts and other ecologically
vulnerable areas.
5. Caste Discrimination
More than 250 million people worldwide experience
discrimination based on their caste. Caste systems divide people
into social groups where assigned rights and occupations are potentially
determined by birth. Caste based discrimination is usually associated
with India but there are an estimated 3.5-5.5 million Dalits in
Bangladesh (or about 2.5 to 4% of the population).
The majority of Dalits in Bangladesh are landless
and live in chronic poverty in rural areas or urban slums. They
are deprived of, or actively excluded from schools, hospitals,
adequate housing, water and sanitation, employment and participation
in public and political life. Dalits even encounter discrimination
when trying to bury family members in public graveyards. Approximately
96% of Dalits in Bangladesh are illiterate. Dalit communities
experience daily insecurity and violence from the public, police
and officials, with usually no recourse to justice. Dalit women
face the heaviest burden of both gender and caste-based discrimination
and violence from both men in wider society, and from men within
their own communities:
DFID's country strategy should make direct
reference to supporting Dalits and the organisations which represent
them. Measures to mainstream Dalit concerns must be an integral
part of all health, housing, gender and education programmes (caste
disaggregated data is essential to monitor this). This is particularly
crucial within DFID's urban poverty programmes as many Dalits
live in segregated colonies in cities. Vulnerability of Dalits
should be properly identified and greater research is needed.
Assessments should also take place to ensure caste discrimination
is not occurring within existing DFID funded projects and programmes.
DFID and other multilateral and bilateral agencies
should raise this issue in dialogues with relevant ministries
both as a cross cutting issue and as a human rights matter, that
needs to be dealt with. A process towards legal reform to protect
and promote the rights of Dalits would be a crucial step forward.Also
the donor community could influence the PRSP process and co-ordinate
among themselves to bring caste affected groups into planning
and implementation. We recommend that in policy planning and programming,
the draft UN principles and guidelines for the Effective Elimination
of Discrimination Based on Work and Descent be used as a guide
and discussion point for governments and other development actors
http://idsn.org/international-advocacy/un/un-principles-guidelines/
Rikke Nhrlind, International Dalit Solidarity Network
6. Policy Coherence
Despite billions in aid and countless anti-poverty
initiatives, 84% of Bangladesh's 137 million people still live
on less than $2 a day. In particular, marginal farmers and agricultural
labourers are facing crisis as they become more exposed to international
markets, climatic changes and are forced to sell their land and
migrate to cities to seek work. We would encourage DFID to, wherever
possible, use its influence with other UK Ministries and with
international partners, to ensure policy coherence so that trade,
investment and energy policies, or the investments of UK companies
(particularly in relation to mining, agriculture, fisheries and
energy) do not further exacerbate poverty, inequality and/or lead
to people being displaced from their land.
7. Informal Sector
Bangladesh's economically active population
is around 60 million,[38]
but unemployment and, more significantly underemployment, remain
a huge problem as the economy is unable to absorb new entrants
to the labour force. 90% of Bangladesh's labour force work in
the informal sector[39]
and the contribution of the informal sector to Bangladesh's Gross
Domestic Product is around 40%.
There is a lack of reliable data, but current
estimates put the number of women working in the informal sector
in Bangladesh at around 10 million. These women work in unregulated
jobs such as farming, vending, shrimp cultivation, rag picking,
brick breaking, sex work, tailoring or domestic services. The
majority of these women are poor, excluded and vulnerable. They
share a common experience of low pay, long working hours, dangerous
and unprotected working conditions, inadequate shelter and health
care, and the constant threat of eviction from homes and workplaces.
Their lack of political power, organisation and engagement in
local and national political processes further increases their
invisibility and isolation.
The Constitution of Bangladesh recognises the
basic rights of workers however existing labour laws[40]
are outdated, are not enforced, and do not recognise informal
work. Despite the number of informal women workers and the massive
contribution they make to the economy, their role and needs have
been ignored or excluded from public policy debates.
DFID's strategy should mention informal workers
and include programmes that support organisations working with
informal sector workers (to organise and improve their skills
so they are able to compete more effectively). They should also
use their influence and technical expertise to help develop national
legal frameworks that will support informal workers. For example
a Social Security Act for Informal Workers (similar to the Act
passed in India in May 2008).
RE: DFID'S
SUPPORT FOR
MORE EFFECTIVE
GOVERNANCE AND
INSTITUTION BUILDING
IN BANGLADESH
8. Engaging with Civil Society
The consultation and inclusion of people and
communities in local and national decisions that affect their
lives is central to decreasing poverty. DFID must seek to broaden
the range of constituents with whom it consults, in the design,
delivery and evaluation of its programmes, and encourage its partners
to do the same. This is a key strategy to change the nature of
political dialogue and political processes in Bangladesh, while
still remaining politically neutral. It is currently difficult,
if not impossible for the majority of Bangladeshi NGOs to engage
with DFID:
— It is difficult to see how DFID will
strengthen community-led initiatives and civil society in practice,
as more funding is channelled through multilaterals. This is of
particular concern in DFID's aspirations to provide information,
support and platforms to demand change.
— DFID should look beyond larger NGOs and
connect with wider civil society in a more tangible manner—eg
women's organisations, community organisations of excluded groups
and other non-state actors such as journalists. Clear and transparent
mechanisms are needed for engagement to be possible. Issues such
as when and where consultations are held, how far in advance they
are planned, remuneration for time and travel, issues of language,
who is invited, is consultation pitched at an appropriate level
so that organisations can productively engage, are all aspects
that need to be considered to ensure that groups are not unintentionally
excluded. One World Action could help facilitate these wider connections.
9. Governance
Poor governance, corruption, weak democracy
and violation of human rights all contribute to, and exacerbate,
poverty and inequality in Bangladesh. Good governance includes
impartial rule of law and transparent, participatory and democratic
decision making, even for the most excluded. One World Action
is supporting Nagorik Uddyog to implement a national campaign
to publicise and implement the recent Right to Information Ordinance
which is an important first step in increasing accountability
and transparency, and decreasing corruption.
DFID should work with civil society to develop
and promote practical ways to improve the capability, accountability
and responsiveness of local and national government, develop decentralisation
policies, develop political will for participatory divisional
plans and promote education to enable citizens to become active
and able participants in improving governance. In this context
DFID could provide more support to political decentralisation,
to political party reform and the Election Commission.
At the heart of urban poverty are issues of
social and economic exclusion. Key in responding to these is the
strengthening of inclusive democratic governance both in municipal
political structures and in service delivery. DFID should target
more support to interventions specifically aimed at strengthening
good urban governance and include clear benchmarks and indicators
for how good governance will be mainstreamed and evaluated. DFID
can draw on best practice and expertise of successful mechanisms
from other countries in this area. Unless those who have been
traditionally excluded from urban decision-making processes are
included, decisions will continue to discriminate against them
and ignore their needs.
10. Additional Information
Dalits of Bangladesh
Factsheet from International Dalit Solidarity Network:
http://idsn.org/fileadmin/user_folder/pdf/Old_files/asia/pdf/FACTSHEET_BANGLADESH.pdf
Paving the Way to Justice
The report outlines a groundbreaking model of resolving
disputes and justice delivery at the local level in Bangladesh:
http://www.oneworldaction.org/Resources/One%20World%20Action/Documents/Democratic%20Governance/pavingtheway.pdf
Getting it Right
Struggles, Stories and Strategies from Dhaka's Informal
Women Workers, Partnership of Women in Action and One World Action:
http://www.oneworldaction.org/Resources/One%20World%20Action/Documents/PDF/AB%20Bangladesh.pdf
38 According to the latest Labour Force Survey in 2000
done by the Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics (the total estimated
civilian labour force of the country is 60.3 million of which
37.81% female. Back
39
International Labour Organisation (ILO) Bangladesh Overview-http://www.ilo.org/public/english/region/asro/bangkok/arm/bgd.htm Back
40
Such as Industrial Relation Ordinance 1969, Workers Compensation
Act 1923, Payment and Wages Act 1936, Maternity Act 1939, Factory
Act 1965 and Employment of Labour 1965. Back
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