Development Programs in Bangladesh - Wiley Online Library

COUNTRY REPORT Development Programs in Bangladesh: Hardware versus Software AHMED SHAFIQUL HUQUE*

Development programs in Bangladesh have been affected in the past by unequal emphasis on infrastructure and people-building. Some programs emphasize the hardware of development, which provides physical facilities that are supposed to make life more comfortable for rural citizens. The hardware must be supplemented by software, which will enable rural inhabitants to make optimum utilization of physical facilities. This important aspect has been neglected in the past, although some programs made halfhearted attempts to provide education and health-care training to the rural poor. The recent proliferation of non-governmental organizations (NGOs) in Bangladesh has been beneficial in the sense that the software component of development is receiving more attention, and programs are now being designed with the assumption that the software of development is the most crucial element for success. Bangladesh has been identified as a country in dire need of "development." Even before it achieved independence in 1971, Bangladesh featured in development debates. In the 1960s, experts raved over the "Comilla Model" of development, which grew out of experiments in a small town in Bangladesh, and hailed it as the solution for most development problems (for example, see Raper 1967). Gradually, it became evident that Bangladesh has hardly been able to reap benefits from the model, as thousands of cooperative societies based on the Comilla model failed to function. While only a small number of occupational groups achieved some success under the model, the overall indicators of development for the country continued to portray a negative picture. A formidable challenge for the government of Bangladesh has been the need to govern not only the country, but the process of development as well. There is no disagreement on the desirability of development, but the strategies and means for attaining this end are open to debate. Generally, development is equated with economic growth, evolution of political institutions, or the mobilization of the masses for modernization. In a narrower sense, development can mean "the rational process of organizing and carrying out prudently conceived and staffed programs * City University of Hong Kong Governance: An International Journal of Policy and Administration, Vol. 8, No. 2, April 1995 (pp. 281-292). 0 1995 Blackwell Publishers, 238 Main Street Cambridge, MA 02142, USA, and 108 Cowley Road, Oxford, 0x4, IJF, UK. ISSN 0952-1895

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or projects” (Esman 1966, 95), or it can be defined more concretely in terms of “rising gross national product or increasing per capita income” (Riggs 1966,230). Development programs in Bangladesh can be broadly categorized into two types. One type seeks to improve living conditions by construction of roads, bridges, cyclone shelters, flood embankments, communication facilities, and other infrastructures in the rural areas. These can be regarded as the “hardware” of development in the sense that such facilities will enable rural citizens to become integrated into the mainstream political system. They should be able to use services provided and receive benefits. The other type of program aims at enhancing the capacities of citizens themselves to participate in the political process. Such programs concentrate on education and empowerment of the rural poor. By strengthening the citizens’ ability to understand the system and their role in it, development programs seek to inculcate and promote skills and participative attitudes along with the ability to organize and express views. This article provides an overview of some of the major development programs and identifies elements that contribute to the process of people-building. In the past, the focus of discussion on development has revolved around the construction of infrastructures. This focus has a political dimension as well because it involves the allocation of public funds to particular localities and may be used as a way of distributing patronage. With the passage of time, it is becoming evident that concentrating on the “hardware” of development is not likely to produce desired results. This study argues that human resources are the most important component and need the most attention to serve as the “software” of development, which must complement the hardware. In the complex and relatively unstable political environment existing in Bangladesh, the shifts in the emphasis of programs can be approached by considering the ”policy impacts” or changes in behavior and attitudes. Actually, such shifts take place frequently in order to accommodate local and central political interests. Many of the development programs are used by the ruling elites to further their own political programs and partisan interests. In this respect, hardware programs are more attractive since they can be presented as ”showpieces” indicating performance by the ruling group, while software programs may lead to popular discontent and opposition movements as the vast rural electorate becomes more aware and organized. Moreover, development hardware allows the ruling elite to spend large amounts of money, secured from external as well as domestic sources, which can be used to build support bases among rural powerholders. Thus, the government favors hardware programs that provide scope for paybacks. This article seeks to trace the nature of some development programs and examine the changes taking place in them to arrive at conclusions regarding their implications for the policy process.

DEVELOPMENT PROGRAMS IN BANGLADESH

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After independence, Bangladesh adopted a development strategy familiar to many nations in the Third World. “Five-Year Plans” are drawn up at regular intervals with great fanfare and are expected to provide guidelines for various governmental agencies and nongovernmental organizations (NGOs).It is hoped that the process will facilitate the identification of needs and the setting of objectives and help in planning and implementing programs. The national plan is operated through sectoral programs; projects at the base of the pyramid are the principal instruments by which ideas materialize. Bangladesh has suffered from regular strikes by natural calamities, political instability, and economic difficulties over the past two decades. These problems have compelled the government to devote attention to the tasks of providing emergency relief, dealing with political challenges from other claimants to power, and putting together programs for salvaging the economy. Such efforts have consumed the organizational and financial resources of the government. It has not been possible to take on the additional tasks involved in promoting “development” without assistance from the NGOs and international donor agencies. The enormous amount of financial investment required to promote development had to be raised from external sources. While pre-independence efforts at development concentrated on the construction of physical infrastructures, the importance of human resources was recognized after Bangladesh came into being. It can be said that the large-scale construction of “hardware” for development could not bring about the desired results due to the lack of adequate ”software,” that is, people, to sustain the changes in behavior, practices, and attitudes. Post-independence attempts, in which NGOs and international donor agencies have been involved in greater degrees, sought to combine the hardware and software in development programs. Consequently, a number of development programs were designed to establish and maintain physical infrastructures along with parallel efforts to build human capabilities to attain and sustain developmental benefits. Most of these programs have been undertaken with contributions made by the government of the People’s Republic of Bangladesh, NGOs, and international agencies. The objectives and design of the programs, the arrangements for execution, and areas of emphasis reveal that interest is growing in the people-building process, considered a crucial component of development programs in Bangladesh. The following is a brief, illustrative overview of some programs with such features.

Vulnerable Group Development Program The Vulnerable Group Feeding Program started in 1975 to provide food for destitute, pregnant, and nursing women and children aged under five

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years and continued in this format until March, 1979. The objective of the program was the improvement of the nutritional standard of the target group. The program expanded in the 1980s to include promotion of adult education, health services, employment generation, and training for community development. To emphasize the development aspect of the program, the word "feeding" was replaced by "development," and it is now known as the Vulnerable Group Development Program (VGDP).A recent addition to the VGDP has been the component of a compulsory savings scheme for the recipients of assistance. The VGDP depends to a large extent on contributions from the World Food Program (WFP).In addition to the VGDP, the WFP has an Institutional Feeding Program (IFP) under which cooked food is provided to orphans housed in both government and private orphanages. The program, although concerned primarily with the nutrition and caloric intake of the rural poor, has subsequently incorporated other elements related to education, health, and savings that are likely to enhance the capacity of the recipients of benefits.

Food-for-Work Program Introduced in 1975, the Food-for-Work Program (FWP) was the response of the government to floods and famines and the resultant unemployment in rural areas. Under this program the rural poor were given the opportunity to be employed in projects related to the construction of physical infrastructure for the purpose of increasing food production. This laborintensive program creates employment for unskilled workers, but remains basically a relief-oriented endeavor, with participants compensated in wheat. Gradually, the direction of the program moved toward the creation of seasonal employment for the rural poor, increasing productivity of agricultural land through water development works, and improving rural infrastructure through the upgrading of the rural feeder road network (see Huque 1989,37-39).The operation entails the submission of detailed proposals by various agencies of the government prior to the commencement of the working season. Keeping in mind the objectives of the maximization of seasonal employment, particularly of those belonging to landless rural households, attempts are made to draw up feasible programs that can be completed within short periods and ensure full use of the resources that are available in the form of a wheat grant. Such a massive program is well beyond the capacity of the government of Bangladesh. Hence, plans have to be approved by the World Food Program (WFP) and CARE, two major donor agencies involved in supporting the FWP. These agencies establish project monitoring and evaluation systems to assess the extent to which project objectives are being achieved.

Rural Maintenance Program The Rural Maintenance Program (RMP), initiated in 1983, seeks to provide employment to a particular group: destitute, landless, female heads


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of households. Another aim of the RMP is the maintenance of economically important rural roads to facilitate transportation and communication in the unions. Fifteen miles of road within a union are selected for maintenance. Destitute women from the union are interviewed and fifteen are selected for work as maintenance crews. The government does not play an active role in the RMl? CARE provides training on road maintenance and the union council chairmen oversee the work. The salary of the crew is paid through bank accounts operated by the women themselves. The union council pays 10% of the salary, while the remaining 90% is contributed by the central government from the proceeds of monetized wheat’ donated by the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA).2 A related program on Women’s Health Education has been launched by CARE to provide health education to RMP workers. Post-Monsoon Rehabilitation The Post-Monsoon Rehabilitation (PMR) program is undertaken after the rainy season to carry out minor repairs on roads and embankments constructed through the FWl? PMR was initiated in 1984 as a pilot project and was later adopted as a regular program. Only female laborers are employed for these tasks, and they are selected from the destitute families of the unions. Fourteen subdistricts of Bangladesh were penalized in 1990 for contravening the implementation rules of the PMR program. In some cases, women who were already receiving the benefits of the VGDP or the RMP were selected; in other cases, male laborers were employed. Project Implementation Committees are set up in each union for supervising the PMR program. The aim is to rehabilitate dirt roads after they are exposed to the first monsoon downpour as well as provide employment opportunities to rural poor women during the lean work period between September and December every year. These programs are implemented by the government of Bangladesh along with its field agencies and local government institutions, with support and supervision from international donor agencies. An overview of the evolution of these programs reveals a shift in focus from providing relief and constructinglmaintaining infrastructures to people-building. Most programs seek to promote education, awareness about health, selfreliance (particularly among destitute women), training, employment generation, and savings to enable entrepreneurship. Combined with the nutritional aspect mentioned earlier, development programs in Bangladesh have shifted their emphasis from the construction of hardware to the promotion of software. NGOs AND SOFTWARE FOR DEVELOPMENT

Emphasis on software for development became common with the emergence and consolidation of a number of NGOs in Bangladesh in the 1970s. There are several thousand NGOs registered under the Voluntary Social

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Welfare Ordinance, 1961. “They include a wide variety of women, youth and religious groups; humanitarian, charitable and relief organizations; professional and commercial associations; trade unions; credit and banking institutions; and development agencies” and are mainly concerned with population control, income generation and awareness-raising activities (Rahman 1992,205). Few of the NGOs have succeeded in developing nationwide programs, but the Bangladesh Rural Advancement Committee (BRAC) and Grameen Bank (GB) are exceptions. In fact, they represent two distinct streams of activities aimed at people-building. BRAC was established in 1972 and is currently the largest NGO in Bangladesh. It seeks to operate as a self-help initiator by making the target-group members aware of their problems, facilitating their unity in homogeneous class and interest groups, and preparing them for the task of establishing their rights (Chowdhury 1989,67).External donor agencies provide financial support to BRAC. The principal objective of BRAC is to develop and build the capacity of institutions for the rural poor. To facilitate the process, economic activities are considered important and health care and population control activities are emphasized. The strategy is to organize small and landless farmers into functional groups through which members can demand and receive assistance and support and claim their rightful share of society’s resources. A study found BRAC to be successful because the economic conditions of its members had improved and cohesion and solidarity were achieved. The study also commented that ”health care programs in the forms of health education/preventive measures and non-clinical approach to family planning have been beneficial to a lesser extent” (Chowdhury 1989, 21). Such generalizations are open to question, yet BRAC, as indicated by its rapid expansion, has attained a considerable degree of success in its mission. GB originated as a pilot project in a small village in 1976 and acquired the formal status of a bank in 1983. The bank was established with the objective of serving the rural poor. Its success has been attributed to its innovative policy of providing loans without collateral to poor villagers. The borrowers become shareholders as they own 40% of the bank‘s shares, while the remaining 60% is owned by the government and other financial institutions. The GB extends credit facilities to the rural poor with the objective of creating opportunities for self-employment for the unused and underused human resources (Chowdhury 1989, 144). The bank goes to the rural poor for disbursement of loans and collection of repayments and provides training on credit discipline to clients. Loans from the GB have been used by the rural poor to own and operate deep and shallow tubewells, power looms for weaving, and rice and oil mills, as well as to lease land and ponds to cultivate crops and culture fish. GB has received accolades from evaluators in different parts of the world. In spite of the absence of collateral, the rate of repayment is astonishingly high. Officials of the bank claim that it has succeeded in


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promoting self-reliance and participation among members. A number of social objectives have been incorporated into its activities, including health care and sanitation, nutrition, education, training, population control, and the promotion of social reforms. Although such claims cannot be entertained without concrete evidence, the success of BRAC is generally recognized by rural residents. Both BRAC and GB have expanded rapidly and are considered to be successful in their respective missions. While the former draws its support largely from the private sector - international donors and human resources in rural areas - the latter has received considerable support and encouragement from the government. The leadership of BRAC (a professional accountant) and GB (an economist and university professor) recognized the need for people-building in the process of development. INTEGRATING THE HARDWARE AND SOFTWARE FOR DEVELOPMENT

The direction of development programs in any country is obviously affected by the nature of the political system and the distribution of power in the society. Bangladesh has had extended periods of military or semipraetorian regimes in control, and the locus of power has always been at the center, either with the armed services or a dominant political party. Military regimes in Bangladesh were constantly searching for political allies and supporters outside the capital to lend credibility to their authority to govern, and development programs were manipulated to this end. Although decentralization was launched with much fanfare in the early 1980s, the process was largely unsuccessful in bringing about changes in the power structure (see Huque 1986).The government continued to play the role of a patron who administered development programs through field offices, and the emphasis was clearly on the construction of infrastructures that could constitute concrete proof of the regime’s efforts to help the rural population. Such programs also allowed successive regimes to distribute patronage and win the support of local powerholders. It is not surprising that the results of developmental efforts have been lopsided, if not totally undesirable. The benefits of development projects have been reaped by rural powerholders, and this outcome has been facilitated by the policies of the central government. Successive governments have made unsubstantiated claims about the improvements introduced in rural areas. But residents in some rural localities felt that infrastructures had been constructed without proper assessment of needs and the ability of the citizens to use them. Hence, they did not serve the purposes for which they were built. Lack of knowledge and information also had implications for the maintenance of the infrastructures, many of which have become unusable due to neglect. The experience of Bangladesh serves to confirm the fact that development can no longer be achieved by administering programs of assistance to the rural poor. There has been increased input from scholars who

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emphasize equity and empowerment of the poor by increasing their opportunities for effective participation in the social, political, and economic processes of the society. NGOs, in particular, ”stress concepts such as self-help, conscient$ation, awareness and empowerment” (Westergaard 1992,l). Initially, the major thrust of all development programs was the generation of employment for the vast number of rural poor who have no skills or means of earning a living. Consequently, they were employed in infrastructure-building projects that did not require any skill. This affected the quality of the infrastructures, and the continuation of such acts may be seen as feeble excuses for providing financial assistance without making any effort to develop the skills or potential of recipients. While they helped with survival, such programs could not lead to significant changes in behavior and attitudes because the human resources remained undeveloped. The strategy could not lead to a situation where the rural poor had the opportunity to break out of the bondage of poverty. The involvement of NGOs in development programs in the 1970s and 1980s led to noticeable changes as people-building was accorded importance. At the beginning, many NGOs considered education to be an effective means of preparing the rural poor for change. There were distinct elements related to adult literacy as well as arrangements to impart education to the offspring of beneficiaries. It was soon realized that the nature and level of education imparted in the various development programs were far from adequate in building people. In most cases, basic literacy was useless in gaining employment or facilitating major change in behavior. Later, basic health care began to be considered an important element of development programs. The Vulnerable Group Development Program is primarily concerned with nutrition standards along with health services for destitute women. The Rural Maintenance Program has branched into the area of health education for the women who work in the program. Incorporation of elements of education and health awareness in the programs can lead to significant change in the attitude and behavior of the participants. Empowerment of the rural poor can only succeed with a strengthening of their economic position. With this realization, there has been increased emphasis on the accumulation of savings. Many programs are now designed with a requirement for beneficiaries to save a certain percentage of the earnings. In the course of data collection, the author found cases where small-scale enterprises have been initiated with those savings, and some families have been able to get off the assistance roll. The degree of success is extremely limited, however, and there are many other instances where accumulated savings by female heads of households have been lost in small business enterprises or even gambled away by the male members. Nevertheless, such schemes have contributed to the strengthening of the position of women in rural households as useful members who are able to contribute to the family’s earnings.


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Efforts of the GB have led to benefits for some male group members whose family income had risen. Some female members invested in cattle, rice husking, grocery shops, and weaving projects, but they faced many difficulties and, in most cases, had to depend on the male members of the family to assist with investments and enterprises (Alam, Huque and Westergaard 1994, 87-88). The other important aspect of people-building is the development of organizations of the rural poor. Development programs follow various strategies to this end. Groups are formed on the basis of function, occupation, and other grounds; there are regular meetings at which common problems are discussed to arrive at solutions. Usually, representatives of the NGOs are present at such meetings as facilitators, but they are supposed to be passive observers. The practice has, in some cases, succeeded in bringing out leadership qualities among group members. Westergaard studied the process of empowerment of the rural poor and noticed that one group "had been quite successful in returning candidates who had been nominated by the local groups for union parishad members'' (1992,7). She went on to chronicle the conflict between such groups and the established rural elite in the struggle for power. The incidence of conflict reflects progress. Although such examples are still rare, it is an encouraging sign for shifting the balance of power in the political system. Organizations of the rural poor are now able to present challenges to the traditional powerholders. Considering the sheer number of the rural poor contrasted with the traditional elite, there are reasons to believe that the interests of the former are likely to receive greater attention if the trend continues. The combined impact of the various people-building programs conducted across Bangladesh has the potential of threatening the existing balance of power in the country. Traditional powerholders are already facing challenges, although on a small scale, and are undertaking steps to tackle the emerging forces. Fundamentalist groups and political parties have been critical of the employment and education of women and, in April 1994, took to the streets demanding abolition of foreign NGOs engaged in such development programs. As the fundamentalist Jamaati-Islami holds the crucial balance of power in the Parliament, the ruling Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) finds it hard to resist such pressure. However, it is encouraging to note that anti-fundamentalist groups are also organizing themselves and are resisting such moves. IMPLICATIONS FOR POLITICS A N D POLICY

Although development administration seems to have gone out of fashion with scholars, the need for administration to be directed at the promotion of living standards and the empowerment of people in poor societies remains. Instead of direction from the rulirig elite, the agenda for development is being prepared on the basis of the needs and aspirations of

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citizens as well as the capacity of the system to deliver the results. Needs have to be properly assessed in order to set up realistic development programs. At the same time, aspirations must be effectively expressed for the system to take note. Judging by Dunn’s (1994, 338) criteria of ”policy outputs’’ (goods, services or resources received by beneficiaries) and ”policy impacts” (actual changes in behavior or attitudes), the lack of success of development programs in Bangladesh becomes apparent. The provision of goods and services continues to be on a limited basis in urban areas only. Rural areas and, particularly, remote villages are still outside the scope of such service. Citizens undergo considerable hardship in their efforts to secure services even in emergencies. A small amount of resources trickles down to rural areas and their use depends on the knowledge and skills obtained by the rural poor through the software programs of development. Under the existing system, however, resources are consumed by the local political elite who reassert their allegiance to the central political machinery that facilitated the process. Similarly, “actual changes in behaviour or attitudes” are also difficult to achieve. The rural citizenry is unable to perceive the possible benefits that may be derived from changes in behavior along with the construction of an infrastructural facility in the village. Software programs help to expand their vision and prepare them for better use of the physical facilities that spring up in various parts of the country. This may prepare the ground for a shift in the balance of power, which can be the first step in the improvement of living conditions in this society. How can the balance of power in society be shifted to provide benefit to the maximum number of people? The hardware of development is, no doubt, important. Infrastructures such as roads, bridges, shelters, and communication facilities are required to demonstrate the presence of the government in rural areas as well as allow citizens to enjoy the benefits of modernization and development. But it is even more critical to prepare citizens who should be able to make effective use of these facilities. The software of development, or people-building programs, seeks to achieve these through three principal types of activities: education, organization, and savings. On a personal level, citizens can acquire knowledge, education, and skills to survive as well as accumulate economic strength through savings and investment programs. At the group level, they can cooperate with others in similar situations and occupations to make the best use of available resources and infrastructures and enhance their strength in society. At the organizational level, programs oriented toward empowerment can serve to play a crucial role in allowing the rural poor entry into the societal power structure. The masses can, through these systematic steps, seek to alter their relationship with the ruling elites. Gradually, these efforts may lead to significant changes, and software programs can have an impact on development efforts. In the long run, they may contribute to the development of a stable political system as well.


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Policies pursued by the central government have tended to favor the traditional elites in rural areas and, as a result, there has been mutual support and protection of common interest. The scenario changed after the autocratic regime of General Ershad was forced to resign in 1990 following a mass uprising. A task force appointed by the caretaker government stated that the ”poor must actively engage in pressure-group politics in order to tilt the State’s allocative decisions in their favour” (Report of the Task Forces 1991,451. Subsequently,a partisan government was elected in 1991, and the traditional pattern of patronage distribution is back in place. However, the introduction of the software element in development programs will not only make them more effective in terms of output and impact but will also initiate the process of strengthening policies to incorporate the interests of a wider range of beneficiaries.

CONCLUSION

The central ruling elite in Bangladesh has to take into account the needs and moods of the rural electorate and is unlikely to survive for long with the sole support of traditional powerholders. From this point of view, NGOs and software programs are emerging as crucial elements in the vital task of altering the balance of power. The prospect of a more balanced distribution of power, naturally will also lead to increasing demands for such programs. This scenario probably explains the tension between traditional and modem forces, since the elites prefer the hardware programs that have the potential for more payback to them. Software programs, on the other hand, do not provide such payback, but threaten to weaken the powerholders. It is imperative for the rural poor of Bangladesh to reach a position of strength in order to participate in the process. The first step is to strive for economic strength, and several development programs are currently directed toward that objective. Various employment-generation schemes are expected to lead to some savings that, in turn, will enable the beneficiaries to eventually become self-sustaining through small enterprises. Simultaneously, the organization of the rural poor continues through empowerment and increased participation in the decision-making process. The task of development administration is expected to follow a new approach once the effects of existing development programs become evident. As more participation and contribution from the rural poor become incorporated into the policy process, their interests will become secure because the ruling elite will have to consider seriously the input from the rural poor. Consequently rulers will no longer be able to claim credit for providing underused infrastructures but will be compelled to develop the citizens’ capacity to effectively use them. An integration of the hardware and software for development can effect significant advancement in the administration of development.

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Acknowledgment

The author wishes to thank Professor Michael Atkinson and Dr. Julia Tao for their valuable comments and suggestions for improving the article. Notes 1. "Monetized wheat" is an expression used to denote the funds obtained by selling the wheat provided as a grant by CIDA. 2. The section on the Rural Maintenance Program is based on discussions with CARE personnel in Bangladesh and documents supplied by them.

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