Governance of course with the addition of prefix ‘good’ is sinequanon for efficient development management. NGO’s development intervention is now a favorite of intellectual discussion as it very much concerns about institutional governance with the participation of the stakeholders to fulfill its desired objectives. Beneficiaries of public policy look to NGOs for better service for ameliorating their socio-economic conditions. The NGOs with voluntarism are expected to fulfill expectations of various groups of stakeholders through its well and systematic intervention. Its governance-led distributional profile is based on the parameters of participation, empowerment and accountability.
NGOs have long been handling their projects by structured flexibility approach, self-assessment mechanism, regular monitoring and intermittent change of techniques, if situation demands. This is really efficient and apt management of implementation. They are found working in an enabling working environment that they themselves created with participatory component, decentralization and motivation. In health care sector, for illustration, there has emerged some positive changes in health bevaviour. Based on the index of health development there has been astounding improvement in health awareness, especially awareness about STD/HIV/AID, immunization, balanced diet and maternity services.
We may have much to take lessons from NGO’s health management projects. This is of course result-oriented. The paramedics are well trained health workers doing their utmost to the satisfaction of the people. The resource persons at the apex of project management treat things well in a professional manner.
NGOs like BRAC, CRITAS, ASA, Proshika, UCEP etc have come forward to enlighten our society with a scheme of non-formal education. The happen to address the issues of drop-outs. Thing is that Formal education is not inclusive and participatory. The poor child is left out. He/she cannot benefit from formal schooling finding it hard to cope with a rigid institutional situation and the demands of close system and thus drop out. All the same NGOs non-formal education has proved to be good alternative motivating the poor children. In fact non-formal institutions like open air school, distant education and mobile schooling are most likely to cater to the needs of street children, maverick and vagrant.
The NGOs are complementing the government in the implementation of child development policies. The major areas/sectors or policy goals are ‘basic education’, ‘health and nutrition’, water and environmental sanitation’, ‘children in need of special protection’, ‘social integration, participation and cultural affairs’, and ‘information and communication’. The other goals were gender equity, elimination of child labor and children requiring special protection.
In pursuance of the fundamental principles of the Constitution and the UN CRC, the Government of Bangladesh decided to formulate and implement a National Policy on Children (NPC) in December 1994, to ensure the security, welfare and development of children. The policy highlights the importance of providing adequate services to children, including health, nutrition and education. It also stipulates that a “proper family environment” is one of the main preconditions for the proper development of a child. The NPC identified the need for assistance to children in difficult circumstances, and ensures the protection of the legal rights of children within the national, social and family context. The policy clearly states that the Government has adopted the principle of ‘Best Interest of the Children’ – that is, in all national, social, family or personal situations, the best interest of the child will be held paramour.
The UN Convention on Rights of the Child (UNCRC) has been universally ratified. The present government is actively considering formulation of a national child labour policy. It is, of course, a good move. We have a child policy. But we do not have child labour policy. We may contend that if there is child labour there must be must be a control mechanism to erase its evils through legislation and public policy.
The issue of GO-NGO interface cannot be side lined. Such an interface in Bangladesh has by now rendered dysfunctional constraining proper implementation of poverty alleviation projects. Needless to mention “NGOs are key players in implementation networks. They fill a service delivery void at the local level, often operating relatively independently. Distressingly inhibitive relationship with NGO is a potent institutional constraint and NGO’s political affiliation is no longer acceptable at the same time. Atmosphere of suspicion in dyadic contact between govt. and NGO destroys the spirit of partnership and the policy of dividing the NGO is self-defeating. On the other hand some NGOs act as “Pressure groups lobbying for services from government and going in for group mobilization in a quite political form”.
‘In recent years the main thrust of development policy has been on beneficiary’s participation in the assessment of their own needs and in the determination of the priorities of grassroots planning to ameliorate their conditions. Public policy as the means of allocating values and setting development goals becomes a factor of facilitating constraining participatory development. Redistributive policies prevent misallocation of resource and lopsided access inputs and logistics reducing vulnerability of the poor to economic dependence under the existing land tenure system. Favorable public policies in the realm of participatory governance (PG) include the components like self-development, income generation, capacity building concretization, institution building through co-operative and other democratic self-governing community organizations and empowerment of the rural commoners.
‘Participation, as an attribute of social modernization, denotes mass involvement in institution building activities, increasing consciousness of the masses for community development, information technologies, human rights and legitimate claims on available inputs and logistics. In traditional rural communities participation is narrowly spaced owing to mass ignorance about cosmopolitan values. In transitional villages participation is wide-ranging in the contest of pro-active peasant role in assuming organizational responsibility. Participatory rural goverenace (PG) has become an acceptable doctrine to pull the backward community to prosperity.’
‘Empowerment of the vulnerable is the hall mark of participatory development. We can safely view target group approach as frontline component of the program for the vulnerable. True this is a disadvantaged focused policy interventions. The idea is to enable the rural poor to involve in participatory development process. There has been institutional concern to activate the vast reservoir of human resources to educate the poor and to enhance their nutritional status. Such concern is a symbol of realization about the inadequacy of the resource of the poor and powerless group of rural population. It is imperative to organize the powerless into an institutional framework though target group approach.’
(Dr Kashem is Pro-VC, BUP and Dr Mashreque is a retired professor of Chittagong University).
