University of Liberal Arts Bangladesh (ULAB) organized a public lecture on “The decline of radical development NGOs in Bangladesh” on Wednesday 22 June, 2016 at its own campus auditorium in Dhanmondi.
Professor David Lewis of the London School of Economics & Political Science’s South Asia Centre/Department of Social Policy was present as Keynote Speaker . Vice Chancellor of ULAB Professor Imran Rahman welcome all and gave introductory speech.
Professor David discussed the issue of NGOs and development in Bangladesh. In particular, he was concerned with analysing the history and legacy of a specific group of Bangladesh’s development NGOs. These NGOs were concerned with grassroots rural social mobilisation approaches (as distinct from the more common NGO roles of credit delivery, services and contracting work). He called this ‘the radical NGO sub-sector’ because these organisations were – and in some case still are -concerned with addressing the structural causes of poverty, gender equality and social justice.
He explained that this group of organisations – which includes NGOs such as Proshika (formed in 1976), Gonoshahajjo Sangstha (GSS) (formed in 1983), and Samata (formed in 1976) – were at their peak during the 1990s and early 2000s. However, they have now mostly faded from view, or evolved into organisations primarily engaged in microcredit delivery work.
The reasons for their decline, he suggested, included:
(i) The difficult political environment in which they operated which made them vulnerable to co-option.
(ii) The disruptive practices of some foreign donors, which either neglected them in favour of more mainstream NGOs, or else over-funded them creating rapid expansion that damaged and in some cases helped destroy them.
(iii) Weaknesses with their leadership and management systems, which reduced their accountability.
This decline was not however inevitable. An organisation such as Nijera Kori is still working effectively in the radical tradition. This example shows that the radical NGO tradition is still possible if an organisation makes the ‘right’ decisions – keeping close the grassroots, building proper management systems, and resisting donor offers to over-expand and scale up too fast. Nor are the challenges faced by these NGOs only common to a country such as Bangladesh. In the UK, the recent collapse of the NGO Kid’s Company highlights a very similar set of problems of organisational weaknesses, lack of accountability, and political co-option.
Professor Lewis concluded by saying that we need to learn lessons from the decline of the radical NGO sub-sector. A diverse civil society is an important party of any society. It is where new ideas are generated, where alternative new political leaders may emerge, and where government and business can be held more accountable.
Today there are many small rights based NGOs working on human rights, environment, disability and many other important issues. There is also a large number of mainstream service delivery NGOs. But we cannot afford to forget the legacy of Bangladesh’s sub-sector of radical development NGOs if we are to continue to work successfully for structural change led by the poorest people themselves.
Professor H.M. Jahirul Haque, Pro Vice Chancellor of ULAB; Lt Col Md. Foyzul Islam, Registrar of ULAB; ULAB Professors; Faculty Members; Admin and students were present in the program.
