Term Paper On Impact of NGO on poverty in Bangladesh

Introduction:

Non Government Organization (NGO) is a non-profit agency that serves some public interest. It is an autonomous body which run as a voluntary.  Non Government Organization is established to fulfill some social purposes other than monetary rewards to financial backers. Technically the term includes Government or Tax supported agencies, but it is usually reserved for private, voluntary social agencies and excludes for profit proprietary social agencies. In

other words it is stated “NGO’s are usually defined as an association of persons organized on voluntary basis through the initiative of one or more dedicated persons committed to the planning and implementation of development projects at the grass root level. NGO’s although work outside the government structure but they are within the legal framework of the country.

History of NGO:

Right now Non-Governmental Organizations or NGOs have become a widely discussed theme in the third world countries. Bangladesh is not exception. The NGOs have appeared as the savoir of countless number of people without food, cloth, education and basic health facilities. Bangladesh is one of the top thirteen underprivileged countries. With the record of being the most densely populated country in the world and shabby manpower competency, Bangladesh is facing huge challenge to meet up the demand of her ever-increasing population. Although agriculture sector is the main source of income for this rural-agro based country, unfortunately this sector has completely failed to create rewarding employment opportunity for the landless. Considering these overall situations, the NGOs are working on poverty eradication by directly involving the poverty stricken population.

At primary level NGO activities was confined to religious trust, school, hospital, orphanage or social reform based .In our country NGO came in 1970 to help the cyclone affected people . After the war of liberation NGO began its work as recon structure of devastated economy.

Different Leading NGOs: BRAC, ASA, PROSIKA, NIJERA KORI etc.

What is Rural Poverty?

Those who are landless farmer and small or marginal farmer they are usually identified as the rural poverty suffering population .On the other hand, talked about usage of various socio-economic variables identifying rural poverty. These are: Family Size, Adult literacy rate, Health and Nutrition facility, Cultivable land and elements, Security, Family income and savings. Some aspects of rural poverty are:

ü  Lower income

ü  Rapid/easy fall in income

ü  Lack of coping crisis ability

ü  Limited access to the social resources

ü  Insufficiency or total deprivation from social and civic amenities

ü  Insufficient health and nutrition service

Rural Poverty:

By the end of nineteenth century almost in every country census of urban poor were taken and most of the development works were directed through the government. Due to poor communication system, lack of solemn desire of the administration and information inadequacy no separate projects were undertaken for the rural underprivileged. Moreover, at the beginning of twentieth century worldwide rapid industrialization and urbanization took place, which lead to further breach of congruency between the urban and the rural sector. There began the effort of the government to improve the rural state of affairs. Then activities like employment generation to ward off unemployment, expansion of economic activities and cash donation were carried out to improvise the condition of the underprivileged .In most of the countries around the world poverty condition is divided into two broad sectors: urban and rural. The primary reason is to undertake separate plans for each type considering the features, demand, necessity and priority of urban and rural sector. Since the rural sector is greater than urban sector in the developing countries, rural development is directly co-related with national development and now many people are of the same opinion that poverty alleviation is one crucial factor for rural development.

Missions and Goals of NGOs:

Non Governmental Organizations (NGOs) are launched with various purposes. Based on the region or local demand and problems, divergence in each NGO targets and objectives can be observed. But everywhere the main purpose of NGOs is the much-desired development of poverty suffering deprived people. The missions and goals with which the NGOs are established and conducting their operations in Bangladesh are:

1. Assisting the poor and suffering people as well as exercising self-control through utilization of own resources.

 2. Identifying native assets, local leadership and ensuring effective utilization of these for welfare and development.

3. Coordinating the poor and deprived ones through formation of co-operatives and thus facilitate the socio-economic progress.

4. Health and Nutrition development.

5. Acting as the associate of the government and no as competitor.

6. Generating alternatives to overcome special social problems and hurdles besides taking necessary steps to aware the general population.

7. Creating positive attitude of the society, annihilation of superstition and belief against development and bringing in the deprived ones in the main stream of development.

8. Helping out people in coping with the changing societal environment.

Poverty Situation in Bangladesh:

The incessant battle against poverty and famine is long observed in our country. People like day labour, rickshaw puller, weavers, fisherman, small businessman, shop owners, smith, and landless people, farmer and marginal farmer live in abject poverty. According to World Bank, poverty rate in Bangladesh is around 36%-40% with 40% ultra poor living in the rural area and 15% in the urban area. Poverty at the rural area is considered one of our most important and increasing tribulations.

Eradication of poverty in Bangladesh is an enormous and multi-dimensional challenge. Almost 42.5% of the people living in villages are poor while 18.7% are termed ultra-poor.  In the last three decades the government has undertaken extensive activities. The main objective of first five-year plan (1973-1978) was poverty eradication.

NGO Activities to Remove Rural Poverty:

The NGO have taken some significant initiatives to handle the poverty situation in Bangladesh considering certain aspects stated below:

a) Speedier economic growth achievement process

b) Human Resource development

c) Specific target setting for poor

Humanitarian Progress and Structural Development of Organizations for Rural Poor:

Despite the fact that poor people have vast experience about life, still they are incapable of developing exact ways to scientifically analyze and fix their problems and whatever possessions they have. In this case, efforts of the NGOs are worth mentioning to help these people analyze the society and problems in the backdrop of old, superstitious, anti life perspectives. For example: primary training, improved training, organizing exchange of views program among different groups or areas, regular adult education activities, weekly analytical discussion etc.

Employment Generation:

In order to encourage the rural poor to participate in different economic activities and to increase their income through employment generation, several policies, methods and strategies of the NGOs have attracted the attention of some foreign development experts. NGOs usually create employment in two ways. First of all, they provide employment in their own organization since they also need human resource to operate. Secondly, they provide loans and management assistance to individuals, which create new employment opportunity. Currently the projects that are being conducted under the supervision and assistance of NGOs are: Irrigation project for landless Fishery in ponds, Fishing, in the coastal area, Weaving, Equipment supplies for landless share cropper, Bee keeping, Small business, Rice and popcorn production, Sericulture, Handicrafts i.e. earthen wares, wood and cane works, Developing nursery etc.

MICRO CREDIT SCHEME BY MAJOR NGOS IN BANGLADESH

Name of NGO	Active member no.(in thousands)	Cumulative credit distribution (in core taka)
1. BRAC 2. Proshika 3. ASHA 4. Swanirvar Bangladesh	2253 1132 873 667	2560.10 667.40 925.10 157.20
Total (Inclusive of other NGOs)	7,165	5,354.40

Informal and Non-formal Education:

The NGOs are highly active in the sector of informal and non-formal education. The best way to develop human resource is through appropriate education. Illiterates created due to lack of education is one major obstacle for socio economic development hence also for poverty eradication. The Bangladesh Government and UNICEF are trying at their utmost level to eradicate illiteracy. The low rate of admission in the primary schools, failure to attract the children to schools, unlikable education method and syllabus for etc. reason the rate of primary education in the rural area are not at all hopeful. The largest NGO in our country and also worldwide, BRAC have started satellite school system based on informal education policy. As a result the poor children at the rural area are now being given special importance. More emphasis is given on the participation of parents as well as community in this regard. This program has turned into a vital accompaniment for the primary education system by the government. In 1998, World Vision spent taka 13, 06, 87,996.58 which amounted to 40.10% of their total expenditure. So far the NGOs have been successful in providing education to 23 lakh people in the last five years through establishment of 30 thousands primary schools and 44 thousands adult-education centers. At present almost 9 lakh men and women are studying in these schools.

Health, Nutrition and Hygiene:

In Bangladesh, Health and nutrition status of the rural populace is very poor. Majority is deprived from even minimal health and nutrition facilities. For this reason, a significant part of the active NGOs of Bangladesh are providing training and education service in the field of health and nutrition. An independent organization named Voluntary Health Services Society (VHSS) is supervising the NGOs that are working on the health and nutrition sector.

However, in our country expansion of loan amount, loan activities, and success are needed for poverty eradication. Moreover it is essential to establish a warm and dependable relationship by setting aside different obstacles between Government and NGOs. In this case expansion of Government-NGO partnership activities, opinion exchange/knowledge sharing at a regular interval and developing contemporary strategies, ensuring accountability, and by staying above differences in political opinions are absolutely essential for the sake of this country, for its poor and forsaken populace.

Conclusion:

However, some limitations was observed in the NGO effort to poverty eradication for i.e. leaving out the ultra poor, partial and sub-divided working frame, area based differences in activities/projects, differentiating outside target people and weak relationship, participating in commercial activities, supporting political parties etc. If NGOs can overcome these limitations then it can surely be hoped that they continue playing the role of savoir of poverty eradication and social development in Bangladesh and lead the country to sustainable economic growth and development.

Reference:

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