BRAC through insider lenses

DRIVING Development:  A Story of BRAC's Evolution and Effectiveness, Mahabub Hossain, Shib Narayan Kairy, Abdul Bayes, eds., United Press Limited.

In an (expectedly) ever-changing world, particularly galvanized by the introduction of the Internet and its manifold applications, one can expect and anticipate that changes will come about in various aspects of human existence.  In Bangladesh, as its point of origin, the NGO BRAC has striven to be an agent of change, but it has also had an impact on countries and societies outside the borders of its origin.  Several current and former BRAC staff members (39 in number) have written on different BRAC activities and issues it deals with.  The result is Driving Development:  A Story of BRAC's Evolution and Effectiveness, edited by Mahabub Hossain, Shib Narayan Kairy, and Abdul Bayes.  Looking at an organization through insider prisms has both its advantages and disadvantages. While one may get insights that one would not normally get from the outside, the negative aspect would be the likely extolling of the organization and its activities beyond its merits; in other words, glossing over the unfavourable facts.  Both are on show in Driving Development: A Story of BRAC's Evolution and Effectiveness.

Mahabub Hossain extols the virtues of an organization that he once was an Executive Director of: "BRAC has expanded to become one of the largest nongovernment organizations (NGOs) in the World, meeting needs of the marginalized people in a holistic manner through multifaceted development activities."  Although rather grandly put, there is much truth in the statement. And then goes on to discuss the vision and mission (how quaint those two buzzwords!) of the NGO:  "BRAC's overall strategy has been to support the government to (a) improve the livelihood of the poor, and (b) minimize the effect on the poor of external shocks, such as natural disasters."  Critics, though, have pointed out shortcomings in the outcome of its stated objectives, which are:

"Work with the marginalized people, especially women, children, and ethnic minorities;

Promote human rights, human dignity, and gender equity;

Foster development of human potentials of the staff and the people that BRAC serves; and

Ensure that the programmes are socially, economically, and environmentally sustainable." 

Given the number of unpredictable variables in human nature and society involved, it may be expected that there would be a gap between the expectations from goals and the reality of outcomes, but the quest of a plausible dream cannot be a futile endeavour.

One of the more notable achievements of Bangladesh since independence has been its economic growth. From 3.5 per cent per year during the early 1990s it has gone up to over six per cent in recent years. More impressive has been in human development. Reducing population growth significantly from the early years of independence, achieving food security, eliminating gender disparity in secondary schools, improving adult literacy (whatever may be the quality of education), increasing attendance of children in primary schools, and reducing the under-five mortality rate and infant mortality are significant achievements that Bangladesh can justifiably be proud of.

But the world moves on.  So many improvements wait for their realization. The government and NGOs, including BRAC, have done their part in the achievements that have come, and will have to lead the way, at least for some time now, in those that will purportedly follow.  Hossain details some of the pitfalls that could, and do, hamper development: "Poverty, inequality, and exclusion continue to be manifested in the areas of healthcare, education, financial inclusion, and access to other opportunities; and a high unemployment rate of the educated youth threatens peace and order. There is an increasing burden of non-communicable diseases…. The disparity in the access to quality education between rural and urban areas and across socio-economic groups has been growing and has been singled out as the most important determinant of growing income inequality…. The burden of poverty continues to transport from rural to urban areas through migration.  The development challenges have been further exacerbated by threats of continuing food insecurity and climate change."

Clearly, a lot needs to be done and much way to go for Bangladesh in its quest to bring about holistic development for its people, and BRAC will have to do its part. And what are the assessments of the BRAC staff who have given their views in the book?  Some of their views may be taken stock of. Samir Ranjan Nath and Safiqul Islam (Ch. 2, "Education:  Facilitating Human Resource Development") take a critical look at the education sector and offer a few suggestions.  One of the more noteworthy ones is that BRAC should consider increasing its teacher training programmes.  This is important because, maybe, a vicious cycle may be broken in the process. Flawed teaching at the high school level sends up deficient students to the college level, and then on to the university level where it is quite possible to find some teachers, who themselves are found wanting in certain respects of pedagogy, teaching future college and school teachers, and the whole cycle is repeated. They also stress on co-curricular activities, and suggest replicating the quality improvement and other experiences of non-formal education to the mainstream schools.  Syed Masud Ahmed, Kaosar Afsana, Akramul Islam and Faruque Ahmed (Ch. 3, "Reaching Healthcare to Grassroots") marvel at the noted success in the vital health indicators in spite of a "weak, low-performing, and pluralistic health system", and urge the application of research in developing a better health system, following the positive experience of the BRAC health programme.  Hashina-E-Nasreen and Kaosar Afsana (Ch. 4, "Maternal, Neonatal and Child Health"), while acknowledging the decline in maternal mortality rate, are dissatisfied at the slow progress in reducing neonatal mortality.  They propose a social and technical package to ameliorate the situation.

Barnali Chakraborty and M Raisul Haque (Ch. 5, "Nutrition Interventions for Improved Child Health") are disappointed at the current state of nutrition in the country. They suggest that intervention in the nutrition sector should be coordinated with agriculture and health programmes. Mahabub Hossain and Shib Narayan Kairy (Ch. 6, "Microfinance:  Financial Inclusion for Employment Generation") take up one of the key elements of BRAC's operation:  microfinance. After having noted that microfinance is now a mature industry in Bangladesh, they extol BRAC's microfinance programme that "have diversified their portfolio over time by providing relatively large size loans to small entrepreneurs, mostly men, the so called "missing middle" who do not have access to credit from formal financial institution but are disqualified to receive poverty reduction loans." Mahabub Hossain, Anindito Bhattacharjee and Narayan C Das (Ch. 7, "Challenging the Frontier of Poverty Reduction: Targeting the Ultra Poor") take on a challenging area, and urge that, for sustaining gains in improving the livelihood of the extreme poor, relief or the government's safety net programme should be used for development. 

Mahabub Hossain, M Sirajul Islam, Sudhir Chandra Nath, M A Saleque and Mokarram Hossain (Ch. 8, "Agriculture for Food Security") praise BRAC's programmes in the agriculture sector for improving the lots of the poor and marginalized farmers with its engagement in poultry and livestock activities, fisheries, and crop production.  In another important area, Nepal C Dey, Tahera Aktar, Siffat E Rabbi and Babar Kabir (Ch. 9, "Water, Sanitation, Hygiene and Disaster Management") warn against overfishing of ground water beyond its normal recharge for irrigating dry season crops as it would become a major environmental issue in rural Bangladesh.  Mohammad Rafi, Kazi Nazrul Fattah, Sharin Shahajahan Naomi and Anna Minj (Ch. 10, "Community Empowerment and Local Governance") praise BRAC's Community Development Programme as it has evolved to "institutionalized and organized approaches to achieve people's self-reliance and decision-making power within the community…." Sheepa Hafiza, Rumana Ali and Mohammad Rafi (Ch. 12, "Gender Justice and Women's Empowerment") justifiably feel proud that, "Due to the substantial NGO movement in Bangladesh, particularly scaled-up multi-faceted development interventions of BRAC, women in Bangladesh have traveled a long distance down the path of empowerment." 

Shib Narayan Kairy (Ch. 15, "Governance, Transparency, Enterprises and Financial Sustainability") drives home his point that, "BRAC has been following a policy of zero tolerance towards financial corruption.  All employees are constantly reminded of the zero tolerance…and actions taken if the allegation in the adoption of corrupt practices is proven by an investigation team."  Salahuddin Ahmed (Ch. 16, "Reflections on Drivers of BRAC's Success") takes a critical look at some of BRAC's practices, and offers this piece of advice: "The leadership should seriously consider the issues of succession, not only at the topmost level but also at the other levels." Not a bad advice for the continued success of an organization like BRAC.  For those wishing to learn about BRAC's activities in different areas of development, Driving Development: A Story of BRAC's Evolution and Effectiveness would be a useful book to have and peruse. 

The reviewer is an Actor, and Professor and Head, Media and Communication department, IUB.