Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation SDC BANGLADESH COUNTRY CASE STUDY CITIZENS’ VOICE AND ACCOUNTABILITY EVALUATION July 2008 Citizens’ Voice and Accountability Evaluation – Bangladesh Country Case Study July 2008 Production: Swiss Cooperation Office, Dhaka, Bangladesh Cover Design: Designgrafik A/S, Copenhagen, Denmark This report can be ordered from the Swiss Cooperation Office in Dhaka: [email protected] The report will, together with the four other Country Case Studies from Democratic Republic of Congo, Indonesia, Mozambique and Nepal, be placed on the CD-ROM inserted in the main evaluation report which will be published by the Department for International Development, DFID, later in the year: www.dfid.gov.uk The Bangladesh Country Case study was supported by the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation and by the British Department for International Development. It has been undertaken by a team from Oxford Policy Management comprising Dr Dee Jupp, Dr Jeremy Holland, Sohel Ibn Ali and Jens Stanislawski. Responsibility for the content and presentation of findings, conclusions and recommendations rests with the authors. i Citizens’ Voice and Accountability Evaluation – Bangladesh Country Case Study Table of contents List of tables and figures iv Acknowledgements v Executive Summary vi Abbreviations and Glossary x 1 Introduction 1 2 Methodology 2 2.1 Analytical approach 2 2.2 Research questions 3 2.3 Case selection process 3 2.4 Methods and instruments 7 3 Context for CVA 8 3.1 Country context 8 3.2 Donor landscape regarding CVA interventions 13 4 Findings 15 4.1 Opportunities, constraints and entry points for CVA 15 4.2 Capacities of state and non-state actors 17 4.3 CVA channels: Actors and mechanisms 23 4.4 Changes in policy, practice, behaviour and power relations 27 4.5 Development Outcomes 31 5 Lessons learned 33 5.1 Channels, mechanisms and processes 33 5.2 Pathways to broader development outcomes 38 5.3 CVA and aid effectiveness 38 6 Recommendations 41 Annexes 44 Annex A. Terms of reference 45 Annex B. Methodology 52 Annex C. Context analysis 61 C.1. Political and institutional framework 61 C.2. Mapping and key features of main actors 67 C.3. Social and political landscape 74 C.4. Recent events that shape opportunities and risks for voice and accountability 78 C.5. Donor Landscape 82 Annex D. Intervention summary sheets 91 D.1. Reaching Out-of-School Children (ROSC) 92 D.2. Rural Development Programmes (RDPs) of the Local Government Engineering Department (LGED) 98 ii Citizens’ Voice and Accountability Evaluation – Bangladesh Country Case Study D.3. Financial Management Reform Programme (FMRP) 105 D.4. Mass-line Media Centre (MMC) 111 D.5. Bangladesh Quality Education for All/ CAMPE 119 D.6. “We Can” 125 D.7. Transparency International Bangladesh (TIB) ‘Making Waves’ 130 D.8. Bangladesh Sanjukta Sramic Federation (BSSF) 137 D.9. Rupantar Grassroots Women’s Leadership 143 D.10. Samata – Empowerment Through Resource Mobilisation 151 D.11. GTZ brokered dialogue within the Promotion of Social Environmental and Production Standards in the Ready Made Garment Sector (PROGRESS) 159 Annex E. Table of People and Documents Consulted 164 Annex F. Summary of Stakeholder Debriefing Workshop 169 iii Citizens’ Voice and Accountability Evaluation – Bangladesh Country Case Study List of tables and figures Table 2.1 Selected CV & A case studies 5 Table 2.2 Research methods used 7 Table 3.1 Top ten donors to Bangladesh 13 Table B.1. Typology of interventions and case studies contributing to these types 55 Table B.2. How proposed case studies met other criteria 57 Table B.3. Participatory methods used in the case studies 58 Table B.4. DAC Evaluation Criteria and CVA questions 59 Table C.1. Worldwide Governance Indicators 65 Table C.2. Selected Economic Indicators 67 Table C.3. Overview of main political parties 68 Table C.4. Overview of local Government bodies 69 Table C.5. Overview of Elections 74 Table C.6. Challenges for women’s political participation 75 Table C.7. CVA donor landscape: Development partners involved in joint evaluation 82 Table C.8. CVA donor landscape: Development partners not involved in evaluation 87 Figure 2.1 Context, framework components, levels of results and outcomes 2 Box 4.1. State actor CVA capacity needs 18 Box 4.2. Local Government Engineering Department (LGED) Rural Development Projects: Direct donor capacity building for state actors 19 Box 4.3. From non-state to state actors: Rupantar’s capacity building work towards political inclusion 20 Box 4.4. Building capacity in the centre of government: The Financial Management Reform Programme 21 Box 4.5. Non-state actor CVA capacity needs 22 Box 4.6. Actors and mechanisms 23 Box 4.7. Evidence-backed advocacy: Transparency International Bangladesh (TIB) “Making Waves” 25 Box 4.8. Samata: A grassroots movement for social justice 26 Box 4.9. Reaching Out of School Children (ROSC): Empowerment through participation 29 Box 4.10. “We Can”: Towards accountability in the family 30 iv Citizens’ Voice and Accountability Evaluation – Bangladesh Country Case Study Acknowledgements We are grateful to all the stakeholders in Bangladesh – from government, civil society and donor communities - who facilitated and participated in this evaluation process. We are particularly grateful to Corinne Huser and her colleagues from SDC Cooperation Office Dhaka, and to Guido Beltrani at SDC Headquarters. Thanks also go to the Parc and to all other reviewers of earlier drafts of this document. v bvMwiK gZ cÖKvk Ges Revew`wnZv g~j¨vqb evsjv‡`k †Km ÷vwW †`kwfwËK †Km ÷vwW cÖwZ‡e`b `¨ myBm G‡RwÝ di †W‡fjc‡g›U G¨vÛ †Kvqvc‡ikb Ges `¨ weªwUk wWcvU©‡g›U di B›Uvib¨vkbvj †W‡fjc‡g›U evsjv‡`‡ki †`kwfwËK †Km ÷vwW Ki‡Z mnvqZv `vb K‡i‡Q| A·‡dvW© cwjwm g¨v‡bR‡g›U Gi GKwU `j GB KvRwU cwiPvjbv Kivi `vwqZ¡ jvf K‡i| GB `‡ji m`m¨iv wQ‡jb h_vµ‡g W. 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