Report Getting to grips with power Can NGOs improve justice in Bangladesh? Craig Valters and Ferdous Jahan March 2017 This research paper is a product of a collaboration between ODI and dRi. Development Research Initiative (dRi) is a leading independent consultancy, research and evaluation center in Bangladesh. dRi conducts dynamic research and analysis of a wide range of issues related to development, international aid, NGOs, markets and the state. Since its inception in 2008, dRi has completed a wide array of research projects, building its reputation for generating high-quality evidence of what works in development practice. Overseas Development Institute 203 Blackfriars Road London SE1 8NJ Tel. +44 (0) 20 7922 0300 Fax. +44 (0) 20 7922 0399 E-mail: [email protected] www.odi.org www.odi.org/facebook www.odi.org/twitter Readers are encouraged to reproduce material from ODI Reports for their own publications, as long as they are not being sold commercially. As copyright holder, ODI requests due acknowledgement and a copy of the publication. For online use, we ask readers to link to the original resource on the ODI website. The views presented in this paper are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily represent the views of ODI. © Overseas Development Institute 2017. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial Licence (CC BY-NC 4.0). Cover photo: ‘Courtyard Meeting’ for raising awareness on legal rights and entitlements, Madaripur Sadar Upazila, Madaripur District, Bangladesh, 2012 © Emdadul Islam Bitu Acknowledgements This research benefited from the support of a wide range of people, both within Bangladesh and internationally. A huge thank you to the staff at Development Research Initiative, who supported this research. This includes Md. Mamun-ur- Rashid, Nahid Hasan, Omar Faruk Siddiki, Afrin Sultana Asha, Shakila Parvin, Md. Faruq Hossain, Sharmin Akhter, Mishkat Jahan, Anindya Barai and MD Razu Ahmad Masum, who provided patient and skilful research assistance and translation. Mamun Rashid was also crucial in working out our logistical arrangements. We are grateful to the Community Legal Services (CLS) team for facilitating our research and regularly engaging with us in productive discussions. Jerome Sayre and Christine Forrester, in particular, gave extensive comments on drafts of this report and helpfully provided additional documentation as requested. Particular thanks go to the CLS partners in project locations for being helpful and patient with us. The paper was supported by the research assistance of Rachel Flynn and Fareeda Miah. The authors are grateful for the extremely detailed and constructive peer reviews. These include an external review by Dina Siddiqi and further reviews by Helen Dempster (ODI), Pilar Domingo (ODI), David Lewis (LSE), Mareike Schomerus (ODI) and Leni Wild (ODI). We are grateful to staff from DFID Bangladesh for their review of the report. Most importantly, we thank all the respondents who gave their time so generously to us. In addition, we would like to thank Nikki Lee for editorial and production support, Sean Willmott for graphic design and George Richards for proofreading. Responsibility for all errors or omissions rests with the authors. Getting to grips with power: can NGOs improve justice in Bangladesh? 3 Contents Acknowledgements 3 Executive summary 7 1. Introduction 10 1.1. Research aims and methods 11 2. The political economy of justice in Bangladesh 15 2.1. Disputes, crimes and where people go for help 15 2.2. The role of NGOs 16 3. The role of the CLS project 17 3.1. History of CLS 17 3.2. Activities and modalities 17 3.3. Theory of change 18 4. Assessing strategies to improve community legal services 20 4.1. Awareness 20 4.2. Access 23 4.3. Quality 27 4.4. Capacity 30 4.5. Sustainability 34 5. CLS model 37 5.1. Project modalities 37 5.2. Reach and depth 37 5.3. Legal empowerment 38 5.4. Development organisations 38 5.5. Gender 39 4 ODI Report 6. Conclusion: what have we learned about strategies? 40 6.1. Strategies for implementers 40 6.2. Strategies for international donors/DFID 41 References 43 Annex 1: Methods details 46 Annex 2: Interviewee checklist 48 Annex 3: Project theory of change 50 List of boxes, figures and tables Boxes Box 1: Activities of gono gobeshak dal 21 Box 2: NGOs and power relations in communities 23 Box 3: The case of Shabana 26 Box 4: Improving the justice process 27 Box 5: Male control over financial outcomes of theshalish 29 Box 6: The case of Shukhi 30 Figures Figure 1: The justice chain 12 Tables Table 1: NGO approach 13 Table 2: Outcomes, hypotheses, and indicators 18 Getting to grips with power: can NGOs improve justice in Bangladesh? 5 Acronyms ADR Alternative Dispute Resolution AL Awami League ASK Ain o Salish Kendra BELA Bangladesh Environmental Lawyers Association BLAST Bangladesh Legal Aid and Services Trust BNP Bangladesh Nationalist Party BNWLA Bangladesh National Woman Lawyers’ Association BRAC Bangladesh Rural Advancement Committee CBO Community-based organisation CEDR Centre for Effective Dispute Resolution CLS Community Legal Services DFID UK Department for International Development DLAC District Legal Aid Committee LKM Learning and Knowledge Management MLAA Madaripur Legal Aid Association JSF Justice Sector Facility PIL Public interest litigation PRP Police Reform Project SUS Sabalabmy unnayan samity UNO Upazila Nirbahi Officer UP Union Parishad USD United States Dollars VC Village courts Terminology fatwa A ruling on a point of Islamic law given by a recognised authority karbari Ethnic minority community leader in Chittagong Hill Tracts hartal General strike Headman Ethnic minority community leader in Chittagong Hill Tracts shalish Community dispute resolution process shalishkar Mediator in a community dispute resolution process Nagorik Uddyog Citizens Initiative Raja King upazilas Sub-district 6 ODI Report Executive summary For many years, donors have supported justice understand what worked, where, and why. We conducted a interventions in Bangladesh: providing small-scale grants total of over 100 interviews, focus groups and observations to activist NGOs, facilitating large-scale national justice of CLS in action. We worked with seven grantees, in four sector reforms, and doing community-based work. The districts of Bangladesh. We spoke at length with clients latter typically involves funding paralegals, alternative of CLS, NGO staff, a range of stakeholders involved in dispute resolution, ‘village courts’ and more. Into this the justice sector, and the diverse communities across the mix comes the Community Legal Services (CLS) project, country. We observed community-led legal aid clinics, a £17 million project funded by the UK’s Department for government-run legal aid, yard meetings and NGO field International Development (DFID). Over five years, CLS facilitators. provided grants to 18 non-governmental organisations Our research took into account the political economy (NGOs), who aimed to support improved community legal of justice in Bangladesh. Two main parties dominate services. Bangladeshi politics: the Awami League and the The CLS project provoked some big questions. What Bangladesh Nationalist Party. Local political parties can are the most effective strategies Bangladeshi NGOs influence traditional dispute resolution and formal court use to improve legal services? What role does capacity cases through their patronage networks. Religious norms building play in this? Should international donors focus and beliefs also shape justice processes and outcomes. on promoting legal services, empowerment, or both? The NGOs often seek to challenge power relations in project also had a strong focus on providing access to Bangladesh. However, their attempts to change justice justice for women and girls. How can this happen in a processes and outcomes are both shaped by, and dependent culturally sensitive way that also protects women from on, their relations with elites at the village and district backlash? Furthermore, many of the grantees were selected level. In addition, donors have shaped how, and what, due to their wide community reach, rather than legal NGOs are able to focus on, making them vulnerable to expertise. Is this an effective way to expand legal services? shifting international finances and priorities. This research sought to unpack these questions through an in-depth qualitative research study. It sought to ‘Community Mediation’ for settling disputes outside the court, Kalkini Upazila, Madaripur District, Bangladesh, 2012 © Emdadul Islam Bitu Getting to grips with power: can NGOs improve justice in Bangladesh? 7 What did the CLS project achieve? And some attitudinal change around access to justice. However, how? the CLS project, like the majority of donor projects, did We found DFID’s support to CLS NGOs to be not have a sufficient time frame nor mandate to ensure commendable. They took, as their starting point, the longer-term sustainable changes. day-to-day legal problems faced by poor and marginalised groups in Bangladesh. As such, huge numbers of people gained greater awareness of the formal law and avenues Challenges for the CLS Model for redress. Some progress was also made in improving the While the CLS project has been valuable, there were a fairness of the processes and outcomes of justice in diverse number of problems and challenges observed, which are institutions and places across the country. linked to overall strategic outlook. Awareness raising activities resulted in a number of Having a specific focus on communitylegal services was citizens, mostly women, coming forward to claim their constraining. Firstly, it appeared to prevent a holistic view rights and resolve disputes. Yard meetings were used to of how disputes affect people’s lives. If a woman makes a disseminate information about the formal law. Using domestic violence case public, she may require other forms existing community groups, some NGOs exerted their of social or economic support, or even physical protection. collective influence to tackle individual dispute issues However, this was not directly possible through CLS and raise broader awareness.