THE NORTH WEST INSTITUTIONAL ANALYSIS September 2002 GO-INTERFISH PROJECT Comments are welcome and should be sent to [email protected] and [email protected] RESEARCH TEAM FACILITATORS Brigitta Bode (Social Development Coordinator) Mick Howes (Consultant) LEAD RESEARCHERS Mahmudun Nabi Khan (Project Manager) Anowarul Haque (Project Manager) UNION STUDY Ataur Rahman (Field Trainer) Arjuman Ara (Field Trainer) Shoheda Khatun (Field Trainer) Shamsul Huda (Field Trainer) Lotifa Zannat (Field Trainer) Faruq Hossain (Field Trainer) Abu Md. Hena (Project Manager) Kuntal Barman Mondol (Project Development Officer) Nurul Kabir (Project Development Officer) Moslem Uddin (Project Development Officer) Nazrul Islam (Project Development Officer) PARA STUDY Nazrul Islam (Project Development Officer) Sabita Chowdhury (Project Development Officer) Bipul Chandra Dev (Technical Officer) Ashim Kumar Karmaker (Technical Officer) Debashish Kumar Shaha (Technical Officer) Hamidul Islam (Technical Officer) HOUSEHOLD STUDIES Abdul Malek (Technical Officer) Nazim U. A. Chowdhury (Technical Officer) GENERAL CASE STUDIES Anowar Hossain (Driver) Cover Page Design Jabed Md. Muradul Alam Khan(Administrative Officer) 2 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS A large number of people have contributed to this study. The names of those who played a direct part as members of the various teams that were formed to carry it out have been listed on the previous page. In addition, the authors would like to acknowledge the specific parts played by: Prof. Aminuzaduddin and Prof. Wahuiddin Mahmud (Dhaka University), Abdul Bashar and Alok Majumder (CARE), Tim Bene (consultant), Simeen Mahmud (Bangladesh Institute of Development Studies) and Dr. Hossain Zillur Rahman (Power and Participation Research Centre) for their valuable advice on matters relating to the operation of the state at national and local level (chapters 2 and 3); the members of the four case study households, the people of the Muslim and Hindu para, the local leaders of Panchgram, the Nilbahi Officer and officials from the Upazilla for their patience, good humour and general assistance in helping us to piece together the picture that is presented in chapters 3-8; Dewan Arif Rashid of CARE for his insights into livelihoods and his explanations of how they are currently being interpreted within the organisation, (chapter 6), and Clare Shakya (DFID) and Mary Hobley for introducing us to the new ideas which DFID is exploring in this field; Dr. Mushtaque Chowdhury of BRAC and Dr. Ziya Uddin from CARE for their expert guidance on the institutional dimensions of drinking water supply and sanitation (chapter 7); Sohel Ibn Ali (Samata), Tawfique M. Haque (Action Aid), Kushi Kabeer (Nijera Kori), Dr Iqbal Alam Khan (Proshika), Mona Laczo and Selina Shelley (Oxfam), Prof. H.I. Latifee (Grameen Trust), and Dr. Atiaur Rahman (Bangladesh Institute of Development Studies) for sharing the experiences of their organisations on rights based activities, and for their very helpful suggestions as to what CARE might be able to contribute (chapter 9); Shameem Siddiqui (CARE), for his careful and patient explanations of the organisation’s approach to rights based activities, and to his other senior CARE colleagues for their suggestions and insights offered regarding possible new directions provided in the course of a final national workshop (also chapter 9). Shourovi Zinnat and Jabed A. Khan (CARE) for their painstaking work in assembling the summary materials on the national programme (final annex) We are also indebted to: Mike Brewin, Mike DeVries, Nava Raj Gyawali, and Steve Wallace (CARE) for their overall support, their continuing interest in the study, and their valuable advice; Sabbir Hossain Kadri and Md. Ahsan Ullah for their meticulous and unfailing administrative support; Bilash Mitra, and A.N.M. Kaiser Zillany for their important assistance in the translation of field notes; Staff from CARE and other organisations taking part in the district and regional workshops for their critical feedback and suggestions about the extent to which the specific findings reported here might be taken as reflecting the wider experience of rural people in the NW region as a whole. The authors 3 CONTENTS Page Summary (i) 1 An overview of the study 1 PART 1: THE WIDER INSTITUTIONAL SETTING 2 Governance and the state 6 3 Local governance: structures, resources and roles 13 PART 2: LOCAL INSTITUTIONS AND PROCESSES 4 The net of elite relationships at union level 28 5 The intra-communal allocation of resources and the role of NGOs 54 6 Livelihoods and social capital 71 PART 3: KEY SECTORS 7 Access to clean drinking water and sanitation 90 8 Law and order 100 PART 4: TOWARDS A RIGHTS BASED APPROACH 9 Taking stock and moving forwards 112 References 132 Annex: The CARE organisation 134 FIGURES 1.1 North-west institutional analysis: scope and structure 3 2.1 Main political developments in the Bangladesh period 6 2.2 Levels of administration and government 7 3.1 Major developments in the history of local government 14 3.2 Upazilla organogram showing key positions and staff numbers (1985) 16 4.1 Relations between social institutions 30 4.2 Panchgram union 35 4.3 Sitting MP’s family tree showing leading individuals and relationships 39 4.4 National and local politics 1971-2002 41 4.5 Primary actors in approximate order of appearance 42 4.6 The evolving pattern of political alliances 1988-2002 48 5.1 Kinship, class and access to NGO resources: Hindu para 56 5.2 Lineage, class and access to NGO resources: Muslim para 61 6.1 Livelihoods case study summary chart 77 6.2 Ranjit’s household: forms of social capital 79 6.3 The evolving household: an illustration based on the marginal case 84 6.4 The boundaries of internal social capital 87 7.1 Access to drinking water (an example of a problem flow chart) 97 8.1 The judicial system 101 8.2 Local law and order timeline 102 8.3 Police administration 105 9.1 Present and possible rights based activities in CARE: an overview 118 9.2 A summary overview of the study process 125 4 TABLES 2.1 The civil service by grade 8 2.2 Amended development budget by Department and Ministry 2000-1 10 3.1 Union parishad establishment budget 19 3.2 Estimated annual expenditures at union level 19 3.3 Corruption in the distribution of VGD and VGF cards 21 4.1 Panchgram: key indicators 37 4.2 Panchgram: structure of landholdings in comparative perspective 37 5.1 Households and population by BBS land operating categories 65 5.2 Number of households by kin cluster & BBS land operating category 65 5.3 Land transactions 66 5.4 Number of households accessing other resources by caste & kin cluster 66 5.5 Number of households accessing other resources by BBS category 67 5.6 Percentage of NGO members by caste and kinship cluster 68 5.7 Percentage of households belonging to NGOs by BBS category 69 5.8 NGO presence by relative wealth of para 69 5.9 NGOs and the presence of influential people by para 70 5.10 Distribution of leading NGO programmes in the upazilla 70 6.1 Para livelihoods summary 74 7.1 Estimated supply of pumps and sanitary latrines in upazilla (2001) 93 7.2 Household access to different sources of drinking water 94 7.3 Percentage of households with different types of latrine 96 8.1 Corruption and related costs from going to court in last year 103 8.2 Corruption and related costs from dealings with police in last year 106 Boxes 4.1 Union parishad committees and their role in the political process 51 6.1 Sustainable livelihoods analysis 72 6.2 Differentiation within the household 85 6.3 Physical, financial & social capital and the implications for vulnerability 88 7.1 An entrepreneur supplying pumps and sanitary latrines 94 8.1 A domestic murder 107 8.2 An escalating land dispute 108 9.1 Some examples of rights based approaches in India 122 5 ACRONYMS ACR Annual confidential report ADC Additional Deputy Commissioner ADP Annual development programme ANRP Agriculture and Natural Resources Programme BBS Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics BNP Bangladesh Nationalist Party BRAC Bangladesh Rural Advancement Committee CCO Conciliation courts ordinance CEEDAW Cttee. on the Elimination of all Forms of Discrimination against women CTW Come to work DC Deputy Commissioner DFID Department for International Development DRICC District rural infrastructure coordination committee DPHE Department of Public Health Engineering FFS Farmer field school FFW Food for work FT Field trainer GDP Gross domestic product GOB Government of Bangladesh GO-IF Greater Opportunities for Integrated Rice-fish Production HYV High Yielding Variety IFSP Integrated Food Security Programme IP Influential person LMP Livelihoods monitoring project MP Member of Parliament PDO Programme development officer PIC Project implementation committee PM Project manager PRA Participatory rural appraisal PRO Project implementation office RBA Rights based approach RMP Rural maintenance programme SLF Sustainable livelihoods framework STW Shallow tubewell TDCC Thana development coordination committee TO Technical officer TR Test relief UDCC Upazilla Development Coordination Committee UE Upazilla Engineer UNDP United Nations Development Programme UNO Upazilla Nirbahi Officer URICC Upazilla rural infrastructure coordination committee VAT Value added tax VDP Village defence party VGD Vulnerable group development VGF Vulnerable group fund WATSAN Water and sanitation 6 GLOSSARY Ain Law Amon Main monsoon rice crop Ansar Village police force Bari Homestead Barolok Person of consequence, giver