JUNE 1998
Velakoba Cooperative Fisheries Project:
A Case Study of a Participatory Resource Management Initiative Solid Waste Management in Bangladesh
by
Professor Badiul Alam Majumdar
Country Director
The Hunger Project, Bangladesh
1.0 Introduction
With a GNP per capita of about $250 and a human development ranking of 173 among 174 nations, Bangladesh is considered to be one of the poorest countries. Its population density of over 800 per sq. km is among the highest in the world and it is viewed to have an adverse population-resource ratio. Over half of Bangladesh’s 120 plus million population live in absolute poverty. More than 90% of the children below the age of 5 suffer from malnutrition and the infant mortality rate is about 90%. Almost two-thirds of the adult population is illiterate and 55% of the population does not have access to basic healthcare. This state of affairs reflects the existence of widespread poverty in Bangladesh and the country’s slowest rate of progress in the poverty reduction front among all Asian countries. (Haq 1997)
The widespread hunger and poverty, coupled with increasing population, create many challenges for Bangladesh. One of these challenges is the over-exploitation of the country’s limited natural resource base, leading to general degradation and depletion of such resources. Given this degradation and depletion, creating sustainable livelihood opportunities and consumption patterns for its growing population is of the highest priority for Bangladesh. This paper presents a case study of a community-based initiative designed to create sustainable development for its members, along with ensuring the sustainable supply and consumption of fisheries resources. The initiative represents an illustration of participatory planning and resource management.
The paper begins with a description of the background of the initiative, its process, its scope and its workings. It then discusses some of the challenges the project faced in the course of its implementation. Next, it provides an evaluation of its impacts and effectiveness. The paper ends by drawing some conclusions and lessons.
The paper is based on a case study and the author was personally involved in mobilizing the project studied. Thus, much of the information used in it is impressionistic and anecdotal, originating from the author’s personal knowledge gained from many visits of the project location. The paper also utilizes data collected through a survey conducted by the author. The survey included 100 families randomly selected from four villages.
2.0 The Velakoba Fisheries Project
2.1 Background of the Project
In January 1996, The Hunger Project--a voluntary organization committed to catalyzing a society-wide mobilization for the sustainable end of hunger--was invited by an well- known social activist, Mr Rafiqul Islam Sarkar, to his village in Gaibandha, one of the poorest of the 64 districts of Bangladesh. In response to the invitation, the author and several of his colleagues visited Konarpara and its adjoining village Godarhat and embarked on mobilizing the villagers for self-reliant action for the purpose of achieving a sustainable end to their hunger. After going through a local level planning exercise, the villagers decided, as their maiden venture, to raise fish in the Sonali beel--a 400-acre, privately-owned low-lying field which is located in between the two villages and which remains underwater for between 8-9 months of the year. The initiative, which is not the focus of this study, was highly successful.
Having observed the success of the Sonali beel initiative, several individuals from a neighboring area approached The Hunger Project for help in mobilizing their own community. The community is comprised of four villages--Kishmat Folia, Baguria, Sardarpara and Madanarpara--which surround a 600-acre area known as Velakoba beel. This land mass also remains under water for 8-9 months of the year and has embankments on all sides. About 1,900 families live in the four surrounding villages.
People living in the four villages are generally very poor. Nearly 30% of them survive on an average income of about Tk. 1,250 or less (a little less than $27) per month or less than a dollar per day. Another 30% have an average monthly income of over Tk. 3,300 or about $72. Nearly 55% of the people claim to derive their income from agriculture, many of whom, in reality, are either unemployed or suffer from disguised unemployment. Less than 30% earn their income from wage employment.
Widespread malnutrition exists among the children of the area. Most families use open latrines and, overall, sanitation facilities is very poor. In addition, 51% of the population is illiterate and another 8% can barely sign their names. These facts reflect the existence of widespread poverty and related deprivations in the four villages..
Responding to the invitation, the author and his colleagues held what is called a Vision, Commitment and Action (VCA) Workshop with the people of the four villages in April 1997. The workshop is designed to call forth their leadership for creating a vision for a self-reliant future, inspire them to commit themselves to achieving that vision and then to take the appropriate action to achieve it. During the workshop, the participants identify all the things that need to happen or are to be achieved--namely, new income earning opportunities, improved sanitation, safe drinking water, education, clean environment, planned family, women’s emancipation and so on--to realize their vision. They then, through open and unhindered interactions, identify what action they can individually take, what action they can collectively take and when, and the areas where they need partnership from government and other outside entities for creating a future free from hunger and poverty. The participants generally come to the conclusion that progress in all areas with respect to ending hunger requires individual action, in some cases group action and only in a few cases outside partnership. However, the individual action is the key--without his/her personal initiatives nothing worthwhile ever happens. The participants also realize that achieving a better future is not an exorbitantly expensive proposition and they can afford to achieve it primarily using their own human and non-human resources.
The workshop in Velakoba beel was attended by people from all walks of life and background--the local Union Parishad (UP) chairman, teachers, students, social activists and the ordinary farmers. They included both the relatively well-to-do as well as the poor. The poor were included based on the premise that the resource-poor individuals are not mere collection of needs; they are also creative human beings, and given the opportunity, they are able to create futures of self-reliance, working both individually and collectively. They must not be considered as problems or burdens to be taken care of, but rather solutions to their own poverty. Thus, they must be treated with honor and dignity which each human being deserves, and they must be given the chance to be the principal authors of their own destiny.
The workshop is not only most inspiring, it is also an effective tool for mobilizing people for individual and collective action. It is highly useful for facilitating a participatory, local-level planning exercise. The workshop normally ends with each participant declaring to take the responsibility to create a better future for himself/herself and for the people of their community, working individually, in groups, and also in coordination with other government and non-government organizations.
After several hours of intense interactions, reflections and analyses, the participants of the workshop held in Velakoba came to the conclusion that creating a self-reliant future for the people of the four villages was very much possible and was entirely within their reach. They also came to the realization that they could start a process for achieving such a future using their own resources and exercising their own leadership. The workshop was an empowering experience for all the participants, and they gained confidence in their ability to make a difference in their own lives as well as in the lives of the people around them.
At the end of the workshop, the participants took a daring decision to cultivate fish in the Velakoba beel as their first action for creating an additional source of income and enhancing the supply of fish in the area. Several individuals took the stand to mobilize the villagers to make the project come true. They included Sayedur Rahman, Naya Miah, Nurunnabi and Nabi Box Sarkar.
Syedur Rahman, a small businessman by profession, is a freedom fighter who risked his life for the independence of the country in 1971. For him, the goal of the war of liberation has remained unfinished in that over half of Bangladeshis still suffer from abject poverty. He was greatly inspired by the workshop, and he saw a possibility to participate in another movement for a Second Liberation--a liberation against hunger and poverty. His commitment to mobilize the villagers for the fisheries project arose primarily from patriotic feelings, although his other colleagues were motivated mainly by possible financial gains.
As mentioned earlier, Velakoba is a field of about 600 acres which remains under water for over eight months of the year. The land is privately owned, and the owners are people of the four villages. Within the beel, there are about 60 small ponds owned by the villagers. Because of the water logging, the farmers are able to grow only one rice crop during the winter months except on the edges of the beel where the water level is relatively low during the monsoon season.
In the past, plenty of fish eggs and fish fry would come naturally with the flood water, and there used to be abundant supply of fish in the beel. Such abundant supply not only provided a ready source of nutrition for the villagers, it also created income opportunities for many people who had taken up fishing as their livelihood. As the dry season approached, water level in the beel would go down and the fish would take shelter in the ponds. The pond owners would sell those fish to the local fishermen and earned additional income in the process.
Over the years, the natural supply of fish fry has greatly dwindled because of over fishing, use of improper fishing practices and nets, destruction of natural fish habitats, widespread use of fertilizers and pesticides, indiscriminate killing of mature female fish, and commercial harvesting of fish fry from the adjacent rivers which drastically reduces the availability of fish in the beel. The embankments created to protect the residents from the ravages of the routine yearly floods also severely restricted the entry of the natural fish fry into the beel, making the situation even worse. The declining fish supply obviously contributed to the condition of growing malnutrition in the area and also destroyed livelihood opportunities for many of the local people.
2.2 Workings of the Project
Following the workshop, Syedur Rahman and his colleagues embarked on mobilizing the people from the four villages. They went to each family and met with its members separately and collectively. With the help of The Hunger Project, they held workshops in each village. The local UP chairman also assisted with the mobilization campaign.
Some people initially ridiculed the idea. Many were skeptical and cynical. However, with persistence, the organizers were able to win over a large number of villagers who became interested in participating in the initiative to be called the Velakoba Cooperative Fisheries Project (henceforth Velakoba Fisheries Project). Despite the initial doubts and cynicism, nearly 500 villagers signed up for the project in its first year.
As the mobilization campaign progressed, all the interested villagers got together and formed a 29-member executive committee to implement the project. Nabi Box Sarkar was elected the president and Sayedur Rahman the secretary of the committee and they were given the leading roles for getting the project off the ground. The committee members made a detailed plan listing all the steps needed to bring the project to fruition. They not only provided voluntary services, they also spent money from their own pockets to meet the initial mobilization expenses.
The committee estimated that about Tk. 300,000, or nearly $7,000, would be needed to implement the project. This is a large amount by local standards and it looked to be a daunting hurdle to overcome. Almost discouraged, the committee nearly gave up the idea. They also pondered over the idea of approaching some outside organizations for a loan, but the idea pricked the pride of some of the members. They finally decided to raise the money themselves locally.
To raise the money for the project, the committee decided to float shares of Tk. 100 denomination. Individuals unable to purchase shares with cash were allowed to make the purchase in-kind, for their own physical labor. Thus, the villagers who did not have ready cash to spare were still allowed to gain ownership of the project. In the interest of making the ownership broad-based, it was further decided to restrict the maximum number of share purchase by a household to 20. However, this restriction was later relaxed to raise additional funds. Nevertheless, the vast majority were small shareholders. For example, out of nearly 500 shareholders, 189 of them owned one share of Tk. 100 denomination and 92 had two shares. Overall, 383 shareholders owned five or less shares.
In July 1997, Sayedur Rahman participated in a 4-day training for animators organized by The Hunger Project. The training was designed to empower the participants and call forth their leadership and commitment to act as catalysts in their communities for mobilizing people for self-reliant action. They were also trained to hold the VCA workshop and deliver it in an inspiring manner. Delivering the workshop in an effective manner is important in that it is a highly useful tool for mobilizing people.
The training honed Sayedur Rahman’s skills and enhanced his confidence in playing the role of a catalyst for the Velakoba Fisheries Project. Three months later, Sayedur Rahman, accompanied by the local UP chairman, Anisur Rahman, participated in a two- day follow-up training, which further enhanced their effectiveness as catalysts. Their effectiveness was manifested in their success in raising Tk. 255,200 to finance the project.
Of the total amount raised, about Tk. 100,000 was spent for leasing the 60 ponds from their owners and some additional earth work for excavation. Another over Tk. 104,000 was spent on buying fish fry and fish eggs. The remaining amount were spent on a pump machine, two boats, nets, some consumables, the hiring of six guards as watchmen, and a few miscellaneous items. The villagers also constructed, with their voluntary labor, a temporary structure with a thatched roof for the use of the guards.
2.3 Challenges Faced
The implementation of the project was not without its hassles. In fact, it faced some important challenges along the way. As mentioned earlier, some of the villagers were skeptical at the outset. Some, especially those whose livelihood depended on fishing, felt threatened and were hostile. Several pond owners demanded exorbitant rental fees. Some of the relatively well-to-do farmers showed complete indifference at the start of the project. However, as it became clear that the project would earn a significant amount of profit, they insisted on becoming shareholders.
Faced with these challenges, the committee members deliberated among themselves and amicably settled the issues. They, in partnership with The Hunger Project and different government ministries, arranged vocational training for many unemployed men and women, and also for people who depended primarily on fishing for their livelihood. Some of them were hired as guards for the project. They also negotiated rental fees for the ponds.
Another issue they faced was that a particular species of carp, namely grass carp, raised in the beel damaged the rice crops planted in the edge of the beel. The grass carp not only eats grass but also munches on the rice stalks. Some farmers were up in arms about this problem. In order to solve the problem, the organizers decided to compensate the aggrieved farmers out of the proceeds from the fish harvest. They ended up paying Tk. 8,500 as such compensation.
3.0 Impacts of the Project
The Velakoba Fisheries Project has been quite successful in its very first season. It has begun to create sustainable livelihood opportunities for the people of Velakoba area. The project has also made a contribution, small though it may be, towards sustaining the supply of fisheries resources in Bangladesh and increasing their consumption. In addition, it has had other important economic and non-economic benefits, including direct employment, and a favorable environmental impact.
3.1 Creating Sustainable Livelihood Opportunities
As a business venture, the Velakoba Fisheries Project has achieved significant success. It earned a revenue of Tk. 454,038 from the sale of fish as against a total operating cost of Tk. 280,450. Thus, in its first year of operation, the project earned a net profit of about Tk. 173,588. This is a 68% rate of return on an investment of about Tk. 255,200 over a period of only about six months. Out of this profit, they already paid 50% dividend (or Tk. 127,600) along with returning the original amount invested. The remaining amounts of the profit were utilized for fixed costs and acquiring some fixed assets. Obviously, a 50% dividend is a substantial rate of return by any standard. The project also created direct employment for half a dozen people as guards and indirect income opportunities for many others.
|
Income Statement for the Year 1997 |
|||
| Revenue | Expenses | ||
| Sale of Fish | Tk. 454,038 | Fish fry and fish eggs | Tk. 104,169 |
| Lease of ponds | 91,200 | ||
| Guard service | 49,000 | ||
| Labor for catching fish | 4,216 | ||
| Consumables | 14,934 | ||
| Compensation to rice growers | 8,500 | ||
| Miscellaneous | 8,431 | ||
| Net profits | 173,588 | ||
| Total | Tk. 454,038 | Total | Tk. 454,038 |
Not only did the shareholders of the Velakoba Fisheries Project earned a significant rate of return on the amounts they invested, they also benefited from the project in another significant way. They received their dividends at the most opportune time--a time when the farmers badly needed funds for planting and buying other materials for their winter rice crop. At the onset of the winter months, the marginal farmers normally suffer from financial "crises," and many of them go to money lenders for borrowing at exorbitant rates. Because of their dire needs for funds, the shareholders also decided to take back their invested amounts, which they would reinvest after the winter harvest. Thus, the investments and the profits earned from the Velakoba Fisheries Project worked for the shareholders in the most effective way.
It should also be noted that, even though the rate of return the Velakoba Fisheries Project earned in its first year is quite high, it did not still reach its full profit potential. Because of the doubts and skepticism displayed by many, mobilizing the community was quite a challenge. It was also time consuming. Thus, the project got off the ground late-- later than the ideal time to start. With a more timely start, the project is likely to do better in the future.
Profits earned from the Velakoba Fisheries Project during the first year are expected to increase in the coming years for another reason. The organizers made many errors in the project planning and management because of their lack of previous experience. They learned many important lessons which will be useful in the future. Based on their experiences, for example, they will be able to decide which species of fish are most suitable and which grow rapidly in a confined closed-water-capture-fishery environment. They will also be able to avoid releasing the fry of predator fish species which devour other fish.
Using their experiences, the organizers will also be able to save many costs in the future years. As mentioned before, the organizers cultured large numbers of fish fry from the mother fish from their stock This will not only save them the cost of buying fish fry, the project will also be able to sell fry to others and earn additional revenues, adding to their profits. In addition, they will have the opportunity to learn and introduce new fish farming technologies in the future.
The Velakoba Fisheries Project would also be able to enhance its future profits through effective marketing of fish. In the first year, the fish was sold in the local market through the local fishermen, which kept the prices depressed. However, the organizers in the future will be able to develop marketing ties with middlemen from other distant areas. This will fetch better prices for fish and thereby increase profits.
It is clear that the Velakoba Fisheries Project is likely to earn at least the same level of profit, if not more, in the future if the project survives. There is no reason why it should not survive. In fact, there are strong economic incentives for its survival in the coming years. It may be noted that the preparation for its second year of operation is already well underway.
The Velakoba Fisheries Project is likely to continue to operate in the future because it is truly a self-help project. It was implemented by the people of the area, using their own resources, with their own leadership and for their own benefits. It was not dependent on outside resources or outside experts or outside management--everything used in the project was indigenous. It was not an aid-dependent, donor-driven initiative with marginal community involvement, rather it was a community-initiated project with only motivational input from outside, namely from The Hunger Project. Thus, it is expected that the project will continue to sustain and create a yearly flow of additional income for the people of the four villages. With a continued source of substantial amount of income year after year, the villagers will achieve a high standard of living in the future. These livelihood opportunities are sustainable in that the Velakoba Fisheries Project has no known adverse environmental impact.
3.2 Creating Sustainable Development
The Velkoba Fisheries Project will not only provide a source of sustainable livelihood opportunities, it is also likely to lead to sustainable development for the people of the area. One possible way sustainable development can be achieved is through the renewal of fisheries resources which would promote sustainable consumption practices. In addition, the project has begun to create other benefits which will have favorable impacts on the environment and also heighten the overall improvement in the quality of life of the people of the area.
Those who are familiar with the geography of Bangladesh are aware that the country is richly endowed with many rivers and water bodies. It has a total of 230 rivers, and those rivers have many tributaries and branches. In addition, the country has hundreds of thousands of ponds. There are also many beels and haors which are natural fish habitats. Many species of fish live in these waters. Yearly monsoon flooding creates an environment even more favorable for fisheries resources, making Bangladesh a leading producer of fresh water fish. Fish is an important resource in Bangladesh and is a major export item. It is the main source of protein in Bangladeshi diet. In fact, Bangladeshis are inseparable from their fish and rice and are known as masa vatha Bangali.
However, as mentioned earlier, because of over fishing and destruction of fish habitats, the natural supply of fish resources has dwindled in Bangladesh over the years. In fact, the inland open-water-capture-fishery has been going down year by year. The decline is so severe is some cases that some species of fish are even under threat of extinction. Decreased water flows in the mighty rivers of Bangladesh during the lean season of winter months due to heavy withdrawals upstream make things worse for the fisheries sector. Left alone and with the continuation of the present trend, the future generation of Bangladeshis will see a sharp decline in the per capita availability and consumption of fish.
Potential decline in fish resources per capita pose a serious threat to the country’s sustainable development because of the importance of this sector to Bangladesh’s economy and to the Bangladeshi diet. Thus, preserving, protecting and augmenting the fish resources is of paramount importance to the country and to its future development. Fortunately, fish are a renewable resource and can be cultured and cultivated. Thus, one important remedy to the threat is to increase the closed-water-culture fishery. The Velakoba Fisheries Project is a step in the right direction toward this renewal and consequent remedy. By raising fish in a water body where the natural supply of fish has been disappearing, the project has made a positive contribution to the preservation of fisheries resources of Bangladesh, and to the sustainable development of the country.
Mobilization is an educational process. The mobilization for the Velakoba Fisheries Project involved the creation of awareness for the people of the four villages on many issues, including the environmental threats. They became informed of the adverse impacts of the indiscriminate use of chemical fertilizers and pesticides. With increased awareness of the damage these inputs can cause to the environment, the people are likely to use them more responsibly. The fisheries project and the potential economic gains from it is likely to provide strong incentives for them to be more responsible in the future. Such responsibility will obviously have positive impact on Bangladesh’s sustainable development.
Success breeds further success. The initial success with the fish cultivation created confidence in the minds of the villagers that they can indeed solve their problems-- problems manifesting their poverty. While participating in the VCA workshop, before embarking on fish cultivation, they took the responsibility, individually as well as collectively, to create a better future, and now, with success in hand, they have become even more confident that they will, for sure, be able to create such a future. The fruition of the fisheries project provided a big boost to their morale and the villagers were able to overcome all their hesitations and doubts. When people are empowered with self- confidence, they can achieve seemingly impossible things!
The villagers have, in fact, started a process to eradicate their poverty and all the poverty-related deprivations. After the successful completion of the fisheries project for the first season, they applied what is called a Strategic Planning-in-Action, an important methodology used for local level planning exercise, to initiate a process for bringing about overall improvements in the quality of life of the villagers. One immediate plan they made is to build a hatchery for culturing fish fry. In the process of the planning exercise, the villagers also decided to start a sanitation campaign in the four villages to remove all open latrines and ensure safe drinking water for all. A sanitary latrine making facility has already been put into operation for this purpose. They are also planning to plant tree saplings on all the village roads when the rainy season starts in a few weeks. These initiatives, the villagers further decided, would be subsidized with profits from the fisheries project in the coming years.
The people of the four villages are also preparing to embark on a very daring initiative-- they are planning to build a healthcare center of their own. They are planning to mobilize the entire community and raise Tk 10 (or US $0.22) per month from each family, with which they would hire a qualified medical practitioner. They would also build a structure with voluntary labor and with donated materials to house the health center which will dispense medical services to all community members. A few local volunteers, with the assistance of the medical doctor, are planning to run the center. It is expected that the proposed project, when completed, would be self-sustaining and would truly be a people’s institution. Mobilization is already underway for creating the health center.
One very important activity that started in the Velakoba area, following the successful implementation of the fisheries project, is the vocational training of the unemployed young people of the area. The Hunger Project, in partnership with the various government departments have arranged training in various skills, including fish cultivation, duck and poultry rearing, bee-keeping, cow fattening and nursery building. Already several hundred young men and women have received skills training in the Gaibandha area and many of them have embarked on self-employment activities.
Another important change is now visible in the Velakoba area. Individuals receiving various vocational training are beginning to form informal organizations of their own. Members of these organizational entities are all volunteers living in the community and their purpose is to solve the problems they face. Students are also coming together to do "something." It is quite conceivable that these voluntary community organizations, which may be called the VCOs, may spearhead the development of the area in the future.
It is clear that the Velakoba Fisheries Project has created impacts which are significant for the people of the four villages. It has already touched many lives. It not only created possibilities for sustainable livelihood opportunities, it also opened doors for the sustainable development for the villagers. In fact, the success of the project has already received wide acclaim. Several major feature articles were published in major national dailies. Many high government officials, including government ministers, visited the area. Recently, the Bangladesh Television featured the success of the Velkoba residents and the snowballing effects of their success in its popular magazine program, Mati o Manus (the people and the soil).
4.0 Conclusions and Implications
Last year, with the mobilization help from The Hunger Project, an international voluntary organization, the people of four villages of Velakoba area, located near the town of Gaibandha, initiated a fish cultivation project in a 600-acre beel. The beel, which is privately-owned, remains under water 8-9 months of the year. Inspired by a local level planning exercise, the Velakoba Fisheries Project represents a collective initiative of the villagers.
In the past, the Velakoba beel was a natural habitat for many species of fish. Because of over fishing and the unrestricted killing of mother fish, indiscriminate use of pesticides and fertilizers, and the embankments created for flood control, the natural supply of fish to the beel has greatly dwindled over the years. Such decline diminished the availability of fish per capita, and it also reduced additional sources of income for many, including for those who took up fishing for a living.
The villagers raised Tk. 255,200 locally by selling shares among themselves for the project. They developed an organizational structure to run it. In its first year, the project was very successful. In financial terms, it earned a profit of Tk. 173,588 and paid a 50% dividend. It also created direct employment for half a dozen people as guards and indirect income-earning opportunities for many more. The venture is now in its second year of operation. Because of the many lessons learned during its first year of operation, the project is likely to do equally well, if not better, in the coming years. Thus, the Velakoba Fisheries Project promises to create sustainable livelihood opportunities for the people of the area.
In addition to creating sustainable livelihood opportunities, the project also represents a step in the right direction toward sustainable development for Bangladesh. In the process of mobilization for the project, villagers were educated regarding more responsible use of chemical fertilizers and pesticides which are harmful for fish cultivation. With the initial success in the fish cultivation, the people developed confidence in their ability to solve their problems themselves and decided to initiate more action which will further improve their lives. In addition to providing vocational training to the unemployed young men and women with the assistance of The Hunger Project, setting up a healthcare center based on the pre-paid insurance principles and creating a fish hatchery, the villagers have also launched sanitation and tree plantation campaigns. Thus, the initial success appears to have unfolded a process, involving many initiatives, for developing a better future for the people. Such initiatives are clearly conducive to sustainable development.
With the success of the Velakoba Fisheries Project, many other communities are now becoming mobilized, with the assistance of The Hunger Project volunteer-animators, for replicating similar projects all around Gaibandha, a district which is most appropriate for such initiatives. By the last count, 22 fisheries projects have gone off the ground in the district. This will not only create sustainable livelihood opportunities for a large number of people, it will also help ensure a sustained supply of fish in Bangladesh, which constitutes a renewable resource. Again, these developments are consistent with the idea of sustainable development.
We can draw some very important lessons from the experience of the Velakoba Fisheries Project. The most striking lesson appears to be that communities, even the seemingly resource-poor ones, can solve many of the harsh challenges of life they face, including eradicating hunger and poverty in a sustainable way. This can happen only when there is true participation rather than participation in name only.
True participation takes place only when people take the responsibility for their own future. Such participation happens if the members of a community are clear that the efforts to create a better and more sustainable future for them must start with them--and no outside organization or entity can plan and deliver it to them. Once they are convinced of the supremacy of their role, they will find ways to initiate the steps--or rather the journey--towards helping themselves. The Velakoba Fisheries Project is truly a self-help initiative. The successful experience of the initiative clearly show that when the people truly take the responsibility, individually as well as collectively, for creating a better future and start with what they have, they generally succeed. They can also start a sustained process for achieving overall improvements in their lives.
For such a process to begin--a process in which people to take the responsibility for their own future--what is critically important is to empower them with the belief that they are neither created poor nor are they destined to remain so, and it is possible for them to create a better future for themselves primarily by themselves. Furthermore, each human being, who is not handicapped, is endowed with the necessary mental and physical capacities to stand on their own feet.
This is an intervention--to bring home such realizations--that can be done by others from outside. In Velakoba area, The Hunger Project’s main intervention was to instill in the villagers such beliefs in order to inspire both individual and group action. Its volunteer-animators played the role of catalysts. Once the people decided to start the journey toward self-help with their own action and began planning at the local level, The Hunger Project sought to have opportunities created to ensure their success.
One specific area in which The Hunger Project sought to create opportunities is for the villagers to receive varieties of vocational training in partnership with governmental organizations. This was done on the realization that people are viewed as "poor" because they lack material assets. The primary assets the resource-poor people have are their leisure time and raw labor. The best way to have them acquire material assets, therefore, is to help them acquire technical skills and inspire them to use their newly-acquired skills and unused time for productive purposes. Thus, The Hunger Project tried to build capacities of the people for self-employment, which is critically important for a country like Bangladesh where the opportunities for wage-employment is highly limited.
In this context, it may be useful to make a clear distinction between community’s taking the responsibility and the so-called community participation. The idea of community participation is based on the premise that community members are basically unable to solve their problems and outside agencies and organizations must take the responsibility to solve them with the community’s help. In this approach, what in reality often happens is that outsiders conceive, design, plan and implement projects with marginal, if at all, community involvement. Such projects generally reflect priorities of the implementers and normally cover those areas for which external funds are readily available. The driving force here is the external financial resources and the output is the service delivered to the people. The community members here remain on the fringes and their participation is often in name only. Thus, the community participation may actually provide a mere sugar-coating on the traditional aid- dependent, donor-driven development approach where things are done by outsiders "in the name of the people" rather than "people helping themselves." Such an approach, although an improvement over "doing things for people"--i.e, charity--often leads to dependency rather self-reliant, sustainable development.
The community responsibility approach, by contrast, goes much beyond the idea of community participation. In this paradigm, the community members themselves take the responsibility rather than being mere bystanders or beneficiaries of services delivered by others. They are truly in the drivers’ seat--spearheading a process to be the principal authors of their own future. This approach is based on the premise that resource- poor people are also resourceful. Outsiders or outside resources are not the driving force behind this approach. If outside resources are used, they are used to catalyze local resources and empower local leadership. This is what The Hunger Project did in Velakoba-- not as a benefactor or donor, but as a partner to the people. In fact, that may have been the primary reason behind the success of the project.
By looking at other factors behind the success of the Velakoba Fisheries Project we can draw some additional lessons. Two of the most important reasons for its success appears to have been the accountability of the organizers and the transparency of its operation. There was straightforward and unhindered communication between the organizers and the villagers. The shareholders were regularly, on a weekly basis, kept informed of all developments relating to the project. Volunteerism of the organizers was another factor behind the success of the project. It was truly a labor of love for many of them and experience shows that no extraordinary achievement can be had without such commitment.
It is often argued that there must be one or more charismatic leader(s) behind any successful participatory initiative. If charisma is to be defined, following Webster’s New World Dictionary of American Language, as some "special quality of leadership that captures the popular imagination and inspires unswerving allegiance and devotion," there was no such leader in the Velakoba Fisheries Project. The organizers were not even highly educated or politically involved--they were mere "ordinary" villagers. None of them could give fiery speeches to arouse emotion among the people. However, they were honest, dedicated, persistent, passionate, and above all they took the responsibility for bringing about a change in their own lives and the lives of the people around them, and they were able to earn the trust and confidence of the villagers. These qualities may have been the source of their charisma, if any.
References
- Government of Bangladesh, The Bangladesh National Conservation Strategy, Final Report, 1997
- Mahbub Ul Haq, Human Development in South Asia, Human Development Center, Islamabad, Pakistan, 1997.
- Badiul Alam Majumdar, "A Different Type of Stock Market, Making a Difference," (mimeo).