South Asia Briefing Unit 6

Hunger

The Hunger Project Online Briefing Program
The Hunger Project in Bangladesh: Empowering Women Animators
Page 4 of 21

Mindset

Evolution of Aid-driven development and large-scale NGOs

In Unit 2 and Unit 3, we explored some of the large scale interventions that have attempted to end hunger and poverty in Bangladesh. This section revisits some of the progress and setbacks of these programs.

Large-scale foreign aid

After liberation, a climate of chaos and famine existed in Bangladesh.

The international community responded to this situation by sending Bangladesh huge amounts of foreign aid.
Since independence in 1971, Bangladesh has received more than $22 billion in grant aid and loan commitments from foreign donors, including the World Bank, the Asian Development Bank, the UN Development Program, the United States, Japan, Saudi Arabia, and a number of West European countries.
80% of its development expenditure has been financed by foreign sources.

Despite steady increases in external aid over the years, aid has brought little real improvement in the lives of rural people.

Large-scale, top-down aid programs cannot address the realities of life for grassroots people.
Much foreign aid has been spent on heavily capitalized infrastructure projects, which do not draw on the skills and knowledge of people themselves.
Massive external aid flows, coupled with state support for the private sector, has allowed corruption to thrive among a small segment of Bangladeshi entrepreneurs and civil and military officials.

Large-scale NGOs

Bangladesh is home to some of the largest NGOs in the world, whose work has set precedents worldwide.

BRAC—Bangladesh Rural Advancement Committee, is an NGO with deep roots in Bangladesh society. It began as a relief and rehabilitation effort in February 1972. BRAC is widely regarded as the pioneer in "scaling up"— making an national-level impact that goes far beyond typical small-scale NGO projects.

By 1995, BRAC emerged as one of the largest NGOs in the world, with a total membership of 1.5 million, 85% of whom are women.

Bangladesh is the birthplace of the micro-credit movement, spearheaded by Prof. Muhammad Yunus, founder of the Grameen Bank (pictured at left). Grameen has become an internationally reputed bank for the poor, whose techniques have been duplicated around the world.

Grameen has used millions of dollars in international grants to administer micro-credit loans almost exclusively to women, whose traditional responsibility for all areas of social development make them the key players in the struggle to eliminate poverty.

Hunger

The Hunger Project Online Briefing Program
The Hunger Project in Bangladesh: Empowering Women Animators
Page 4 of 21

Mindset