Home 
Publications Catalog Online Publications ADB Review Article
Gaining Power through Local Government
|
KALIGANJ UPZILA, BANGLADESH
A little over a year ago, Mahmuda Chowdury was a bit lost. An elected member of local government— the Union Parishad (UP) in Kaliganj Upzila, Satkhira District of rural Bangladesh—she felt ignored by the largely male-dominated local governance system. Chowdury, like many other locally elected women, would be given a blank paper to sign, tantamount to approving the minutes of the previous session of UP.
“I did not know my role as UP member, had never conducted a meeting with community,” Ms. Chowdury explains.
Today, as a result of a comprehensive week training program developed in partnership between the Asian Development Bank (ADB) and nongovernment organizations (NGOs)—Bangladesh Rural Advancement Committee (BRAC) and Shushilan—Ms. Chowdury is very much command, having been reelected UP member in February 2003.
“After the training and as an elected women’s forum member, I have been conducting ward meetings every month,” she says. “In each neighborhood, I have identified one leader responsible for mobilizing the poor in the community to participate.”
In a recent meeting attended by 59 poor women, she led the discussion on hygiene education, the need for a proper latrine in the village, a local road maintenance project, work opportunities, and the existing legal remedies for resolving cases of violence against women, such as acid throwing.
The regional technical assistance grant from ADB covers grassroots capacity building in local governance for poor women Bangladesh, Nepal, and Pakistan. Partner NGOs involved in implementing the grant are Aurat Foundation, BRAC, Didibahini, Khan Foundation, Rural Support Program Network, Sarhad Rural Support Program, Shtrishakti, and Shushilan. Though the political systems vary in each country, the thrust of working with NGOs to draw more poor women into active, responsible roles in their communities is the same. And it is working.
“It’s community participation, good governance, and true grassroots democracy among the poor,” says Monawar Sultana, ADB Social Development Specialist (Gender and Development). “It’s truly a workable framework for poverty reduction.”
AGENDA A grassroot leader presenting activities in a forum meeting
In South Asia, local governments have generally been active since British colonial times. But political and cultural biases have kept women out of political or development-related decision making in local government. Women’s representation is now mandated.
Quotas for women representation began in Bangladesh about 5 years ago (30% of UP seats), about 2 years ago in Pakistan (33% of total seats), and more recently in Nepal (20% in village development councils, or VDCs). But there were no provisions for training women—or simply letting them know what they could do.
“Before the training, we were treated like dolls in the UP,” says one representative from the Jessore District in Bangladesh. “Now the UP chairpersons and the members know that we have the knowledge to do our jobs.”
To get there, the elected women needed to learn about the roles and functions of local government; how to use the system— in accessing financial and other resources available, and knowing how to exercise their legal rights: from simple birth registration to family violence mediation.
The technical assistance helped them do just this. It has already made its mark in the short period of one-and-a-half years by giving women the tools to make a difference in their communities.
Women from a VDC in Nepal’s Latipur and Kathmandu districts explain: “We negotiated a human resource budget for scholarships for three girls from our VDC…we have negotiated public land for a tree plantation, and organized an adult literacy class. Twenty-four women’s forums have applied for VDC funds for development programs…Women’s forum have been involved in audit activities in VDCs to ensure distribution of subsidized coupons for kerosene…the forums have facilitated birth, marriage, and death registration in the VDCs.
VILLAGE PROGRESS Poor women meeting with their elected women representatives in the ward to monitor poverty reduction programs
“We have conducted several health camps in our community, and started a youth program where we invite boys and girls to make them aware of HIV/AIDS and reproductive health. We received an ambulance from the Rotary Club in a VDC, and with the help of the police we stopped marijuana cultivation in a village. And we negotiated to set aside land for reforestation. And to think that before, we didn’t have a common meeting place for all the community-based organization leaders. The training program and the women’s forum brought us together.”
Women councilors from the Union Council (UC) in Haripur, Northwest Frontier Province (NWFP), Pakistan say, “We have been in the UC for more than a year. Before the training, we did not know about the function of the UC or our role. After the training, six of us went to the community to identify needs. We negotiated 33% of the budget from the UC for development program...In some UCs, women councilors negotiated UC funds for the Citizen Community Board formed by women…In one UC, a woman councilor negotiated UC funds for paved road for fetching water… in Abotabad, a woman councilor has negotiated gas connections for one community.”
The impact of the project has been powerful in making elected officials of the local bodies accountable to the poor and in building transparency when implementing development programs at the local level. Monitoring poverty programs by poor women’s groups in collaboration with their elected women representatives provided a greater voice in local decision making and promoted pro-poor governance. In Bangladesh, in 16 upazilas (subdistricts) women representatives provided 8,780 poor women and children access to social safety net programs; 2,833 women with training; and 1,891 women with new income-earning opportunities. Women representatives have participated in local arbitration, resolving 305 dowry cases and preventing 270 early marriages. They also mediated 550 land disputes.
“Lobbying is very important,” says Ms. Sultana. “The Upazila Nirbahi Officer oversees all the sectoral programs in Bangladesh so women representatives need to lobby him and convince him to get line agencies to support them to implement poverty programs.”
It is this participatory interface between locally elected officials, grassroots community leaders, poor women’s groups, NGOs, and governments that has begun the process of building an understanding of good governance at the grassroots level.
RESPONSIVE Women representatives at a local government district workshop discussing their roles
Rukhsana Begum is a UP member from Manirumpur Upazila of Bangladesh. “In my Union, an aid package for garments was allocated for distribution. The chairperson hid them, didn’t want to give them to the poor. I convinced him to discuss the aid package with UP members. In the end, we distributed the garments to the poor.”
The success of the training and local development forums is apparent. It is clear from the project that as women representatives build confidence, the more the local governance system becomes responsive to local needs. As women representatives become more effective in serving their constituents, elected officials, particularly male, need to forge alliances with women’s groups if they want to be accountable to their constituents, too.
“We’re very impressed with the way women representatives now conduct programs and meetings with their constituents,” explains Ms. Sultana. “There are very strong social mobilization activities in the project—and just how effective these grassroots democracies work has a great impact on poverty.”
© 2008 Asian Development Bank Privacy | Terms of Use |
 Top of page |