Citizen participation is a must to deliver SDG-related services
Fatema Begum leads a community-based organisation (CBO) called Karnafuli in Sandwip island of Chattogram district. Her organisation works to ensure smooth and transparent delivery of citizen services from government offices and local government organisations.
Thanks to her efforts and relentless advocacy, 185 sanitary latrines, five culverts, five kilometres of road and 10 deep tube wells have been established in her neighbourhood since 2018.
Last year during the pandemic, she ensured that government's emergency incentive package for marginalised people are disbursed smoothly and transparently.
Furthermore, she has arranged special incentive for marginalised women farmers from the local agricultural and fisheries office and loans for the affected farmers and small businessmen from local banks at only four to five percent interest.
In another part of the country, Farida Yasmin, leader of a similar organisation in Nilphamari's Dimla upazila has also brought about significant positive changes in delivering government services to the poor and marginalised people, particularly in isolated char areas.
She has formed 44 social organisations in five unions of Dimla upazila which are mostly led by women who work with the local government and upazila administration to ensure smooth delivery of citizen services.
According to Farida, thanks to these organisations, inhabitants of ten unions of Dimla upazila have been getting Vulnerable Group Development (VGD) allowances, maternity allowance, disability allowance, and pandemic incentive regularly and without any hassle.
Success stories of such CBOs which have been working to ensure smooth delivery of SDG related services in the grassroots level were shared yesterday in a daylong conference titled "Democratic Governance and Local Development: Experience from Grassroots Citizens Organisations," jointly organised by Oxfam and Centre for Policy Dialogue (CPD) and funded by European Union (EU).
There are 350 CBOs in 13 upazilas of 13 disaster-prone districts under the project titled "Enhancing Participation of CBOs and Civil Society Organisations in Democratic Governance in Bangladesh" jointly implemented by Oxfam and CPD and funded by EU.
In his keynote presentation, Mustafizur Rahman, distinguished fellow, CPD shared the lessons learnt while implementing this project.
CPD Founder and eminent economist Dr Rehman Sobhan said, "To ensure proper delivery of public services, we need competitive election and we need to find a way to make the elected representatives accountable."
LGRD Minister Tajul Islam said in his speech as chief guest, "There are many forms of democracy in the world. We claim that Bangladesh is a democratic country. But implementing democracy doesn't mean that we will empower people who were against our liberation war, it does not mean our country will be poor and lawless."
"We are exercising democracy by freeing our people from poverty," he added.
Rensje Teerink, ambassador and head of EU Delegation to Bangladesh said, "This project has enjoyed continuous support from EU and it is worthy of support because it operates at the crucial intersection of democratic participation, good governance and development."
Economist Dr Debapriya Bhattacharya, distinguished fellow of CPD; Lilian Mercado, regional director of Oxfam in Asia and Danny Sriskandarajah, CEO of Oxfam Great Britain also spoke at the programme.
ENSURE RELIEF REACHES THE RIGHT PEOPLE
Meanwhile in another session of the conference, grassroots organisations stressed on ensuring proper access to social safety net programme at the root level by strengthening the monitoring system and dissemination of information about the government aid in the community level
During the session on food relief, speakers urged the government to ensure the right people receive the relief and to raise awareness of where to file complaints if irregularities occur in relief distribution.
Sharing an experience, Abdul Halim of Susheel from Satkhira said, "In our area we have 12,000 poor ethnic minorities, but only half of them received the relief."
Wahida Akter from the NGO Lighthouse said, "Many sex workers were deprived of relief during this pandemic. We expect that they get registered properly and the aid reaches them in the right time."
Manusher Jonno Foundation Executive Director Shaheen Anam said that during this pandemic, women and children were the worst sufferers, and poor families were harassed while collecting relief.
"We need to think of a way out so that such incongruity doesn't take place in the future," she added.
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