Akbar questions most NGOs' transparency
Regulatory Reforms Commission Chief Akbar Ali Khan yesterday said most of the non-government organisations (NGOs) in Bangladesh do not have satisfactory transparency and accountability and are not operating for the benefit of the poor.
"Most of the NGOs are not running for the benefit of the poor. Bureaucracy has gripped most of the NGOs. A genuine NGO should be controlled by root level people. Whereas, most of the NGOs in the country are now being controlled by top officials," said Khan, also former adviser to a caretaker government, as the chief guest of the launching ceremony of a project titled Smilling (small initiatives by local innovative NGOs), organised by PRIP Trust.
At the ceremony held in IDB auditorium at Agargaon in the capital, Khan also said the NGOs in the country are drifting away from the original mission of empowering the underprivileged.
Poverty, malnutrition and illiteracy cannot be eradicated from the society only through the micro credit method as there are different types of poverty among the people, he said adding, "Micro credit can remove 50 to 60 percent of poverty from the society and different types of innovative methods will have to be applied for eradicating the rest of the poverty."
PRIP Trust with the financial assistance of the European Commission (EC) launched the Smilling project in the Brahmaputra, Jamuna and Padma river basin areas in the country for duration of five years.
The total budget for the project is 8,134,00 euro. Out of it, 5.57 million euros will be used to support local small NGOs. The project would provide need-based and customised organisational development as well as other capacity building support of local government functionaries.
Dr Stefan Frowein, ambassador and head of delegation of the EC to Dhaka, said in the next 60 months, the programme is expected to increase the capacity of a significant number of small NGOs to deliver appropriate services and benefits to some 1,50,000 people living in most vulnerable areas of Bangladesh.
Barrister Tania Amir, chairperson of board of trustees of PRIP Trust, presided over the launching ceremony where Project Director of Smilling and PRIP Executive Director Aroma Dutta, EC Programme Manager Fabrizio Senesi, NGOs Affairs Bureau Director M Alauddin and PRIP Trustee Board member Father RW Timm spoke among others.
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