ADD INTERNATIONAL
BANGLADESH COUNTRY PROGRAMME STRATEGY 2015-2020
DRAFT (Feb 2016)
CONTEXT
Social Economic context
Bangladesh is ranked as 142nd out of 187 countries on the human development
index (UNDP Human Development Report 2013) and aspires to become a middleincome country by 2021 aiming for an increase in GDP growth from 6.51 to 7.5 – 8
per cent per year. In the past decade, the economy has grown at nearly 6 percent
per year, and human development went hand-in-hand with economic growth.
Poverty dropped by nearly one third, coupled with increased life expectancy,
literacy, and per capita food intake (The World Bank 2012).
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However, the absolute number of people still living below the poverty line remains
significant; 40% of people live on less than USD1.25 per day, with an average
income per capita of approximately USD1,300 per year (Bangladesh Country
Report, BTI 2014). While widespread poverty exists and rural/urban disparity
remains a big concern, a segment of population who are now living above the
poverty line are still vulnerable to shocks and at risk of falling back into poverty if
they become sick or disabled, lose their jobs or are affected by natural disasters.
On the other hand, the country has become the world’s second largest exporter of
ready-made garments and has achieved self-sufficiency in rice production. The
country has a huge labour force that has become skilled and semi-skilled in the
garments sector where employment of young men and women has been found with
gender parity.
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Political
Despite striving for real democracy since independence, the political scenario in
Bangladesh is characterized by weak governance, corruption and adversarial
politics that have led to widespread frustration in the population regarding party
politics and internal power-plays. Lack of accountability and transparency of key
institutions and weak capacity of local government are key factors that prevent
the delivery of quality services.
Population trends
Bangladesh is one of the most densely populated countries in the world with an
estimated 160 million inhabitants occupying a landmass of 147,570 square
kilometers. The growth rate of population the 2011 census was recorded at 1.3 per
annum. There are 31 million households with the average household size being
4.35; the child death rate is recorded as 2.71.
Gender Parity
In terms of gender parity, Bangladesh’s ranking on the Gender Equity Index is the
same as its position on the overall HDI Index (i.e. 142/187 countries). There have
been positive results on MDG 3 gender equality and MDG 5 reducing maternal
mortality (falling from 574 deaths per 100,000 live births in 1990 to 170 in 2010)
and for education. Women account for 52.7% of the country’s economic activity,
but females earn on average less than half of their male counterparts (Bangladesh
Country report, BTI 2014). Despite the legal and political commitment, the
incidence of early marriage and gender-based violence continue to prevail. The
mean age of marriage is males 23.9 years and females 17.5 years. The 2011 census
records 12% female headed households/88% male.
Environmental governance and sustainable development
Bangladesh is particularly vulnerable to the impacts of climate change, most
notably in coastal areas. As a low-lying country, Bangladesh is vulnerable to any
rises in sea levels, flooding and cyclones. Annual floods and river erosion are
routine phenomena leaving thousands homeless and vulnerable.
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Progress towards the Millennium Development Goals
Bangladesh will not reach all the MDGs by 2015 however among SAARC countries it
has recorded the highest annual rate of reduction of under-5 mortality rate
(average 5.3% annual rate reduction between 1990 and 2011). Positive results have
also been noted for MDG-1 on poverty alleviation, MDG-2 on universal primary
education, MDG-3 on gender equality and MDG -5 on reducing maternal mortality
(falling from 574 deaths per 100, 000 live births in 1990 to 170 in 2010). Specific
successes include the net enrolment in primary education (94.9 per cent in 2010),
gender parity in education, immunization coverage, controlling tuberculosis, and
the low prevalence of HIV/AIDS.
SITUATION FOR DISABLED PEOPLE
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Service delivery and disability in Bangladesh
Chronic poverty and disability in Bangladesh are inextricably linked. Current
evidence suggests that at least 2.4 million disabled people remain poor. Disability
feeds on poverty, and poverty on disability. Because of poverty many people
become disabled. Poor people have very limited access to health care and facilities
(including immunisation); they have very rudimentary feeding and nutrition; they
are exposed to a number of disabling conditions, etc. As a consequence they are
more likely to become disabled. On the other hand, many disabled people lack
education and skills training. Hence they cannot easily access employment. The
physically demanding nature of unskilled labour (a hallmark of most developing
economies) also makes it difficult for disabled people to be involved in labourintensive activities. This situation is made worse by social exclusion of disabled
people that constrains their participation in the job market.
Disability Statistics
Concrete and current statistics on disability in Bangladesh is missing. Rates of
disability are variously reported: a disability survey conducted by the Ministry of
Social Welfare in 2014-15 identified 1.8 million disabled people. The 2011 census
identified 1.4% of the population as disabled compared to the previous ESCAP
report which recorded 9% disability. From the HIES survey the prevalence rate of
disability shows about 1.40% while WHO figure on disability prevalence is 31.9%
(World Health Survey 2002-2004).
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Evolution of the disability movement: coverage, coherence, representation,
inclusion, effectiveness
The disability movement in Bangladesh is characterized by networks of grassroots
self-help groups, 140 DPOs at Union level with 20,000 members, and 10 federations
at district level, plus a national umbrella organization (NGDO). These organizations
are impairment specific or represent cross-disability membership. There are also
women only organizations, however these face many challenges in taking the lead
on disabled women’s issues and Union DPOs tend to take that role. The networked
structures provide a relatively effective mechanism for mobilizing people with
disabilities and for participation in national and local government policy
formulation and planning processes. They are also instrumental in influencing
mainstream government and NGO development programmes and projects (such as
livelihoods, WASH, community mental health services and inclusive education) for
the inclusion of people with disabilities though there is much work yet to be done
despite recent successes. There is however a tendency for people with physical
disabilities to benefit more from these efforts resulting in other groups such as the
deaf, people with multiple disabilities, women, children and adolescents, etc.
being marginalized within the disability movement itself.
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Bangladesh’s disability legislation and policies and their implementation
The Disability Rights and Protection Act 2013 and Neuro-Developmental Disability
Trust Act 2013 have both been approved in Bangladesh; the challenge is now to
ensure their implementation but their enactment is hindered by the absence of
necessary instruments such as Rules of Business. The National Education Policy
(2010) mentions the inclusion of children with disabilities but again this has not
been fully implemented. While some work including the building of ramps and
accessible toilets at schools has been undertaken under the Primary Education
Development Program-3, there is very limited geographic coverage. Two other
policies which refer to disability inclusion but have yet to be acted on are the
Women’s Development Policy (2011) and the Child Development Policy (2011). A
draft mental health policy is also in progress.
Progress towards implementing the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons
with Disabilities
Bangladesh ratified the CRPD in 2007. The country was due to report to the
Committee in 2010 but this has not yet happened; a revised submission date has
been set for the end of February 2016. The Bangladesh Legal Aid Services Trust
(BLAST), NGDO (the national DPO), and ADD International have drafted a shadow/
alternative report which will be revisited and submitted once the official
government report has been submitted and released for civil society review.
Participation and self-representation by disabled people
In 2007/8 people with disabilities were included on the electoral register for the
first time; however, polling centres are not disability friendly environments.
Involvement in politics is also difficult for people with disabilities as political
parties’ constitutions do not favour it. There is only minimal inclusion of disabled
people in local government; 6 disabled people became members of the Union
Council in the 2011 elections (overall 55 members). Disabled people participated in
election monitoring of the 2001 and 2008 elections for national parliament and
they are also involved in monitoring City Corporation and Union Council elections.
Social inclusion and prevailing attitudes towards disability
Despite recent legislation and improvements in knowledge, understanding and
attitudes towards disabled people, there is still a stigma relating to disability. They
continue to be seen as ‘incapable’ and not deserving of inclusion. This hampers
their ability to progress social inclusion and to claim their legitimate rights to
health care, education, and social safety net services. Opportunities for people
with disabilities to participate in development activities or to hold positions of
status are extremely limited.
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ADD INTERNATIONAL’S COUNTRY PROGRAMME STRATEGY IN
BANGLADESH
The content of this strategy has been informed by wide ranging consultations with
DPOs and other stakeholders and builds on the past work of the organization. The
strategy builds on global ADD International’s Theory of Change (TOC) and ADD’s
Strategic Framework 2013-17 (both summarized on the back of this booklet).
ADD’s past achievements 2008-12
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Strengthening DPOs’ ability to achieve positive change for their members by
building organizational capacity and raising awareness. DPO members report
benefits including improved access to financial services, skills training and/or
income generating inputs, Government social safety net benefits, and electoral
processes. 80% of members actively participate in disability rights campaigns and
70% report more respect from their families as a result of DPO membership and
increased awareness.
Building a vibrant disability movement including strengthening the linkages
between national disability organizations and district level federations enabling
their participation in national level issue-based advocacy campaigns and raising
awareness of disability rights.
Developing collaborative partnerships for inclusive development with mainstream
NGOs and media houses to raise awareness of disability issues and create
opportunities for inclusion of people with disabilities.
Advocating for inclusive policy framework and legislation including ensuring
grassroots concerns were incorporated in the Disability Rights and Protection Act
2013 and the Neuro Developmental Disability Protection Trust Act 2013. ADD is also
engaged with the government on the finalization of the draft mental health policy.
Learning gained over the last strategic period
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• ADD Bangladesh has been working with some of the same DPOs for a long
period creating a sense of dependency. More emphasis needs to be put on
ADD’s facilitation role with DPOs to help them achieve sustainability and
institutional growth.
• Greater attention needs to be paid to mapping of DPO membership and
equitable representation in DPO management structures to mitigate the
tendency for people with physical disabilities to benefit the most to the
exclusion of other groups such the deaf, people with multiple disabilities,
ethnic minorities, women, children and adolescents.
• In order to address grassroots concerns effectively, ADD recognizes the
advantages of working on specific, thematic, time-bound projects (e.g.
mental health, sanitation, etc.) This also ensures the generation of ground
level evidence of need to support advocacy and influencing.
• The benefits of collaborative partnerships highlights the need for the
development of a partnership strategy.
• ADD needs to adopt a systematic approach to the capacity building of its
own staff in order to effectively promote inclusive development with
mainstream agencies and other stakeholders.
• Developments in technology in WASH programmes have not taken account of
disability highlighting the need to work with mainstream agencies to address
this gap.
STRATEGIC AIMS 2015-2020
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• To support DPOs to become more effective in bringing about practical and
positive changes in the lives of individual persons with disabilities living in
poverty:
• To strengthen the disability movement to become more cohesive (across the
country, and from the grassroots to the national level), representative, inclusive
and effective.
• To work with other organizations to promote the rights, well-being and social/
economic participation of persons with disabilities.
• To develop effective influence and advocacy at national and international
levels to secure and monitor legislative and policy frameworks which support
the inclusion and development of persons with disabilities.
• To promote the inclusion of disability issues in all areas of development at
national and international levels.
Specific programmatic interventions
ADD Bangladesh will focus on poverty and people with disabilities living in hard to
reach areas in the following independent but interlinked thematic areas:
Social, Political and Civic Rights
In general, people living in poverty have little access to social, political and civic
rights including representation, rights to vote, decision making, or access to
services. Persons with disabilities are further excluded and deprived of their civic
rights; ADD will address this by:
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Sensitization of families and communities
Organizing and raising voices of persons with disabilities.
Advocacy with stakeholders (duty bearers and law makers).
Economic Empowerment and Wellbeing
Economic empowerment programming will directly benefit persons with
disabilities, especially women with disabilities, who are excluded socioeconomically and are most deprived. The economic activities will increase their
confidence and knowledge of how to cope with economic shocks. This will be
addressed through:
- Inclusive Skills Development
- Entrepreneurship Development
- Access to Job Market
- Access to Investable Capital
- Access to Services and Social Safety Net Programme.
-
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Gender-Based Violence (GBV)
Gender-based violence continues to be a major problem in Bangladesh, where at
least 50% of DPO members are women, who are often victims of sexual abuse,
exploitation and discrimination which ADD Bangladesh will strive to address
through:
Gender awareness training
Women’s representation and empowerment
Life skills development
Access to legal services
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Mental Health (MH)
Building on our capacity acquired from the ongoing community based mental
health service project, ADD Bangladesh will continue to assist persons with
psychological disorders (PPD) through community based mental health services
with its programme focus on:
- Improvement in knowledge and understanding of mental health
- Community capacity building on mental health care and services
- Access to services for mental health.
- Community based rehabilitation support
- Advocacy for implementation of mental health policy.
Inclusive Education (IE)
Excluding children with disabilities from educational opportunities has high social
and economic costs. The country cannot achieve Education for All or the
Millennium Development Goal of universal completion of primary education
without ensuring access to education of children with disabilities. Despite the aim
of achieving universal primary school enrolment, most children with disability are
still excluded from enrolment and hence need to be included through:
- Promotion of inclusive primary education with all stakeholders
- Parental awareness for increased enrolment
- Policy advocacy for implementation of national education policy and disability
act.
Water Sanitation and Hygiene Promotion (WASH)
ADD’s recent work on WASH gives empirical evidence that this is a neglected sector
for people with disabilities. Hardware and software development and technological
innovation have not truly addressed the disability issue. ADD will continue its work
in the following areas:
- Awareness on WASH
- Popularizing disability friendly latrines
- Influencing national sanitation strategy towards pro-disability
Cross-cutting issues
A number of environmental and social issues like disaster risk reduction, climate
change and gender disparity have been identified that have implications across all
programme interventions, these are therefore to be adopted as cross-cutting issues
in this strategic period.
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Ways of working
ADD International seeks to deliver on its aims using the following strategic
approaches:
• Adopting the social model and rights based approach to disability – we will
role-model this approach and advocate for its adoption at regional and
national levels
• Strengthen the ability of DPOs and their members to participate fully in
advocating for their rights to ensure that programmes are rooted in the lived
experience of disability
• Working with DPOs to address the links between poverty and disability
through interventions which target disabled people living in extreme poverty
• Design programmes to address lack of services in inaccessible and hard to
reach areas
• Working effectively in partnerships and facilitating linkages
• Together with our DPOs, develop a fundraising strategy to ensure a strong
resource base
• Strengthen monitoring, evaluation and learning systems to ensure reflection
on our practice and capture of learning which will enable us to make future
decisions based on fact and evidence
Working in partnership
ADD will pitch partnerships at the most appropriate level for a given intervention,
for example, a project with grassroots implementation and national level influence
requires an agreement with district level DPOs where implementation takes place
and with the national DPO which may be better positioned to take forward
national policy advocacy campaigns. All partnership arrangements will be governed
by Memoranda of Understanding spelling out roles, responsibilities and obligations
of all parties.
The purpose of partnerships is to provide opportunities for “joint Implementation”
in order to contribute to building DPO capacity and the collective empowerment of
persons with disabilities so that successes, challenges and learning can be mutually
co-owned. ADD will generally not be a funder to other partners except where ADD
leads on a contract with sub-contracted partners. (I took these 2 paras from the
Uganda one as I couldn’t say it any better!)
Implementing partnership: DPOs, DPO network, regional network of DPOs,
disability focused NGOs, and disability focused mainstreaming I/NGOs. This will
be for implementing project/programs
•
Collaborative partnerships to work jointly on common issues and causes, for
example with INGOs, NGOs, other institutions, local government etc.
•
Strategic partnership for sharing and supporting in technical aspects and
working for common interests: corporate sectors, GoB, research and academic
institutions.
•
Alliance building for solidarity and campaign on broader issues: disability
network, legal aid organizations, INGO forum, etc.
•
Media partnership for promotion and media advocacy: print and electronic
media
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•
We will also link with other ADD programmes at regional and international level to
ensure that work in Bangladesh is informed by best practice elsewhere, by for
example:
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• Developing/reviewing management systems e.g. guidelines for conducting
due diligence for potential partners, templates for partnership agreements
and memoranda of understanding etc.
• Participating in working groups like those of child safeguarding; monitoring
evaluation and learning; finance, administration and human resources etc.
The balance between rights and needs
Our work will maintain a strategic focus on changing systemic and policy barriers
that prevent inclusion. However, we will also seek to balance this with the need to
meet the immediate needs of people with disabilities through our role in capacity
building of DPOs which will strengthen their ability to respond to immediate needs
of their members and secure improvements in their lives. In some cases, ADD will
make the strategic choice to provide services to persons with disabilities for a
limited period as part of a long-term empowerment and capacity building strategy,
or to demonstrate learning that can then be shared and picked up by others. This
might be in a context where no other organizations are able to provide services.
Anticipated Impact
The interventions of this country strategy are expected to result in the following
impact:
• Greater capacity of DPOs to promote the rights of disabled people based on
UNCRPD
• Improved cohesion and representation within the disability movement
• Increased inclusion of disabled people in the work of mainstream
development agencies and actors
• Increased access to mental health services by disabled people
• Better livelihoods and incomes for disabled people
• Greater protection and promotion of the rights of women and girls with
disabilities
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Evidence of impact will be assessed and reported in an annual review of the
strategic plan (using a monitoring framework with indicators to measure the plan),
internal reflection and learning sessions, and midterm and final evaluations of
projects. During the course of this strategy, situational analyses and baseline
studies will be conducted and will provide further evidence of impact.
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The success of this strategy will be measured in terms of:
• The extent to which DPOs have developed the capacity to operate
effectively and sustainably
• Greater access and participation by disabled people in the mainstream
programmes targeted by this strategy