Empowering Village Societies in Bangladesh

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Empowering Village Societies in Bangladesh

BRDB's "Project RD12"

The Bangladesh Rural Development Board (BRDB) is a major government agency involved in rural development. Its aim has been to help the small and marginal farmers and assetless rural poor to improve their socio-economic condition, mainly through the establishment of cooperatives.

The basic aim of BRDB is to organize farmers and assetless men and women into institutions at the village level for the purpose of increasing production and income generation. It has sought to achieve this aim through a variety of projects and programs, numbering around 40 since 1971. During this 25 years of development, Bangladesh has faced many difficulties. In the beginning the war-torn economy presented a major challenge. As the country moved beyond that era, it faced a series of natural disasters and a degree of political instability, while the population growth rate remained high and counteracted a significant part of the development achieved over the years.

One of BRDB’s most important projects has been Rural Development Project 12 (RD12). This project is the largest poverty alleviation project of the Government of Bangladesh. Funded largely by the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA), “the major objective of the project is to improve the social and economic quality of life of the landless/assetless rural poor men and women through gainful economic activities and creating self employment opportunities.” The target group of RD 12 is “rural poor men and women who depend on manual labour and do not own more than fifty decimals of land (0.5 acres) including homesteads.”

The five basic strategies of the Programme are, mobilisation and organization, creation of capital, training, provision of credit, and creation of marketing facilities.

The key strategy in the programme is the formation of separate organizations for assetless men and women at the village level. BRDB field organizers are responsible for this strategy. Their role is to visit the villages in their area and establish contact with the target group.

The structure of the village societies rests on the foundation of groups of five, formed largely on the basis of residential proximity. Each of these groups nominates a leader. A village society may then consist of five or six or more of these groups, with each society restricted to either males or females. It is important to note that it is a requirement of the programme that at least 50 per cent of members will be women. In effect, a member is a family represented through either a man or woman.

Members of the village society are required to make a weekly savings deposit, of a very small sum. There are several reasons for this strategy. A key one is to develop the habit of saving in order to be able to finance future developments. A second important reason is to establish a society fund from which members can draw. Third, this fund establishes a buffer against the possible non-repayment of a loan by a member. Finally, the fund constitutes an important step towards the group becoming ultimately self-sufficient, in that as the fund grows it may come to constitute sufficient funds for lending purposes.

Another important input in RD12 is the training provided. The training is provided in several different ways. Much of the training revolves around the skills required for the range of income-generation activities. A second important area of training, however, is in the field of management. This represents a new area of skills for most participants, but one that is crucial not only to their participation in the Programme but to their lives in general.

The basic credit scheme is to provide members with a 12-month loan on which they must make weekly repayments. The loans are protected by both the 5-member solidarity group and by the society's own fund. Interest is charged and used in part to defray administrative costs.

Not only, as mentioned earlier, is the RD12 program the largest poverty alleviation project of the Government of Bangladesh, it is also regarded by many as a successful one. There can be no doubt that the project has moved quite a large number of families out of poverty.

The RD12 project is only one of several projects conducted by the BRDB, but not only the project evaluated above, but the overall programme as a whole is deemed as an extremely successful one - especially the country context taking into account.

Taken from the publication: “Making an Impact: Innovative HRD Approaches to Poverty Alleviation”, ESCAP, 1997