See discussions, stats, and author profiles for this publication at: https://www.researchgate.

net/publication/354176363

Poverty Reduction Challenges: BRAC's Programs in Bangladesh

Article  in  The Dhaka University studies. Part B · August 2021

CITATION READS
1 220

1 author:

M. Anwar Hossen
University of Dhaka
32 PUBLICATIONS   69 CITATIONS   

SEE PROFILE

Some of the authors of this publication are also working on these related projects:

Food Security 2012 Bangladesh-Ujjibito View project

All content following this page was uploaded by M. Anwar Hossen on 28 August 2021.

The user has requested enhancement of the downloaded file.

Required Citation: Hossen, M.A. 2015. Poverty Reduction Challenges: BRAC’s Programs in
Bangladesh. The Dhaka University Studies, 6(8):43-63.

Poverty Reduction Challenges: BRAC’s Programs in Bangladesh

Abstract
This paper demonstrates how a major Non-Government Organization (NGO) in Bangladesh

develops poverty reduction programs and their effects on local poor people. These programs will

be addressed as part of a larger context, particularly as it relates to any projections into the future

of the country. One of the features of Bangladeshi society is the capability to create and cultivate

solutions to many of its problems, microfinance being the best-known example. The paper uses

the Bangladesh Rural Advancement Committee (BRAC) 2005 and 2013 reports as the examples

of how a NGO theorizes and organizes its operations so as to serve its members for improving

the socio-economic capabilities of everyday livelihoods for rural poor. More specifically, the

paper addresses BRAC’s agriculture and food security, Dabi, and Progoti programs. Based on

these programs, some poor people are successful in reducing their poverty level while others

encounter negative effects. These differential outcomes are explored in this paper with a question:

who are benefitted from the BRAC programs and who are less so in the process of recovery from

poverty? Based on this question, this paper describes three major points: (i) understanding

poverty, (ii) BRAC’ poverty reduction programs in 2005 and 2013, (iii) program management

strategies, and (iv) critical points of BRAC’s poverty reduction programs. My data analyses

indicate that BRAC programs helped the rural people “unequally” depending on their

socioeconomic backgrounds.

_________________________________________________________________________

Page | 1
*PhD (UBC, Canada) and Associate Professor, Department of Sociology, University of Dhaka,
Dhaka, Bangladesh. E-mail: anwar_sociology@du.ac.bd

Introduction

This paper offers an example of how a major civil society organization, BRAC, operates in

Bangladesh for poverty reduction of the poor. One of the features of Bangladeshi society is the

capacity to create and cultivate solutions to many of the social problems that the country faces.

It is the home of the three largest NGOs in the world: BRAC, Grameen Bank, and Association

for Social Advancement (ASA), Bangladesh. BRAC disburses 1.5 billion for microfinance

programs to 4.2 million borrowers in 2013 and this disbursement was USD 3,094 million to five

million borrowers in 2005. Some of the microfinance programs focuses on agriculture and food

security, Dabi, and Progoti in 2013. BRAC annual report 2013 emphasizes on agricultural

modernization with seed varieties and market economic system. For this purpose, the NGO

provides credit to the different types of farmers under the different programs like Borga Chasi

Unnayan Prokolpo (BCUP), the Northern Crop Diversification Project (NCDP), and the

Secondary Crop Diversification Project. In addition to this agriculture and food security program,

BRAC has other programs like Dabi and Progoti to reduce the poor who do not have access to

conventional banks. BRAC discontinued the 2005 Unnoti program in 2013 and develops a new

program on migration. This paper evaluates BRAC’s agriculture and food security, Dabi, and

Progoti programs to understand their effects on poor people’s poverty reduction.

Certain inherited cultural characteristics of the dominant religion of Islam (about 89

percent of the total population in Bangladesh) has wedged the female population into a set of

circumstances that has given the scale and the nature of poverty an embedded feature in the

livelihood practices of Bangladeshi people. Thus, poverty is the over-riding factor in every

Page | 2
aspect of development policies related to Bangladesh. The extent of this poverty is beyond the

scope of governments, past, present, and more than likely, for the foreseeable future. NGOs in

Bangladesh have major initiatives to reach this remote people and improve their socioeconomic

conditions.

Understanding Poverty

In the opening paragraph of The Needs of Strangers, the author Ignatieff (now a Canadian

politician) describes a weekly event of higglering over the second-hand clothing that takes place

at a “side walk market” close to his apartment in London. The buyers are the elderly poor people

whom the author describes as “not destitute, just respectably poor” (Ignatieff, 1984: 9). Contrary

to the respectable people in London, the poor in Bangladesh are always destitute and the overall

society may have difficulties to claim that ours is a moral society on the context of state role to

develop safety net for the vulnerable people. The narrow domain of economics in which poverty

usually cast does not provide a full understanding of poverty as a way of life. More specifically,

there is a tendency to quantify nature of poverty with its causes, which can restrict the range of

alternatives that are available as ‘correctives’. A preoccupation with the outputs of “material

cultural feature” has had the effect of stifling insights on the role of the non-material cultural

features that dominate the very mechanism that is supposed to provide the solutions. During the

1960s, a new dimension in analyzing poverty emerged with Oscar Lewis’ contribution of the

“culture of poverty” (COP) theory (Lewis, 1966).

The theory of Lewis maintains that culturally based attitudes and predispositions are the

major factors to socio-economic mobility for many of the poor. The theory implies that, for

many, this condition has become a way of life that results from failure to achieve even minor

Page | 3
socio-economic goals. Since its inception, COP has been the subject of analyses and critiques by

social sciences from various disciplines, professionals of many stripes, and most importantly,

from public policy and political governments. The discourses can be divided into two streams;

those who are supportive of the theory, and those who are sceptical of the underlying principles

and doubtful of the usefulness of the theory. Despite decades of commentaries about COP, it

continues to be a topic of discussions that quite often ends up as one more debate about elite and

marginalized priorities. This suggests that, with all its weaknesses, there is something about COP

that touches a nerve, including that it does not meet the standards of academic scholarship.

There seems to be too much room for hiding sensitive facts that lead to abuse of the poor, and as

a target by those with elite biased development agenda. What makes the last point so important is

that so often the discussions related to COP end up as a debate between conservatives and

liberals over ideology regarding empowering the poor people. The issue of the academic

strength of COP and the theory’s explanatory usefulness are rarely addressed. This COP is not

willingly conceived by poor people in Bangladesh: rather they are forced to accept this poverty

as they fail to secure decent livelihoods. When this forced poverty is assimilated in everyday

livelihoods and transmitted these livelihoods from one generation to another, it can consider as

the COP in Bangladesh.

More recently, Green and Hulme (2005) have addressed the mistaken view of confusing

the evidence of poverty with what is the true cause of poverty. These authors explain the

historical background of current poverty. The major cause of this poverty is the modernization

approach. Ferguson (1994:15) emphasizes that the modernization approach includes two major

historical directions. One direction represents development as a socioeconomic transformation

toward modernization with scientific rationality. The second direction, which began in the mid-

Page | 4
1970s, represents development as concerned with poverty reduction and empowerment to

improve quality of life. NGOs in Bangladesh and other countries of the world are active partners

of governments and international agencies with this second direction. Neither of these

development approaches has produced success in reducing poverty of the marginalized people.

Green and Hulme (2005: 868) note the sociological perspectives of understandings (of

contemporary theories of poverty) which moves “toward understanding the causes of poverty.”

Yet, the attraction of a materialistic cultural perception of poverty is the result of (a) the

importance of “survival” as represented by avoiding starvation, and sickness and (b) the

attraction of the easy way of avoidance – purchases of food and health care. Politically, the

solution has the added attraction of being able to distinguish “between the poor and the non-

poor” as levels of the social stratification (ibid: 868). Green and Hulme (2005:869) would argue

that the elements in my example (hunger-food and sickness-healthcare) are “simultaneously

causes and consequences of poverty” that appears to be characteristics of poverty but is in fact

“the effects of the social relations that produce it” (ibid: 869). Thus, they argue, poverty is a

social construction that causes exclusion and marginalization due to unequal access to resources.

Green and Hulme (2005) introduce the concept of chronic poverty because of its

usefulness in understanding structural causes and their effects transmit from one to next

generation (Green and Hulme, 2005:873). The implications of studying different forms of

poverty is viewed as useful in gaining a better perspective in “positioning” poverty in a flexible

context: marginalized people encounter malnutrition, illiteracy, and sickness even when some

countries are to secure their robust economic growth as power structure and social process create

exclusion and economic vulnerabilities. The authors make a special distinction between chronic

poverty that is structurally driven (the result of social constructions) and poverty that is

Page | 5
conjunctural (is present in tandem with an otherwise independent phenomenon) (Green and

Hulme, 2005:873).

Under the umbrella doctrine of purdah associated with Islamic religious and cultural

context and sometimes the self-serving interpretation of the Quran by the patriarchal social

system (Jacqui and Mohanty, 2003: xxv), certain values and practices become enshrined and

made applicable to the daily living experiences of women. This doctrine is more difficult to

apply in urban areas where a cosmopolitan life-style dominates livelihood practices. The doctrine

encounters a form of underground resistance among higher income groups where elements of

Western culture form part of their everyday practices. What is left are the rural poor, and so the

rural poor women that constitutes BRAC’s primary constituency face the impact of purdah as the

“essential element of the liturgy of their daily life experiences” (Balk, 1997:161). It is argued

that family violence is inevitable if she goes for the loan without the permission of a male

member more specifically the household head. Even, one did not dare to think about it before the

permission of her husband.

Servitude is owed to all males of the household, including sons, and others that could

form an extended family. At mealtime the females eat only after all the males are satisfied (Chen,

et al., 1981:55) that explained by cultural and religious grounds. Rural poor women also exist in

a social environment that is marked by a forced poverty of social relationship. This will

presumably preserve her ‘modesty’ by avoiding the outside world (Kibria, 1995). The adult

woman may be the principal worker attached to the household, but she has no illusions that she

has a legitimate claim of ownership of the family’s domestic assets. If her husband should die or

should he unilaterally end their marriage, she may be forced to leave the house without any of

the family assets (Cain et al., 1978:431-2). A reality of the rural poor woman is her poverty of

Page | 6
assets, educational, material, and psychological: thus, the daily grind of the experience of the

poverty of self-worth and of inclusion (Green & Hulme, 2005: 872).

Therefore, social, cultural and religious grounds are important prerequisite of the

permission to receive loan from BRAC. By regulating the living experiences of women, these

rules collectively become culturally driven causes of poverty of women (Cheryl, 1991; Beneria

and Sen, 1986; Mies, 1982; Lewis, 1995; Odeh, 1993; Schrijvers, 1983; Wolf, 1990) that must be

seen in the context of chronic poverty provided by Green and Hulme (2005). The poverty of

familial intimacy and respect brought about by the presumption of the inferior status of females -

the adult woman and girls (Cain, et. al., 1979:405). Although the most farm work is done by

males, if there is an owned plot of land close to the living space the adult woman is expected to

help in the farming. The adult women and the girls are responsible for collecting fuel for cooking,

drinking water for family, and taking care of domestic animals. In addition, they are also

responsible for the family sick people and also for the children. However, the gendered

classification of household work makes it exclusively for female (Balk, 1997: 154; Wolf, 1990;

Schrijvers, 1983).

Each of these elements of cultural oriented poverty is indicative of dysfunctional social,

political and cultural structures that are mediated within a capitalist market-driven economic

system that lacks the sensitivity and subtlety to cope with its non-market foundation. BRAC’s

approach has been to (1) encourage and promote the development programs with respective

underlying philosophies that address the cultural poverty experiences and to recognize that these

are among the real causes of material poverty (Greene and Hulme, 2005); and (2) to encourage

and install strategies that are relevant to (a) the operational stages of resisting poverty; namely,

poverty alleviation, poverty reduction, and poverty eradication; (b) to engage in the stratification

Page | 7
of levels of poverty that exists among any broad constituency of the poor; and (c) provide

programs and use managerial strategies so as to “fit” the needs of each stratified group.

To develop these programs, BRAC’s approaches are consistent with the principles and

expectations of many other NGOs in Bangladesh. Principles and approaches share the same

strategy of mobilization, participation, and conscious-raising as prerequisites to structural

changes. Both BRAC and other development organizations use the socio-political feminist

context of women issues in the analysis of gender discrimination to drive the countervailing

strategies and programs. And both see the provision of resources in meaningful amounts and

accessibility as critical to the efficient implementation of programs. Both focus on collectivizing

the problems of the marginalized as a means of politicizing the community into collective action.

In the implementation of program strategies all participants should be expected to imagine new

horizons as a prerequisite to a continuing process of development.

Given that BRAC’s public preoccupation is rural poor with specific concentration on

poor women, the COP and chronic poverty relevant concepts are to this paper. More than 10,000

national and international NGOs in Bangladesh are working for poverty reduction although many

poor people are failing to overcome their poverty level. Their poverty transmits from one

generation to another and they live with this poverty. This COP in addition to chronic poverty

raises a question about the performances of BRAC programs like agriculture and food security,

Dabi, and Progoti. Fernando (2011) provides evidences of NGO microfinance programs like

Dabi that are not able to reduce poverty: rather NGOs are exploiting poor people based on their

own agendas. Fernando’s point can be extended further with evidences from Cockburn.

Cockburn (2006) raised very important questions, which indicate limitations of NGO

performance: “why micro loans for poor people and macro-handouts for the rich?” The typical

Page | 8
early loans are very small not able to generate a level of income that can give a member out of

poverty. At best, many enterprises provide income that make poverty more tolerable – not

poverty alleviation which Green and Hulme (2005) termed as “chronic poverty” (Green and

Hulme, 2005). Again, higher interest rate and the method of application are common complaints

made by borrowers and critics (Cockburn, 2006). Keep in mind these critical points, this paper

focuses on the BRAC’s poverty reduction programs.

BRAC’s Poverty Reduction Strategies

Microfinance was the first program initiated by BRAC. It remains the foundational program

activity and the instrument through which membership in the organization is achieved. EDP

(Economic Development Activity) incorporates all the different microfinance ‘arrangements’

that serve different constituencies of human communities engaged in different activities. There

were 4 million borrowers in 2005 and 4.2 million in 2013 under BRAC’s microfinance programs.

The minimum loan provision, which applies to first-time borrowers, establishes the starting point

that will “… help break the cycle of poverty” (Bangladesh Rural Advancement Committee

Annual Report, 2005). Starting with the first time borrowers whose loan is of a small amount,

subsequent loans increase in accordance with the pre-set limit and the successes of previous

investments. As BRAC learns more about the clientele, the organization adjusts its philosophical

orientation and policies on program implementation to meet the given circumstances.

Poverty Reduction Programs in 2005 and 2013

Throughout its evolution, BRAC has continued to learn more about the constituency that it

served. The first order of importance was to acquire a comprehensive understanding of the depth

Page | 9
and the range of poverty in general and rural poverty in particular, in Bangladesh. Firstly,

BRAC’s primary constituency is rural poor women who are dependent on men culturally,

socially, and economically. Many villages are almost always without paved roads, ready access

to running water and sanitation, electricity, telephone, and some distance from hospital, school,

and other basic public services. The poor of Bangladesh is more accurately identified as

“destitute”, who suffers from socioeconomic vulnerability that caused by ‘water extreme’ (flood

and drought). Based on this socio-economical aspect of poverty, BRAC has significant number

of development programs for poverty reduction of 135 million people in eleven countries

(Bangladesh Rural Advancement Committee 2013). The major sectors of BRAC are

microfinance, health, education, and agricultural extension.

Program responses to poverty have for sometimes lived with notions of alleviation

(making poverty more intolerable), reduction (involving measurable lessening of the burden of

poverty), and eradication (the end of the poverty experience) as the classic “stages of demise” of

poverty. Given the necessity of managing the process, it becomes obvious that programs must be

structured so as to assess clients individually and to treat them in small groups of roughly similar

potential. This is intended to achieve a smooth flow through the “stages.” In 2001, it became

obvious to BRAC that the minimum standard required for participation in microfinance would

not allow those “ who are too poor to take advantage of the standard micro finance options.”

The response was to set up two new programs: to serve the special needs. “Targeting the Ultra

Poor” (TUP) is comprised mainly of women who are head of households or who own less that

half acre of land. A different program serves the needs of women with psychological and

physical disabilities: the “Specially Targeted Ultra Poor” (STUP). The role of TUP and STUP is

to help the very needy to “transition into the mainstream micro finance program” (Bangladesh

Page | 10
Rural Advancement Committee Annual Report, 2005). Targeting sections of a given

constituency so as to enhance services does not undermine Moreau’s principles of

materialization or collectivization (Moreau, 1979). If the grouping will assist women to “own

their process of change” (Mullaly, 1993), the empowerment of the client will be enhanced. TUP

and STUP are clearly part of the poverty alleviation stage of the empowerment process.

In 2013, BRAC continues the TUP program for promoting social mobility. Some

marginalized group of people, BRAC defined as ultra-poor, do not have financial capabilities in

accessing the Dabi or Progroti program. Based on this understanding, BRAC develops another

program called Ultra Poor Program that includes asset grants, skill development, and healthcare

support.

In 2013, BRAC provides USD 1.5 billion to 4.2 million borrowers with it’s microfinance

programs; Dabi, Progoti, and migration. These programs are occupied with 92, 7, and 1

percentages of borrowers respectively and the majority of them is women. The Dabi program is

exclusively for poor women that develops to provide loans who are members of Village

Organizations (VOs) for small business like poultry and livestock, vegetable and handicrafts.

This program provides loan range USD 100-1,000 with an average of USD 275. In 2013, BRAC

provides USD 810 million loan to four million borrowers. In addition to this Dabi program,

BRAC has Progoti program for both men and women to promote micro and small entrepreneurs

like shop keepers, agricultural businessmen or manufacturers. This program loan ranges from

USD 1,000 to 10,000 with an average of USD 2,200. In 2013, total borrowers were 300,000 who

takes 668 million loans.

BRAC agriculture and food security program has three major focusing points: (i) Borga

Chashi Unnayan Prokolpo (BCUP) for tenant farmers; (ii) the Northern Crop Diversification

Page | 11
Project (NCDP); and (iiii) the Secondary Crop Diversification Project (SCDP). Based on these

programs, BRAC is successful in producing 9,400 metric ton seeds in 2012-13 that describe 25

percent of hybrid market rice market, 50 percent of hybrid maize, 12 percent of potato, and five

percent of vegetables. To promote these hybrid seeds, BRAC develops 31,088 VOs for USD 250

million loaned money management with a total of 391,244 borrowers in 2013. Under the above

programs, BRAC staff train 279,530 local farmers.

BRAC develops three hybrid rice varieties and three vegetables for promoting

commercial agricultural production in the different agro-ecological zones in Bangladesh.

Moreover, BRAC promotes aquaculture extension in 51 sub-districts of 12 districts based on

financial supports of DFID (Department for International Development) and AusAID (Australian

Agency for International Development). Through these financial supports, BRAC is successful

in supporting 38,500 farmers in 2013. With USAID’s (U.S. Agency for International

Development) funding supports, BRAC is currently promoting horticulture project.

In 2005, BRAC organizes local development programs organized into five very broad

Program Divisions; Economic Development Program (EDP), Employment and Income

Generation Program (EIGP), Education, Health, and Social Development (EHSD). EIGP

includes specific programs in Fisheries, Aquaculture, and Fish and Prawn hatchery. There are

also more than twenty specialized units that serve a wide range of programs from all Divisions

and which are coordinated under the directorate for “Program Support Enterprises” (PSS) e.g.,

Farm Disease Diagnostic Lab, Salt Production & Marketing, etc. In addition, the Administrative

Division, e.g. Human Resources, Finance, etc., provides useful inputs for the implementation of

programs.

Page | 12
 A different initiative, the Progotti Program (under EIGP) is established to “create new

employment through enterprise development (of) new and existing small business.” A program

identical to Progotti, Women’s Enterprise Development (WED) is offered to women

entrepreneurs to operate small enterprises in urban locations. This will expand BRAC’s interest

beyond the rural areas. WED will also extend to the hill tract regions where most of the ethnic

communities reside. This will constitute a major change for the provision of social services. For

many years, successive national governments have engaged in blatant discriminatory practices of

deliberately excluding the ethnic communities from the limited social services. This program

provides access to funds to become self-sufficient and to provide employment of others. A

notable requirement of WED is that all the “grouped” activities within each enterprise must be

headed by women and the overall manager must also be a woman. This is significant by

Bangladeshi standards and is enough to take someone with entrepreneurial skills out of poverty.

In terms of the number of persons/families who have been assisted in these programs, the effect

on the overall level of poverty in the country is negligible. None-the-less, it represents a new

and higher standard of performance by BRAC (all data from Bangladesh Rural Advancement

Committee Annual Report, 2005). If that is correct, then BRAC is at least on the cusp of being in

a position to have justifiable higher expectations of progress for the future.

Program Management Strategies

Political mobilization is the first order of business in the development objectives of BRAC.

BRAC makes use of the Village Organization (VO) as the basic unit of its organization.

Membership in a VO is the necessary route to participate in BRAC activities. Each VO covers an

area that is geographically small and accessible to ensure that most members, 20-30, can

maintain contact with the others and to know each other. The VO functions as the

Page | 13
local/geographic ‘political’ constituency of its members and as the program implementation unit

of the national organization. This natural tendency for social intimacy (even with opposition

from spouses) becomes a valuable asset in political mobilization. The individual human unit,

person or family, is never alone (Evans, 1999). For BRAC, and particularly for the frontline

service providers, the VO is also an administrative unit that facilitates the delivery of services to

its members.

VOs meet once each month for regular business as determined by the local group and any

reporting (and discussions) brought forward by frontline field staff of BRAC. In addition, each

specific program group will also have its own periodic meeting; e.g. microfinance groups meet

weekly. It is at these meetings that business, interspersed with discussions on related issues (e.g.

woman’s rights over property) take place. This highlights the critical role of the membership

dynamics of each VO. There is a clear linkage between microfinance proper, and the degree to

which borrowers understand their own personal development in the context of evolving culture

of the community. And bearing in mind that all experiences and possible contingencies are

opportunities to learn, the VO meeting is the logical place for political mobilization. Critical to

that opportunity is the nature of the dialogue between front line BRAC staff and VO members.

If the member is to “own the process of their empowerment” the participation of the parties must

reflect the true spirit of Freirean “conscientisation” whereby each participant is both teacher and

learner. Over time this will reduce the ‘social space’ between the structurally class-oriented

interlocutors (Rafi, 2003). As situations/needs emerge, BRAC makes use of meetings of regional

groupings of VOs to confront issues that have a wider geographic reach, thus combining

Moreau’s principles of materialization and collectivization (Moreau, 1979).

Page | 14
 Periodic weekly and monthly VO meetings address various socio-political and legal

issues that influence the livelihoods of women such as social inequality and injustice,

discrimination, illegal divorce, dowry, child marriage, polygamy, access to government services

for the poor, violence against women etc. Joint meetings of two or more VOs occur frequently to

advance solidarity (Mullaly, 1993:187). Time is always found to address ‘political’ issues of

substantive issues and political strategies. VOs also offer legal literacy courses and counselling

through the Legal Agency. BRAC’s educational programs include that establishment of schools

for children who have never enrolled in any school or have dropped out of formal school because

of family poverty. The program gives priority to girls who are victims of the traditional practice

that favors boys getting access to education. The program also offers training for local women

who have the basic education to qualify for teacher training. The graduates of this latter program

work as teachers in BRAC schools that offer free education for children, especially girls

(Bangladesh Rural Advancement Committee Annual Report, 2005). Special reading centers are

integrated in these schools which also provide courses on consciousness raising, reproductive

health, family law, environment issues, etc. for adolescents and adults. In this way, BRAC

initiates social mobilization through collective action and advocacy that can lead to changes in

the social structure (Bangladesh Rural Advancement Committee Annual Report, 2005).

At the other end of the spectrum of poverty are those who, in time, will outgrow the

upper limits of the mainstream microfinance program. In such situations, what is required for

decisions on lending is demonstration of the sensitivity, creativity, and the capacity for

responsiveness that are implicit in the notion of development. Agriculture is at the heart of rural

communities, especially so in Bangladesh. However, ownership of land by the poor is not

common, and when it exists the amount is so small, to depend largely on it is a guarantee for

Page | 15
‘poverty in perpetuity.’ In 1996, BRAC introduced Unnoti, to help farmers who already own

more than one acre of land. The upper limit for loans in this program is set at approximately 5

200 taka (US$ 85.00). In 2005, 160,197 borrowers made use of the program. Based on the

agricultural product, including fishery and poultry, borrowers have access to specialized

service(s) provided under the Enterprises Support Program (ESP), e.g. aqua-culture, soil testing,

etc. It is expected that participation in this program will go a long way in allowing participants to

increase their standard of living to a noticeable extent. The Unnoti program is intended to

facilitate a certain amount of poverty reduction.

Critical Points of BRAC’s Poverty Reduction Programs

In every respect, Bangladesh is culturally a “top-down” country (Hanchett, 1997), where those

with privilege stand up and look down; and those without, kneel and look up. And the posture of

each group reflects the certainly of what is the present, and what the future is expected to be.

That metaphor provides an appropriate context for BRAC to help reshape the social structure.

However, it is one thing to state that BRAC’s objective affirms the principles of empowering the

marginalized people, it is quite something else to state, or even to imply, that BRAC’s practices

will always be consistent with the ideals of participation, empowerment and poverty reduction

with the development programs: agriculture and food security, Dabi, unnoti, and progoti. BRAC

is a huge organization with a budget of hundreds of million dollar and the staff of over 100,000

(Bangladesh Rural Advancement Committee Annual Report, 2005). In 2013, this budget

increases billions of dollar. Its bureaucratic image is typical of the culture of the imperial era that

was associated with the Indian sub-continent. Therefore, the question of empowerment that

BRAC embraces for its clients apply the relations between the head office directorate and the

Page | 16
field staff; and between the high school and university trained field officers in relation to the

poor rural women.

While the project of empowering poor rural women is always a noble cause it would be

naïve to think that intra organization dynamic, including client-members does not reflect a top-

down culture. Speaking of charismatic leaders, the microfinance “industry” in Bangladesh is

unique for its large number of entrepreneurial-social leaders. An NGO founder establishes

him/herself as Chief Executive Officer (CEO) ultimately earning a salary and other benefits

higher than a comparable employee of the government. The major source for these benefits is

profit maximizing from commercial ventures and microfinance programs. Some commercial

ventures are HYV seeds, poultry, horticulture, and fish. Some microfinance programs are Dabi

and Progoti that charge higher interest rates than a conventional bank. These interest rates can be

considered as new form of exploitation as poor people do not have access to this bank.

BRAC’s agriculture and food security programs in 2013 are reducing scopes for locally

understanding of poverty reduction and increasing market economic domination and social

inequality. BRAC is promoting the different activities for developing seeds, nurseries, and credit

programs. These programs are destroying historically developed local seeds and promoting alien

seeds, poultry, and fish. This technocentric agriculture and food production creates social

inequality and displacements for the marginalized people.

The Borga Chashi Unnayan Prokolpo is one example of extremely marginalized farmer’s

transformation into market economic system. This program designed to ensure proper supplies of

HYV seeds, fertilizer, and pesticides for tenant farmers’ agricultural practices. In 2009, the

Governments of Bangladesh provided about USD 75 million to BRAC for this program that

makes targets for 300,000 tenant farmers from 150 upazilas or sub-districts. The governments

Page | 17
cannot distribute this loan directly to farmers because many tenant farmers are not able to get

loans based on the existing loan guidelines. BRAC gets this loan from the governments with five

percent interests that are exceptionally lower than BRAC’s regular micro-finance programs.

BRAC provides this loan under their existing VOs. The major criteria to get this loan is that

tenant farmers own less than two acres of rented agricultural lands and did not take loan from

other financial institutions. BRAC organizes about forty male and female farmers under every

VO for training so that they can get success in HYV crop production. This agricultural

development approach fails to recognize local knowledge of agricultural production.

Consequently, this approach creates more livelihood challenges than resolving the existing

socioeconomic vulnerabilities.

BRAC programs in 2005 and 2013 do not have enough efforts to protect marginalized

people’s ecological resource based agricultural and food security. BRAC cares more about

getting back investments and interests rather than promoting poor people’s poverty reduction.

BRAC makes top-down decision about these interests without recognizing local communities’

livelihood vulnerabilities of crop failures due to rainy seasonal failure, flooding, river bank

erosion, and embankment failure. No insurance protection from BRAC is available for these

losses. To overcome these failures, many of the poor people borrow money from one more

NGOs. They use total amount for different purposes: e.g., investments, loan payment, and

installments. When some of them fail to pay installments or loan, they encounter forced

surrender of their own assets like ornaments or other resources. Many of poor people who do not

have assets sell their body organs like to pay NGO loans. After surrendering their last piece of

assets, they displace from their livelihood practices.

Page | 18
 The Dabi program’s small business like poultry and livestock, vegetable and handicrafts

creates further destruction of historically developed local livelihood patterns. Local poultry and

livestock provide major foundation for poor people’s nutrition and economic supports. This

locally developed poultry should get major focus if BRAC wants real poverty reduction. Again,

local poor people get a major portion of their vegetables from wild sources like road side and

wetlands which provide livelihood supports without financial costs. The commercial of these

vegetable mean new expenditures although their employment opportunities reduce day by due to

market economic domination. In addition to these outcomes of the Dabi program, Progoti

program promotes micro and small entrepreneurs like shop keepers, agricultural businessmen or

manufacturers which cause the differential outcomes between the different groups of people.

These microfinance programs create debt burden to many of the borrowers.

Typically, the full amount of the interest to be paid will be calculated (based on a stated

time period for full repayment) when the loan is approved and added to the principal. This is

different from the method used by commercial banks that calculate time related interest based on

the outstanding (reducing) balance at any given time. Thus, the stated rate and the effective rate

are identical. The microfinance arrangement means that the effective rate is significantly higher

than the stated rate. One estimate is that a stated rate of 24 percent per annum, yields an effective

rate of close to 40 percent. It is hard to believe that BRAC would want to charge an interest rate

of 40 percent. Furthermore, the calculations would result in many cases of fractions of Taka

(Bangladeshi currency) that would confuse the clients. The explanation given for not wanting to

calculate interest based on the reducing balance method. However, if BRAC believes that 24

percent is reasonable then they should treat that rate as the effective rate which would mean

setting the stated rate at around fourteen percent and the application of the method would be

Page | 19
somewhere around the desired twenty four percent. Based on this loan, it is very difficult for the

marginalized people to come out of poverty. Many of them adapt with the COP as coping

mechanisms with poverty in Bangladesh.

Conclusion

BRAC has significant number of programs in the development of small (likely to support

poverty reduction) and medium (with potential for poverty eradication) enterprises that allow

owners to break out of the poverty trap. Microfinance is the “bread and butter” issue of BRAC.

For example, BRAC’s initiative in developing new programs, e.g. WED and Progotti

demonstrates evidence of higher and wider horizons that originate from new insights. The

program in its various forms provides the link between the individual member and the

organization that serves as the umbrella for a range of services offered to members.

One might be sceptical about assessing the impacts of BRAC’s programs in empowering

women. However, BRAC has at least shaken the rigid patriarchal structure and gender relations

in Bangladesh. It should be noted that empowerment involves a complex process of structural

change that is experienced and interpreted differently by clients, service providers, and by

scholars. Moreover, the complexity of cause-effect relations raises important issues. This

complexity is seen as demeaning and implying that those who direct the programs can

orchestrate the ‘development’ of women. Such programs come from a development perspective

that is in crisis of “agency” especially when the instruments are under the control of others of a

‘higher class’ than that of a disadvantaged client group. Finally, it is inconceivable that anyone

Page | 20
could believe that the degree of poverty that exists in rural Bangladesh could be corrected by

micro-enterprise activities. The implication for ‘development’ requires deliberate efforts to

provide basic social needs including the provision for supporting the sustainable poverty

reduction and empowerment.

If the economic engine for the empowerment of women is the microfinance programs, the

core of the empowerment ‘enterprise’ is the liberating force of political education and action.

Thus, if fundamental changes in the society are to occur, there must be a continuing integration

of all programs into a harmonized attack on the negative practices in society and livelihoods.

Only by that means will real changes can reach the objective of empowerment. And that must be

evidenced by new enhanced experiences in the daily living of those who are presently

marginalized. BRAC fails to recognize these experience in the programs as it follows top-down

approach.

BRAC makes top-down decision making about development programs fail to recognize

historically developed poverty reduction strategies. For these strategies, an NGO founder works

as Chief Executive Officer (CEO) and cares more for profit maximizing from commercial

ventures and microfinance programs. For example, BRAC’s agriculture and food security

programs like seeds, nurseries, and credit programs are reducing scopes for locally understanding

of poverty reduction and increasing market economic domination and social inequality. These

programs are destroying historically developed local seeds and promoting alien seeds, poultry,

and fish. BRAC is promoting these commercial ventures with Borga Chashi Unnayan Prokolpo

(BCUP), the Northern Crop Diversification Project (NCDP), and the Secondary Crop

Diversification Project (SCDP). The Borga Chashi Unnayan Prokolpo is one example of

extremely marginalized farmer’s transformation into market economic system. Based on these

Page | 21
programs, BRAC cares more about getting back investments and interests rather than promoting

poor people’s poverty reduction. Moreover, microfinance like the Dabi program like poultry and

livestock, vegetable and handicrafts creates further destruction of historically developed local

livelihood patterns. In addition to these outcomes of the Dabi program, Progoti program

promotes micro and small entrepreneurs like shop keepers, agricultural businessmen or

manufacturers which cause the differential outcomes between the different groups of people.

These microfinance programs create debt burden to many of the borrowers.

Reference
Amin, R., A. U. Ahmed, J. Chowdhury, and M. Ahmed (1994): Poor Women Participation in
Income-generating Projects and their Fertility Regulation in Rural Bangladesh: Evidence from a
Recent Survey. World Development, 22 (4): 555-564.

Bangladesh 2004 Post-Flood Recovery Program Damage and Need Assessment, Joint Asian
Development Bank and World Bank Mission, 12-27 September, 2004. Retrieved from
http://reliefweb.int/sites/reliefweb.int/files/resources/0601496727BB568AC1256F230033FBC5-
lcg-bang-6oct.pdf

Bangladesh Rural Advancement Committee (2005): Annual Report 2005, Dhaka: BRAC
Communications.

Bangladesh Rural Advancement Committee (updated 2003): About BRAC [cited September
2004]. Retrieved from http://www.brac.net/about.htm.

Balk, D, (1997): Defying Gender Norms in Rural Bangladesh: A Social Demographic Analysis,
Population Studies, 51(2): 153-172.

Beneria, L., and Gita, S. (1986): Accumulation, Reproduction and Women’s Role in Economic
Development: Boserup Revisited. In E. Leacock and H. Safa (Eds.), Women’s Work:
Development and the Division of Labor by Gender, South Hadley, MA: Bergin and Garvey.

Cain, M. K., S. R. Khatun, and S. Nahar (1979): Class, Patriarchy, and the Structure of Women’s
Work in Bangladesh. New York: Population Council.

Page | 22
Cheryl, J. (1991): Common thread, Different Contexts: Third World Women and Feminism. In C.
T. Mohanty, A. Russo, and L. Torres (Eds.), Third world women and the Politics of Feminism,
Bloomington: Indiana

Chen, L. C., Huq, E., and D’Sauza, S. (1981) : Sex Bias in the Family Allocation of Food and
Health Care in Rural Bangladesh, Population Development Review, 7(1): 55-70.

Cockburn, A. (2006): The Myths of Micro-loans, The Nation. Retrieved from

http://www.thenation.com/article/myth-microloans

Evans, T. (1999): Trading Human Rights. In A. Taylor and C. Thomas (Eds.) Global Trade and
Global Social Issues, London: Routledge.

Fernando, J.L. (2011): The Political Economy of NGOs: State Formation in Sri Lanka and
Bangladesh. Pluto Press.

Freire, P. (1970): Pedagogy of the Oppressed, New York: Seabury Press.

Goetz, A. M. (2001): Women Development Workers: Implementing Rural Credit Programs in

Bangladesh, New Delhi: Sage Publishers.

Green, M. and Hulme, D. (2005): From Correlates and Characteristics to Cause: Thinking About
Poverty from a Chronic Poverty Perspective, World Development, 33 (6): 867-79.

Hanchett, S. (1997): Participation and Policy Development: The Case of the Bangladesh Flood
Action Plan, Development Policy Review, 15: 277-295

Ignatieff, M. (1984): The Needs of Strangers, New York: Viking Penguin Inc.

Jacqui, A. M. and Mohanty, C. T. (1997): Introduction: Genealogies, Legacies, Movements. In A.

M. Jacqui and C. T. Mohanty (Eds.), Feminist Genealogies, Colonial Legacies, Democratic
Futures, NY: Rutledge.

Khandker, S. R., Samad, H. A., and Khan, Z. H. (1998): Income and Employment Effects of
Microcredit Programmes: Village-level Evidence from Bangladesh, The Journal of Development
Studies, 35(2): 96-124.

Kibria, N. (1995): Culture, Social Class and Social Control in the Lives of Garment Worker in
Bangladesh, Gender and Society, 9(3): 289-309.

Lewis, O. (1966): La Vida, New York: Random House.

Lewis, H. (1995): Between Irua and ‘Female Genital Mutilation’: Feminist Rights Discourse and
the Cultural Divide, Harvard Human Rights Journal 8: 1-55.

Page | 23
 Mies, M. (1982): The Dynamics of the Sexual Division of Labor and Integration of Rural
Women into the World Market. In L. Beneria (Ed.), Women and Development: the Sexual
Division of Labor in Rural Societies: A Study, New York: Praeger.

Moreau, M. J. (1979): A Structural Approach to Social Work Practice. Canadian Journal of

Social Work Education, 5 (1):78-94.

Mullaly, R. P. (1993): Structural Social Work: Ideology, Theory and Practices, Toronto:
McClelland & Stewart.

Odeh, L. A. (1993): Post Colonial Feminism and the Veil: Thinking the Difference, Feminist
Review, 43:26-37.

Rafi, M. (2003): Freire and Experiments in Conscientisation in a Bangladesh Village.

Economic and Political Weekly, 38(37):13-19.

Rahman, A. (1999): Women and Micro credit in Rural Bangladesh: Anthropological Study of the
Rhetoric and Realities of Grameen Bank Lending, Colorado: Westview Press.

Reza, H. (2003): When Culture Trumps Ideology: Micro-Enterprise and the Empowerment of
Women in Bangladesh, Canadian Journal of Development Studies, XXIV (3):439-59.

Schrijvers, J. (1983): Manipulated Motherhood: The Marginalization of Peasant Women in the

North Central Province of Sri Lanka, Development and Change 14(2):185-209.

Wolf, D. L. (1990): Daughters, Decisions and Domination: An Empirical and Conceptual

Critique of Household Strategies, Development and Change, 21 (1):43-74.

Page | 24

View publication stats