The Emergence of Social Enterprise inBangladesh [Part IV]

Jyothi Nair:

This is part IV of our IV part series on emerging social enterprises in India, Pakistan and Bangladesh

Bangladesh, a highly populated developing country, is making its progress towards the Millennium Development Goals. In this process of development planning, social sector development integrated with poverty alleviation has been the main objective. Social sectors are major components of the Bangladeshi economy.

However, due to many limitations, the Government of Bangladesh is unable to reach a major proportion of its deprived population. Its ineffectiveness in reasonable distribution of resources adds to the graveness of the scenario.

Here comes the role of private organizations like Non governmental organizations, abbreviated as NGOs. They act as major contributors to the country’s economy. Their effectiveness is measured in terms of their ability to deliver key social services. To quote the words of a business entrepreneur in Bangladesh, “The share of manufacturing is low, but the rate of growth of the manufacturing sectors is high.” A good number of NGO’s are found in Bangladesh which functions in almost every part of the country. Some NGO’s work on specific issues and some work in a much general way. They focus on sectors such as Micro Finance, Health, Education, ICT4D, Women empowerment, Human Right and Environment. In other words, their activities include primary and secondary education, primary health care, mass communication, public administration and family planning.

These features are visible through the functioning and achievements of NGO’s such as BRAC, CARE-Bangladesh and HEED Bangladesh in the country.

BRAC

BRAC is a development organization, which each and every citizen in Bangladesh is familiar to. In February 1972, soon after the liberation war, it was founded by Fazle Hasan Abed. Its main objective during the initial stage was to lend helping hands to the refugees and victims of the liberation war. Over time, it modified its motto as “alleviation of poverty and empowerment of the poor”. It has also extended its branches to other Asian countries and Africa.

Economic development, Education, Health, Human rights and legal services, and Social Development are its areas of interest. As a part of social development program, they empower economically backward people by increasing their human, social and political assets so that they are aware about their rights and can refuse to give in to exploitation. They also deal with social problems, especially those related to women. Mobilizing government resources for the poor and encouraging local councils to allocate resources to the needy are some other activities that they work on. BRAC also lends helping hands to the victims of human rights violation, which includes rape, acid throwing and murder.

With the vision of “just, enlightened, healthy and democratic societies free from hunger, poverty, environmental degradation and all forms of exploitation based on age, sex, religion and ethnicity,” they work with poor, illiterate and unhealthy with the aim of bringing a change in their lives. (Visit: http://www.brac.net

CARE- Bangladesh

This organization with the objective of enabling poor communities to improve their lifestyle is part of one of the world’s largest private international humanitarian organizations, CARE International. Care which initiated its work in 1949 in Bangladesh has had a say in the nation’s development through its poverty alleviation programs. It focuses on agriculture, education, health, water and sanitation, nutrition, infrastructure and small enterprise development. Some of its long term goals include empowering the most socially, economically and politically marginalized women, helping the most marginalized urban groups to have viable livelihoods and to provide a helping hand to the communities who are vulnerable to disasters. They also play a role in providing dignified employment for the underprivileged, markets for their products, information and services along with technical support.

Care-Bangladesh moves ahead with the vision “to seek a world of hope, tolerance and social justice, where poverty has been overcome and people live in dignity and security.” (Visit: http://www.carebd.org/

HEED Bangladesh

This Christian, Non-governmental, nonprofit organization’s field of interest is obvious from its title, Heed; which stands for Health, Education and Economic development. The Christian agencies who came forward to provide relief to the victims of widespread famine in the country, a consequence of the liberation war from Pakistan, together formed HEED. During its thirty six years of service since 1974, it has come across various projects related to health, education, social development and economic development sectors.

Some of its achievements in the social development sector include Participatory Development Program (PDP) and Women and Children Education Program (WCEP). PDP is aimed at the underprivileged community with the objective of creating a sustainable livelihood. It empowers people to improve their socio-economic circumstances with their own efforts. For instance, running and developing their own savings and loan scheme would help them to get access to larger loans from HEED’s micro-finance services. In addition to this WCEP is designed to provide free primary education for about 26,000 children and vocational job training for adolescent girls and unemployed women.

This national organization continues to contribute to the nation’s development with the motto “Goal: uplifting the downtrodden, Task: alleviating poverty, Focus: capacitating the powerless.” (visit: http://www.heed-bangladesh.com

With programs that reach even to the grass root level of the society, these NGO’s are functioning as the right hand of the government in leading the country to development. Both directly and indirectly, they serve the citizens of the country. In today’s world where unfortunately, poverty has become a business and development can be entitled as an Industry, these types of NGO’s play a major role in alleviating the burden of local people by providing them with care and assistance.

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