Search

With increasing support from the international community, non-governmental organizations (NGOs) have played an important role in Bangladesh since the early 1970s in providing emergency assistance to disaster victims. After observing widespread corruption and misuse of relief aid by the Bangladesh government in 1974 and subsequent years, external sources began to channellize emergency assistance to the victims through NGOs. Realizing that NGOs were usurping its authority over external disaster assistance, the government looked for opportunities to demonstrate its ability to deliver services to victims. An opportunity came in July 1998 when Bangladesh experienced a devastating flood. Using data collected from 348 households in 11 villages, this paper compares support received by the respondents from the Bangladesh government and NGOs during and immediately after the flood. Respondent opinions regarding emergency relief distribution suggest that both sources performed satisfactorily and an overwhelming majority of them thought that the government performed better than it had previously in distributing relief assistance to flood victims. Following an analysis of the survey data, this paper discusses the policy implications for future disaster assistance efforts in Bangladesh and elsewhere. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recently, microcredit has become a fashionable cure-all for most non-governmental organizations (NGOs) in Bangladesh. The provision of services to the poor is by definition always difficult, and even NGOs have problems. NGOs in Bangladesh define the poor in different ways when creating their target groups. The policies of nearly all NGOs in Bangladesh are formulated by their senior managers, and field workers are rarely consulted. This paper will explore the opinions on microcredit of selected field workers of four types of NGOs in Bangladesh – on how the problem of microcredit might be solved. Problems of microcredit programmes, they say, include non-accessibility to the poorest, low return, misuse and overemphasis on repayment. Field workers discuss what level of importance should be given to microcredit as against services like education, health or awareness creation. Most conclude that NGOs are overemphasizing microcredit, which leaves little time and few resources for other problems of the poor, so bringing the whole ‘development’ effort of the NGOs into question. Most field workers think that many microenterprises are not sustainable and that in many cases clients will remain dependent on the NGOs for credit. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Local geography and gender are two major factors determining which crop varieties are cultivated in a case study of two rural villages in Bangladesh. This paper explores the interrelationships between gender, agrobiodiversity, and the use of, and preferences for, improved and local crop varieties. These are examined in relation to rice, minor field crops, and home garden fruits and vegetables. Reasons for both the displacement and the persistence of local varieties (LVs) are analysed in comparison to improved variety (IV) diffusion. The research evaluates agrobiodiversity through the number, types, and varieties of crops grown in fields and home gardens. The desired agroecological, economic, and cultural characteristics of crops grown document how respondents rank their variety preferences. Variety preferences and the perceived importance of LV preservation are compared with what is actually grown. The study indicates that there was little variation between villages in their approach towards the use of IV and LV rice; IVs were cultivated for their high yields and LV rice for taste and culinary uses. However, there were significant differences in relative agricultural dependence between the two villages which led to unique variety preferences. In both villages, women's preferences for IVs or LVs play a major role in crop choices, particularly as they manifest themselves in gendered domains of authority. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In light of the new cooperative water development agreements in South Asia since 1996 and, in particular, the 1996 Ganges Waters Treaty between India and Bangladesh, this paper explores the geopolitical obstacles to cooperation between states in the joint development of large-scale river systems and current opportunities for successful development. The general problems of cooperation faced by the riparian states which share successive rivers are examined with reference to the geopolitical obstacles to cooperation in the Bengal delta since the Partition of the Indian subcontinent through which India and Pakistan gained Independence as separate states in 1947. Against the background of repeated attempts to resolve water-sharing issues between India and East Pakistan and its successor state, Bangladesh, this paper concludes that for cooperation to succeed contemporary large-scale river development has to meet a wide range of criteria which go beyond conventional engineering or economic cost-benefit analyses to include geopolitical criteria. These range from global-scale environmental concerns to micro-scale issues of mutual regional benefit. This paper proposes a major new development on the Brahmaputra and Ganges which the authors argue could break the log-jam of a zero-sum game approach to surface water development in the Bengal delta. Unlike most large-scale dam-building proposals, the barrage construction outlined would cause negligible population displacement, and making maximum use of existing river channels would minimize the environmental impacts associated with the large canal or dam construction envisaged in earlier Ganges–Brahmaputra–Meghna (GBM) schemes. Yet the paper also recognizes that while such a proposal could bring economic, environmental and political advantages to all users in the GBM basin, new thinking on the management of international rivers is less in favour of supply-side solutions, and the case would need to be... [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]