Role of Nongovernmental Organization in Bangladesh. Are They Challenging the Government Power? A Case Study from Bangladesh Rural Advancement Committee (BRAC)

Abstract

In the first part of this write up the author introduces Bangladesh, explores some of the important NGOs, evaluates their contribution to national building and in second part he examines the role of BRAC Bangladesh as a case study in poverty eradication and public service delivery. In the case study, first the author outlines the historical account of BRAC and secondly its motivation to fight against the poverty through its rural development programs (credit and other), health and education and social development of Bangladesh and examine the ground of increasing power of NGOs and diminishing the government power. This study is based on the interviews and fieldwork data conducted in July and August 2007 and updated in 2016. Additional information is based on annual reports of respected NGOs of Bangladesh and reports publish by the Government of Bangladesh, the World Bank, international agencies and scholars. The purpose of this study is to examine how NGOs involve in public service delivery and how nonprofit organizations diminish the states power. This article reveals that Bangladeshi big NGOs are not totally nonprofit organizations because they are operating several business enterprises, and also diminishing the state power through public service delivery. This write up also shows that the reason of proliferation of NGOs in Bangladesh is government’s inefficiency in public service delivery. Empirical evidences show that state acknowledges the role of NGOs in socio-economic development of the nation and has been trying to develop collaborative approach for development. NGOs power is not only increasing due to their efficiency in service delivery but also due to the donors’ interests, and neo-liberal globalized world order. Bangladeshi NGOs have gain worldwide reputation and global attention. NGOs (i.e. Grameen Bank, BRAC, ASA, PROSHIKA) have own donors’ consortium. As consequence, there are hundreds of research monographs (from World Bank, Asian Development Bank, DFID, NOVIB, Bangladesh Government etc.), doctoral dissertations (by the students from Bangladesh and abroad) and international journal articles which explore the role of NGOs in Bangladesh, their power struggle with government and accountability, transparency issues as well as their strength at both local, national and international levels. This study supports the notion that NGOs power has been increased because of the inefficiency of government in providing goods and services to its citizens. BRAC case study shows that NGOs in Bangladesh are diminishing government power not only at local and national levels but also gaining creditability in the international arena.