Gender Responsive Service Delivery and Accountability in Bangladesh

Ferdous Jahan, BRAC Development Institute

Social Safety Net Programs (SSNPs) in

Bangladesh

• Bangladesh is a poverty-prone area of the world

• Economic Exclusion exacerbates the poverty situation

• Successive governments have adopted a number of SSNPs programs to eradicate the problem of exclusion.

• Approximately, 30.5 million people receive assistance from the various programs each year

SSNP in Bangladesh: Trends and Types

� Since the birth of the country, the SSNPshave been playing a significant role in combating poverty

� SSNPs try to� incorporate the large section of people who have

remained outside of the main activities of the economy in the formal economic sector and � protect different groups of citizen from adverse

idiosyncratic and/or aggregate shocks.

� Most SSNPs are short term and targeted towards ensuring immediate food security

Types of SSNPs

� Cash Transfer Programs � Primary Education Stipend Program� Rural Maintenance Program� 100 Days Employment Generation Program

� Food/In-kind Transfer Programs � Vulnerable Group Development (VGD)� Food For Work� Test Relief

Gender Sensitivity

� In almost all cases, the SSNPs make deliberate attempts to meet the need of the female poor

� It is done in mainly two ways-� Some programs are designed especially for the

women� Some programs are designed in such a way

that the eligibility criteria would include a large number of women

VGD- An Example of Gender Sensitivity

• VGD- A Program Designed Especially for Women– Owes its origin to the Vulnerable Group Feeding

(VGF) program, initiated after the famine of 1974. – Re-defined as Vulnerable Group Development in

the early 1980s. – As of today, this national program covers 296

‘food-insecure’ sub-districts (out of 464), which are selected based on vulnerability analysis and mapping system.

– Since the 2000s, in its each program cycle of 18 months, the program is covering 400,000 to 500,000 women

Eligibility Criteria

� Women who are widowed, separated/deserted, divorced or whose husbands are unable to work� Own less than 50 decimals of land� Have irregular or low income, of around Tk 300

(around USD5 per month at current rate)� Are dependent on wage labor, at least 100

days per year� Lack productive assets� Are not members of any other NGO program

Limitations in Terms of Gender Sensitivity

� Though the program seems successful and sensitive to the need of the female, a closer look, however, points out a significant limitation� As the program aims to provide the rural poor

women with adequate training facilities, it gives preference to those who are-� Physically and mentally able� willing to participate in training, income-generating and group

activities

� As such the program seems to leave out the elderly and the women who are not physically or mentally fit

100 Days Employment Generation

• The able bodied extreme poor living in vulnerable areas (river erosion, monga prone, haor baor and char)

• Eager to work but unemployed and unskilled

• The landless (with 50 decimals or less of cultivable land) who have a low income and have no pond for fish culture and no animal resources

Gender Sensitivity in EGP

� The EGP was formulated in line with the National Food Policy of 2006

� However, it deviates from the NFP in one particular aspect- unlike the NFP, the EGP was ‘gender-neutral’

� Despite this, 28% of the beneficiaries turned out to be women, which “…translates a strong need and demand by women to participate in such a program”

Gender Sensitivity in EGP

� Despite non specification, women were included in the EGP program� In some conservative areas self-exclusion by the

women themselves were reported� When the women braved cultural norms, they faced

criticism and were withdrawn by the local administration� There were some other factors that restricted

women’s participation which include “…the lack of transportation to the work site which was sometimes far, the absence of toilets, safe drinking water and food”.

What went wrong with Gender responsive service delivery?

� These two cases reflect that there are two basic problems in the SSNPs in Bangladesh that restrict women’s access to services-� Design Problems- in some cases, the

programs are not designed effectively to meet the need of the poor rural women (e.g. EGP)� Implementation Problems- even when the

program is free from design problems certain existing social values may hinder the implementation of programs

� Why do these problems exist in the SSNPsof Bangladesh?

� The answer lies in the flawed accountability design and practice of the country!

The Concept of Accountability

� The obligation of the power holders to answer for their actions

� A relationship between the “holder of accountability” and the “giver of accountability”

� The “holder” has the right to seek information about, to investigate and to scrutinize the actions of the “giver”

The Significance of Accountability for SSNPs

• Accountability ensures • the answerability of the ‘givers’, (the political

parties, government agencies, individual administrators) to the ‘holders’ , (the poor women receiving the safety net services)

• the effectiveness of the program

• Accountability prevents • exclusion of different groups of the society• leakage

Types of Accountability

�Three types of accountability�Vertical or electoral accountability

�Horizontal or procedural accountability

�Social accountability

Electoral Accountability in Bangladesh

� National election in every five years since 1991

� Local government (Union Parishad) election in every five years

� Recent initiatives of holding election at Upazila (sub-district) level

Accountability in SSNPs

• Local level electoral accountability determines who gets what, when and how

• As local political leaders get involved in distributing resources, they are forced to listen to the need of the people

• The effectiveness of electoral accountability is evidenced in VGD program, where-– The local leaders, in cooperation with the NGOs select the

beneficiaries in somewhat transparent manner– Resources are distributed in an effective and efficient way– The electoral accountability ensures that the leaders

eventually satisfy their most deserving clients• However, electoral accountability does not

address the gender-sensitivity issue related to the SSNPs

Procedural Accountability in Bangladesh

• ‘Horizontal’ accountability mechanisms include political, fiscal, administrative and legal mechanisms

• The main ‘givers’ are the policy makers (the cabinet ministers, the legislatures and the bureaucrats)

• The people’s representatives (MPs) will oversee the actions taken by the ‘givers’ with the help of a number of public institutions (parliamentary standing committee, the anti-corruption mechanism, the office of the Ombudsman, etc.)

Procedural Accountability in Bangladesh

• Parliament has remained largely dysfunctional• The recommendations made by the parliamentary

Standing Committees are not implemented• In most cases, the Institutions of Accountability

(ACC, EC, PSC, Judiciary) suffer from politicization• Though the Ministries and Agencies have adopted

Citizen’s Charter, no monitoring mechanism has been developed

• Performance Measurement and Evaluation is still not a big concern in bureaucracy

Social Accountability in Bangladesh

� Social Accountability (SA) is relatively a new concept

� SA emphasizes on creating an equilibrium situation -through creating pressure on the supply side of governance (i.e. government machinery) so that it intersects with the demand side (i.e. citizens).

� The pressure is mainly created by the demand side

SA in Bangladesh

� Though some new institutions (e.g. Information Commission) and legal regimes (RTI, 2009; Whistle-blower protection of 2010) have been put in place, they are not yet effective

� Mobilization of women in order to ensure access has still remained a key concern

� So far SA tools have failed to identify the concern regarding the exclusion of women from the SSNPs

The Accountability Scenario and Consequences

• Significant consequences in case of SSNP-– Gender-neutral public administration: when programs

are implemented without significant involvement of the local level political leaders, the programs remain ineffective when being evaluated from a gender responsive perspective

– Conservative social values: the local political leaders or the administrators often adhere to the existing social values which may hinder the access to services of the poor women

– Absence of mobilization and platforms: lack of social mobilization in part of the women and lack of awareness raising campaign by the CSOs often leaves the values unchallenged and helps to maintain the status-quo

As a consequence……

� A blanket approach to SSNPs� Absence of gender responsive service delivery� Top-down and traditional ways of dealing with

SSNPs by Public Administration

All in all…

� The existing accountability structure is unable to address the problems of exclusion resulting from program design or existing social values

� The program designers and implementers should � acknowledge the variation that exists within

the demand side (i.e. gender sensitivity) and �make efforts to address the exclusion

problems resulting from the interaction between the environment and the variation in demand side