JP Bangladesh UZGP 

ObjectivesFund scope

The Upazila joint programme in Bangladesh was designed to strengthen the capacities of local governments and stakeholders and boost participatory local engagement around development service delivery for the MDGs. Aligned with the UNDAF and Country Programme Document for Bangladesh, the project extended capacity building and technical policy support to 487 Upazila Parishads (UZPs) across the country. The three main outputs for the UZGP were:

• Strengthened UZPs that are more functional, transparent and accountable.
• Strengthened UZP planning and budgetary systems that are MDG oriented and with “pro-poor” service delivery mechanisms.
• Strengthened national capacity to carry out effective policy reviews, monitoring, lesson learned analysis and develop the capacity of local government institutions.

Education, health care, women’s empowerment, poverty, environment and climate change issues were prioritized under these three output areas. The UZGP also promoted co-financing mechanisms during the implementation phase for better coordination and sustainability. Extending this type of budgetary and planning support to UZPs helped broaden engagement in communities when identifying development priorities.

Assistance strategy

To try and ensure all Bangladeshis, including vulnerable groups, would be better represented in democratic processes—and local governments more responsive in delivering better public services—joint programme partners fused their specialized expertise in local governance and investment capital for fiscal decentralization. Also embedded in the design of the programme were recommendations from the Millennium Development Goals Progress Report for Bangladesh, inspiring stakeholders to embrace progressive approaches to local government that could change the nature of the relationship between citizens and the state.

Projects

JP Bangladesh UZGP

JP Bangladesh UZGP is currently supporting count_projects ongoing projectscount_globalInterregional and count_countries country-specific. This table shows the most recently approved ongoing projects.

All project financial information can be found in the Financials section, including delivery analysis by organization, theme and project; project financial status by country and by theme.

JP Bangladesh UZGP

Results

In alignment with MDG principles on women’s empowerment, Women Development Forum (WDF) members addressed 892 early marriage, 440 dowry, 293 sexual harassment and, 568 violence cases between 2014 and 2016. Collaboration between local administrators resulted in the development of 256 five-year plans. Nearly 325 schools were supported in organizing ‘Red Card’ campaigns against early marriage and sexual harassment. These campaigns reached 285,513 participants from academia, education systems, households, government officials and public representatives and helped shape public opinion on approaches to bringing about an end to early marriage and sexual harassment.

Best practices snapshot: Fighting negative aspects of the dowry tradition

Rebeka (24) was a resident of the village Kalia Haripur of Sirajganj district and married off at the age of 17 with Rakib. Rebeka’s father, Rasul Mia, paid BDT 40,000 and a motorbike as dowry against a demand of a motorbike and BDT 50,000. Mia made a commitment to pay the rest of the amount a month later, however, when he failed to pay on time it was Rebeka who had to tolerate violence and abuse at the hands of her husband.

Finding no other alternative, Rebeka’s father paid the amount by selling his only cow, which is not the end of the story. Five years later, in 2015, Rebeka’s husband, Rakib, pressured Rebeka to get BDT 60,000 from her father. When Rebeka refused, she was thrown out of the house—a traumatic event Rebeka’s father brought to the notice of Mr. Nurunnahar, the President of District WDF in Sirajganj. After hearing about this incident and others from Rebeka’s father, Nurunnahar and other members of the WDF got involved to help solve Rebeka’s problem. With their assistance, Rebeka now leads a peaceful life and her father was able to avoid paying a hefty dowry.

ContactsPoints of contact