Introduction: ............................................................................................................................

Objectives of the study: ........................................................................................................... 3

Research Area: ......................................................................................................................... 4

Sources of Data Collection: ..................................................................................................... 4

i) Primary Source:.................................................................................................................. 4
ii) Secondary Source: ............................................................................................................. 4

Respondents: ............................................................................................................................ 4

Methods of Data Collection: ................................................................................................... 4

i. Interview: ........................................................................................................................ 4
ii. Questionnaire: ................................................................................................................ 4
iii. Content Analysis: ........................................................................................................ 4

Theoretical Discussion:............................................................................................................ 5
Concept of NGOs ................................................................................................................... 5
Types of NGOs ....................................................................................................................... 5

Functional Coverage of NGOs:............................................................................................... 6

Advantage/Strengths of NGOs: .............................................................................................. 8

Disadvantages/Weaknesses of NGOs: .................................................................................... 9

Legal Framework: ................................................................................................................... 9

What BRAC stands for: ........................................................................................................ 10

Different types of BRAC Activities ...................................................................................... 10

Legal and Regulatory Framework of BRAC: ..................................................................... 10

1. The Societies Registration Act,1861: ............................................................................ 11
2. The Foreign Donation (Voluntary Activity Regulation) (FDR) Ordinance, 1978: ...... 11
3. Micro Credit Regulatory Authority, Dhaka 2006: ........................................................ 11

Programmes of BRAC:.......................................................................................................... 11

Agriculture and Food Security: ............................................................................................ 11

Advocacy:................................................................................................................................ 12
Advocating eradication of extreme poverty: ........................................................................ 12

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 Advocating for health issues: ............................................................................................... 12
Communication for development: ........................................................................................ 12
Advocating safe migration: .................................................................................................. 12

Health:..................................................................................................................................... 12
Mothers, newborns and children.......................................................................................... 13
Tuberculosis: ........................................................................................................................ 13
Malaria ................................................................................................................................. 13

Gender Justice and Diversity:............................................................................................... 13

Gender quality action learning (GQAL): ............................................................................. 14

Microfinance: ......................................................................................................................... 14

Education:............................................................................................................................... 14
Providing financial and tutoring assistance: ....................................................................... 15

Empowering adolescents: ...................................................................................................... 15

Facilitating continued education for communities: ............................................................. 15

Water, Sanitation and Hygiene: ........................................................................................... 16

Targeting the Ultra Poor (TUP) ........................................................................................... 16

Disaster, Environment and Climate Change: ..................................................................... 17

Human Rights and Legal Aid Services: ............................................................................... 18

Community Empowerment: ................................................................................................. 18

Enterprise and Investments: ................................................................................................. 19

bKash.................................................................................................................................... 20
BRAC Kanon, ....................................................................................................................... 20

GO-NGO Collaboration ........................................................................................................ 20

Findings: ................................................................................................................................. 20

Recommendation: .................................................................................................................. 21

Conclusion: ............................................................................................................................. 22

References ............................................................................................................................... 22

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Introduction:
In recent times, roles of non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and government
organizations are becoming debatable issues. These are also becoming subject matters for
wider discussions and reviews in the developing country perspectives. Bangladesh is a member
of the worlds least developed countries, having increased population density, unemployment,
illiteracy, child mortality, socio-communal unrest and many more. The country has also been
facing massive challenges of feeding the rapidly increasing population or even to support their
livelihood in a sustainable manner. In addition, the continuing pressure of urbanization with
reduced cultivable land areas are creating pressures on the government and the entire economic
set up. Because, the traditional agricultural sector has failed to fully support the national
economy. In general, agriculture has so far appeared as the main source of livelihood for more
than half of the entire population of the country. But this sector has arguably failed to create
ground, sustainable development. Other than this, the sector has been constantly facing
pressures due to its typical vulnerability to natural hazards. Increasing numbers of landless
populations caused by river erosions is also adding pressure to the national economy. Visibly,
the overall situation shows the limited capacity of the government for improving the existing
situation and for creating more opportunities. However, the non-governmental organizations
(NGOs) have been playing supportive roles with the government. In some cases, they are
considered as more effective to get attached with the grass-root-level developmental initiatives.
The roles and initiatives played by the NGOs in Bangladesh have been considered as having
positive impacts on poverty alleviation among the rural poor population. In areas where the
poverty situation remains intense, activities of the NGOs typically get more important. The
target groups for these initiatives are mostly hard core poor who have very little access and
opportunities for improving their living status and standards. Most of the rural peoples rarely
own resources and capacities to fight against the poverty and to get employment. The very
basic and important activities of the NGOs are to organize these peoples, to help to create
awareness among them, inspiring them and through all of these efforts transforming them to
become conversant with development. Most of such organizations tend to work with an aim of
meeting demand of these poor peoples. Because, these peoples traditionally are kept out of the
mainstream development initiative. Through all of these comprehensive efforts, these NGOs
work in accordance with the national-level-developmental planning process. In addition, as a
developing country, Bangladesh has remained far behind in comparison with other developing
nations regarding the up gradation of sustainable poverty alleviation. The Bangladesh Rural
Advancement Committee (BRAC) is the worlds largest non- governmental organization
(NGO). It started working 1972 with Sir Fazle Hasan Abed as the entrepreneur. Considering
this organization as the case, this study has been designed to critically outline the roles of a
selected non- governmental organization (BRAC) in sustainable development. With this
particular aim, this paper has outlined the trends of current poverty situations in Bangladesh
and the impact analysis that BRAC is having through its sustainable development initiatives.

Objectives of the study:

The main objective of this study is to find out the programs related to development of the
country people, taken by the definite NGO through interviewing & observing the respondents
and circumstances respectively. By analyzing the data received by the study that whether the
programs have been taken or not and how much helpful those programs are, for the
development of the economic condition of that area, is also an important objective of study.

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Another objective is to provide necessary recommendations and to find out whether there is
any gap between theory and practice.

Research Area:
The name of NGO we chosen is Bangladesh Rural Advancement Committee (BRAC). The
main office of BRAC is in 75 Mohakhali, Dhaka 1212, Bangladesh. BRAC is present in all 64
district of Bangladesh, with over 7 million microfinance group members, 37,500 non-formal
primary schools and more than 70,000 health volunteers. BRAC is the largest NGO by number
of staff employing over 120,000 people, the majority of whom are women. So my whole focus
is about the overall programs of the 64 districts of BRAC.

Sources of Data Collection:

There are 2 types of sources of data collection. These are:
i. Primary Source
ii. Secondary Source
i) Primary Source: We have collected almost half the data of the study through primary
source. That means we went to the research area and have collected data.
ii) Secondary Source: Here, one thing has to be mentioned that weve also used the
secondary source, but the half of that source is from here. weve got information through
Internet, some journals related to the study.

Respondents:
The respondents of the study are mainly the persons related to different programs of BRAC.we
specially talked to those people who are working in the BRAC office. Here 1 thing to be
mentioned that, we specially talked to some people who are directly engaged in the field.

Occupation of Respondents Number of Respondents

1. Officials 08
2. Area Managers 07
3. District BRAC Representative 04
4. Health Workers 04
(Shasthya Kormis)
5. BRAC Teachers 02
Total Number of Respondents: 25

Methods of Data Collection:

We applied three methods of data collection in this research: interview, Questionnaire and
content analysis.

i. Interview: we talked with them and asked a set of question to them and tried to get
real causes and solutions of environmental problems.
ii. Questionnaire: We have provided a set of questions in a questionnaire to the BRAC
workers (Kormis) and they filled the form.
iii. Content Analysis: We also analysis the whole content to find out the data.

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we also analyzed different newspaper of past years such as Dainik Prothom Alo, Dainik
Shomokal, Daily star etc. Some website helped me a lot specially the online edition of Daily
Star and bdnews24.com.

Theoretical Discussion:
Its a part of the study where we will discuss about some basic matters such as, concept of
NGOs,Types,Main functions of NGOs, Advantage/Strengths and disadvantages/weaknesses,
Legal Framework, Go-NGO collaboration of the NGO briefly. Here is given a short description
of the same.

Concept of NGOs
In the recent years, NGO is a much used term. The diversity of the NGOs strains any simple
definition. In the most simple sense the term NGO refers to any voluntary non-profit
agency involved in the field of development co-operation or in education and policy advocacy
activities. (Brodhead :1987)
The NGOs are also defined as organizations that are established and governed by a group of
private citizens for a stated philanthropic purpose and supported by voluntary individual
contribution. (OECD, 1988)
Other defines NGOs as institutions outside the public and private sectors whose goals are
primarily value-driven (humanitarian and co-operative) rather than profit driven(World
Bank, 1990,Bhatnugear)
The term NGO also includes all those organizations which are involved in various
development activities with the objective of alleviating poverty of the rural and urban poor.
(Task Force Report, 1990: Islam and Hussain 1993)
At last it can be said that NGOs are those organizations who are not affiliated to political parties
but non-profit, voluntary, service and development oriented organization engaged in working
only for the development and welfare of the community.

Types of NGOs
On the basis of certain factors such as, size, class, life span, location, status of personnels and
characteristics of the beneficiaries, NGOs are divided into some particular types. Here is given
a brief description of the classifications of NGOs.

a. Classification on the basis of Orientation

i) Charity Oriented NGOs: The activities of these NGOs are based on the philosophy of
charity and those activities include distribution of food, clothing, medicine, educational
facilities, relief work etc.
ii) Development Service Oriented NGOs: The activities of these NGOs include provisions
of health care, family planning or education services.
iii) Participatory NGOs: These NGOs are characterized by self-help projects where local
people are involved by contributing cash, tools and materials, labor, etc.

5
 iv) Empowerment Oriented NGOs: These NGOs work to strengthen the awareness of the
target group and their potential to control their lives.

b. Classification on the basis of Spatial coverage & functions

i) Local NGOs: These NGOs operate in only a few villages, in a thana or a union receiving
funds from local/national/international sources.
ii) National NGOs: These NGOs operate in four or more geographical locations in the
country and receive funds mostly from the foreign donors.
iii) International NGOs: These NGOs operate in several geographical locations having
their headquarters outside the country and operate mostly by expertise.
iv) Mixed NGOs: These NGOs are voluntary organization organized locally but receiving
money from foreign governments or organizations.
c. Classification on the basis of Role
i) Relief and Welfare NGOs: These NGOs are working to provide relief support towards
the helpless people.
ii) Service NGOs: These NGOs operate their activities to deliver services to the target
groups.
iii) Funding NGOs: These NGOs operate as conduits of foreign donars engaged in making
grants to NGOs and also help local NGOs to get foreign assistance.
iv) Networking/Coordinating NGOs: These NGOs work to facilitate mutual sharing of
learning & experiences and also promote mutual support & co-operation among the
NGO community.
v) Development NGOs: These NGOs operate to mobilize the poor through education and
conscious raising to develop their own organizations.
vi) Consulting NGOs: These NGOs provide consulting services to the govt., donor
agencies and other actors in completion of the programs.

Functional Coverage of NGOs:

In Bangladesh, about 20,000 NGOs are operating their functions in different development
fields. The NGO supported programs are mainly targeted to poor and the disadvantaged groups
that cover a wide range of activities. Here is given a brief discussion about the programs
undertaken by different NGOs in our country.
1. Credit: To reduce dependency on the usual money lenders, NGOs arrange collateral-
free credit for individual or collective enterprises which is the most successful
innovative efforts of development NGOs. The model pioneered by Grameen Bank(GB)
has established micro-credit as the most widely replicated anti-poverty program and
by1995, cumulative disbursement by GB reached US$ 1.44 billion (World Bank,1996)
2. Development: In order to develop the socio-economic condition of the women, NGOs
provide special training to them on apiculture, silk production, embroidery, fishnet
making, poultry and livestock rearing etc. to make them skilled.
3. Non-formal Education: NGOs have concentrated their efforts on eradicating illiteracy
through providing non-formal education for both men and women and they also take

6
 specific programs for the drop-out students and provide non-formal primary education
to the target children where the majority are girls.
4. Employment generation and Income earning: NGOs expand the opportunity of
employment generation through small trading, rickshaw pulling, mulberry plantation
for women, social forestry, fish culture, weaving, poultry& livestock rearing.
5. Capacity building in Planning and Management: In order to enhance the organizing
skills and managerial capabilities of the poor, NGOS undertake different activities at
the grassroots level.
6. Occupational Skill training: NGOs arrange traditional and new skills training for men
and women, including crop cultivation, silk cocoon rearing, operation of irrigation
equipment, para-machines etc.
7. Political participation: NGOs influence to restructure the existing power relations
through the empowerment of the rural poor through a continuous process of education,
awareness building and resource mobilization to ensure them to take part in Salish,
local election etc.
8. Health and Nutritional Knowledge: NGOS have directed their efforts towards
reducing the incidence of infant, child and maternal mortality through various programs
and also provide nutritional knowledge.
9. Family Planning& Development of Children: Family planning is considered as an
integral part of health service and most of the NGOs are involved in motivational
activities and distribution of contraceptives at the community levels. Some programs
taken for underprivileged children include proving health care services, rehabilitation
of orphan children, establishment of child rights etc.
10. Environment: NGOs undertake different programs to combat deforestation and have
also exhibited notable success in afforestation programs, improving sanitation facilities
and ensuring supply of safe drinking water through distribution of water-sealed latrines
and tube-wells among the beneficiaries
11. Mobilization of target group& Consciousness Raising: NGOS mobilize the target
groups through village survey, individual contacts, group meetings, motivational work
participatory group discussion etc. and mass awareness is created through a trainer.
12. Leadership Development: Cadres are trained at training centres on leadership within
the group.
13. Access to govt. services & Activate Local Administration: In order to give the poor
access to the khas land, health care facilities of the govt., the NGOs make such
demands to the relevant governmental authorities. The NGOs can also activate the local
administration by giving the poor adequate access to it.
14. Development of appropriate irrigation technologies: With a view to responding to the
needs of the small and marginal farmers and also to promote crop diversification, NGOs
developed low-cost irrigation technologies through research and experiment. For
example, Rangpur Dinajpur Rural Services(RDRS) developed the treadle pump and
bamboo tube-well etc. There are currently more than 130,000 such technologies in
operation in the country. (Ministry of Agriculture:1995)

7
 15. Urban &Rural Development: For urban and rural development, the NGOs expand their
activities through infrastructure development, slum development, low-cost housing,
FWP, construction of roads, bridges etc.
16. Humanitarian & Legal Aid: Different NGOs provide humanitarian and legal aid to the
distressed people by making them aware of different human and legal rights and also
by providing necessary legal assistance.
17. Relief & Rehabilitation: From a long time, different NGOs have been playing a
significant role in distributing relief among the distressed people along with govt.
These are the major programs taken by different NGOs in Bangladesh. Besides these, there are
different types of functions to be taken.

Advantage/Strengths of NGOs:
NGOs enjoy some comparative advantages over the public sector which demonstrate their
capacity to reach the poor more effectively than govt. Here is given a brief description of the
same.
1. Capacity to reach the poor and the remote areas: NGOs focus on the poorest segment
of the society where government programs are either limited, dont exist or are
ineffective.
2. Capacity to promote local participation: The prime purpose of the NGOs is to
encourage and develop local potentials and to enable the disadvantaged groups to
share the benefits of development.
3. Capacity to work with other agencies: Many NGOS are ready and able to assist
governments, local govt. departments and local voluntary agencies.
4. Capacity of unique understanding of local institutions and socio-cultural
environment: NGOs tend to have accurate knowledge and understanding of local needs
and capacities to undertake projects as well as find materials.
5. Capacity to act quickly: Speed of action and a minimum of bureaucratic tangle is one
of the greatest assets of development NGOs, so that they can take decisions rapidly.
6. Capacity to work with flexibility: Due to their small size the NGOs tend to be more
flexible than government programs or local govt. programs.
7. Capacity to take risks and experiments: NGOs normally undertake pilot projects in
order to experiment or act as a catalyst and to attain their objectives they take risk much
more readily than governmental agencies
8. Capacity to innovate and adapt: Being more flexible than government agencies, NGOs
can transfer technologies developed elsewhere and adapt them to conditions as well as
work out innovative responses to the local needs.
9. Capacity to operate on low costs: The commitment of the NGOs to use low-cost
technologies and streamlined services enable them to operate efficiently on low
budgets.
10. Capacity to facilitate local resource mobilization and ensure local development: The
NGOs have demonstrated their ability to facilitate resource mobilization by promoting
local participation.
11. Capacity to advocacy: The NGOs have the capacity to press the public sector and their
successful initiatives make them able to influence national policies and give them the
advocacy power to governmental organizations.

8
Disadvantages/Weaknesses of NGOs:
As opposed to the comparative advantages, the NGOs have some weakness. The NGOs are
commonly criticized for having the following weaknesses.
1. Limited replicability: NGOs activities depend on a highly motivated staff and where such
level of motivation cant be replicated, the activities themselves cant be replicated.
2. Limited self-sustainability: The NGOs are unable to adopt long-term and efficient
planning strategies so that their projects sometimes would not able to sustain with little
or no outside aid.
3. Limited technical capacity: Local NGOs projects are often initiated with insufficient
technical feasibility analysis and inadequate information.
4. Lack of broad programming content: The NGO programs often remain relatively
isolated from other NGOs or programs and this tendency hinders the establishment of
country wide or regional programs.
5. Limited ability to reach the poorest segment of the society: Although NGOs tent to
reach the poor,but its also true that they cant effectively reach the poorest of the
poor in the society e.g. the floating population
6. Inability to scale-up activities: Because of their small size and resources, limited
administrative system, intensive form in a few communities,the NGOs are unable to
scale-up their activities.
7. Dependency on Donors: Donors, frequent requirements to use their own staff,
consultants, equipments and other material resources become a major constraint for the
NGO. The NGOs are citizen that, by taking funds they serve the interest of the donors
and fulfill their objectives.
8. Paternalistic Approach: NGOs tend to become paternalistic about their clients by
continuously investing in the same beneficiaries.
9. Centralized Operations: Large NGOs are operated and run by their own bureaucracies.
This is evident in cases where the head offices of the NGOs take decisions in a way,
which provides little scope for its local level staffs to take new initiatives.
After the above discussions, it can be said by an UNDP sponsored study(UNDP:1988), that
NGOs are heavily dependent on foreign sources and in the absence of accountability, too much
money from outside can make them corrupt, controversial and bureaucratic.

Legal Framework:
In order to direct the operations and the funding arrangements of the NGOs working in
Bangladesh, the Govt. of Bangladesh applies a range of statutory and administrative regulations
towards the NGOs. Such regulatory framework is necessary to ensure the proper utilization of

9
foreign funding of the NGO sector. In Bangladesh, the legal framework for the NGOs has two
parts.
NGOs of the third world are identified as alternative development agent by the scholars and
they call the NGO sector as Growth Sector (Broadhead:1987). But at the same time NGOs
are now realizing the fact that to scale up their activities in the national level there is no
alternative but to involve the government. And in this regard a new term has been popularized
and that is Collaboration. Collaboration across sectors is an alternative means of using the
special capacities of different sectors in development (Brown and Korten: 1991)
A strong collaborative relationship is conceived only where both parties share common goals:
where the government has a positive agenda and NGOs are effective in their activities.
Generally, there are 6 types of Collaboration that are followed and these are:
Co-financing, One-way financial flow, Contract/Subcontract, Joint Implementation,
Consultation and Successful Linkage. And among these types generally Co-financing is the
most popular types of collaboration in the context of Bangladesh.

What BRAC stands for:

BRAC, based in Bangladesh, is (as of May 2010) the world's largest non-governmental
development organization established by Sir Fazle Hasan Abed in 1972 soon after the
independence of Bangladesh, BRAC is present in all 64 districts of Bangladesh, with over 7
million microfinance group members, 37,500 non-formal primary schools and more than
70,000 health volunteers. BRAC is the largest NGO by number of staff employing over
120,000 people, the majority of whom are women. The major objectives of BRAC are poverty
alleviation and empowerment of the poor.

Different types of BRAC Activities

There are different types of NGOS in Bangladesh. But BRAC cant be confined in any single
types. BRAC provides service, consultation, credit, relief while it does different types of
development work and specially it works for the empowerment of the poor and is also works
for women development. Besides, BRAC is not only a national NGO but also an international
NGO as BRAC operates programs such as those in microfinance and education in nine
countries across Asia and Africa, reaching more than 110 million people. So, it can be said that
BRAC is a Multi-purpose oriented NGO.

Legal and Regulatory Framework of BRAC:

Bangladesh Rural Advancement Committee (BRAC) has registered under the following acts
and Ordinance. Besides BRAC has certain rules in operating the Micro-Credit programs.
Here is those Acts and Ordinances.

10
1. The Societies Registration Act,1861: BRAC has been legally registered under the
Certificate of Registration of Societies Act, Article 21 of 1860 and this registration has been
occurred in the year of 1971-1972.

2. The Foreign Donation (Voluntary Activity Regulation) (FDR) Ordinance,

1978: BRAC has been registered under ordinance no.46 of this Ordinance.
3. Micro Credit Regulatory Authority, Dhaka 2006: BRAC has performed Micro
Credit Programs by following sub-clause 3 of sub-article 16 of article 32.

Programmes of BRAC:
BRAC is the most renowned, popular and leading NGOs in Bangladesh. There are many
programs that are introduced by BRAC for the elimination of poverty, improvement of
education and for the betterment of the country people specially the grassroots. Here is given
a brief discussion about the programs taken by BRAC.

Agriculture and Food Security:

BRACs agriculture programmes work with governments to ensure food security which are
also operating in 8 countries of the world. They build systems of production distribution and
marketing of quality seeds at fair prices, conduct research to develop better varieties and
practices for the agricultural sector, offer credit support to poor farmers, and promote the use
of efficient farming techniques and proven technologies.
In 2015, BRAC developed three hybrid rice, three hybrid maize, three inbred rice, four
vegetables, one pulse and one oilseed variety for commercial cultivation. BRAC developed
aromatic rice Kalijira PL9 through pure line breeding. This variety has a much higher yield
potential and shorter maturity period than usual Kalijira rice. Approximately 117 aromatic and
77 non-aromatic traditional rice varieties were maintained for on-farm rice biodiversity
conservation. Research on four crops in a year- round cropping pattern was successfully
completed. BRAC demonstrated new agriculture and aquaculture technologies to 88,821
farmers. A total of 156,352 farmers in 51 sub-districts across Bangladesh were trained on
improved technologies.
6,693 farmers were introduced to an environment-friendly system of rice intensification. The
initiative covered over 1,332 hectares of land across 73 sub-districts, mostly in the drought-
prone northern regions of Bangladesh. Sunflowers were cultivated on 6,565 hectares of land.
Homestead vegetable cultivation and dyke farming were introduced to 19,344 farmers to meet
nutritional demands and ensure year-round availability of vegetables.
Aquaculture was introduced into 30 seasonal floodplains in 16 sub-districts, helping to
conserve indigenous fish species.

New Initiative:
In 2011, Mobile based technology for the clients of the tenant farmers projects, allow farmers
to take pictures of their infected crops with their cell phones and send them to sector specialists

11
for analysis and recommendations. This year BRAC has introduced stress tolerant rice to
combat the adverse effect of climate change including submergence, salinity and drought.
In 2015, Bangladesh is highly vulnerable to the impacts of climate change, facing extreme
events that continually affect crop production. We are committed to developing and
disseminating a diverse range of climate-smart agricultural technologies to ensure food
security. We design our interventions to meet the sustainable development goals of achieving
food security and improved nutrition and promote sustainable agriculture (SDG 2).

Advocacy:
BRACs advocacy programme, Advocacy for Social Change, now reaches 13.3 million
people in 13 districts in Bangladesh, helping to improve the overall state of human rights in the
country. They use the power of the media to give voice to those who would otherwise go
unheard, such as the ultra-poor and migrant workers.

Advocating eradication of extreme poverty: They conducted social communication,

mobilized media and facilitated policy dialogues with 905,477 programme participants
including policymakers, access providers, and civil society. The media covered them 684 times
in the year 2011. Their facilitation and advocacy model influenced the department of livestock
to provide 400 million takas in interest free micro loans to ultra-poor families. The successful
implementation of their best practices have led to the formation of over 88 community based
sustainable voluntary forums, which have mobilized more than 522,000 takas and distributed
to 1,091 of the extremely poor to support income generation, education and health.

Advocating for health issues: Their media mobilization has covered 3,339 programme
participants, while targeted articles and telecasts facilitated a flow of messages that increased
awareness against social stigma, myths and odd practices. Their collective effort has
contributed to increase the duration of maternity leave by six months.

Communication for development: A total of 213,406 people participated in their

behavior change communications, community engagement and capacity development
activities. As a result they have developed a total of 3,740 community educators and 1,980
youth volunteer educators. They have facilitated workshops, community meetings and
discussions, dialogue sessions, and school quiz programmes to cover 200,590 people including
opinion leaders and elected local government representatives. They have also successfully
established two networks of NGO civil societies named Civic Forum.

Advocating safe migration: BRAC has conducted social communications, mobilizing

media and facilitating policy dialogues among 318,642 programme participants including
policymakers, resource holders and civil society members, which have been covered by the
media 274 times in 2011. They have formed 380 migration forums which have helped to
recover 3,655,000 takas from middlemen through social arbitration, that have been distributed
to 103 cheated migrants. They have provided legal aid support to 22 deceived migrants, and
counselling and meal support to 22,500 Libya returnees.

Health:
The core of BRACs approach to healthcare is its frontline community health workers (CHWs);
these women hail from poor communities, the villages and urban slums, providing and

12
promoting vital healthcare goods and services to their neighbors doorsteps. Trained by BRAC,
these frontline healthcare workers are self-employed entrepreneurs who create an effective
bridge between underserved communities and formal healthcare systems, providing essential
low cost health services to over 100 million Bangladeshis.

Mothers, newborns and children: Shasthya kormis provided antenatal care to over 4.4
million pregnant women in 2011. About 390 BRAC delivery centers established in urban slums
offered a culturally appropriate, safe delivery option to all slum mothers. The birth attendants
and CHWs ensured about 213,000 women to access skilled birth attendance. Essential newborn
care was offered to 427,703 babies at birth. The CHWs motivated 837,500 mothers to
exclusively breastfeed in the first six months of age, and counseled, coached and demonstrated
607,208 caregivers of under-two children for complementary feeding to aid physical and
cognitive development. To prevent and control iron deficiency anemia, 9,036,309 Sprinkles
sachets were distributed among children in 61 districts by shasthya shebikas. Collaborating
with the government, the CHWs also assisted 1,607,255 children in receiving full
immunization. They also provided treatment to 203,347 ultra poor patients.

Tuberculosis: 135,000 tuberculosis cases were identified and treated in BRAC areas,
making up 65 per cent contribution to the national case notification. The case notification rate
for all forms of tuberculosis was 146 per 100,000 people. 95 per cent of tuberculosis cases
identified in 2014 were successfully treated, using the directly observed treatment method,
against the national target of 85 percent.. They have started community based multi drug
resistant tuberculosis (MDR-TB) treatment since 2009 and so far 160 MDR-TB patients have
been treated successfully with a 64 per cent treatment success rate.

Malaria: 23,000 malaria patients were diagnosed and treated through the early diagnosis and
prompt treatment strategy, making up 59 per cent of cases treated nationally in 2014. With
regard to malaria, they have not only achieved their targets, but have taken great strides in
moving further ahead. Currently, 89.3% of under-five children and 87.2% of pregnant women
used long lasting insecticidal net (LLIN) or ITN (insecticide treated net). A total of 21,907
malaria patients have been treated so far in four districts, covering a population of 1.8 million.
New Initiative- test out innovative models to continually improve Access to and sustain quality
healthcare services, particularly for women and children

Gender Justice and Diversity:

BRAC has worked for decades to integrate gender justice into its programmes and eliminate
gender injustice in society. They also promote gender equality and tackle violence against
women at a national level by influencing government policies and agendas, organizing public
forums and events, and leveraging national and international alliances for gender justice.
Mejnin: A programme called Mejnin (meyeder jonno nirapod nagorikatto, or safe
citizenship for girls) is one of a number of progress areas for 2011. Mejnin built awareness
and self confidence among 14,680 students and reached 3,300 parents, teachers and community
members. The programme built relationships with and raised awareness about this issue among
local administration, police, media, and other influential figures through national level
interactions. Moreover, the community watch groups who have volunteered to stand vigilant

13
against sexual harassment organized 70 meetings on the issue with local community members,
124 parent meetings, and 85 student watch group meetings.

Gender quality action learning (GQAL): Operating in 10 sub districts, the GQAL
programme aims to create a community movement that recognizes violence against women.
The GQAL programme raised awareness among 30,000 household members and trained 3,000
gender justice educators. BRACs research and evaluation division documented major
achievements, for example increasing womens freedom of public mobility from 8.2% at the
baseline to 70.1% by the midpoint evaluation alone. This programme, launched in 2011, works
with local communities to combat domestic violence and gender based discrimination in ten
unions of two sub districts covering 190,000 households.
New Initiative: Create equal opportunities for women and men, and continue to reduce violence
against women and girls.

Microfinance:
Over the course of the last four decades, they have grown to become one of the worlds largest
providers of financial services to the poor, providing tools which millions can use for the
betterment of their lives.
BRAC services include microloans (Dabi) and microenterprise loans (Progoti). Dabi loans
range from USD 100-1,000 and are given exclusively to individual women who are serviced
by the village organisations (VO). The VO serves as an informal guarantor through creating
peer pressure to ensure timely repayment.
Progoti loans, which range from USD 1,000-10,000 are given to both male and female
entrepreneurs to support and help expand existing small enterprises which are too small to
qualify for credit from mainstream banks. Borrowers generally use these loans to finance shops
and small scale manufacturing activities.
In 2015, 12,000 clients, primarily women, chose to make savings deposits via mobile money
using bKash - a BRAC Bank subsidiary. The support they receive from us to bring them on to
the service is also helping to promote numerical and digital literacy, enabling more people to
use the platform in ways that best suit their needs.

Education:
BRAC was already one of the largest indigenous development and relief nongovernmental
organizations (NGOs) in Bangladesh by the mid-1980s. By 1984, it had launched 22
experimental, one-room, non-formal primary education (NFPE) centers for children of the rural
poor specially girl students. In their 26 years of history they have provided basic education to
around 10 million students in Bangladesh, with graduates from non-formal primary schools
numbering nearly five million. Currently, the primary school enrolment rate is over 90% in
Bangladesh. However, there is a high dropout rate of approximately 30%, most of which
happens before reaching class five. To reduce the dropout rate in government primary schools,
BRACs preprimary schools graduates more than 360,000 students who are directly admitted
to government schools, completing grade five on time.

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 There are three types of schools generally referred to as BRAC schools in Phase III:
BPSs, which are four-year programs for eight- to 10-year-olds, covering first through fifth
grade;
BRAC Adolescent Primary Schools (BAPSs, formerly BEOC/KK), which are four-year
programs for 11- to 14-year-olds, covering first through fourth grade; and
Education Support Program (ESP) schools, which are three-year programs for 8- to 10-year-
olds, covering first through third grade in underserved areas and implemented by other
organizations already working in those areas.
They are increasingly focused on implementing cost- sharing models through our pilot
shishuniketon that was scaled up to 4,832 centres. This is a fee-based model that caters to
children from lower income families but who can afford to pay for quality education.

Providing financial and tutoring assistance: Their Medhabikash is an innovative

intervention designed to provide support to talented students. They receive financial support to
pay for their college or university tuition fees, at home or abroad, as well as capacity-building
assistance. BRAC increasingly focused on implementing cost- sharing models through their
pilot shishuniketon that was scaled up to 4,832 centers. This is a fee-based model that caters
to children from lower- income families but who can afford to pay for quality education. And
also undergraduate students have received their scholarships.

Empowering adolescents:
Through a pilot initiative, social and financial empowerment of adolescents (SOFEA), over
1,900 girls received training in income generating activities ranging from poultry and livestock
rearing to salon activities; over 1,500 girls received training on financial literacy with members
saving a total of BDT 4,455,661 (USD 54,473) and over 1,600 girls among them have borrowed
to invest in their own or family enterprise.
Changing social norms and supporting adolescent empowerment, a joint pilot project with
UNICEF Bangladesh, was initiated in Mirpur and Karail slums of Dhaka. The project targets
adolescent girls. A total of 3,000 girls between 10 to 19 years of age, including girls with
disabilities, received education and counselling on basic nutrition, dietary consumption to
prevent iron deficiency anaemia and iodine deficiency disorder, and demonstration on healthy
cooking and eating habits. Additionally, adolescent girls received iron folic acid capsules and
deworming tablets.

Facilitating continued education for communities: BRAC opened a total of 120 new
learning centers leading to a total of 2,425 in 2011, with 50 leading to a total of 71,165 of them
being equipped with computers and offering computer training. They have also established 25
centers leading to a total 665 new mobile libraries.
New Initiative in 2016
BRAC has brought primary school education to children of seasonal submergent areas by
introducing boat schools, which pick up teachers and registered students from the nearest Haiti
(settlements on tiny islands) and drop them off in their homes and after classes. transforming
Traditional textbook content into multi-device enabled interactive multimedia content with

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support from the Ministry of ICT, Government of Bangladesh and technical support from Save
the Children. Efforts in the remote char (riverine islands) and hoar (wetlands) areas as well as
in urban slums.

Water, Sanitation and Hygiene:

Access to safe water and sanitation are basic human rights. Inability to access them can lead to
a wide variety of social impacts, from water-related diseases and malnutrition, to low school
attendance rates and loss of productivity. They have been working to improve services relating
to water, sanitation and hygiene in Bangladesh since 2006. So far, they have provided these
services across half the country, ensuring sustainability through community ownership,
developing linkages with local governments, and supporting local entrepreneurs. From 2016,
they will expand our reach into urban and hard-to-reach areas, contributing to the sustainable
development goal of ensuring access to water and sanitation for all.
In 2015, significant progress has been made since the inception of the programme in 2006. As
of December 2015, we have helped 2.3 million people gain access to safe drinking water. This
includes arsenic and saline-prone areas, which benefitted from the installation of deep tube
wells, piped water supply systems, pond sand filters and water treatment plants.
They helped 41.6 million people gain access to hygienic latrines. We provided loan support
to poor households and grant support to ultra-poor households to encourage them to build
latrines. Outcome monitoring shows that 78 per cent of the households in areas where the
programme has worked for more than eight years now have access to hygienic latrines. All
adult members and children (above 6 years) in 97 per cent of these households use the
latrines regularly.
Over 5,600 schools in rural areas have been provided with separate latrines for girls, which
included facilities for menstrual hygiene management.
They have recently started providing separate latrines for boys along with piped water
systems in schools in both rural and urban areas.
Every year we provide hygiene education to an average of 13.9 million people in communities,
and 2.9 million students in schools.
New Initiative
They will commence operations in 400 hard-to-reach unions and 35 pourashavas (small towns),
primarily along the climate-affected coastal belt and wetlands of bangladesh. In 2011, Two and
three headed tube-well is a recent innovation of BRACs Wash Program, which uses a single
safe aquifer to provide a large population with safe drinking water.

Targeting the Ultra Poor (TUP)

BRAC Lifting millions of lives out of ultra-poverty. Their programme is specifically designed
to meet the needs of households that are too poor to access traditional development
interventions. they create and improve livelihoods for those at the base of the economic
pyramid through our graduation model, eradicating poverty in all its forms. Over 25 countries
have adapted and replicated our groundbreaking model to date. 95 per cent of our participants

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graduate from ultra-poverty. Globally, 75-98 per cent of the participants meet the country-
specific graduation criteria in 18-36 months, according to reports from CGAP and Ford
Foundation-funded pilots.

Graduation, measured through a set of criteria, occurs when households achieve economic and
social advancement over a period of 24 months.
At least three sources of income in Sustainable homes considering the
the household within two years geographical context
Nutritious meals twice a day for
Children attend school
every member of the household
Four fruit-bearing or woody trees
Use of a sanitary latrine and safe
owned by the household, if space is
drinking water
available
At least 10 ducks/chickens/pigeons Eligible couples adopt family
owned by the household planning
Kitchen garden present in the
Zero child marriage in the household
household

New Initiative
Slums in Dhaka are accommodating about 5 million people which are almost 40% of the total
population of the city. Realizing the dire need for addressing the extreme poverty in urban
slums, CFPR-TUP has started a small pilot in Dhaka slums in 2010.

Disaster, Environment and Climate Change:

BRACs disaster management programme helps communities become more resilient to natural
disasters by developing prevention and adaptation strategies while building the capacity of
communities to respond rapidly and effectively.
Climate change is a rising global concern. Bangladesh, a low-lying river delta region, is
particularly at risk. BRAC aim is to enhance our institutional capacity to respond to natural and
human-made hazards through humanitarian response, and support communities in rebuilding
their lives as quickly as possible. They also focus on empowering communities to sustainably
reduce vulnerability of their populations. In alignment with the sustainable development goals,
we strengthen resilience through community-based disaster risk reduction and adaptive
strategies against climate change.

New Initiative
BRAC is involved in designing a model Disaster resilient habitant (DRH) settlement in the
southern part of Bangladesh by involving communities using local materials and indigenous
knowledge. With the help of BRAC University and UNDP, BRAC has constructed 42 DRHs
where community members will be able to take shelter during disasters. They have also started
to contribute technical and financial resources to the construction of a disaster resilient school.

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Human Rights and Legal Aid Services:
BRAC ensuring equal access to justice for all. Access to justice is defined as the ability of
people to seek and obtain a remedy through formal or informal institutions of justice, in
compliance with universal human rights standards. They believe that in order to facilitate a
smooth access to justice pathway, it is necessary to uphold the quality of justice services
particularly through legal aid and legal awareness, strengthen the capacity of civil society,
exercising equal and fair application of the law, promote transparency in the judicial system,
and uphold professionalism in service delivery. Our efforts address the goal of promoting the
rule of law at the national level and ensure equal access to justice for all.
Their legal aid clinics received a total of 23,913 complaints, of which 13,338 were resolved
through alternative dispute resolutions. 5,763 complaints were sent to court through our
external panel of lawyers. They recovered a total of BDT 266,390,712 on behalf of our clients
through alternative dispute resolutions and court cases Our land entrepreneurs provided
24,664 clients with paid land measurement services and 1,054 clients with free land
measurement services through the property rights initiative. Land entrepreneurs earned BDT
9,953,080 through measuring a total of 1,046,228 decimals of land 228 new land entrepreneurs,
including 45 women, were equipped with the skills to measure land.
New Initiative in 2011
Their newest technological intervention, iCRESS provides a range of services to connect
different points in the delivery of human rights services.

Community Empowerment:
BRAC giving a voice to 1 million women living in poverty. Community development is not
possible unless women living in poverty are given a voice. They provide women the tools to
claim their entitlements, develop leadership, prevent exploitation, and play active roles in their
communities. them strengthen rural communities by building institutions to close gaps between
communities and local government. They increase access to information with a specific focus
on reducing violence against women and children. They address the sustainable development
goals of achieving gender equality and empowerment for all women and girls, and building
effective and accountable institutions at all levels.
Highlights of 2015, Over 12,000 community-based organisations (polli shomaj) participated in
a range of activities, from building access to local government services to preventing violence
against women and securing positions for women in local power structures. The Government
of Bangladesh honored 1,068 women from our community-based organizations. with Joyeeta
Nari Awards in recognition of their extraordinary accomplishments.
strengthening local governance initiative aims to develop the capacity of local government to
engage in pro-poor governance, enhance transparency and accountability and promote
participatory democracy. This year, 420 union council (union parishad) members were
trained on improving efficiency and sensitized on being pro-poor.
Their popular theatre groups performed 13,378 drama shows to disseminate information
among communities. Polli kontho, our community radio, received the international ABU Prize
2015 and the Meena Media Award in four categories from UNICEF for its contributions in
improving access to information.

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We addressed a total of 22,216 cases of human rights violations, such as child marriage,
dowry, unlawful divorce, polygamy, domestic violence, and fatwa. We provided 9,277
survivors of violence with need-based support.
Interactive communications materials were designed for our programme participants, including
a book featuring stories of our successful female leaders, popular theatre and a polli shomaj
implementation guidebook

Enterprise and Investments:

The BRAC model comprises of a collaborative network of development programmes,
enterprises and investments, all of which together serve the comprehensive vision and objective
of serving the poor. BRACs wide range of development programmes ensure that the
organizations social and philanthropic missions run as fully funded, non-surplus ventures,
surplus or profit from the enterprises to help fund BRACs development programmes, often
run at high cost. The remaining 50 per cent is reinvested in the enterprises themselves.
BRAC has launched some enterprises which are-

BRAC ENTERPRISES GREEN ENTERPRISES BRAC INVESTMENTS

Aarong BRAC Sericulture BRAC Bank Ltd.

BRAC Dairy BRAC Solar Delta BRAC Housing Finance

Corp. Ltd.
BRAC Artificial Insemination BRAC Recycled Handmade BRAC Tea Estates
Paper
BRAC Poultry BRAC Nursery BRACNet

BRAC Feed Mills Documenta TM Ltd.

BRAC Fisheries
BRAC Salt
BRAC Sanitary Napkin and
Delivery Kit
BRAC Cold Storage
BRAC Printers
BRAC Printing Pack

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New Initiative

bKash is a joint venture between BRAC Bank Limited in Bangladesh and Money in Motion
LLC of the U.S.A. bKash wants to provide a complete mobile financial service solution to
increase access to a broader range of financial services of every citizen of Bangladesh and
promote sustainable savings to achieve the ultimate goal of financial inclusion.

BRAC Kanon, an outlet of BRAC Green Enterprises,is a green initiative aiming to

encourage city dwellers and corporate officers to help to save energy, money, our planet. This
solar powered sales and display centre is the countrys first ever green retail outlet featuring
products and services from BRAC Solar, BRAC Nursery, BRAC Recycled Handmade paper
and BRAC Sericulture.

GO-NGO Collaboration
BRAC is such a NGO which believe that without GO-NGO collaboration no development
initiatives can be brought into light. So BRAC works with the Govt. collaboratively. And
sometimes its seen that in some programs the success rate of BRAC is more than the Govt.
Besides,BRAC works with the Govt. directly in the Agriculture and Food Security Programme.
So it can be said that if BRAC works with the Govt. more, then the not only BRAC will be
benefited but also the Govt. will be benefited.

Findings:
BRAC is one of the largest NGOs in Bangladesh. Therefore, while doing my study, weve
found some problems of BRAC. The livestock rearers face a lot of problems while they
exchange or deal with BRAC. Here is given the gap between theory and practice, which BRAC
should give enough emphasize to be solved.
1. Higher rate of Interest
2. Difficulty in getting Loan

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 3. Lack of Coordination
4. Premature recovery loan
5. Lack of technical/marketing knowledge
6. Lack of accounting & transparency.

Recommendation:
But after all these limitations stated above, weve found that all the programs taken by BRAC
are quite successful all over the country. But in the shed light of total program faced by the
farmers, BRAC needs to give so many efforts to develop their huge services towards poor
people. Here is given some recommendations, in this regard.
1. Cut off their high interest rate and remove their cumulative interest counting,
2. Ease to get loan
3. Giving door to door service regarding loan
4. Reduce initial hassle regarding loan
5. Give training on marketing and production,
6. Loan management counseling cell
7. Developing a business planning cell

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 8. Loan management counseling cell
9. Spread out their loan to real poor people
10. Coordinate with farmers community, etc.

Conclusion:
After all the discussion, I can say that BRAC has done a lot of contribution in all the 64 districts
of Bangladesh after independence till now. But our govt. is not doing that development work
for the people of Bangladesh in comparison to BRAC. Govt. emphasizes only the urban sector
but cant sometimes reach to the grassroots people. But, here one thing should be kept in mind,
that no development process of a country can bring about successful result without making it
possible to give all-out effort to the development process of a country in a whole. So, besides
NGOs, our govt. has to come forward for the rural development of Bangladesh and has to help
BRAC as well as all the NGOs to make their all programs successful without facing any
obstacles.

References
1. BRAC Officials

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2. Tanzian Ferdous, Department of Public Health, University of Dhaka, The Role of NGO
in the National Development of Bangladesh

3. Sabina Islam, Area Manager, BRAC- ADP BRAC Education Program.

4. Robindra Nath Sarker, Area Manager, BRAC Health Program
5. Sarowar Jahan Polash, District BRAC Representative(BRAC) at Tangail.
6. Assistant Professor Mohammad Shamsuddoha, Department of Marketing, University of
Chittagong, Chittagong, Bangladesh, Development Of Livestock Sector Through Leading
Ngo In Bangladesh

7. BRAC Annual Report 2011-2015

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