Misplaced Pages

#707292

49-445: While the results of the model ultimately frustrated Khan's ambitions, it has important implications for rural community development , particularly cooperative microfinance and microcredit . The Comilla Model was Khan's reply to the failure of Village Agricultural and Industrial Development (V-AID) programme, launched in 1953 with technical assistance from the US government. The V-AID

98-458: A common goal for rural development. Afterwards, the contradictions within the Comilla approach manifested themselves." Comilla Model provided an experience to be profited by later practitioners. In the early years of BRAC (NGO) and Grameen Bank in the 1970s, both Dr. Muhammad Yunus and Fazle Hasan Abed tested cooperative approaches to delivering credit to poor people. They concluded that

147-533: A community empowerment programme back in 1988 all over the country. BRAC founded its retail outlet, Aarong (Bengali for "village fair") in 1978 to market and distribute products made by indigenous peoples. Aarong services about 65,000 artisans, and sells gold and silver jewellery, handloom, leather crafts, etc. The Challenging the Frontiers of Poverty Reduction: Targeting the Ultra Poor (CFPR-TUP) project

196-431: A community-led integrated approach to rural development, in which communities, public sector and voluntary partners and specialist interest groups come together to undertake development. PLANED has a long experience of introducing and developing pioneering methodologies, tools, techniques and processes for the engagement of communities in local development. This best practice has been shared across Europe, primarily through

245-613: A community. Poverty-targeting is seen as 'reverse discrimination' on the basis of social or economic status. In this view, the main problem with the Comilla Model was that it neglected the 4th cooperative principle: independence from government. This neglect is clearly visible in the Khan's initial design of the Model, since the cooperatives were conceived of as an instrument for maintaining public infrastructure, and were dependent on

294-404: A long debate about the issue of participation , in which questions have been raised about the sustainability of these efforts and the extent to which rural people are – or are not – being empowered to make decisions for themselves. The international association for Community Development (IACD) is the main global network for practitioners and scholars working in this field www.iacdglobal.org In

343-431: A methodology for stimulating rural development, based on the principle of grassroots cooperative participation by the people. Khan found inspiration for the cooperative development aspect of his model from German cooperative pioneer Friedrich Wilhelm Raiffeisen , whose rural credit unions had been an early example of institution-building in predominantly illiterate communities . To simultaneously address problems caused by

392-727: A number of influential reports. In the United States, rural community development is an essential tool in keeping rural areas economically viable in a competitive global arena. Under the United States Department of Agriculture , this is addressed through the Rural Development mission area, comprising the Rural Housing Service , Rural Utilities Service , and Rural Business-Cooperative Service . Research and data sources for rural areas of

441-471: A self-financing health insurance scheme. The programme went on to offer integrated healthcare services. BRAC's 2007 impact assessment of its North West Microfinance Expansion Project testified to increased awareness of legal issues, including those of marriage and divorce, among women participants in BRAC programs. Furthermore, women participants' self-confidence was boosted and the incidence of domestic violence

490-482: A university called BRAC University . BRAC has done what few others have – they have achieved success on a massive scale, bringing life-saving health programs to millions of the world's poorest people. They remind us that even the most intractable health problems are solvable, and inspire us to match their success throughout the developing world. Bill Gates , Co-chair, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation Global Health Award, 2004 Microfinance, introduced in 1974,

539-418: Is BRAC's oldest programme. It spans all districts of Bangladesh. It provides collateral-free loans to mostly poor, landless, rural women, enabling them to generate income and improve their standards of living . BRAC's microcredit program has funded over $ 1.9 billion in loans in its first 40 years. 95% of BRAC's microloan customers are women. According to BRAC, the repayment rate is over 98%. BRAC started

SECTION 10

#1732779891708

588-569: Is aimed at households which are too poor to access the benefits from development interventions such as microfinance and assists them to access mainstream development services. The program costs around US$ 35 million a year. BRAC is one of the largest NGOs involved in primary education in Bangladesh . As of the end of 2012, it had more than 22,700 non-formal primary schools with a combined enrollment of 670,000 children. Its schools constitute three-quarters of all NGO non-formal primary schools in

637-460: Is important in developing countries where a large part of the population is engaged in farming . Consequently, a range of community development methods have been created and used by organisations involved in international development . Most of these efforts to promote rural community development are led by 'experts' from outside the community such as government officials, staff of non-governmental organizations and foreign advisers. This has led to

686-593: Is now focusing on long-term rehabilitation, which will include agriculture support, infrastructure reconstruction and livelihood regeneration. BRAC has a collaboration with Nike 's Girl Effect campaign to launch a new program to reach out to teenagers in Uganda and Tanzania . In 2006 BRAC received donations from the Directorate-General for International Cooperation (DGIS) and the Government of

735-420: Is partly self-funded through a number of social enterprises. These include a retail fashion chain called Aarong that sells rural handicrafts, an agricultural seed business, a dairy, and a cold storage facility, among others. Between 2011 and 2015, surplus self-generated revenue from the organization's enterprises averaged $ 17 million annually. Historian Taj Hashmi has criticized BRAC's projects for exploiting

784-773: The NGO Affairs Bureau of the Government of Bangladesh . BRAC is the largest non-governmental development Organisation in the world, in terms of the number of employees as of September 2016. Established by Sir Fazle Hasan Abed in 1972 after the independence of Bangladesh , BRAC is present in all 64 districts of Bangladesh as well as 16 other countries in Asia, Africa, and the Americas. BRAC states that it employs over 90,000 people, roughly 70 percent of whom are women, and that it reaches more than 126 million people with its services. BRAC has operations in 12 countries of

833-656: The Big Lottery Fund. This was the largest rural community development programme in the UK and lasted until 2010. The Trust also funded national and international communities of practice to exchange experiences. This included the International Association for Community Development and work around the potential impact of climate change on vulnerable rural communities and the need for more sustainable development approaches to land use. The Commission produced

882-602: The LEADER network. In 2004 the Carnegie UK Trust established a Commission of Inquiry into the future of rural community development across the UK and Ireland. The Commission was chaired by Lord Steel, the former leader of the Liberal Party and included in its membership Lord Haskins and Jonathan Porritt. It was also informed by a country wide action research programme funding over 60 projects in partnership with

931-715: The Netherlands / Embassy of the Kingdom of the Netherlands (EKN). In 2011 the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation (BMGF) joined the list of BRAC donors. In 2012 the Department for International Development (DFID), the Government of the UK and Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT), and the Australian Government (SPA) (under the strategic partnership arrangement) became BRAC donors as well. BRAC

980-437: The UK rural community development is seen as very important. Rural areas are often some of the most deprived in the country. Rural Community Councils around the country support local rural communities in securing sustainable futures. The local rural communities are supported by experienced community development workers. In Pembrokeshire (Wales), Pembrokeshire Local Action Network for Enterprise and Development (PLANED) apply

1029-750: The United States is also addressed by the United States Department of Agriculture through the Economic Research Service , the National Institute of Food and Agriculture and the National Agricultural Library ’s Rural Information Center. The Center for Rural Affairs is a grassroots organization originating in Nebraska that puts an emphasis on leadership development to reinvigorate rural communities. They strive to promote entrepreneurship and increase

SECTION 20

#1732779891708

1078-568: The accumulation of self-owned capital through thrift and they promote managerial and technical skill through training. Their ultimate aim is self-financing and self-management. In the villages, the Academy introduced a number of pilot projects beginning in 1959. These pilot projects were guided by two goals: first, to provide a real-life learning situation for its trainees; and second, to devise pilot programmes and institutions which could serve as models capable of replication. In guiding and operating

1127-435: The construction of community centres. A Research and Evaluation Division (RED) was set up to evaluate its activities and decide direction, and in 1977, BRAC began taking a more targeted approach by creating Village Organisations (VO) to assist the landless, small farmers, artisans, and vulnerable women. That same year BRAC set up a commercial printing press to help finance its activities. The handicraft retail chain called Aarong

1176-503: The cooperative strategy could not work in rural Bangladesh. Instead, both directly targeted the poorest people, while attempting to keep out those who were not poor. Dowla & Barua recently summarised the thinking at Grameen Bank: A major reason for the prior failure of credit cooperatives in Bangladesh was that the groups were too big and consisted of people with varied economic backgrounds. These large groups did not work because

1225-651: The cooperatives. "They are powerful and well informed. They know that the old sanctions (certificates, notices, pressure by officers) are now dead, and they can repudiate their obligations with impunity." In addition, the new government annulled loans issued by its pre-independence predecessor. Chowdhury reports that by 1979 only 61 of the 400 cooperatives were still functioning. He attributes this result to four factors: fraud/lack of internal controls, stagnation, diversion of funds, and ineffective external supervision. The central problem of fraud and weak controls "was possible not only because of individual dishonesty, but because

1274-569: The country. BRAC's education programme provides non-formal primary education to those left out of the formal education system, especially poor, rural, or disadvantaged children, and drop-outs. Its schools are typically one room with one teacher and no more than 33 students. Core subjects include mathematics, social studies and English. The schools also offer extracurricular activities. They incentivise schooling by providing food, allowing flexible learning hours, and conferring scholarships contingent on academic performance. Bangladesh has reduced

1323-417: The delivery of government extension services and credit for their success. Cooperatives however, have fallen prey to elite capture in many oral communities , and in less densely populated nations than Bangladesh, it still proves challenging to deliver microfinance to them. Rural community development Rural community development encompasses a range of approaches and activities that aim to improve

1372-461: The farm returns per food dollar to maintain the economy in rural areas. Colleges and Universities, many located in rural communities, have also played a key role in rural community development throughout United States history. The Morrill Land-Grant Act of 1862 provided funding for agricultural education. Since the passage of the Morrill Act, there has been significant demographic changes in

1421-584: The four programs suffered from distortion, mismanagement, corruption and subversion. After independence of Bangladesh, while the First Five Year Plan gave general endorsement, both theoretical criticisms and practical difficulties became more severe. Escalating loan defaults became a particularly important concern, undermining the hope that the cooperatives would become self-reliant and develop into strong institutions. Dr. Khan reported that influential local people had secured management positions in

1470-401: The gap between male and female attendance in schools. The improvement in female enrollment, which has largely been at the primary level, is in part attributable to BRAC. Roughly 60% of the students in their schools are girls. BRAC also runs a university called BRAC University. BRAC started providing public healthcare in 1972 with an initial focus on curative care through paramedics and

1519-435: The inadequacy of both local infrastructure and local institutions, the Model integrated four distinct components in every thana (sub-district) where it was implemented: Considerable emphasis was placed on distribution of agricultural inputs and extension services, for example by helping farmers to grow potatoes in the sandy Comilla soil, and using cold storage technology. Another key implementation challenge, Dr. Khan wrote,

Comilla Model - Misplaced Pages Continue

1568-580: The main microfinance NGOs in Bangladesh, had abandoned cooperative approaches and developed highly centralised control and service delivery structures. The merits of poverty-targeting continue to stimulate debate in microfinance. While many microcredit institutions have adopted poverty-targeting, most cooperatives reject it. The 1st principle in the Statement on the Co-operative Identity affirms that cooperatives are open to all persons in

1617-496: The more affluent members captured the organizations. Later cooperative development initiatives in Bangladesh, like RD-12 and the Swanirvar (‘self-reliance’) Movement also adopted a targeting strategy. Both Yunus and Abed also attempted to catalyse collective enterprises that were locally owned and controlled. However, problems with internal control and elite manipulation continued, and by the 1990s Grameen and BRAC, along with all

1666-456: The people were not made aware of their rights, and were not in a position to voice their rights ..." At the same time, there were difficulties with government relations made more difficult by the departure of Khan for Pakistan. The officers and change agents were not ready to plan with the local people and to report to them directly…. The dynamic personality of Dr. Akhtar Hameed Khan helped to mobilize and harmonize diverse groups to work towards

1715-409: The population of colleges, including student gender, population size and number of commuters. This shift has created opportunities for rural colleges to play a part in the development of the communities in which they reside. BRAC (NGO) BRAC is an international development organisation based in Bangladesh . In order to receive foreign donations, BRAC was subsequently registered under

1764-499: The projects, a set of principles and strategies were formulated as the bases for developing the pilot projects, resulting in a unique rural development approach. The main features of the Comilla Model were: For various reasons the Comilla Model was unable to achieve its goal. It had particular troubles with government relations and efforts to build strong cooperative institutions. According to Dr Khan: … in actual practice,

1813-440: The relief effort, as well as several hundred fishing boats; BRAC claims to have done this within nine months, as well as opening medical centres and providing other essential services. Until the mid-1970s, BRAC concentrated on community development through village development programmes that included agriculture, fisheries, cooperatives , rural crafts, adult literacy , health and family planning, vocational training for women and

1862-424: The resources to build this infrastructure, Khan argued, the problem would not be solved. Once constructed, infrastructure must be regularly maintained. The benefits of it must be managed effectively based on rules that users could accept and predict. Khan thought that it was essential to develop 'vigorous local institutions' capable of performing this type of local maintenance and management. The Comilla Model piloted

1911-574: The start of the Rural Development Programme, there were 350,000 members, and by 1995 there were 1.2 to 1.5 million members. An evaluation by the United Kingdom Department for International Development in 1998 found that the programme had been successful, though not all the aims were achieved. BRAC's own evaluation in 1996 found "gradual improvements in the indicators such as wealth, revenue earning assets,

1960-595: The value of house structure, the level of cash earned, per capita expenditure on food, total household expenditure", but hoped-for improvements in village self-management had not taken place, and the drop-out rate of members was high. In 1991, the Women's Health Development programme commenced. The following year BRAC established a Centre for Development Management (CDM) in Rajendrapur . BRAC opened an Information Technology Institute in 1999. In 2001, BRAC established

2009-428: The welfare and livelihoods of people living in rural areas . As a branch of community development , these approaches pay attention to social issues particularly community organizing . This is in contrast to other forms of rural development that focus on public works (e.g. rural roads and electrification) and technology (e.g. tools and techniques for improving agricultural production). Rural community development

Comilla Model - Misplaced Pages Continue

2058-761: The world. Known formerly as the Bangladesh Rehabilitation Assistance Committee, then as the Bangladesh Rural Advancement Committee, and later as Building Resources Across Communities, BRAC was initiated in 1972 by Sir Fazle Hasan Abed at Shallah Upazillah in the district of Sunamganj as a large scale relief and rehabilitation project to help returning war refugees after the Bangladesh Liberation War of 1971. Fourteen thousand homes had to be rebuilt as part of

2107-406: Was a governmental level attempt to promote citizens participation in the sphere of rural development. Khan argued that for Comilla to develop rapidly, the farmers in its villages must be able to rapidly expand their production and sales. The main constraint they faced was inadequate local infrastructure, especially roads, drains, embankments and irrigation . However, even if the government had

2156-627: Was established the following year. In the late 1970s, diarrhoea was a leading cause of child mortality in Bangladesh. In February 1979, BRAC began a field trial, in two villages of what was then Sulla thana , of a campaign to combat diarrhoea. The following year they scaled up the operation and named it the Oral Therapy Extension Programme (OTEP). It taught rural mothers in their homes how to prepare an oral rehydration solution (ORS) from readily available ingredients and how to use it to treat diarrhoea. The training

2205-574: Was found to have declined. One of the most prominent forms of violence against women, acid throwing , has been decreasing by 15-20% annually since the enactment in 2002 of legislation specifically targeting acid violence. BRAC conducted one of the largest NGO responses to Cyclone Sidr which hit vast areas of the south-western coast of Bangladesh in mid-November 2007. BRAC distributed emergency relief materials, including food and clothing, to over 900,000 survivors, provided medical care to over 60,000 victims and secured safe supplies of drinking water. BRAC

2254-455: Was initiated in 2002. The ultra-poor are a group of people who eat below 80% of their energy requirements despite spending at least 80% of their income on food. In Bangladesh, they constitute the poorest 17.5 per cent of the population. These people suffer from chronic hunger and malnutrition, have inadequate shelter, are more prone to disease, are deprived of education and are more vulnerable to recurring natural disasters. The CFPR-TUP programme

2303-527: Was reinforced with posters and radio and TV spots. The ten-year programme taught 12 million households spread over 75,000 villages in every part of Bangladesh except the Chittagong Hill Tracts (which were unsafe to work in because of civil unrest). Fifteen years after they were taught, the vast majority of mothers could still prepare a safe and effective ORS. The treatment was little known in Bangladesh when OTEP began, but 15 years later it

2352-514: Was to ensure that the four programs grew stronger at the same time in a mutually supporting way. In particular, The relation between the Rural Works and Irrigation Programmes and the cooperatives is very close and vital. The first two develop the productive capacity of the land and increase the farmer's income. The cooperatives safeguard the farmers from money lenders and enable them to modernize their farming methods. The cooperatives promote

2401-440: Was used in rural households for severe diarrhoea more than 80% of the time, one of the highest rates in the world. Non Formal Primary Education was started by BRAC in 1985. In 1979, BRAC started a Rural Development Programme (RDP). This was intended to give members access to credit and to savings facilities. The programme involved considerable growth in the number of people who were members of BRAC: in 1989, three years after

#707292