People's Participatory Rural Development, Bangladesh
Miss Mahabuba is taking part in a CCBD micro-finance scheme for disadvantaged women. She runs a small chicken farm in Goharpur, a small village about 80km west of Dhaka, Bangladesh. Photo: Peter Williams/WCC |
Christian Commission for Development in Bangladesh (CCDB) is a leading and highly respected rural development organization in Bangladesh. CCDB has concentrated its efforts in the organizing and consolidation of people's organizations at the grassroots level: e.g. villages, wards, and unions. Since its inception, CCDB has provided necessary support to 36 community development areas, which are administratively operated by male and female volunteers. CCDB assistance, in the form of grants and credit, was a great source of help for these budding local organizations. CCDB covers several areas of concern with programs such as: development education, skills training, literacy and mathematical skills, credit, agricultural extension, livestock care, women's advancement, and community health.
Bangladesh is one of the poorest countries in the world. It contains nearly 120 million people in a country the size of the state of Wisconsin. Most people live in rural areas and subsist on less than $1 a day. They consume a fraction of the calories and nutrition needed for everyday life. Access to credit, training, and work is just a dream for most rural Bangladeshis. CCDB addresses these needs through People’s Participatory Rural Development (PPRD), its core development program. Two of the most significant aspects of the program deal with the role of women in development and the strengthening of civil society through the formation of people's institutions among the poor. PPRD's beneficiaries include the landless, daily wage earners, sharecroppers, small shopkeepers and marginalized farmers. However, the group that needs to be engaged in the task of national development are women, particularly widows and divorcees, and they are the central focus of the program, since they are often the most vulnerable –women are marginalized with more than 80 percent of women are illiterate.
The focus of the People’s Participatory Rural Development (PPRD) is the formation and strengthening of grassroots organizations called “forums.” Key activities of forums are community organizing, savings and credit, agricultural production, and animal husbandry. This project will work indirectly with 28,949 people in Bangladesh and will include a group of 9,100 from the poorest sector of the communities, in addition to the current people’s institutions covered by the program. A significant aspect of this program and expected result is the empowerment of women and minority groups. CWS supports this program with a one-year grant coming from the Presbyterian Hunger Program.
Program objectives include: 1) to promote self-managed people's institutions and savings and credit organizations; 2) to help increase gender equity through awareness building and promotion of women's leadership within people's institutions, as well as to provide legal aid, counseling, arbitration, and advocacy work; 3) to promote livelihood training and enhance household food security; and 4) to promote environmental conservation.
Key activities for the project include: 1) development and strengthening of people's institutions (PIs) among the poor, including the formation of 91 new PIs consisting of some 9,000 people; training for these new groups, which includes savings and credit, and formation of service centers; 2) training workshops, advocacy, and legal aid aimed towards gender equity; 3) ecological farming, poultry raising, livestock care, and fish production; and 4) digging 66 mud wells to provide arsenic-free water and training students in environmental conservation.
The main premise for CCDB's development philosophy is that people should be trained and motivated to manage their own institutions (local councils, savings and credit organizations) so that eventually they will own the development process. By focusing on addressing the needs of marginalized groups in Bangladeshi society, CCDB is contributing in shaping and rebuilding its civil society.
Support for Church World Service, with assistance from the Presbyterian Hunger Program, helps make this program possible.
Updated 10/08/04
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