Achieving gender equality through challenging social norms: BRAC’s Polli Shomaj program

ABSTRACT

Can NGOs implement rights-based gender equality programs when donor focus on the area is shrinking? This paper explores how one development program has made strategic choices incorporating the interests of multiple stakeholders, addressing donor interests while simultaneously addressing the needs of local communities. It examines the evolution of BRAC’s Polli Shomaj, a rural women’s civil society organisation designed to challenge power structures through collective action in rural Bangladesh. It draws on interviews with program staff and existing program literature to find that over time, BRAC leadership has narrowed its program focus to shed its broad transformative agenda to focus solely on gender equality through a combination of service delivery and rights-based approaches. The paper suggests that while it is possible for NGOs to promote gender equality through a combination of rights-based and service-delivery approaches, greater focus is needed on challenging power structures to bring about lasting structural change.

KEYWORDS:

• community empowerment
• social development
• women’s empowerment
• social norms
• gender equality
• BRAC
• NGO

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

1 When it comes to gender-based programs, especially those that deal with long-term change, results cannot be measured in percentages and in short timeframes. Quick, quantitative measures of effectiveness do not apply to programs seeking systemic change. The authors would like to clarify that measuring program effectiveness is not the purpose of this paper. Rather, we explore how the program has adapted to the challenges it has faced due to shifting donor agendas and priorities. Accordingly, the tables used in this paper demonstrate the scope of program activities and do not claim to measure effectiveness based on prevalent standards.

2 During the interviews, consent was taken from all the interviewees.

3 The Integrated Development Model in Comilla aimed to create an institutional base in rural society, and then integrate the development programs around that. The model followed a two-tier design, which organised the local farmers in the form of a cooperative in the first tier to enhance collaboration and solve problems locally, and in the second tier, they were linked with the government and other stakeholders at a Thana level to access the credit, avail the trainings, and build social capital. The local development works and self-help initiatives were also built around these cooperatives (Khan 1979).

4 Interview with BRAC program official.

5 A ward is composed of a group of villages.

6 UP is the lowest tier of the rural elected local government of Bangladesh. Each union consists of nine wards, and from each ward, one member is elected.

7 Interview with BRAC program official.

8 Interview with CEP program official.

9 The criteria were: the capability to conduct the meetings independently, the capacity to write the meeting resolutions, summarising the information and key discussion points, the presence of 3–5 capable leaders in the group, the ability to protest against human rights violations, capacity to engage in the local development work, accessing the resources provided by the government (VGD, VGF, etc.) and non-government actors, ensuring participation from ultra-poor PS members, capacity to invite and ensure the presence of the resource persons in the meeting, and others.

10 In 2011, BRAC entered into a SPA with the UK Department for International Development (DFID) and the Australian DFAT for a period of five years (2011–2015). The SPA allowed £358 million of fund transfers to BRAC through the delivery of more flexible core funding. The programmatic goals were set jointly rather than by imposing them only as donor requirements.

11 Interviews with the former head of the CEP.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Nayma Qayum

Nayma Qayum is an Associate Professor of Political Science at Manhattanville College. She received her Ph.D. from the Graduate Center, City University of New York. Dr. Qayum's research interests include institutions, social norms, gender, and global development.

Mirza Hassan

Mirza M. Hassan, PhD, is a political economist and the Head of the Governance and Politics Cluster of BIGD, BRAC University. His research largely focuses on political development, state-business relations, urban governance and local governance, justice sector and human rights, and related issues in South Asia, Pacific region and North Africa. He is well versed in conducting political economy analysis, institutional and stakeholder analysis, and using mixed methods.

Syeda Salina Aziz

Syeda Salina Aziz is a researcher and Fellow of Practice at the Politics and Governance Cluster at BRAC Institute of Governance and Development (BIGD, BRAC University). She is trained in economics and works broadly in the field of politics and governance. Her research interest includes citizenship, political participation, and social accountability. She has published in international journals like Mitigation and Adaptation Strategies for Global Change and The Journal of Disaster Studies, Policy and Management, and South Asian Studies.