Examples of BRAC Resarch

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CFPR/TUP Challenging the Frontiers of Poverty Reduction/Targeting the Ultra Poor

The BRAC Advocacy Unit (AU) has been working with the poorest since 2002, under

the “Challenging the Frontiers of Poverty Reduction: Targeting the Ultra Poor”

programme. The unit’s past activities included social communication and media

mobilization that initiated social change through participation, interaction and

mobilization. At the time of this study, the AU was initiating a project titled National

Policy Advocacy for CFPR/TUP, which sought to highlight the plight of the poorest

(for the purpose of this project, the ultra poor) at the national-level. The project

embraced four specific objectives, namely to

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Motivate and mobilize national stakeholders to ensure services for the ultra poor

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Build media partnerships to increase advocacy for the ultra poor

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Highlight the experience of CFPR/TUP

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Develop national and international alliances and networks to create an enabling

environment highlighting the rights of the poor.

 

The AU also suggested a list of questions to be explored. They were:

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What are the mainstream poverty reduction policies in Bangladesh?

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What are the gaps of such policies to address all the dimensions of poverty,

specially the extreme poor?

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Do you think that present policies are enough for addressing the ultra poor? If

not, what are the gaps?

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How can existing services be further developed?

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What are the barriers to attaining those services?

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What programme and activities can be designed for the livelihood development

of the extreme poor?

The above questions provided an overall framework for this study.

 

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NON-GOVERNMENT DEVELOPMENT ACTIVITIES

Non-Government actors, including bilateral donors, addressed extreme poverty in

Bangladesh in four ways: (i) as part of the MDGs in donor strategies, (ii) asset transfer

or asset transfer plus programmes, (iii) microfinance and microfinance plus

programmes, and (iv) research and advocacy. Table 5 lists the major actors in

Bangladesh’s extreme poverty scene, by the nature of their focus.

Many government partners such as the World Bank (WB) and Asian Development

Bank (ADB) emphasized extreme poverty in their country strategies through MDG1,

eradicating extreme poverty and hunger. Both WB and ADB worked with the

Bangladeshi government in technical partnership, mostly in the area of social

protection. WB’s lending, for example, focused on disabled and street children, food

crisis, safety net for the urban extreme poor in urban areas, and employment

generation (World Bank 2010). The Asian Development Bank (ADB) targeted the ultra

poor, women and excluded groups, and climate vulnerable social groups in its rural

infrastructure and institutional development initiatives (ADB 2009). However, its

overarching strategy, the country operations business plan of 2009-2011 mentioned

no lending or non-lending projects geared specifically towards extreme or ultra poor

groups.

Table 5. Major actors in Bangladesh’s extreme poverty scene

Activity Actor

Strategic focus on MDG1 ADB, AusAid, DFID, World Bank

Asset transfer plus CIDA, DFID, European Union, USAID, Save the Children UK

Microfinance Grameen Bank, PKSF

Research and consortiums BIDS, BRAC, RIB, Unnayan Somannay

Advocacy BRAC (Advocacy Unit), DFID (Shiree), RIB, Action Aid, Oxfam

International

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RED is supported by BRAC's core fund and funds from donor agencies,

organizations and governments worldwide. Current donors of BRAC and RED

include Aga Khan Foundation Canada, AusAID, Australian High Commission, Bill and

Melinda Gates Foundation, Canadian International Development Agency, CAREBangladesh,

Department for International Development (DFID) of UK, European

Commission, Euro consult Mott Mac Donald, Global Development Network Inc

(GDN), The Global Fund, GTZ (GTZ is now GIZ) (Germany), Government of

Bangladesh, The Hospital for Sick Children, Institute of Development Studies

(Sussex, UK), Inter-cooperation Bangladesh, International Labour Office (ILO), IRRI,

Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine, Manusher Jonno Foundation, Micro-Nutrient

Initiative, NOVIB, Plan Bangladesh Embassy of the Kingdom of the Netherlands,

Swiss Development Cooperation, UN Women, UNHCR, UNICEF, Unilever-UK,

University of Leeds, World Bank, World Food Programme, World Fish, Winrock

International USA, Save the Children USA, Save the Children UK, Safer World,

Rockefeller Foundation, BRAC UK, BRAC USA, Oxford University, Karolinska

University, International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources

(IUCN), Emory University, Agricultural Innovation in Dryland Africa Project (AIDA), AED

ARTS, United Nations Development Program, United Nations Democracy Fund,

Family Health International, The Global Alliance for Improved Nutrition (GAIN), Sight

Saver (UK), Engender Health (USA), International Food Policy Research Institute

(IFPRI) and Yale/Stanford University.