Booklet for int'l seminar on on strengthening lgis for undp by Grey Shack

International Seminar Towards Effective

Accountable and Inclusive LGIs:

Learning from South Asia and Beyond Dhaka, Bangladesh 10 -11 December, 2016

Organised by: National Institute of Local Government (NILG) Upazila Governance Project (UZGP) Union Parishad Governance Project (UPGP)

Local Government Division

EUROPEAN UNION

Support Team Md. Oliullah Project Manager, Union Parishad Governance Project (UPGP)

Md. Mozammel Haque Project Manager, Upazila Governance Project (UZGP)

Md. Sydur Rahman Molla Programme Analyst, UNDP

Ataul Gani Osmani Communications Officer, UZGP & UPGP

Azizul Haque Sarder Women Empowerment Officer, UZGP & UPGP

Md. Mashiur Rahman MIS Officer, UPGP

Published in December 2016

This publication is formal publication of Upazila Governance Project (UZGP) and Union Parishad Governance Project (UPGP). The document has been produced with the financial assistance of the contributing donors of the UZGP and UPGP i.e. the European Union (EU), Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC), DANIDA, UNDP and UNCDF. The views expressed herein can in no way be taken to reflect the official opinion of the supporting donors.

International Seminar Towards Effective

Accountable and Inclusive LGIs:

Learning from South Asia and Beyond Dhaka, Bangladesh 10 -11 December, 2016

Organised by: National Institute of Local Government (NILG) Upazila Governance Project (UZGP) Union Parishad Governance Project (UPGP)

Local Government Division

EUROPEAN UNION

International Seminar

International Seminar on â&#x20AC;&#x153;Toward Effective, Accountable and Inclusive LGIs: Learning From South Asia and Beyond

Table of Contents

Table of Contents Programme Schedule

UZGP and UPGP Policy Study Recommendations incorporated in 7th FYP of Government of Bangladesh

Highlights of UPGP Achievements

Highlights of UZGP Achievements

CPS 2015 on UP and UZP

Trends in Union Parishad Revenue Collection 2016

UPGP Interim Project Results Assessment Survey 2015

Action Research on Effectiveness of UZP Committees

Study on The Process and Quality of Budgeting and Planning of Upazila Parishad

Research Study on Mapping of Fiscal Flow and Local Government Financing in Bangladesh

Women Empowerment Through Institutional Building: A Study on Women Development Forum

International Seminar on â&#x20AC;&#x153;Toward Effective, Accountable and Inclusive LGIs: Learning From South Asia and Beyond

International Seminar

Programme Schedule

DAY- 1 Saturday, 10 December, 2016 08.30 - 09.30 Registration

Session 1

Opening Session 09:30-09:35 09:35-09:40

Recitation from the Holy Books Welcome address by Mr. Iqramul Haque, Director General, NILG, Dhaka

09:40-09:50

Highlights of “Achievements of UPGP” by Mr. Md. Enamul Quader Khan, Joint Secretary, LGD and Focal Person, UPGP

09:50-10:00

Highlights of “Achievements of UZGP” by Mr. Amitavh Sarker, Joint Secretary, LGD and Focal Person, UZGP

10:00-10:20

Presentation on “Key Challenges and Means to Make Effective, Accountable and Inclusive Local Government Institutions in Bangladesh” by Professor Salahuddin M. Aminuzzaman

10:20-10:40

Speech by Special Guests: Mr. Peter Bøgh Jensen, Head of Cooperation, DANIDA, Dhaka Mr. Sudipto Mukerjee, Country Director, UNDP Bangladesh

10:40-11:00

Speech by Chief Guest: Mr. Abdul Malek, Secretary, LGD

11:00-11:10

Speech by the Chair: Mr. Jyotirmay Dutta, Additional Secretary, LGD

11:10-11:30

Tea Break

11.10 - 11.30

Tea Break

International Seminar on “Toward Effective, Accountable and Inclusive LGIs: Learning From South Asia and Beyond

Programme Schedule

Session 2

Local Governance: Capturing Good Practices from Regional Perspectives 11:30-11:45

Presentation on “Kerala Local Self Government” by Representatives of KILA

11:45-12:00

Open Discussion

12:00-12:15

Presentation on “Local Governance in Sri Lanka” by Representatives of SLILG

12:15-12:30

Open Discussion

12:30-12:45

Presentation on “Local Governance System in Philippines” by Representatives of AIDSI

12:45-13:00

Open Discussion

13:00-13:15

Speech by the Chair: Mr. A S M Mahbubul Alam, DG, MIE Wing, LGD

13:15-14:00

Lunch

Session 3

Process and Practices of Civic Engagement in LGIs: Bangladesh Perspective 14:00-14:15

Presentation on “Trends in Union Parishad Revenue Collection” by Survey and Research System (SRS)

14:15-14:30

Open Discussion

14:30-14:45

Presentation on “Civic Engagement in UP Activities” by Professor Nizamuddin Ahmed

14:45-15:00 15:00-15:15

Open Discussion Presentation on “Effectiveness of Upazila Parishad Committees” by Professor Pranab Kumar Panday

15:15-15:30

Presentation on “Effectiveness of Union Parishad Ward Shava” Professor Ghulam Murtaza Open Discussion

15:30-15:45 15:45-16:00

Speech by the Chair: Mr. Saurendra Nath Chakrabhartty, Additional Secretary, LGD and NPD, UZGP

13.15 - 14.00

LUNCH

International Seminar on “Toward Effective, Accountable and Inclusive LGIs: Learning From South Asia and Beyond

International Seminar

Programme Schedule

DAY-2 Sunday, 11 December, 2016

Session 4

Women Empowerment 09:30-10:00

Presentation on “Barriers for the Empowerment of Elected Women Representatives” by Professor Pranab Kumar Panday

10:00-10:30

Open Discussion

10:30-10:45

Speech by the Chair: Ms. Nasreen Akhter, Additional Secreatry, LGD

10:45-11:15

Tea Break

Session 5

Areas of Possible Reforms in LG Arena in Bangladesh 11:15-11:30

Presentation on “Citizen Perception Survey 2015 on Union Parishad and Upazila Parishad” by Dr. Monzur Hossain, Senior Research Fellow, BIDS

11:30-12:00

Group Work

12:00-12:45

Presentation of Group Work

12:45-13:00

Speech by the Chair: Mr. Iqramul Haque, Additional Secretary, LGD and NPD, UPGP

13:00-14:00

Lunch

10:45 - 11.15

Tea Break

International Seminar on “Toward Effective, Accountable and Inclusive LGIs: Learning From South Asia and Beyond

Programme Schedule

Session 6

Fiscal Decentralization in LGIs in Bangladesh 14:00-14:15

Presentation on “Effectiveness of Union Parishad Standing Committees” by Professor Salahuddin M. Aminuzzaman

14:15-14:30

Open Discussion

14:30-14:45

Presentation on “Mapping of Fiscal Flow and Local Government Financing in Bangladesh” by Dr. Mahfuz Kabir

14:45-15:00

Open Discussion

15:00-15:15

Presentation on “Planning and Budgeting of Upazila Parishad” by Professor Mobasser Monem

15:15-15:30

Open Discussion

15:30-15:45

Speech by the Chair: Mr. Muslim Chowdhury, Additional Secretary, Finance Division, Ministry of Finance

15:45-16:00

Tea Break

Session 7

Closing Session 16:00-16:20

Presentation on “Summary of the Seminar Findings” by Md. Golam Yahia, Director (Training and Consultancy), NILG

16:20-16:40

Speech by Special Guests : Ms. Anna Lixi PhD, Counsellor and Governance Team Leader, EU Delegation Mr. Nick Beresford, Deputy Country Director, UNDP Bangladesh H.E. Christian Fotsch, Ambassador of Switzerland to Bangladesh

16:40-16:50

Speech by the Chair: Mr. Abdul Malek, Secretary, Local Government Division

16:50-17:10

Speech by the Chief Guest: Khandker Mosharraf Hossain, MP, Hon’ble Minister, Ministry of LGRD & Cooperatives

13.00 - 14.00

LUNCH

International Seminar on “Toward Effective, Accountable and Inclusive LGIs: Learning From South Asia and Beyond

International Seminar

UPGP and UZGP POLICY STUDY RECOMMENDATIONS INCORPORATED IN 7th FIVE -YEAR PLAN OF GOVERNMENT OF BANGLADESH The Union Parishad Governance Project (UPGP) and the Upazila Governance Project (UZGP), being implemented by the Local Government Division (LGD) and supported by European Union (EU), Danish International Development Agency (DANIDA), Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC), UNCDF and UNDP, have conducted five policy studies in 2015 to support policy makers to develop robust policy for strengthening Local Government Institutions (LGIs) engaging the prominent national and international local government experts and economists. The 7th Five -Year Plan (FYP) for the Fiscal Year 2016-2020 (Accelerating Growth, Empowering Citizen) that was published in December 2015 has prioritized 10 set of actions/strategies for Local Government. Most of the actions (7 out of 10) are aligned with the recommendations of the five Policy Studies carried out by the projects demonstrated the significant contribution of the projects in setting countryâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s strategic direction for LGIs. The rest actions are related to 'Planning' of Local Government Institutions (LGIs), which has been implementing by the projects since 2013. Policy Study on The Local Government System in Bangladesh: A Comparative Analysis of Perspectives and Practices recommended (p-166-168) for a unified local government system and a unified legal framework which was

considered as top priority in the 7th FYP (action no.1, p-385). Another study titled Review of Local Government Laws of Bangladesh towards Prospect of a Local Government Uniform Framework Legislation proposed the draft outline of a Unified Legal Framework (p-114, 117) Another Study on The Local Government System in Bangladesh: A Comparative Analysis of Perspectives and Practices recommended for increasing access to information, participation, accountability through introducing Local Performance Indicators and Digital LGI Notice board etc. making publicly available local budget and financial management reports on regular basis (p-140, 174-175) is reflected in action no.2 in FYP (p-385). In addition, the study has recommended for delineation of functional responsibilities of LGIs; strengthening local budgeting, Public Finance Management and local revenue administration process; introducing of social accountability efforts and Citizen Based Monitoring system as well as for Service Improvement Action Planning (SIAP) and others citizens' committees; Digital Local Government Notice board; establishing Integrated formula based intergovernmental fiscal transfer system for LGIs (pages- 169-171, 174, 161-162) that are linked with the set of actions 3 to 7 mentioned in the 7th FYP (p-385-386). .

International Seminar on â&#x20AC;&#x153;Toward Effective, Accountable and Inclusive LGIs: Learning From South Asia and Beyond

UZGP and UPGP Policy Study Recommendations incorporated in 7th FYP

IThe study titled Review of Local Government Revenue Regimes of Bangladesh Towards Prospect of a Uniform Local Government Revenue Policy recommended for vertical inter governmental fund transfer based on well articulated transparent criteria and LG Finance Commission (p-84) and the study on Mapping of Fiscal Flow and Local Government Financing in Bangladesh recommended for introducing Index-based funding mechanism (p-78) which is reflected in the action no. 7 of FYP (p-386). UZGP, through LGD issued a Planning Guideline for UZP Planning and supported around 200 UZPs in preparing their Five-year Plan.

UZGP also drafted a Planning Rule for UZP and submitted to LGD for review, which is the major focus of the set of actions no. 8-10 mentioned in the 7th FYP (p-386). LGD has formed a committee headed by an Additional Secretary to identify short-mid and long-term actions in line with the recommendations of five Policy Studies conducted by the UZGP and UPGP. The committee worked on the policy recommendations and drafted a brief outline of actions which would be presented in the upcoming meeting of the Policy Advisory Group(PAG).

Mr. Mozammel Haque

Project Manager, Upazila Governance Project (UZGP) UNDP Bangladesh

International Seminar on â&#x20AC;&#x153;Toward Effective, Accountable and Inclusive LGIs: Learning From South Asia and Beyond

International Seminar

HIGHLIGHTS OF UPGP ACHIEVEMENTS (2012-2016)

Context The Union Parishad Governance Project (UPGP) has evolved from the success of two projects: Sirajganj Local Governance Development Fund Project (SLGDFP: 2000-2006) and Local Government Support Project-Learning and Innovation Component (LGSP-LIC:2007-2011) implemented by the Local Government Division (LGD) during the last decade.

Project Objective:

Strengthen capacities of local government institutions and other stakeholders to foster participatory local development and service delivery to achieve MDGs.

Project Outputs: Output 1: Strengthened Democratic Accountability of the Union Parishad through Citizens Engagement. Output 2: Innovations in Pro-Poor and MDG-oriented Planning and Financing of Service Delivery by Union Parishads. Output 3: Strengthened national capacity for effective policy review, monitoring, lesson learning and capacity development of Local Government Institutions for enhanced Local Governance. Output 4: Effective Project Management Arrangement

Project Brief Project Duration

: November 2011-November 2016 (No cost extension up to June 2017)

Project Area

: 564 UPs of 7 Districts from 7 Divisions: Barguna, Brahmanbaria, Khulna, Kishoreganj, Rangpur, Sirajganj, Sunamganj.

Development Partners

: European Union (EU), Government of Denmark, UNCDF and UNDP

Budget

: US$ 18.39m (Revised: US$ 17.57m equivalent to BDT 144.83 crore)

International Seminar on â&#x20AC;&#x153;Toward Effective, Accountable and Inclusive LGIs: Learning From South Asia and Beyond

Highlights of UPGP Achievements

Institutional Capacity of Union Parishad Enhanced Since the inception in 2012, the UPGP has provided capacity development support to Union Parishads (UPs) - the lowest and most important tier of Local Government Institutions in Bangladesh. This support was provided through training programs, workshops, seminars, study visits/peer learning, backstopping, review/ coordination meetings and distribution of Information, Education, Communication (IEC) materials etc. to strengthen the capacity of UPs. As of June 2016, a total of 71,007 functionaries of Union Parishad covering Chairpersons, members including women members, Secretaries, Standing Committee members, and related government officials received various trainings on Planning, Budgeting and Management, Financial Management and Procurement, Own Source Revenue Mobilization and Sectoral Pro-Poor planning. Special training was provided to the Village Police on their roles and responsibilities. Workshops on Gender oriented planning and budgeting, health and education, and Women Empowerment in Local Government, ToT/workshops on Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) and Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), Training on Monitoring, Evaluation and Management Information System (MIS), for targeted UP functionaries. Most recently, the newly elected UP functionaries in 2016 were oriented on UP Act, Rules and Regulations etc. These efforts have significantly enhanced the Institutional Capacity of Union Parishads, which is revealed by the regular conduct of monthly meetings in 95% of UPs, of which 90% are with full quorum. The significance of this enhancement is revealed by the fact that all the three female ward members were present during 75% of the meetings in the project area, while such presence was only in 56% meetings in the control area.

All four major platforms for participation (Ward Shava, Standing Committees, Open Budget meeting and Monthly General meeting) of UPs are currently functioning well (IPRS-2015). As part of the Strengthening Institutional Capacity, UPGP jointly with UZGP developed a comprehensive Capacity Development Framework for Local Government Institutions (LGIs) in Bangladesh. This is a milestone in the development of local governments, given that the framework will help to build a strong base of local government institutions in Bangladesh.

INCREASED CIVIC ENGAGEMENT AND PEOPLEâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;S PARTICIPATION THROUGH WARD SHAVA Civic engagement in the local planning process through Ward Shava is one of the key components of local governance envisaged under the Local Government (Union Parishad) Act-2009. In this connection, all 564 Union Parishads were technically and financially supported by the project to activate 5,076 Ward Shava around priority themes, with guidelines and materials. The three focal themes addressed by this support were to identify and prepare/or update the list of poor household, generate demand or facilitate scheme selection with a pro poor orientation, and motivate the community particularly tax defaulters to contribute to UP revenue. The Ward Shavas provided grass-root communities the opportunity to raise their voice, comment on local needs and make their demands annual plan and five-year plan investments.

International Seminar on â&#x20AC;&#x153;Toward Effective, Accountable and Inclusive LGIs: Learning From South Asia and Beyond

International Seminar

Table 1: Results related to Ward Shava (IPRS-2015, MIS: July 2016) Baseline (early 2013)

Indicators

2016

% of UPs conducted 2 Ward Shava in all 9 Wards

35%

80%

% of UPs conducted 2 Ward Shava with Quorum in all 9 wards

33%

73%

% of UPs, Ward Shavas identified/ verified list of poor HHs

33%

70%

Strengthened UP Standing Committees The UPGP made a major effort to activate and strengthen the 13 standing committees of Union Parishad especially the 6 key standing committee that play a strategic role to achieve the MDGs (SC on Finance and Establishment, SC on Audit and Accounts, SC on Tax Assessment and Collection,

SC on Education and Health, Sc on Agriculture, Fisheries and Livestock and SC of Rural Infrastructure). The members of the key standing committee received various capacity building training on pro-poor UP planning, budgeting and financial management, etc. At this stage, 100% of UP standing committees have been formed in the project area, with 44% of the six UP key standing committees producing at least two monitoring reports per year.

Table 2: Results related to Standing Committee (IPRS-2015, MIS:July 2016) Indicators

Baseline (early 2013)

2016

% UP of where at least 6 Standing Committee hold bi-monthly meeting regularly

28%

79%

% UPs, the 6 targeted Standing Committees produced recommendations for UP Plan

73%

% UPs, the targeted 6 Standing Committees produced scheme monitoring reports

58%

Transforming Planning Financial Management

and

The UPGP extended a portfolio of support to transform the planning and budgeting system (including open budget meeting) as well as financial management of UPs in the project area. In order to assist the UP Chairpersons, Members and Secretaries who were trained on Planning & Budgeting, Financial Management & Procurement, the project set up a team of mentors consisting of Upazila Nirbahi Officer (UNO), Project Implementation Officer and Education

Officer, to guide the implementation of new systems. This mentor team provided technical support to 323 weak UPs through 2 consecutive dayâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s workshops at the UP for preparing Pro-Poor and MDG oriented plan and budget. Building on these achievements, the UPGP is supporting Union Parishads to prepare model UP Plans & Budget Books in line with SDGs. As a result, according to IPRS-2015, in UPGP Project area 99% of the UPs have Annual Plans and 95% of the UPs have their Five-year plan. This active engagement has also led to 100% of the UPs having budgets and these have been

International Seminar on â&#x20AC;&#x153;Toward Effective, Accountable and Inclusive LGIs: Learning From South Asia and Beyond

Highlights of UPGP Achievements

approved by UP General Meeting, and around 98% of UPs conducted Annual Open Budget Session (MIS: July 2016). All 564 UPs supported by the project have established modern IT enabled accountings systems, which record all financial transactions and generate financial reports. This has significantly speeded up reporting by the Union Parishads and improved the reliability of financial reporting, while easing the workload of Secretaries. The web enabled system also allows for real time tracking and monitoring.

Elected Women Reprsentatives Empowered Through WDF The Union Parishad Governance Project (UPGP) and Upazila Governance Project (UZGP), with guidance of the Local Government Division (LGD) has established 551 Women Development Forums (WDF) at Upazila (487) and District (64) levels around the country. More than 16,000 elected women representatives from Upazila, Union and Municipality levels have been mobilized under a common platform to strengthen Local Government Institutions (LGIs) and for their political empowerment as well. A total of 240 WDFs have already been registered under the Ministry of Women and Children Affairs (MOWCA) for sustainability and effective functioning at LGIs. The WDFs have Increased women’s participation in LGIs, mainstreamed gender issues in LGIs affairs, and enhanced the capacity of forum members in preparing gender responsive planning and budgeting for Union and Upazila Parishads, thereby strengthening women’s leadership, in line with the main objectives of WDF. The project systematically supported different layers training and workshops on gender based issues for empowering women to make the development is gender sensitive. Several Leadership training, workshops were organized for women public representatives covering 564 Union Parishads, 65 Upazila Parishads and seven Districts. As a result, 90% of UP which have at least 1 Women representative in

Upazila level WDF, 96% of UPs where at least 3 Standing Committees are headed by Female member, and more than 90% of UPs allocated 30% budget for women.

Established Web-based MIS and Accounting System For Union Parishad The UPGP has implemented a Web-based MIS and Accounting System for Union Parishads to make the UP more accountable, transparent, dynamic as well as responsive. The MIS has been developed under UPGP, to provide support to the Union Parishads as a tool to facilitate a more efficient UP planning, budgeting, tax collection, financial management and other services. It is helping to build Union Parishad more accountable and transparent local government institution. It supports LGD to perform effective monitoring and generate periodical reports. The system has been designed after multi-stage testing and validation. Backstopping support was provided to the pilot UPs to establish the system and uploading of basic data, after which the system was completely managed by the UP Secretary. The successful scale up of the pilots across the 564 UPs offers a platform for mainstreaming and scale up across the entire country, which is being discussed with the Local Government Division. The system enables the LGD to directly monitor the performance and progress of activities at the UP level based on primary transactional data.

Introduced Peer Learning Through Quarterly Coordination Meeting The project made a major effort to strengthen peer to peer learning as part of the capacity development effort. In addition to visits to UPs which had successfully introduced significant improvements ad innovations, the project invested in quarterly peer interaction platforms.

International Seminar on “Toward Effective, Accountable and Inclusive LGIs: Learning From South Asia and Beyond

International Seminar

The project has been regularly organizing quarterly coordination and peer learning meeting chaired by concerned Deputy Commissioner at district level. All the UP Chairmen, Secretaries, UNOs, concerned NGOs and line department Government officials participate in the meeting to share best practices and review the progresses for further intervention as well coordination on development activities. The meeting helped to gear up the various activities to facilitate development of UPs. It also increases the opportunity of peer learning. The weak UP also made use of these events to learn the best practices from others, and secure advice on dealing with issues.

Local Revenue Mobilization Significantly Increased The UPGP supported the preparation of Standard Tax Assessment book in all 564 UPs in its project area. Alongside UPGP undertook various pragmatic and contextually adapted initiatives to improve local revenue such as training, awareness activities, tax fair, miking, Ieaflet, posters, good performance awards to UPs, etc. Moreover, UPGP promoted an initiative to engage Ward Shavas to identify tax defaulters and inspire citizen to pay their taxes regularly. As a result, the average revenue collection in UPGP working area increased more than 100% over the 5 years period from 2010-11 to 2014-15 (Survey Report on Trends of UP revenue collection:2016) .

Extended Performance Based Grants (EPBG): Pro-poor Service Delivery Enhanced A key component of Union Parishad Governance Project (UPGP) is the provision of Extended Performance Based Grants (EPBG) to around 400 better performing ones among the 564 Union Parishads in its work area. The UPGP’s EPBG is delivered as an unconditional grant, and the size of the grant is dependent on the UP’s performance in key governance areas. The underlying objective of the performance assessment which determines the size of the EPBG is to encourage UPs to improve their performance, and thereby secure a larger grant for development investments to improve service delivery. The rationale of the EPBG is not only to create competition among UPs, but also to create an environment where specific aspects of desired performance, and the governance issues are more regularly discussed and addressed by institutional stakeholders and communities.

International Seminar on “Toward Effective, Accountable and Inclusive LGIs: Learning From South Asia and Beyond

Highlights of UPGP Achievements

The UPGP determined 41 Performance Indicators, which serve as benchmarks for good local governance, including sound public financial management. The performance of UPs is assessed through independent audit and performance reports carried out along with the annual financial audits. The UPGP played the lead role in training 3,844 independent auditors to perform financial, performance & compliance audit for all UPs in Bangladesh. • A sum of BDT 48.58 crore so far has been disbursed to 400+ UPs each year during the last four fiscal years (2012-2013 to 2015-2016 FYs). • In all, 4,343 development investments /schemes, most of them MDGs focused, were implemented by the Union Parishads through the support in the form of EPBG.

Impact • Most of the Schemes were MDGs focused. • Demand driven local development has been initiated. • Increased the competition among the UPs to improve performance. • Around 5 million peoples were benefitted by these schemes.

Policy Support To Strengthen LGIs In the area of policy development, the project has taken significant initiative to support the preparation of different Rules, Regulations, Manuals and Guidelines etc. to fully operationalize and improve the performance of Union Parishads. The project has supported to preparing the following UP Rules and Regulations: • The Union Parishad (Tax ) Rules • The Union Parishad (Budget Preparation & Approval) Rules • The Union Parishad (Powers & Functions of Chairman and General Members) Rules • The Union Parishad (Powers and Special

Functions of reserved Female Members) Rules • The Union Parishad (Inspection Procedures and Inspectors Powers) Rules • The Union Parishad (Appellate Authority & Procedures) Rules • The Union Parishad (Official and employee Recruitment and Service condition) Rules • The Union Parishad Regulation (Process & Procedures of conducting meetings, day to day operational activities, formation structure & ToRs of Standing Committees and Standard Citizen Charter of UPs) Moreover, UPGP and UZGP have jointly formulated a Capacity Development Framework for LGIs and a Monitoring, Inspection and Evaluation (MI&E) Strategy for Local Government Division. In addition to these, UPGP has conducted several studies and researches such as Effectiveness of Ward Shava, Research on Standing Committees, Civic engagement, Survey on Revenue Collection Trends in Union Parishad etc. Some important recommendations have already been incorporated in the 7th Five Year Plan of Bangladesh Government. Both UPGP and UZGP have formed a Policy Advisory Group (PAG) through the Local Government Division headed by Secretary, LGD and membership from academia, civil society, experts from different development organization, training institutes and LGIs. The PAG has played a key role in reviewing the outputs of the project and suggesting for further improvements and necessary interventions. As a result the LGD has recently issued a gazette notification to recruit the Assistant Accountant cum Computer Operator in UPs. The LGD has been taken necessary initiatives so that all 7 line departments can provide technical support to UPs as per UP Act. Through this approach, the project has been able to draw in a platform for strategic support to Local Government reforms in Bangladesh.

International Seminar on “Toward Effective, Accountable and Inclusive LGIs: Learning From South Asia and Beyond

International Seminar

HIGHLIGHTS OF UZGP ACHIEVEMENTS (2012-2016)

Context The Upazila Governance Project (UZGP) is part of UNDP and UNCDF’s overall programmatic framework for the support to Government of Bangladesh in the area of local governance reforms, assisted by the European Union (EU) and Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC). The project is designed to improve functional and institutional capacities of local government institutions for effective and accountable delivery of pro-poor infrastructure and services.

Project Objective: Project Objective: The overall objective of the project is “Government institutions at the national and sub-national levels are able to more effectively carry out their mandates, including delivery of public services, in a more accountable, transparent and inclusive manner”. The specific objective is “to strengthen the capacities of local governments and other stakeholders to foster participatory local development services for the MDGs. Output

Target Coverage

Output 1: Strengthened Upazila Parishads as more functional, democratic, transparent and accountable institutions.

487 Upazila Parishads

Output 2: Strengthened Planning and Budgeting system at Upazila Parishad with MDG orientation and pro-poor service delivery mechanism.

14 Upazila Parishads/Year on a competitive basis from 65 target UZPs

Output 3: Strengthened national capacity for effective policy review, monitoring, lesson learning and capacity development of local government institutions (LGIs) for enhanced local governance.

Nationwide

Output 4: Effective Project Management Arrangement

Project Offices

International Seminar on “Toward Effective, Accountable and Inclusive LGIs: Learning From South Asia and Beyond

Highlights of UZGP Achievements

Project Brief Project Duration

: 5 years (August 2011 to December 2016)

Project Area

: 7 Districts from 7 Divisions: Barguna, Brahmanbaria, Khulna, Kishoreganj, Rangpur, Sirajganj, Sunamganj.

Development Partners

: European Union (EU), Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC), UNCDF and UNDP

Budget

: US$ 19.31m

Implementing agency

: Local Government Division (LGD), Ministry of LGRD & Cooperatives.

Results 1: UZP Improved Democratic Practices In Managing its Businesses Complying With UZP Act Strengthening capacity of Upazila Parishad (UZP) functionaries for effective functioning of UZP in compliance with the Upazila Act was the major focus of UZGP’s capacity building intervention. The training and backstopping support rendered by the project has significantly contributed in enhancing capacity of elected public representatives and government officials vis-à-vis institutional capacity of UZP The project has provided training to 17,213 UZP functionaries from 2012 to 2016. Of them, 13,153 are male while 4060 are female. As a result of the general and specialized training, 99 per cent of UZPs in project areas have held the mandated monthly meetings regularly while 89 per cent in control areas. At the end of the tenure of last Upazila Parishad (3rd Upazila Parishad) in 2014, it was 70 per cent while 30 per cent in 2012. All 490 (100 percent) UZPs have prepared and submitted Annual Budget to LGD in time as compared to 95 UZPs (20 percent) in 2012. Upazilas were found to be serious and active in disclosing the draft budget documents in various ways. Citizen engagement in UZP planning and budgeting were ensured through open sessions and publicly displaying the budget for their feedback.

Six key committees in 72 percent of UZPs in project areas have regularly held its bi-monthly meetings as compared to 34 percent UZPs in control areas. Democratic oversight, civic engagement, transparency and accountability are improving significantly in target UZPs compared to control UZPs. A three-day training on financial issues have helped UZPs improving its financial discipline significantly and the UZGP Monitoring Report 2015 revealed that 70 percent women representatives were participated in tendering process, demonstrating increased individual capacity and confidence in managing UZP business. The most significant success the project has achieved was the publication of 205 “UZP Information, Plan and Budget Book”. In preparing the plan books, the project has provided technical and financial support to the UZPs and engaged community people in identifying development priorities and finalizing Annual Plan with long-term vision. The Citizen Perception Survey (CPS) 2015 revealed a 38.3 increase in the citizen satisfaction on the overall performance of UZP. The citizen’s satisfaction rose to 51.2 percent in 2015 from a paltry 12.9 percent in 2012. 53.5% respondents in the project areas had knowledge about schemes’ selection which was less than 1% during baseline.

International Seminar on “Toward Effective, Accountable and Inclusive LGIs: Learning From South Asia and Beyond

International Seminar

Results 2: UZP improved its planning practices by engaging citizen/ constituents and addressing MDG off-tracked issues in planning and service delivery The innovative Upazila Fiscal Facility (UFF) Support was working very well in accelerating MDG implementation at local level targeting marginalized and vulnerable groups such as Dalits and other locally relevant excluded groups. A total of BDT 245 m has been disbursed to 24 UZPs during the last four fiscal years (2012-2013 to 2015-2016 FYs for implementing 554 schemes. A total of 1.73 m poor destitute rural people are directly benefitted from the schemes while the number of getting indirect benefit stands more than 1.39 million. Of the 1.73 m people getting direct benefits from the schemes, about 48 percent are female. Out of total 554 schemes implemented, 90 per cent have addressed the quality education, improving health care services, empowering women, poverty alleviation and livelihood improvement. 15 percent of the schemes were targeted to marginalized groups including persons with disabilities, religious and ethnic minorities while 10 percent of the total fund was spent addressing the needs of disadvantaged groups. 93.5 of the households were able to increase their income after receiving skills training. Average cultivable land increased by 7 decimals among the beneficiaries households. Upazila Parishads have engaged community people in preparing its plan and budget as well as identifying the development priorities. As a result 205 UZPs have developed their five-year plan in a participatory manner with UZGP’s facilitation. In addition, 100 percent UZPs submitted their budget to LGD in time in subsequent fiscal years, which was only 4 percent before UZGP’s intervention. The Citizen Perception Survey (CPS)

2015, revealed that the citizen’s awareness on UZP Plan is increased by 10 percent while on UZP Budget by 26 percent. 63% people in project areas expressed satisfaction of UZPs transparency compared to 45% in control areas

Result 3: LGD demonstrated improved capacity by taking affirmative action in providing policy guidance and support to UZPs for effective service delivery and mandated responsibilities With the technical and financial support from the UZGP, the LGD published an Upazila Parishad Manual compiling the Act, Rules, Circulars etc. and distributed among the stakeholders. The government has set 10 point actions in its 7th Five-Year plan for strengthening local government considering the recommendations of policy studies conducted by the project. The LGD issued a circular that directed UZPs to allocate three (3) percent Annual Development Plan (ADP) allocation for Women Development Forums (WDFs). In addition, the circular also mentioned that 25 percent schemes will be led by women representative that paved the way for reducing gender disparity and empowerment of women thorough implementation of appropriate development schemes. The project has provided technical support to LGD to develop a “Comprehensive Capacity Development Framework for LGIs” in order to establish discipline, consistency and efficiency among LGIs for better service delivery. The project has provided technical support to LGD in drafting seven Rules and one Regulations of Upazila Parishad, a set of directives or by-laws to bring more clarity and execute the mandated activities of UZP in line with the UZP Act.

International Seminar on “Toward Effective, Accountable and Inclusive LGIs: Learning From South Asia and Beyond

Highlights of UZGP Achievements

After completing necessary review by LGD, the gazettes on four Rules have already been published while the vetting for three others are under process. The project has also provided support to LGD MIE Wing in drafting its MIE Strategy which is now under process of finalization. The project has conducted several action researches to find out existing loopholes, challenges and ways to strengthen the UZP.

Gender Equality: WDF for Enhancing Women’s Leadership With the support from UZGP and UPGP, a total of 551 WDFs were formed, of which, 265 were registered, mobilizing over 16,000 women representatives from the UP, UZP and Municipalities. As a direct result of the WDF initiative, some 892 early marriages, 440 dowries, 293 sexual harassment and 568 other types of violence, were addressed. A school-based awareness-raising campaign against early marriage and sexual harassment mobilized more than 1.3 lakh community people and created a strong vibe in the community to prevent the social ills. The statement from beneficiaries and independent studies on fiscal facility supported schemes validated the positive changes in the lives of the people, especially women, marginalized and vulnerable groups. It was seen that about 65 per cent executive members of the WDF were elected in UZP’s reserve seats in selected seven districts. The MTR report (2014) of UZGP and UPGP commented, “The projects have improved women’s participation in local government through the rollout of WDFs and Capacity Building support to female leaders………(P-124).

International Seminar on “Toward Effective, Accountable and Inclusive LGIs: Learning From South Asia and Beyond

International Seminar

Institutional Efficiency and Public Service Delivery of Union Parishad and Upazila Parishad: Evidences from Citizens’ Perception Survey Summary The Local Government Division (LGD) has been implementing two flagship projects on local governance reforms, namely the Upazila Governance Project (UZGP) and the Union Parishad Governance Project (UPGP) since late 2012 with funding and technical supports from the UNDP and other donor agencies. The objective of this citizen survey is to assess the impact of the ongoing programs through the perceptions of citizens in terms of public service delivery and the efficiency of these two local government institutions (LGIs). A total of 3024 households (HHs) were surveyed with 1512 HHs from the project areas and the similar number of HHs from the control areas (1512). The household head has been considered mainly for the interviews. Respondents of the institutional survey were Upazila Parishad and Union Parishad Chairperson, Vice-chairperson, members and relevant government officials. The survey findings are summarised below.

Citizen Charter and the Right To Information Only 23.4% of the respondents have seen or have some sort of knowledge about the Citizen Charter at the Upazila Parishad in the project areas compared to only 14% in control areas.

On the other hand, a higher proportion of citizens was found to be aware of Citizen Charter (CC) at the Union Parishad. About 42.8% of the respondents in the treatment area had seen or had some sort of knowledge about the CC in the Union Parishad premises/website in the project area, whereas the proportion was 30.9% in the control area. The engagement of citizens is higher with UPs compared to UZPs. About 66.6% of the respondents in the project areas and 45.4% of the respondents in the control areas went to the Union Parishad for seeking information on various services during the last one year. For the Upazila Parishad, the percentage of respondents who sought information were 26.3% in project areas and 15.3% in control areas. Regarding the satisfaction on information received at the UP level, 69.2% of the respondents in the project areas and 57.9% in the control areas expressed their satisfaction with the information received. Satisfaction levels appeared to be lower at the UZP level as 62.2%of the respondents in the project areas and only a third of respondents in the control areas expressed their contentment.

International Seminar on “Toward Effective, Accountable and Inclusive LGIs: South Asia and Beyond”

CPS 2015 on UP and UZP

Parishad, Ward and Standing Committee Meetings The survey reveals that 41.3% of the respondents in the project areas and 28.8% of the respondents in the control areas had some knowledge about the UP meetings. With regard to the UZP meetings, knowledge was even scarcer as just around 22%of the respondents in the project areas and around 13% of the respondents in the control areas answered positively. Survey results suggest that 45.6% of the respondents in the project area and just 24.4% of respondents in the control areas had some knowledge about the ward shava. Among them, only about 28.7% of the respondents in the project areas and 13% of the respondents (including representatives from the respondent’s family) in the control areas participated in the ward shava during the last year. It was revealed from the survey that 25.6% of the respondents in the project areas and merely 13.1% of the respondents in the control areas had knowledge about the Union level standing committee meetings. Although the Union Development Coordination Committee (UDCC) is one of the important committees at the UP level to oversee development works, just 18.2% of the respondents in the project areas and only 9.1% of the respondents in the control areas had knowledge about the UDCC. In compliance with the UP legislation, the UP bodies have to organize one general meeting every month. Survey data confirms that on average 11.93 (12) meetings were held in the treatment areas and on average 11.69 meetings were held in the control areas last year. In addition, average total attendance in the UP general meetings in the treatment areas stood at 12.71 (9.75 males and 2.96 females) while for the control areas it was 12.35 (9.42 males and 2.92 females).

committees were formed in the treatment UPs and on an average 12.54 standing committees were formed in the control UPs. In the case of UZP, 17 committees are required to be formed and according to the results, all UZPs in both the project and treatment areas did do this. Each treatment UZP standing committee held, on average, a greater number of annual meetings relative to each control UZP standing committee.

Planning, Budget, Audit & Tax Relatively higher proportion of respondents in project areas know about the Annual Plan of the UP(29.8%) than in control areas(20.1%). At the UZP level, knowledge about the Annual Plan was less relative to the UP level but similarly project areas had better response than control areas. Regarding the UP Five Year Plan, about 15.6% of the respondents in project areas were aware of it while only12.3% of the respondents in control areas knew about it. In the case of the UZP level, the corresponding figures were 11.5% (project area) and 9.8% (control area). Survey findings show that 41% of the respondents in project areas and 23% of the respondents in control areas have some knowledge about the annual budget of their own Union Parishad. As seen in earlier cases, UZP residents in the project areas (27%) were better informed about their UZP annual budgets than in control areas (11%). When it came to knowledge about Open budget sessions, 16% of respondents in UP project areas and 7% of respondents in UP control areas responded affirmatively compared to just 8.2% of respondents in UZP project areas and 2% of respondents in UZP control areas. Citizens (6.73% in project areas and 3.78% in control areas) believe that the UP’s hardly makes any effort to publish the audit reports. Bill boards and notice boards are the main modes of sharing information by UPs.

There is a provision in the UP act to form 13 standing committees in the UP for its effective functioning and it was found that all 13 standing

International Seminar on “Toward Effective, Accountable and Inclusive LGIs: South Asia and Beyond”

International Seminar

Development Activities and Service Delivery One of the objectives of both the projects (UPGP and UZGP) was to enhance resource absorption capacity of the Local Government Institutions (LGI) and improve participatory development initiatives. Therefore, it was expected that LGIs should initiate development schemes in an appropriate manner and maintain transparency and accountability in service delivery. About 77% of the respondents in both project and control areas were aware of projects and schemes undertaken by the UPs. However, citizens in project areas reported being benefitted more than those of control areas (82.8% vs. 67.9%).As usual, citizens were relatively less aware of the schemes/ projects undertaken by the UZPs both in project and control areas though citizens in project areas were relatively better informed. It was observed from the survey that perception regarding MDGs (Millennium Development Goals)was poor (6.2%in project areas vs. 7.5%in control areas). However, the respondents opined that at the UP level, most of the schemes were undertaken to eradicate poverty and hunger (project 92.4% and control 86.9%) and at the UZP level, most were to achieve universal primary education (project 70.9% and control 49.6%). A large number of respondents (92.8% in project areas vs 73.5% in control areas) mentioned that the village court had been functioning in their unions. One third of the respondents at the UP in both treatment and control areas indicated that schemes were selected by the chairman themselves and a similar number of respondents claimed that the Parishad members selected the schemes. This finding indicates that Ward Shava still remains ornamental to some extent. The overall assessment of citizens on local level development, poverty reduction status and women empowerment in their UPs, about half of the respondents in treatment areas rated all the three aspects as moderate, and one-third rated them as good. While less than 10% of the respondents in treatment areas considered them

as bad, a significant number of citizens in control areas rated them as bad (22.7%, 30.3%, 38.1%).When they were asked about overall performance of the Parishad 61.7% of the respondents in the treatment areas and 48.2% in the control areas opined that they were satisfied with the overall performance of the Union Parishad. 51.2% of the respondents in the treatment areas and 29.8% of the respondents in the control area were satisfied with the overall performance of the Upazila Parishad. Finally, Citizensâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; often visit the UP and UZP for various services. Citizens mainly visit the UP for two types of services, such as birth certificate (30.5%in project areas vs 28.9%in control areas) and nationality certificate (23.3% vs. 19.4%). By contrast, citizens visit the UZP mainly for land issues (22.7% vs. 27.2%), health and family planning (31.1% vs. 26.2%), agriculture and irrigation (11.1% vs. 5.7%) and fishery and livestock (9.2% vs. 4.1%).

Recommendations: Based on the findings, the following recommendations can be made to strengthen LGIs though ensuring better engagement of citizens in LGI activities within the current legal framework, which would increase transparency and accountability in their activities.

Meaningful Ward Shava: It is now mandatory for all UPs to finalize annual development plan, scheme list, five year plan etc. through Ward Shava to make the process more participatory. However, our survey results suggest that while only one-fourth of the citizens are aware of Ward Shava, participation of citizens are even lower in those Ward Shava. People often complain that UP representatives conduct the Shava with their local aides to fulfil their own agenda leaving a vast section of people behind the scene. Therefore, it is important to make the Shavas more effective and meaningful with wider participation of local citizens. Currently it is obligatory to hold Ward Shava twice in a year. However, it would be more participatory if the Shava is arranged on a quarterly basis.

International Seminar on â&#x20AC;&#x153;Toward Effective, Accountable and Inclusive LGIs: South Asia and Beyondâ&#x20AC;?

CPS 2015 on UP and UZP

Strengthening Committees: Another weakness that has been revealed from the survey is that citizens are not fully aware of many of the important committees those are formed to oversee UP and UZP activities. Less than 20% of the citizen knows about Project Implementation Committee and Union Development Coordination Committee. Only about 25% of the local citizens are aware of Standing Committees. Without making these committees active, it would be far cry to make the Parishads more accountable and transparent. Peoples’ participation in these committees could be made more representative through involvement of representative from each Ward and by making their activities more visible.

Service Delivery: Citizens now visit Union Parishad only for a few certificates and they visit Upazila Parishad only for land related disputes and health and family planning services. As majority of the citizens do not know about the Citizen Charter, they don’t know what types of other services they could seek from the Parishads. A copy of Citizen Charter may be distributed to households or citizens during Ward Shava or collection of holding tax to make people more aware of available services at the Parishads.

Planning and Budget: Citizens poor knowledge about Parishad’s Plan and budget can be attributed to the weaknesses of the Parishads in making them public through the prescribed ways such as Ward Shava and Open budget sessions. Therefore, to bring transparency and accountability in Parishad’s activities, it is important to disseminate their development plan and budget by organizing open sessions.

Priority should be given on MDG and SDG aspects: Citizens survey reveals that Women empowerment and environment issues have been neglected while selecting schemes. These two issues along with other MDG aspects must be given priority in undertaking schemes and making long-term development plans. Since SDGs are now coming into operation, future plan and schemes should reflect SDG aspects.

Strengthen Scheme Selection and Monitoring Process: Though it is expected that schemes are selected through discussion in Ward Shava, survey result indicates that chairmen and members did the same in most cases. This again calls for strengthening Ward Shava. According to the survey, schemes are mainly monitored by Chairmen and members. The role of PIC and UDCC along with UNO and DDLG can be extended to independently monitor scheme implementation process. It is to be noted that the recommendations are made mainly on the basis of citizens knowledge and perceptions on these aspects of LGIs. Though the citizens are not fully aware of many things that have been taken place at UPs and UZPs, their perception could be broadly taken into cognizance in designing local level development plans. It is also important for the LGIs to take necessary action to remove misperceptions and make the citizens fully aware of local government activities. Only then the decentralization process would be more meaningful.

Survey conducted by: Dr. Monzur Hossain Senior Reserach Fellow, BIDS

International Seminar on “Toward Effective, Accountable and Inclusive LGIs: South Asia and Beyond”

International Seminar

TRENDS IN UNION PARISHAD REVENUE COLLECTION 2016

Summary of Survey Findings The Union Parishad Governance Project (UPGP) of Local Government Division, Ministry of Local Government Rural Development & Cooperatives, Government of the People’s Republic of Bangladesh is an integral part of the programmatic framework for UNDP and UNCDF support to the Government of Bangladesh's reforms in the area of Local Governance and is also supported by the European Union (EU), and Danish International Development Assistance (DANIDA) conducted a survey on “Trends in Union Parishad Revenue Collection 2016” in 500 UPs, at least one UP in each Upazilla, of 64 districts. Out of 500 UPs, 67 UPs are in UPGP. For comparison purpose, another 67 unions out of the 433 unions with similar characteristic -literacy, electricity, drinking water sources, etc. in the vicinity of sample unions in project area, were designated as control area units. The national survey helps the Local Government Division to identify the trend of revenue collections by Union Parishad. It also provides information on the challenges of tax collection by the Parishad. The major findings of the survey are summarized in the following sections.

UP Tax Assessment As per legal provision, the UPs are supposed to conduct UP tax assessment once in five years. It appears that 89.8% of UPs in the total survey areas (92.5% in project area and 84.5% in control area) complied with this regulation.

Tax assessment was mainly carried out by UP member of the ward, by a person appointed by the UP or by an appointed NGO in large majority of the UPs in overall area as well as in both project area and control area. As per method of assessment nearly two-thirds (68 to72%) of UPs assessed taxes after physical verification and about 20% to 30% of UPs assessed taxes on the basis of information of UP member or discussion at the UP office. The UP Model Tax Schedule 2013 circulated by the LGD in 2013 identified the sources for assessment tax as follows: Holding, Profession, Trade & Business, Entertainment and Others. It appears that nationwide proportion of UPs imposing tax on holding tax, profession and trade were 93.7%, 28.8% and 20.5% in overall area while 95%, 30% and 26% in project area compared to 94%, 34% and 22% in control area respectively; taxes on other categories were not appreciable. Effort to increase own source of revenue was significantly higher (94%) among UPs in project area compared to that (56%) in control area and 63.3% UPs across the country. Discussions in ward shava, increase in number of holdings, engaging more persons for tax collection and miking, tax fair and rallies are primary initiatives to increase own source of revenue. The main effective initiative for collection of tax was discussion in ward shavas as indicated by

International Seminar on “Toward Effective, Accountable and Inclusive LGIs: Learning From South Asia and Beyond

Study on Trends in UP Revenue Collection 2016

81.1% of UPs in overall area, 68% of UPs in project areas and 51% of UPs in control area. Among various systems of tax assessment- economic stability, number of rooms and area and capital valuation were the main systems followed for tax assessment. UPs following these systems of assessment were 59.8%, 31.6% and 20.1% in overall area while 66%, 62% and 27% in project area as opposed to 57%, 29% and 19% in control area respectively.

UP Tax Collection UPs do not have own human resources for tax assessment and collection. Nearly three-fourths of UPs engage part time collectors in both UPGP and control areas, about half of UPs in both areas engage village police and about 20% of UPs in both areas engage ward members for tax collection. Door to door campaign and setting up tax collection at UP office are the primary methods of tax collection. List of outstanding defaulters is maintained by, only 17.4% of overall UPs, a-third of the UPs in project area and barely 10% of UPs in control area. The list of defaulters are disclosed by more than 80% of UPs in project area compared to just over 60% of UPs in control area. Seizing temporary assets of defaulter was strongly agreed or somewhat agreed by 54% and 36% of UPs in project areas compared to 61% and 22% of UPs in control areas. Promotional initiative to reward first ten tax payers and ten highest tax payers was 40% among UPs in project areas as opposed to barely 10% of UPs in control areas. The Tax collection in both project areas and control areas was not up to the level by considering and based on the actual tax assessment (as actual tax assessment needs more focus by UPs). Lack of manpower to collect taxes, lack of initiative by UP chairman and elected persons of UP for fear of losing popularity and pledge during election and peoples’ unwillingness to pay taxes are among the main reasons for low rate of collection. Other important factors are lack of transparency in both tax assessment and tax collection, nepotism and intervention by influential persons Complete implementation of model tax schedule 2013, motivating people to pay taxes by arranging

ward shava and increasing transparency and accountability in UP activities were suggested as measures to increase UP tax collection.

Tax administration As per procedure, the UPs were to form Standing Committees (SC) for tax assessment and collection. The survey revealed 100% of UPs in project area, 95% in control area and 94.8% of UPs across the country formed SCs. The study revealed that 90% of SCs in project area and 80% of SCs in control area held meetings in 2013-15 and most of them irrespective of the size of UPs met two to three times. SC carried out auditing in two-thirds (66%) of UPs in project area as against the same in 60% of UPs in control area. Nearly three-fourths (72%) of the UPs in both project area and control area deposited the tax collected in bank accounts. Bank deposits of tax collected by UPs were routinely supervised in both project area (99%) and control area (88%). It appears that nearly 70% of UPs in control area and 80% of UPs nationwide submitted progress report on tax collection to the Deputy Commissioner and the Upazila Nirbahi Officer while 87% of UPs in project area complied with the same..

UP Governance Sharing government circulars in monthly meetings, Uploading UP budget in the website and discussing audit report were routine and uniform among all UPs- in both project area and control area and across the country. Chairman’s attendance in ward shave- ‘always and very often’ was much higher in project area than that in control area. Discussion of programs and schemes, UP’s draft budget, UP members and women members speaking freely ‘always and very often’ together was same in UPs of both project and control areas. Lack of manpower, limited collection of holding tax and intervention by influential persons were identified as key challenges to effective service delivery of the UPs. Large unions reported lack of manpower as more formidable challenge to service delivery. Building consciousness and increasing public involvement help to improve service delivery was the view expressed by all UPs.

International Seminar on “Toward Effective, Accountable and Inclusive LGIs: Learning From South Asia and Beyond

International Seminar

Trend in Own Source Revue of Overall UPs Own source revenue of the UPs accumulates from taxes, service fees and revenue or income from sources other than taxes and fees. Revenue from taxes generates from two sources (i) holding taxes and (ii) recreation and advertisement taxes. Annual average own source revenue showed a rising trend starting from Tk.119974 in 2010-11 to Tk. 258581 in 2014-2015 with annual increase of 26%, 23%,14% and 22% in the intervening years in overall area. Annual average tax revenue increased from Tk.62710 in 2010 by 25%, 25%, 13% and 22% in 2011-12, 2012-13, 2013-14 and 2014-15 respectively. Tax revenue from recreation and advertisement was quantitatively small and did not maintain steady rising trend due to uneven collection. UP service fee had two components- trade license issuing fees and renewal fee including trade taxes; service fees of the UPs started on average at Tk.42826 in 2010-11 and increased by 20%, 21%, 16% and 22% successively each year up to 2014-15. Annual average revenue other than taxes and fees was Tk.14437 in 2010-11 that rose by 48%, 18% and 17% in successive years and then declined by 7% in 2014-15.

Trend in Own Source Revenue by Categories of UPs Union Parishads have been categorized as small, medium and large and also as semi-urban, rural and hard to reach areas to see status of trends in their own source revenue collection. Annual average own source revenue show rising trends with variations in all categories of UPs. Annual tax revenue increased over the years in all categories of UPs. Tax revenue from recreation and advertisement was quantitatively small and did not maintain steady trend due to uneven collection in all categories of UPs. UP service fee had two components- trade license issuing fees and renewal fee including trade taxes; service fees of the UPs have rising trends with variations in all categories of UPs. Annual average revenue

other than taxes and fees rise with some oscillation in all categories of UPs.

Trend of Own Source Revenue of UPs in Project Area and Control Area Project Area:

Own Source Revenue, on average, from all sources had rising trends. Total revenue rose from Tk.105870, Tk.141181, Tk.180225, Tk.189755 and Tk.217922 during 2010-11, 2011-12, 2012-13, 2013-14 and 2014-15 respectively showing increases by 33% in 2011-12, 28% in 2012-13, 5% in 2013-14 and 15% in 2014-15. Annual tax rose from Tk.65294 in 2010-11 by 29%, 51% 1% and11% in 2011-12, 2012-13, 2013-14 and 2014-15 respectively. Service fees in project area rose from Tk. 28610 by 31%, 0%, 22% and 19% in 2011-12, 2012-13, 2013-14 and 2014-15. Revenue from other sources rose by 63% in 2011-12, declined by 16% in 2012-13, by 2% in 2013-14 and then increased by 29% in 2014-15.

Control Area:

Own Source Revenue, on average, from all sources showed rising trends. Overall revenue rose from Tk.101348, Tk.110109, Tk.143128, Tk.170152 and Tk.185879 during 2010-11, 2011-12, 2012-13, 2013-14 and 2014-15 respectively with increase by 9% in 2011-12, 30% in 2012-13, 19% in 2013-14 and 9% in 2014-15. Annual tax rose from Tk.53974 in 2010-11 by 11%, 33%, 7% and 30% in 2011-12, 2012-13, 2013-14 and 2014-15 respectively. Service fees in control area rose from Tk. 31788 by 14%, 11%, 33% and 17% in 2011-12, 2012-13, 2013-14 and 2014-15. Revenue from other sources was Tk.15587 in 2010-11, declined by 11% in 2011-12 and rose by 67% in 2012-13, by 37% in 2013-14 and then declined by 61% in 2014-15.

International Seminar on â&#x20AC;&#x153;Toward Effective, Accountable and Inclusive LGIs: Learning From South Asia and Beyond

Study on Trends in UP Revenue Collection 2016

Rising, Static and Declining Trends in Own Source Revenue Generation of UPs Nationwide just under three-fourths of the UPs in project area and those in selected control area as well had own source revenue rising and about a-fourth had own source revenue declining; a small proportion of the UPs (under 5%) had own source revenue level static. For overall Bangladesh the figures were 71.4% having rising trend, 26.3% having decreasing trend and 2.3% having static trend

rural areas. Implementation of planned development and ensuring sustained progress in rural areas need stable financial commitment. The rising trends of own source revenue of the UPs show prospects towards this end.

Survey Conducted by

Composition of Own Source Revenue of the UPs The Composition or Structure of own source revenue had no appreciable or significant change over the years. Composition of own sources of revenue showed that a little more than half of own source revenue (52% to56%) was generated from taxes, about a-third (34% to 35%) generated from UP service fees and around a-tenth (10% to 14%) came from other sources.

Composition of UP Receipts from Sources of Income Bulk of the UPs annual receipts was generated from government allocation and contributions from donor agencies. Own source revenue amounted to barely 2% percent of the annual receipts of the UPs over the period 2010-11 to 2014-15. Total receipt- own source and government and donor agency contribution- was Tk.5426112 in 2010-11, declined by 5% in 2011-12 and then rose by 32%, 33% and 6% in the years 2012-13, 2013-14 and 2014-15 respectively.

Survey and Research System (SRS)

TRENDS IN UNION PARISHAD

REVENUE COLLECTION

2016

Conclusion Union Parishad is the grass root and the lowest level of Local Government Institution in Bangladesh. The activities of the UPs and progress towards development affect the lives of two-thirds of the people in the country living in

International Seminar on â&#x20AC;&#x153;Toward Effective, Accountable and Inclusive LGIs: Learning From South Asia and Beyond

International Seminar

UPGP INTERIM PROJECT RESULTS ASSESSMENT SURVEY 2015 Summary The objective of the current Interim Project Results Assessment Survey (IPRS) -2015 study is to assess the interim results that have been achieved and supported by the Union Parishad Governance Project (UPGP) as per targets set in the Project Document. It reflects on existing LGIs and people’s perception and feedback on local governance to measure the perception about the quality of service delivery by LGIs as well as to gauge the efficiency of the LGIs that receive additional support from UPGP projects. Additionally, the findings of this study will also be used for strengthening the monitoring evaluation system as well as achieving the goal of effective decentralization of the local government.

This survey is a cross-sectional study to collect relevant information regarding different aspects of governance situation at the UP using both Quantitative Household level Interviews and Qualitative in-depth Investigations. The interim survey specifically emphasized on qualitative methods of investigations to facilitate in-depth qualitative queries on the UP governance status and efficiencies. The Interim Project Results Survey (IPRS) has taken place during the mid 2015 which is after more than 3 years of the project implementation since 2012.

The methods of study and the target population for the Interim Project Result Assessment Survey are: • Quantitative Household level survey of men (Project: 950 and Control: 950) and women (Project: 950 and Control: 950) was conducted in randomly selected in both Project Upazilas (64) and Unions (190) and Control Upazilas (54) and Unions (190); specific groups of target population covered are: Poor (low income, poor and hardcore poor) and non-poor; and socially marginalized population/vulnerable groups such as fishermen, sweepers, poor widows, rickshaw puller, weaver, landless farmer, indigenous etc. Stratified multi-stage random sampling was applied to select household with respondents (beneficiary: 1 male and 1 female respondent per every alternate household) for interview. • Qualitative Intensive Interviews (only in the Project areas) with the Stakeholders: UP Elected (Chairmen, Members-male and female) and UP Secretary (494); Project/program officials: DDLG, UNO, Upazila Engineer, Women and Child Affairs Officer (60). • Focus Groups Discussions (only in the Project areas) with Community opinion leaders, Selected persons attending Ward Shavas, Citizen Forum Representing Interest Groups of Health, Education, and Agriculture and Standing committees; Members of Women's Development Fora (48 FGDs).

International Seminar on “Toward Effective, Accountable and Inclusive LGIs: Learning From South Asia and Beyond

UPGP IPRS 2015

• Besides, physical verifications through observation of the documents and records concerning UP performances were intensively conducted both, in the Project (190) and in the Control (190) UPs. Total data collection period was from April 2015 to May 2015. Data collection of household level interpersonal interview, FGDs and Union Parishad Checklist were completed 100%. Interpersonal Intensive Interviews with UP and Project Personnel at Union Level (97%) as well as Upazila and District Level (90%) could not be completed at 100%, as the relevant officials were not available during the data collection period. The data analyses have focused on comparative findings of the current Interim Project Result Assessment Survey (IPRS) of 2015 with those of the Baseline Survey (BS) of 2013, selectively where relevant.

Profile of Household level Respondents/Beneficiaries: The average monthly family income is Tk.12910.00 (in BS: Tk.11321.00) in the Project areas and Tk.12039.00 (in BS: Tk.10680.00) in the Control areas, which is comparable with BBS estimate of 2010 of Tk. 9648. Half of the respondents' families (by status of monthly family

income) both from the Project and Control villages are non-poor/well off, while about a third of the families (30%) belong to poor or low income families and the rest 20% are hard core poor. Among the total respondents (3800), 653 (17%) are socially marginalized people (fishermen, poor widows, day laborers, carpenter, cleaner, cobbler, barber) and this group belongs to poor families. The families both from the Project and Control villages differ marginally on socio economic status; in other words they are comparable. The mean age of the male respondents is 40/41 years and for the females, it is 36 years. By age there is hardly any difference between those from the Project and Control villages. Ninety two percent of the respondents are currently married in the Project villages and 93% in the Control villages. Male respondents are educated up to VI grade, while the females are educated at grade V, and again there is hardly any difference between the Project and Control villages. On average, the respondents have 3 living children both in the Project and Control villages. The average size of the family is around 5.

Findings: By Major Areas of Investigation 1. Enhanced local development role of Union Parishads • During IPRS 2015, in the Project area 95% of the UPs reported holding the monthly meeting regularly (12 meetings), while in the Control, area such meetings were held in 87% of the UPs. Comparatively, in the Baseline Survey (BS) in early 2013, such general meetings were held in the 89% UPs in the Project area and only 69% UPs in the Control areas. • During IPRS 2015, in the Project areas, 90% of the meetings were held with full quorum, while in the Control areas 85% of the meetings were held with quorum. During BS 2013, 87% of the meetings in the Project areas, and in the Control areas, only 59% of the meetings were held with full quorum. • During IPRS 2015, in 75% of the Project area meetings (BS-2013 project: 72%), all the three female ward members were present, while in the Control area, such presence was in only 56% (BS-2013 Control: 53%) of the meetings. •

All the four (100%) major committees of UP are currently functioning during IPRS-2015 in the UP.

• In total, a list of 22 major types of Registers were found and are being used by the UPs during IPRS-2015: particularly, in the project areas: Cash book registers were found present and being used in the 100% of the UPs both during IPRS -2015 and also during BS 2013 both in the Project and in the Control areas; sixteen registers are being used at 82 to 99%, while the rest 5 Registers are being used at 40 to 73%. During IPRS-2015, in the Project area majority (89-90%) of the UPs reported (also physically verified) public display of all the 6 documents, while in the Control area such display has been observed in less than half of the UPs (76-79%). On the contrary, during BS-2013, 54-65 UPs in the project area and 27-45% UPs in the control area display these documents UPs International Seminar on “Toward Effective, Accountable and Inclusive LGIs: Learning From South Asia and Beyond

International Seminar

â&#x20AC;˘ In total, a list of 22 major types of Registers were found and are being used by the UPs during IPRS-2015: particularly, in the project areas: Cash book registers were found present and being used in the 100% of the UPs both during IPRS -2015 and also during BS 2013 both in the Project and in the Control areas; sixteen registers are being used at 82 to 99%, while the rest 5 Registers are being used at 40 to 73%. During IPRS-2015, in the Project area majority (89-90%) of the UPs reported (also physically verified) public display of all the 6 documents, while in the Control area such display has been observed in less than half of the UPs (76-79%). On the contrary, during BS-2013, 54-65 UPs in the project area and 27-45% UPs in the control area display these documents UPs.

Strengthened Ward Shava & inclusive decision making for local development During IPRS-2015, out of a total of 190 unions, 138 unions (73%) from the Project areas held 2 Ward Shavas with quorum compared to only 86 unions (45%) from the Control areas held 2 Ward Shavas with quorum (BS 2013: P: 33% & C: 19%); and 30 unions (16%) from the Project areas held 1 Ward Shava with quorum compared to only 81 unions (43%) from the Control areas held 1 Ward Shava with quorum (BS 2013: P: 33% & C: 31%).

Strengthened Standing Committees (SCs) During the IPRS-2015, 98% of the unions in the Project areas, 94% in the Control areas have all the 13 functioning Standing Committees compared to 74% from the Project areas and 52% from the Control areas of BS-2013. On an average, 3 SCs have been headed by a female ward member. In Project area, on an average, 3 meetings were held for each SC and in the Control area, on an average 2 meetings were held for each SC.

Women Development Forums (WDF) More than ninety percent of the Unions have women ward members as member in the Upazila Women Development Forum: Project: 96% and Control: 90%. And hundred percent of the Women ward members attended forum meetings.

Active Citizenship and Downward Accountability Hundred percent of the unions in both the Project and Control areas during both IPRS-2015 and BS-2013 claimed that the manpower for UISC have been deployed. Majority (72%) of the Unions in the Project areas during IPRS-2015 received applications demanding information from the UISC compared to 57% unions from the Control areas (BS-2013: P 26% & C: 29%). Almost all the unions (92%) of the unions from the Project areas claimed that Citizen's Charter is available compared to only 79% of the unions from the Control areas (BS-2013: Project 58% & Control: 49%).

Enhanced Planning and Financial management by Union Parishads Annual Plan and Five Year Plan: Ninety nine percent of the UPs of the Project area have Annual Plan, compared to 93% of the UPs in the Control areas (BS-2013: P 90% & C: 79%). Ninety five percent of the UPs of the Project area have 5-year Plan, compared to 89% of the UPs in the Control areas (BS-2013: P 71% & C: 54%). The Project UPs on average implemented 32 schemes out of a planned 43 schemes in the last financial year, while the Control UPs implemented 31 schemes out of planned 40 schemes in the last financial year. Budgeting and Auditing: Hundred percent of the UPs, irrespective of Project or Control areas both during IPRS-2015 and during BS-2013 have budgets and these have been approved by UP General Meeting.

International Seminar on â&#x20AC;&#x153;Toward Effective, Accountable and Inclusive LGIs: Learning From South Asia and Beyond

UPGP IPRS 2015

Own Revenue Mobilization In the last financial year, only 81% of the Project area UPs and 58% of the Control area UPs completed annual tax assessment during IPRS 2015 compared to only 19% from the Project and 7% from the Control samples during BS 2013. During IPRS 2015, average number of holding tax payers in a UP is 5059 HHs in the Project UPs and 4094 HHs in the Control UPs. While during BS 2013, it was 4614 HHs in the Project UPs and 4662 in the Control UPs. In IPRS-2015 Survey, overall average amount (in taka) of holding tax earned in the last financial year by a UP in the Project area is Tk. 111,068 and in the Control area, is Tk. 110,377. In IPRS-2015 Survey, overall average amount (in taka) of revenue earned (including holding tax) in the last financial year (July 2013-June 2014) by a UP in the Project area is Tk. 373,094 and in the Control area, is Tk. 249,372. The findings show that the amount of revenue collection in the Project areas (in volume of Taka) is much higher than the Control areas. The amount of Taka earned in the Project areas (Tk. 373,094) in the financial year 2013-2014 over that of the Control areas (Tk. 249,372) is higher additionally by 50%. People's participation in the open budget meeting has improved as 97% of the respondents from the Project sample and 98% from the Control samples affirmed such status during IPRS-2015. Previously during BS 2013, this was 87% from the Project and 75% from the Control UPs. Hundred percent of the UPs both from Project and the Control samples maintain proper cash books. More than ninety percent of the UPs both from Project (98%) and from the Control (91%) samples were observed to have completed the annual auditing of UP budget.

Conclusion UPGP Project Unions during IPRS -2015 have found much better in terms of their achievements on major program interventions than both the Control Unions of IPRS 2015 and the Project Unions of Baseline Survey conducted in early 2013. The programs/interventions in the Project Unions that have achieved higher outcomes are: • Percent of household respondents visited to UP: 99% males and 82% females from the Project Unions in IPRS 2015; 98% males and 79% females from the Control Unions in IPRS 2015 (findings statistically significant at p< .016); and 77% males and 67% females from the Project Unions in BS 2013; • Percent of household respondents Very satisfied/Satisfied with the UP Services: 54% males and 52% females from the Project Unions in IPRS

2015; 40% males and 38% females from the Control Unions in IPRS 2015 (findings Statistically significant at p< .001); and 44% males and 45% females from the Project Unions in BS 2013; • Percent Participated in rallies and campaigns: 33% males and 22% females from the Project Unions in IPRS 2015; 20% males and 15% females from the Control Unions in IPRS 2015 (findings statistically significant at p< .001); and 5% males and 3% females from the Project Unions in BS 2013; • Percent Participated in the Ward Shavas: 47% males and 26% females from the Project Unions in IPRS 2015; 34% males and 15% females from the Control Unions in IPRS 2015 (findings statistically significant at p<.001); and 12% males and 4% females from the Project Unions in BS 2013; • Percent Participated in the Standing Committee Meetings: 34% males and 31% females from the Project Unions in IPRS 2015; 20% males and 17% females from the Control Unions in IPRS 2015 (findings statistically significant at p< .001); and 10% males and 6% females from the Project Unions in BS 2013; • Approached the UP for information: 27% males and 26% females from the Project Unions in IPRS 2015; 26% males and 23% females from the Control Unions in IPRS 2015 (findings not statistically significant at p = .158); and 25% males and 23% females from the Project Unions in BS 2013; and • Percent of household respondents Very satisfied/Satisfied with the overall performances of the UP: 47% males and 45% females from the Project Unions in IPRS 2015; 35% males and 33% females from the Control Unions in IPRS 2015 (findings statistically significant at p< .001); and 24% males and 22% females from the Project Unions in BS 2013. Compared to the BS-2013, the performances of the UPs have improved both in the Project and Control Unions during IPRS 2015. This is a clear evidence that the UPGP program interventions are facilitating improved performances of the Union Parishads. In conclusion, it is realistic to ascertain that growingly people are inclined to use the services of the UPs, which certainly is a positive indicator of equitable and sustainable development of the people covering males, females, poor, non- poor, and the vulnerable marginalized population.

Study conducted by:

Research Evaluation Assiciates For Development Ltd. (READ)

International Seminar on “Toward Effective, Accountable and Inclusive LGIs: Learning From South Asia and Beyond

International Seminar

ACTION RESEARCH ON EFFECTIVENESS OF UZP COMMITTEES Summary This action research on the committees of the Upazila Parishads was commissioned by the UZGP project of UNDP Bangladesh to find out the effectiveness of the committees of the Upazila Parishad. This action research had three main objectives. The first objective was to examine the functions, process and functioning of the UZP’s committees and to examine to what extent the recommendations of UZP committees are included in UZP monthly meetings. The second objective was to capture the changes of committees’ functions due to the intervention of the UZGP comparing the situation with cases from non-interventions areas of the project based on empirical evidences. The third objective of this action research was to identify the practical challenges and barriers of making UZP’s committees functional and recommended specific measures to make UZP committees fully functional. To assess the effectiveness of Committees a holistic evaluation approach was applied. 10 UZPs were studied under this research. Out of 10, 7 were intervention upazilas of UZGP while the rest 3 are non-intervention upazilas. Several methods such as review of documents, interview, FGD, KII, case studies and observation were used to collect maximum information on the process and effectiveness of the Committees of the UZP. A total of 100 respondents (10 from each UZP) were interviewed as key informants. These included Chair, Vice-chair, and members of the UZP, and government officials.

This action research came up with three sets of findings: The first set of

findings was related to the state of functioning of the committees. It was found that the respondents, both from intervention and non-intervention areas, had a lower level of understanding about the provision of the law that provided for the establishment of the committees. However, one encouraging finding was that 17 committees were formed in all 10 selected UZPs. But, committees in intervention areas had been formed earlier than non-intervention UZPs. However, the majority of the respondents in both cases did not possess any understanding about the Terms of References (ToRs) of the committees. Thus, committees were functioning differently in different UZPs. Encouragingly, committee meetings had been taking place regularly in the intervention areas as compared to non-intervention areas. It was also been learnt that notice of the meeting was circulated well in advance to the members. The member secretaries were playing an influential role in settings of agendas which was generally endorsed by the Chair of the respective committee without any opposition. However, the issue quorum came out as a strong barrier as the majority of the UP chairs showed their reluctance to attend the committee meetings. Due to ignorance and reluctance of the committee members, the UZP committees had not been functioning effectively.

International Seminar on “Toward Effective, Accountable and Inclusive LGIs: Learning From South Asia and Beyond

Action Research on Effectiveness of UZP Committees

Overall, committees in the intervention UZPs were found active than non-intervention UZPs However, the participation of members in the committee meetings was found very low, although that did not hamper the decisions very much as the members who were the UP chairs signed the proceeding whenever they remained available in the UZP. It was also found that intervention UZPs were sending more recommendations to the UZP than nonintervention UZPs. It was important to mention here that most of the committees were sending scheme based project proposals. Even more recommendations were getting accepted in the intervention areas as compared to non-intervention UZP. The study finding confirmed that female UGVCs did not find any problem while discharging their responsibilities as committee chair. Another important finding was that there was a conflict between department committees and UZP committees. However, the intensity of contrast was higher in non-intervention UZPs as compared to intervention areas. This was affecting the effectiveness of the functioning of committees of UZPs negatively.

The third set of findings was related to the challenges of the functioning of the committees. This action research identified a number of challenges. These were lack of clear guidelines of the law, the absence of the UP chairs in the committee meetings, workload of the member secretaries, lack of allocation of funds, scarcity of funds, lack of understanding of different actors, absence of reserved seat women members in the committees, role confusion of different actors, excessive workload of the vice-chairs, lack of secretarial staff for maintaining records, integration of officials of non-transferred departments, contract between committees and departmental committees, lack of coordination between committees and government line agencies, larger number of committees, transfer of government officials, and political ideology of different actors. Finally, this action research came up with a set of recommendations to overcome the above mentioned mentioned challenges of the UZP committees.

The second set of findings was related to the effectiveness of the interventions of UZGP. The finding suggested that all the respondents (100%) of the intervention Upazilas expressed their agreement about the fact that UZGP extended support towards strengthening the committees. Training received from the project made them prepared to perform their jobs in the committees. The majority of the respondents (80%) from intervention upazilas admitted that they found the intervention of the UZGP very supportive in making committees effective. The contribution of the UZGP made the respondents to recognize the intervention of the project a “great success”. The finding also suggested that 86% of the respondents in the intervention areas expressed their opinion in favour of recognizing the intervention of UZGP as a “great success” as compared to 0% of the respondents in the non-intervention areas.

International Seminar on “Toward Effective, Accountable and Inclusive LGIs: Learning From South Asia and Beyond

International Seminar

Measures to be taken within the Existing Framework

Measures Requiring Legal Actions:

(1) The coverage of the training needs to be increased,

(1) Advocacy could be done with the government for taking initiative to specify different aspects of committees including its composition and ToRs.

(2) The project should extend their working areas to other UZPs apart from 65 intervention UZPs. (3) To overcome the problem that was caused due to the absence of members in the meetings and the reluctance of Member Secretaries, the UZP could introduce a system of punishment for those who did not perform their duties sincerely. 4) For inspiring chairmen and members of Committees, the UZP should give priority to suggestions placed by the Committees in the UZP meeting on different issues. (5) To overcome this problem the UZP could spend a portion of money allocated for their monthly meeting in this respect. ( 6) The UNO of the respective Upazila could play an important role as a representative of the central government by motivating people’s representatives of the UZP. (7) Signing of Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with local and central media houses for publishing news and reports about Committees for motivating people to become aware about the functioning of the Committees. (8) UZGP should think about negotiating with different international donor agencies who are also working on strengthening democratic local governance. (9) UZGP may patronage an advocacy forum comprising of academicians, development practitioners and members of civil societies who would work on strengthening local governance in general and committees in specific. (10) UZGP can hold dialogue with the UZPs to take the necessary initiatives for inclusion of reserved seat women members in different committees.

(2) Advocacy could be done with the government to introduce the system of meeting allowance (even a token amount) for the chairmen and members of Committees. (3) Advocacy could be done with the government for initiating legal reforms for establishing a system of monitoring of the activities of the UZP in order to reduce the extent of abuse of power by the elected representatives as well as government officials. (4) Since the functioning of Committees require fund for bearing expenses of holding meetings and other issues, advocacy could be done with the government to consider allocating funds for Committees. (5) Advocacy could be done with the government to create a provision for extra manpower for the UZP who would maintain official records of the functions of the Committees. (6) Advocacy could be done with the government to take initiative for reducing the workload of the vice-chairmen. (7) Advocacy could be done with the government to consider reducing the number of Committees in 10/12. Among 17 Committees there are some committees having overlapping responsibilities. For instance, the existence of ‘secondary and madrasa education’ & ‘primary and mass education’ does not have any significance. Instead, the government could consider introducing a Committee on ‘education’ that could cover all types of education. The reducing number of Committees would reduce the workload of chairmen and members of Committees.

Research conducted by:

Dr. Pranab Kumar Panday

Professor, Department of Public Administration University of Rajshahi

International Seminar on “Toward Effective, Accountable and Inclusive LGIs: Learning From South Asia and Beyond

Effectiveness of UZP Committees

Committees are the significant part democratic practices within Upazila Parishad through which all members of Upazila Parishad is accommodated to play a role in the decision making and development management process at the local level.

International Seminar on â&#x20AC;&#x153;Toward Effective, Accountable and Inclusive LGIs: Learning From South Asia and Beyond

International Seminar

STUDY ON THE PROCESS AND QUALITY OF BUDGETING AND PLANNING OF UPAZILA PARISHAD Summary The Upazila Parishad Governance Project (UZGP) has provided support to a participatory planning and budgetary framework for the Upazilas in Bangladesh. This included a fiscal facility intended both to support development planning and actual delivery of gender sensitive and inclusive local services and infrastructure to a selected number of UZPs spread over all the seven divisions. However, the planning and budget related capacity development support was extended to all the Upazilas of the country. UZGP has stressed the need for formulation of a simple and viable planning and budgeting system under the existing legal framework at the Upazila Parishad level. It was also envisaged that the plan document prepared by the UZPs would

be inclusive in nature and it will be sensitive to gender, vulnerable groups and achievement of MDGs etc. This study focuses on the quality and the processes of planning and budgeting of Upazilas in Bangladesh. For the purpose of our study we considered that among other features the following attributes constituted a quality plan and a budget of a Upazila Parishad: having a vision, compliance with the rules, inclusiveness, reflection on multi-sectoral priorities and a plan and budget which is realistically prepared taking into account the available existing and anticipated future resources.

Specific objectives of the study were as follows:

Assess the extent to which the existing legislations were being followed by Upazilas in preparing their plans and budgets.

Examine the quality of the UZP plans (vision, compliance with the rules, inclusiveness, and reflection on multi-sectoral priorities) and the Upazila budget process (forecasting about resources, using the budget formats, gathering information from different stakeholders, preparing the draft document, organizing special budget sessions, sharing the draft budget and finalizing the document, proper execution of budget).

Examine the current level of sharing of budget and plan with other LGIs and other stakeholders.

Identify the challenges in preparation of plan and budget and offer a set of recommendations to improve planning and budgeting system of Upazilas.

International Seminar on â&#x20AC;&#x153;Toward Effective, Accountable and Inclusive LGIs: Learning From South Asia and Beyond

Study on Process and Quality of Budgeting and Planning of UZP

Methodology In order to achieve the above objectives, the study has relied on both the secondary and primary sources of data. The secondary data sources included various reports published by the concerned ministries, policy documents, Acts, rules issued by the ministries, recent research publications complementary to the objectives of the current research, along with the selective works of development partners to Bangladesh relevant to the focus of the study. Field visits were made to 7 Upazilas representing the project districts and 3 Upazilas from the non-project districts areas for gathering primary data and information. Primary data has been collected through a qualitative survey questionnaire (covered 113 respondents representing both the intervention (80) and

control areas (33). Besides, in each Upazila, in-depth Interviews were conducted with 5 to 7 Key Informants. The Key Informants included UNOs, the officials of different line ministries posted at the Upazila and functionaries of the Upazila Parishad and also UP chairman. Besides, FGDs (one FGD in each UZP) were also conducted with the citizens who attended Planning and Budget meetings at different point in time. Most importantly, the study relied heavily on the content analysis of the budget and the plan documents collected from the sampled Upazilas during the field visits. The information gathered through content analysis has helped supplementing the information collected through the questionnaire survey.

Two observations from the past •

Only a few Upazilas had prepared a budget like document before the launching of the Upazila Governance Project.

•

No Upazila in Bangladesh ever prepared five year plan before the launching of the Upazila Governance Project.

Findings of the Study •

The study revealed that all Upazilas were found to have been preparing plans and budgets on a regular basis in the project area, while it is was also getting popular among the Upazilas of the non-project districts. UZGP’s initiative to provide the Upazilas with the capacity building support with a view to enable them prepare plan and budget is praiseworthy and Government with the support from the UZGP project has made a significant contribution to this significant change.

•

The government with the assistance from the UNDP has taken important steps to help the Upazilas prepare a five year plan, improve the planning documents (annual plans, budgets, plan-books and FYPs) and procedures for planning and all these have clearly added value to Upazila’s overall governance.

On Upazila Planning a. Plan documents exist in all the UZGP Upazilas and these were prepared following the guidelines provided by the government and these documents followed a common format and consistency.. But the evidence suggests that in control Upazilas the plans were prepared in haste to comply with the requirements imposed by the government. In fact, in 2 out of 3 control Upazilas plan documents were prepared without consulting the government guidelines. Therefore those documents seemed to lack common format, consistency and coherence.

International Seminar on “Toward Effective, Accountable and Inclusive LGIs: Learning From South Asia and Beyond

International Seminar

b. A number of elected and appointed officials were given thorough training for a number of days and most people who received training could prepare on FYP on their own. However, in the event where the officials who received training got transferred elsewhere right after the training had encountered difficulty in preparing these documents (it happened only 1 out of 10 Upazilas studied). c. In the project Upazilas, plan documents were found to have focused on the schemes of multi-sectoral nature generally and most of the UZGP Upazilas also focused on the schemes having bearing upon MDGs. But in the 2 out of 3 control Upazilas the officials could not come out of their traditional mindsets of focusing on the infrastructure sector schemes. It was found out that the schemes related to direct poverty reduction got low in the priority when making their plans with ADP funds. However, the Upazilas under the UZGP that they were more careful about their choice of schemes to be included in the five year or annual plans. d. It was evident that most Upazila plan documents were gender sensitive and these documents sufficiently addressed the gender issues and include the schemes having bearing upon women and children development or direct pro-poor local development. The situation in UZGP Upazilas was found to be better than that of the Upazilas of the non-intervention area as far as gender sensitivity or inclusiveness of the plan was concerned. e. Social sector projects were given priorities in most Upazilas with a few exceptions. Also Co-financed projects were included in the plan documents. f. Most Upazilas sought input from the line departments and Upazilas committees with their respective sectoral priority schemes to be included in the plans. The line departments and Upazila committees provided their input and generally the suggested schemes were also included in the UZP plans. g. Generally there was a linkage between the plan and the budget. This linkage however varied across Upazilas. For some Upazilas this linkage was found to be strong while in some Upazilas the linkage was astoundingly weak. At times, in some Upazilas schemes which were included in the plans were not budgeted. Rather, the budgetary allocations were made to schemes that had no connection whatsoever with the original plan. This practice was by most non-project area Upazilas.

On Upazila Budgeting a. Budgeting is a recent phenomenon in Upazila. The Upazilas have been preparing budget since 2012 and they are required to follow the budget related rules while preparing the budget. It was found out that most Upazilas tended to abide by the general budget rules. They were also found to be using the five formats as provided by the government under the budget rules to show the expenditure details and receipts from different sources separately. b. However, it was evident that all 3 control Upazilas violated the clauses of the guidelines for the utilization of revenue and development funds while implementing the budget. However, this is problem was less prevalent in the Upazilas under the UZGP in general. c. By law, the Upazilas are required to organize a special budget session involving peoples from different walks of life and also the stakeholders who are deemed to be able to contribute to the Upazila budget process. However, the special budget session was held in all UZPs. d. Upazilas were found to be serious in disclosing the draft budget documents in different ways. Most Upazilas put up a draft copy of the budget in the notice boards, most of the Upazilas also shared their draft budgets with the local journalists, local press clubs and NGOs.

International Seminar on â&#x20AC;&#x153;Toward Effective, Accountable and Inclusive LGIs: Learning From South Asia and Beyond

Study on Process and Quality of Budgeting and Planning of UZP

Major Achievements a.

Upazilas now have the skills and capacity to prepare plan and budget documents;

Upazilas have learnt to prepare budget documents systematically every fiscal year following the provided rules and formats;

They have also learnt to share the budget with different stakeholders;

Upazilas have also learnt to prepare FYP and annual plan and also realized the importance of these documents for effective local governance;

Upazilas have also learnt to pay attention to social sector schemes even in some places co-financed projects were included in the plan and there was a clear reflection of this in the Upazila budget document.

Some Specific Recommendations Much has been achieved on the front of planning and budgeting of Upazilas. But there are still rooms for improvements in all these areas. Based on the findings of the study the following recommendations are made: a. A set of comprehensive planning rules should be enacted with immediate effect for Upazilas to follow and this would ensure uniformity and consistency in their long term planning exercises. Regular district and central level close monitoring and overseeing has a paramount importance on this front. b. Copies of the plan and budget must be shared with other tiers of local government. This could be the first step towards having the LGIs to agree on greater level of vertical and horizontal integration in terms of their development planning and budgeting. This should be made mandatory for the Upazilas with immediate effect. c. A system of open budget meeting should be made mandatory for Upazilas for enhancing local peopleâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s involvement in Upazila budget process. d. There should be a strong linkage between the annual plan and the five year plan. In fact, ideally the annual plan should follow from the five year plan. If the linkage is weak then there is no point for the Upazila to prepare a five year plan. Strong central monitoring is also needed so that Upazilas are bound to maintain this linkage. e. Quality of the plan and budget can be substantially improved if more Upazila officials could be given more training on planning and budgeting and especially on how to link the plan with the budget. The Confidential Assistants of UNO and UZP Chair should also be given training which would strengthen the planning and budgeting at the Upazilas. Finally, there is an urgent need for the establishment of a separate and dedicated plan and budget wing at the Upazila under the auspices of UZ chairperson, which will be responsible for gathering all necessary information from respective departments and UPs during the fiscal year and prepare budget and development plans. In that case, transfer of certain officials would not hamper the preparation of budget and plan at the Upazila level and this would also help Upazilas sustain these good practices in the years to come.

Study conducted by:

Dr. Mobasser Monem

Professor, Department of Public Administration, University of Dhaka International Seminar on â&#x20AC;&#x153;Toward Effective, Accountable and Inclusive LGIs: Learning From South Asia and Beyond

International Seminar

RESEARCH STUDY ON MAPPING OF FISCAL FLOW AND LOCAL GOVERNMENT FINANCING IN BANGLADESH

Summary: Effective decentralisation through inclusive and sensitive inter governmental transfers as well as sensible resource sharing is the key to strengthening democratic local government institutions (LGIs). All the LGI tiers have been suffering from resource deficiency that hinder delivering quality services. In order to address the acute resource gap, there is a need for comprehensive understanding of the financial relations between national level and LGIs.

LGI Financing and Revenue: A Macro Analysis In general, financing LGIs does not show any particular pattern in the recent past years. There are oscillations in direct transfer of funds in all the LGIs in terms of both amount and rate of change. Rural LGIs are seen to experience more oscillation than the other type of LGIs. The aggregate direct allocation to the LGIs also shows frequent fluctuation of fund transfer. The UPs get a stable and constantly increasing unconditional block allocation along with a more stable annual change over the years. The allocation to upazila

shows a typically fluctuating pattern. The block allocation for Zila Parishad shows an overall positive trend. While direct allocation to City Corporations shows unsustainable nature, the annual change of allocation exhibits fluctuations even in the periods of MTBF projection. Paurasabhas experience a pattern of allocation almost similar to that of Zila Parishads. The total allocation to both CHT Hill District Local Government Parishads and Regional Councils shows an overall upward trend. However, annual change of direct allocation for CHT LG Parishads experience frequent oscillation. The share of allocations in Local Government Divisionâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s (LGD) allocation shows generally downward trend. The total direct allocation for LGIs is hovering at around 20 per cent of the LGD budget. The existing laws provide the areas where the LGI are sharing resources generated locally with the national government. Thus, revenue coming from local level is supposed to be generally predictable and sustainable. The amount of realised revenue from LGD is significant but showing a declining trend.

International Seminar on â&#x20AC;&#x153;Toward Effective, Accountable and Inclusive LGIs: Learning From South Asia and Beyond

Study on Mapping of Fiscal Flow and LG Financing in Bangladesh

CITY CORPORATION: There are two major streams of fund flow from the government to city corporations: (i) local government division (LGD), and (ii) other ministries, divisions and agencies (MDAs). The government has funding arrangement through "block allocation for development assistance to city corporations" in which city corporations get development funds. Beside this, there is an option of discretionary fund in the name of "special grant" from the government. They also get a portion of land transfer tax within their perimeters as defined by their respective laws. However, the share of land transfer tax in direct transfer from the government varies greatly, from as high as 72 per cent of Dhaka North to only about 2 per cent in Khulna City Corporation. Dhaka North and Narayanganj city corporations have been found to be financially highly solvent, since only about 8 per cent of their total revenue is coming from the government’s direct allocation. The rest comes from foreign funds and development projects financed under PPP. MUNICIPALITY: According to budget data of 16 sample municipalities from different divisions by categories (A, B and C), the A-category municipalities are in a better financial position due to strong basis of internal resource mobilisation from own assets, better tax base and higher special grant from the government. They also get a range of development projects and funds. The municipalities in B and C categories remain in weak financial position; they cannot pay salary and allowances to their employees regularly. The government grant ranges from Tk.0.75 to 16 crore. ZILA PARISHAD: A district council receives on average Tk.27 crore as revenue, in which about 41 per cent is their own fund. The revenue receiving districts at the bottom are Dinajpur, Thakurgaon, Chuadanga and Magura which earn less than Tk.10 crore, while Chittagong Zila Parishad receives the highest revenue which is about Tk.143 crore followed by Dhaka Zila Parishad. AThe average revenue received by a Zila Parishad also vary significantly in the categories of own fund, government grant, income from various sources and total revenue.

UPAZILA PARISHAD (UZP): Both revenue and development spending by the parishads remain about 10% and lower of total spending at an upazila. Expenditure by transferred departments has been overwhelming majority of expenditure at the upazilas. The revenue from the government are ADP or development grant, revenue grant for Parishad’s employees, and proportion of land development and transfer taxes. UNION PARISHAD: UPs are dependent heavily on the government support directly from the national level and other tier of local government, viz. upazila. Analysis of budget data from 19 selected unions reveals that with very few exceptions, government support is overwhelming majority (80 to 97%) of total revenue in most of the UPs. CHT HILL DISTRICT LOCAL GOVERNMENT PARISHAD: The hill district parishads are almost entirely dependent on government grant. Rangamati Hill District Parishad is almost entirely dependent on the block grant from the national level. Almost entire fund is expected to come from the government as grant including operational cost of the Parishad and development projects. PER CAPITA TRANSFER TO LGIs: Per capita government transfer varies significantly among the studied municipalities. The average per capita transfer to municipalities is Tk.4,345 for the latest fiscal year in the analysis. On the other hand, average per capita transfer to UPs has been found to be Tk.252. The lowest provisional transfer is only Tk.308 in FY2014-15 and the highest in Barisal at Tk.2,589.

International Seminar on “Toward Effective, Accountable and Inclusive LGIs: Learning From South Asia and Beyond

International Seminar

Issues For Policy Reform Short Term Undertake analysis of medium-term financing requirement for all LGIs. The budgetary projections for LGIs in the MTBF seem to be ineffective. Also, indication for financing LGIs is absent in the process of medium-term national development planning. Therefore, it is necessary for undertaking an in-depth analysis of financial requirement of the LGIs for the Seventh Five-Year Plan (2016-2020) under the aegis of the Vision 2021 of the government. Then MTBF will also convert it into the specific project-based and operational fund requirement for each of the LG tiers and conduct projection for the medium term. This will work as a primary basis for realising sustainable and predictable basis for financing LGIs. Imperative 2: Introduce index-based financing mechanism for LGIs. Currently there is no financial distribution policy of the LGIs in Bangladesh. It results in ‘special’ and discretionary allocation. Coupled with uneven distribution of shared immovable property transfer tax it again results in acute horizontal inequality of financing local government bodies. To introduce an index-based funding mechanism for distributing fund among the LGIs would work as a scientific foundation for developing financial distribution policy of the LGIs in Bangladesh. It would work as a scientific foundation for developing financial distribution policy. Imperative 3: Figure out financial transfer to and spending of LGIs by functions and economic classification. Currently the budget heads of the LGIs are presented in the unified and prescribed format in their budget documents. From the budget documents it is not possible to understand how much money is being received and spent on the sectors of economic and social development by LGIs, e.g., education, health, physical communication, etc. The heads and

sub-heads in both revenue and expenditure sides in LGIs budget document are not presented as per the economic classification code of the national government. It leads to mismatch between the presentation of national and LGI budgets. These problems must be addressed immediately.

Medium Term Imperative 4: Establish notified area for a reasonable period to assess financial viability before declaring an area as a municipality. A ‘notified area should have minimum acceptable population in the geographical jurisdiction, half of the adult population having non-agricultural income source, population density, and identified probable sources of local revenue. After becoming financially viable and establishing basic urban facilities, the Government can declare it as a municipality.

Long Term Imperative 5: Bifurcate LGD). Even though the LGD has dedicated senior officials for looking after financial matters for each of the local government tiers in Bangladesh, two separate divisions for rural and urban LGIs with full administrative capacity would be more suitable for making decisions and implementation of financial matter.

Other Issues Diversifying Revenue Sources: LGIs should be encouraged to diversify the local revenue generation through financial incentives (e.g., extra grant beyond LGSP) in order to reduce the overwhelming dependence on the national government.

International Seminar on “Toward Effective, Accountable and Inclusive LGIs: Learning From South Asia and Beyond

Study on Mapping of Fiscal Flow and LG Financing in Bangladesh

Reforming Loan Provision for Municipalities: Currently the Local Authorities Loans Act 1914 enables the municipalities to take loans from the banks. However, they are reluctant to take such loans due to requirement of prior permission from the government. Changing this rule would help them encourage to take bank loan and transform themselves as development centers for financing innovative business activities, such as hospital, community centres, tourism, etc. Reforming Upazila Parishad: A reform of UZP is required so that one member from each union/municipality can be elected to form a full-fledged Parishad which can handle all financial matters. It requires reform of the law and approval by the Parliament.

Study conducted by:

Dr Mahfuz Kabir Acting Research Director BIISS, Dhaka

International Seminar on â&#x20AC;&#x153;Toward Effective, Accountable and Inclusive LGIs: Learning From South Asia and Beyond

International Seminar

WOMEN EMPOWERMENT THROUGH INSTITUTIONAL BUILDING: A STUDY ON WOMEN DEVELOPMENT FORUM Executive Summary Women development Forum (WDF) which is a platform of elected women representatives from UP, UZP and Pourashava were first established at Upazila and district level as part of the Upazila Governance Project (UZGP) that later replicated in the rest of the country. This report assesses to what extent WDF played its role in bringing changes at the individual, WDF and institutional levels. It also identifies the challenges and suggests ways forward. The study has come up with three sets of findings. The first set of finding is that WDF increased the level of understanding of the women members about its main goals and objectives. While commenting on the main activities of WDF, women members mentioned that WDF took steps for fighting against all forms of discrimination against them, worked for raising awareness of women and men about women related issues, prepared them for raising their voice for preservation of the rights of women and provided assistance for carrying out income generating activities and so on. With a clear understanding, women members participated in different meetings of WDF for the effective discharging of their activities.

Their increasing participation enhanced their understanding about the role in the WDF and society and other related issues. Most importantly, women's member’s knowledge of women related issues and different activities of LG bodies and capacity increased due to the intervention of WDF. Increased knowledge and capacity made them satisfied in their endeavor to discharge their roles as people’s representatives and member of WDF. This feeling of satisfaction motivated women to perceive themselves as different from ordinary women as they were more confident in expressing their voices, they felt proud of being responsible for others and they considered them a positive role model for other women. Overall, such positive feeling made women satisfied about their performance as the majority of the respondents expressed that they were either “satisfied” or “partially satisfied”. The second set of finding is related to the role of WDF at the WDF level. It was observed that WDF empowered its members to play an effective role in different gender related issues by increasing their awareness about different provisions of LG acts, duties, responsibilities, power and functions of people’s representatives, ensuring justice for those women who suffered from violence, dowry and other evils, providing support to poor women and so on.

International Seminar on “Toward Effective, Accountable and Inclusive LGIs: Learning From South Asia and Beyond

Women Empowerment Through Institutional Building: A Study on WDF

WDF increased the capacity and leadership qualities of women through organizing learning sharing session and motivating other women members to organized various types of programmes for observance of different national and international days, creating space for members of WDF to offer speech at different meetings and so on. It was also observed that the activities of WDF facilitated women’s participation in different activities of LG bodies, including decision making process, planning and budget formulation, standing committees, ward shavas, project implementation and development activities. WDF also organized different advocacy programmes for women at the community level for building their awareness about their rights, laws and rules related to parishad’s activities, developing their capacity and orienting them with government officials. Despite having different successes, one negative observation was that WDF members were still struggling to get 3% budgetary allocation from the UZP indicating the male domination in the governance of different Parishads. However, WDFs were successful in building network among members of WDF enabling them to raise their voice against all sorts of discriminations using the benefits of social capital. This network extended beyond WDF as they managed to build partnerships with different NGOs, and government offices. Using the benefits of partnership they initiated collaborative actions for solving problems, organizing programs and providing support to those who are in need. The third set of finding is related to the contribution of WDF at the institutional level. It was observed that WDF grounded on a strong footing as most of the WDFs were formed through an election which was contested by at least 2 in each post.

This is really an encouraging finding in the context of the present study. It was also observed that WDF has become successful in bringing a positive change at the institutional levels by enhancing participation of the majority of women members in different activities of the different periods. One of the significant findings is that UZGP and UPGP through different initiatives increased knowledge and capacity of women members as compared to control areas that helped them to actively participate in different activities. They were also found successful in influencing the decision making process on many occasions. Another important observation was that the role of WDF expedited the functions of UP/UZP/Pourashavas as their roles were identified as not only important for LG bodies but also for themselves. Members of WDF collectively raised their voices against all sorts of discriminations against women. Through these activities, they brought positive changes in the governance of different LG bodies. It is worthwhile to mention that many of the secretaries of LG bodies and a number of UNOs were found to have lack of knowledge and understanding about the overall structure and functioning of the WDF. This substantiates the need for more intervention in this regard. Despite positive changes, one important finding is that women were still struggling to get their right share in the project implementation. As regards to the intensity and quality of changes, “medium” type of changes occurred at the institutional level, which was acknowledged as “good” by the majority of the respondents. Finally, male’s perspective was found negative towards women indicating the male dominating structure of Bangladeshi society.

International Seminar on “Toward Effective, Accountable and Inclusive LGIs: Learning From South Asia and Beyond

International Seminar

Although WDF achieved a certain degree of success by bringing changes at the institutional levels and by empowering women at the community level, but, a number of challenges were observed that hindered the effective functioning of the WDF. These are: (i) lack of fund, (ii) existence of patriarchal mentality, (iii) lack of capacity of WDF members, (iv) family resistance, (v) mobility, (vi) misconception about the objectives of WDF, (vii) security, (viii) political problem, (ix) religious impediments, (x) lack of recognition, (xi) lack of institutional and logistical supports, (xii) inferior complexity of WDF members, and (xiii) lack of training. Nevertheless, for making SHARIQUE a greater success the following suggestions could be taken into consideration: First, “WDF” has come out as a strong point in the study findings since it increased knowledge and capacity of women members, built network and social capital among them at the grassroots level. Thus, the issue of sustainability of this organization should be considered with great attention. In this connection, advocacy could be done with the government for introducing some motivation components. A need assessment could be conducted by the next phase of UZGP to identify the effective motivational components.

Fifth, for widening the horizon of members of WDF, the initiatives could be taken to establish their relationship and networking with women’s organizations situated in sub-district and district levels, journalist forums and human rights based organization. Eighth, initiative should be taken to promote changes in the societal outlook. By influencing the media and communication channels changes could be brought in social attitudes. Public-opinion campaigns aiming to change the public mentality on the role of women could be supported. Another approach could be “popular information” through street theatres, television programmes and campaigns run by stars, singers and the like with pro-women themes.

Study conducted by: Pranab Kumar Panday, PhD

Professor, Department of Public Administration University of Rajshahi

Second, more gender sensitization programs for the male representatives of different LG bodies should be organized because male counterparts were not as much interested to encourage the women’s participation as it was necessary to bring equity and gender justice at UP/UZP/Pourashava level. Third, the next phase of UZGP could extend the coverage of training on equity and inclusive governance so that more women become able to act as watchdogs in ensuring the rights of the disadvantaged community. Fourth, advocacy could be done with the government to allocate more funds in their national budgetary framework for making WDF effective.

International Seminar on “Toward Effective, Accountable and Inclusive LGIs: Learning From South Asia and Beyond

Women Empowerment Through Institutional Building: A Study On WDF

While commenting on the main activities of WDF, women members mentioned that WDF took steps for fighting against all forms of discrimination against them, worked for raising awareness of women and men about women related issues, prepared them for raising their voice for preservation of the rights of women and provided assistance for carrying out income generating activities and so on. With a clear understanding, women members participated in different meetings of WDF for the effective discharging of their activities.

International Seminar on â&#x20AC;&#x153;Toward Effective, Accountable and Inclusive LGIs: Learning From South Asia and Beyond