BRAC (NGO)
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BRAC (Bengali: ব্র্যাক), Building Resources Across Communities (formerly known as the Bangladesh Rural Advancement Committee), is one of the world's largest non-governmental organizations based in Bangladesh. {{PBS: Rx for Survival [1]}}. Established by Fazle Hasan Abed in 1972, BRAC today is present in all 64 districts of Bangladesh, over 65,000 villages and has 4.8 million group members of which 4.3 million are borrowers. In recent years BRAC has extended its development activities to Afghanistan, Sri Lanka and Africa. The organisation is 76% self-funded through its commercial enterprises that include a micro-bank, dairy and food project and a chain of retail handicraft stores called ‘Aarong.’ The marketing of handicraft items is handled through Aarong.
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[edit] History
Known at the time as the Bangladesh Rural Advancement Committee, BRAC was initiated in 1972 by Fazle Hasan Abed at Sulla in the district of Sylhet as a small-scale relief and rehabilitation project to help war refugees after the liberation war of 1971. Within nine months 14 thousand homes were rebuilt as part of the relief effort. Several hundred boats were built for the fishermen. Medical centres were opened and other essential services were ensured. {BRAC Annual Report 1990}.At the end of 1972, when the relief work was over, BRAC turned towards long-term development needs and re-organised itself as a multifaceted development organisation focusing on the empowerment of the poor and landless, particularly women and children.
By 1974 BRAC had started providing microcredit and had started analyzing the usefulness of credit inputs in the lives of the poor. Till the mid 70s, BRAC concentrated on community development through multi-sectoral village development programmes that included agriculture, fishery, cooperatives, rural crafts, adult literacy, health and family planning, vocational training for women and construction of community centres. A Research and Evaluation Division (RED) was set up by BRAC in 1975 to analyze and evaluate its activities and provide direction for the organisation to expand and evolve. In 1977, BRAC shifted from community development towards a more targeted approach by organizing village groups called Village Organizations (VO). This approach targeted the poorest of the poor – the landless, small farmers, artisans, and vulnerable women. Those who own less than half an acre of land and survive by selling manual labor were regarded as BRAC’s target group. That same year BRAC set up a printing press to finance its activities. The handicraft retail chain called Aarong, was established in the following year.
In 1979, BRAC entered the health field in a major way. It established the nation-wide Oral Therapy Extension Programme (OTEP), a campaign to combat diarrhoea, the leading cause of a high child mortality rate. Over a ten-year period 1,200 BRAC workers went door-to-door teaching 12 million mothers the preparation of home-made oral saline. Bangladesh today has one of the highest rates of usage of oral rehydration, and BRAC’s campaign cut down child and infant mortality from 285 per thousand to 75 per thousand. {Chowdhury, M., & Cash, R., A Simple Solution, 1996} This initial success in scaling up propelled rapid expansion of other BRAC programmes such as Non Formal Primary Education which BRAC started in 1985 – a model that has been replicated in about a dozen countries.
In 1986 BRAC started its Rural Development Programme that incorporated four major activities – institution building including functional education and training, credit operation, income and employment generation and support service programmes. In 1991 the Women’s Health Development programme commenced. The following year BRAC established a Centre for Development Management (CDM) in Rajendrapur. It’s Social Development, Human Rights and Legal Services Programme was launched in 1996 with the aim to empower women with legal rights and assist them in becoming involved with community and ward level organizations. In 1998 BRAC’s Dairy and Food project was commissioned. BRAC launched an Information Technology Institute the following year. In 2001, BRAC established a university called BRAC University with the aim to create future leaders and BRAC Bank catering primarily to small and medium entrepreneurs.
In 2002 BRAC launched a programme called Challenging the Frontiers of Poverty Reduction – Targeting the Ultra Poor (CFPR-TUP) designed specifically for those that BRAC defines as the ultra poor - the extreme poor who cannot access conventional microfinance. The same year BRAC also went into Afghanistan with relief and rehabilitation programmes. It was the first organization in Bangladesh to establish the office of an Ombudsperson which it did in 2004. {Bangladesh Sangbad Shangstha (Bss), July, 2004} In 2005 BRAC entered Sri Lanka with development activities following the devastating Tsunami and in 2006 BRAC launched its programmes in Africa.
[edit] Development activities
| BRAC has done what few others have – they have achieved success on a massive scale, bringing life-saving health programs to millions of the world's poorest people. They remind us that even the most intractable health problems are solvable, and inspire us to match their success throughout the developing world. —Bill Gates, Co-chair |
[edit] Economic Development
BRAC’s Economic Development programme includes Microfinance which was started in Bangladesh in 1974 and at present it is prominent among the biggest NGOs in terms of development and micro-credit activities. Currently it provides microfinance that includes collateral free credit and savings schemes through its Village Organisations to nearly 4 million borrowers, providing different levels of loans to different poverty groups. Through a recent initiative, BRAC has reached out also to those who, due to extreme poverty cannot access microfinance. BRAC defines such people suffering from extreme poverty as the ultra poor and has designed a programme customized for this group that combines subsidy with enterprise development training, healthcare, social development and asset transfer, eventually pulling the ultra poor into its mainstream microfinance programme.
In addition to Microfinance, BRAC provides sector-specific enterprise training and support to its member borrowers in poultry and livestock, fisheries, social forestry, agriculture and sericulture. It also provides supply of inputs essential for certain enterprises through its ‘Programme Support Enterprises’ that include Poultry farm and disease diagnostic laboratory, Bull Station, Feed Mill, Broiler Production and Marketing, Seed Production, Processing, Marketing and Soil Testing, BRAC Nursery, and Fish and Prawn Hatchery. BRAC’s Vegetable Export programme started in 1998 is a venture that is aimed at bridging the gap between local producers and international markets. {BRAC Annual Report, 2005} BRAC also has a number of commercial programmes that contribute to the sustainability of BRAC’s development programmes since returns from the commercial programmes are channeled back into BRAC’s development activities. These programmes include Aarong, a retail handicraft chain, BRAC Dairy and Food Project, and BRAC Salt.
[edit] Education
BRAC’s Non-Formal Primary Education programme provides five-year primary education course in four years to poor, rural, disadvantaged children and drop-outs who cannot access formal schooling. These one-room schools are for children between eight and fourteen years of age. Each school typically consists of 33 students and one teacher. Core subjects include Mathematics, Social Studies and English. The schools also offer extra-curricular activities. As of June 2006, 31,877 Primary Schools and 16,025 Pre-Primary schools have been established by BRAC enrolling nearly 3 million children, 65% of whom are girls. The schools have a drop-out rate of less than 5%. {BRAC At a Glance, June 2006}
BRAC has set up centres for adolescents called Kishori Kendra that provide reading material and serve as a gathering place for adolescents where they are educated about issues sensitive to the Bangladeshi society like reproductive health, early marriage, women’s legal rights etc. BRAC has also set up community libraries 185 out of 964 of which are equipped with computers. {BRAC Annual Report, 2005}
[edit] Public health
BRAC started providing public healthcare in 1972 with an initial focus on curative care through paramedics and a self-financing health insurance scheme. The programme went on to offer integrated health care services, its key achievements including the reduction of child mortality rates through campaign for oral rehydration in the 80s and taking immunization from 2% to 70% in Bangladesh. BRAC currently provides a range of services that reach an estimated 31 million rural poor and include services for mothers in reproductive health care and infants. As of June 2006, 53,598 community health volunteers and 3,471 health workers have been trained and mobilized by BRAC to deliver door-to-door health care services to the rural poor. It has established 37 static health centres and a Limb and Brace Fitting Centre that provides low cost devices and services for the physically disabled. {BRAC At a Glance, June 2006}
In partnership with the government of Bangladesh, BRAC is implementing a Directly Observed Treatment Short-course (DOTS) strategy to treat Tuberculosis in Bangladesh. Its other major partnership programmes with the government and/or other organizations include programmes in malaria prevention and control and arsenic mitigation. BRAC’s Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH) programme, among BRAC’s new initiatives, plans to achieve the target set forth by the government of Bangladesh to achieve the Millennium Development Goal of improved hygienic practices and supply of safe water by the year 2014. Also one of BRAC’s new initiatives is its HIV/AIDS programme addresses awareness raising activities among the generation population including education of couples, adolescent boys and girls, high-risk groups and promotes use of condoms. BRAC also provides treatment for STI/RTI and consumption loans to brothel-based sex workers to empower them for compliance to condom use.
[edit] Social Development
In 1996, BRAC started a programme in collaboration with the Ain O Shalish Kendra (ASK) and Bangladesh National Women Leader’s Association (BNWLA) to empower women to protect themselves from social discrimination and exploitation of which dowry, rape, acid throwing, polygamy, domestic violence and oral divorce are common in rural Bangladeshi communities and to encourage and assist them to take action when their rights are infringed. The programme has two components: the Social Development component and the Human Rights and Legal Services component.
The Social Development component, focuses on building human and socio-political assets of the poor – especially women – through institution building, awareness raising, training and collective social mobilization. As part of this initiative, BRAC has initiated ward-level people’s organizations called the Polli Shomaj (Rural Society) and Union Shomaj (Union Society) which poor rural women members can use as a platform to raise their voices.
The Human Rights and Legal Services component seeks to empower the poor by increasing their awareness of their rights (legal, human and social) and entitlements through participation in activities like the Popular Theatre and through Human Rights and Legal Education (HRLE) classes arranged by BRAC for its Village Organisation members. BRAC also offers external services such as access to lawyers or the police either through legal aid clinics, by helping women report cases at the local police station or when seeking medical care in the case of acid victims. At the end of June 2006, 124,748 HRLE classes were held and 1,332 acid victim cases and 1,735 rape victim cases were reported. {BRAC At a Glance, June 2006}
[edit] BRAC Abroad
[edit] Afghanistan
BRAC registered in Afghanistan in 2002 and covers 24 out of 34 provinces to date. Its major programmes in Afghanistan include Microfinance, Health, Education, National Solidarity and Capacity Development. It has so far initiated 7,235 Village Organisations in Afghanistan, disbursing more than US$ 33 million, established 707 schools enrolling 20,459 students (96.65% girls). It operates 73 fixed clinics and 2,205 Health Posts. It’s Community based health care project provides essential health services door-to-door through health workers. It has also established 2 Training and Resource Centres in Kabul and Mazar-e-Sharif. BRAC’s staff in Afghanistan includes 2,519 local and 157 expatriates. {BRAC Afghanistan At a Glance, August 2006}
[edit] Sri Lanka
BRAC registered in Sri Lanka in 2005 following the devastating Tsunami and initiated relief and rehabilitation activities. Its rehabilitation and livelihood programmes in Sri Lanka covers 7 districts and 27 divisions. BRAC’s work in Sri Lanka so far includes the fisheries, agriculture, poultry and livestock, small business, income-generation activities, education and health sectors. It currently employs 161 staff, of whom 144 are local and 116 female. {BRAC At a Glance, June 2006}
[edit] Africa
BRAC launched programmes in Africa in early 2006 engaging in development activities in Tanzania and Uganda. It also plans to extend its development activities to Kenya, Nigeria and Southern Sudan in the future. BRAC’s poverty alleviation strategy in Africa involves an integration of health, water and sanitation components with microfinance schemes. The microfinance programme is already underway with 4,000 beneficiaries in Tanzania and Uganda.[1]
[edit] Awards
- Fazle Hasan Abed won the Ramon Magsaysay Award for Community Leadership, 1980.[2]
- Fazle Hasan Abed, BRAC's founder, was awarded the United Nations Development Programme Mahbub ul Haq Award, 2004, for his outstanding contribution to human development. [3]
- 2004 Gates Award for Global Health, Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation [4]
[edit] See also
[edit] References
- The impact of micro-credit on poverty:evidence from Bangladesh, by M. Jahangir Alam Chowdhury, Dipak Ghosh,and Robert E. Wright.
- ^ Adnan Khandker. "BRAC goes global", New Age, 2006-10-13.
- ^ 1980 Ramon Magsaysay Award for Community Leadership - Fazle Hasan Abed, Ramon Magsaysay Foundation.
- ^ Fazle Hasan Abed wins UNDP Award, The Daily Star, 18 October, 2004.
- ^ 2004 Gates Award for Global Health: BRAC, Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.
