Giving work to the hard-core poor
Thursday, 18 September 2008
The government has finally launched its 100-day employment generation programme for two million hard-core poor across the country. The beneficiaries of the programme will include families affected by natural calamities as well as the near-famine condition in the northern districts called monga. Expected to benefit some 10 million family members of the target beneficiaries, the government through launching this programme has fulfilled its promise made earlier. This is certainly a well-intentioned programme that is meant to provide jobs to the most vulnerable section of the population. The implementer of this programme, as has been reported, will be the local level administration under the 480 upazilas in 64 districts, while the local non-governmental organisations (NGOs) will monitor the distribution of the money to the beneficiaries and the work to be done by them. To all appearances, with the launch of the programme, the hard-core poor, who have not already been covered by other employment creation projects of the government, will soon begin to get its benefit.
So far so good. But the problem with this kind of programme is to reach the benefit to the real beneficiaries. This is more so for the simple reason that the target group of this project belongs to the households who are the least empowered and hence the least vocal. Since these people are the least empowered section of the community, it is natural that the administration, even at is local level, is also the least aware of their existence. How then is one going to bridge the huge gap between the local level administration, which is supposed to identify the beneficiaries to be awarded the jobs and the beneficiaries themselves? In fact, the crux of the problem lies here. In this connection, one may also take note of the phenomenon of the huge poverty-reduction industry in the country run by thousands of NGOs and all the poverty alleviation projects in operation under the various departments of the government. The govern-run projects in most cases are also operated in collaboration with donor agencies themselves as well as other NGOs.
Now the big question is: why cannot the government with its own administrative machinery spread throughout the country perform the task all by itself? Why are all these intermediaries necessary to implement such a simple-looking programme of giving job to the poor? What is more, there is neither any dearth of goodwill, nor of the fund to provide work to the poor. In this particular case, for instance, the fund is ready and has already been sent to the upazila level administration for its onward distribution to the poor who will be engaged in the infrastructure development work such as embankment building, earth filling and pond cleaning.
The major hurdle to the poverty-reduction activities is situated exactly at this point, that is, the point of delivery. For the government machinery is neither properly attuned to the task at hand, nor is it efficient enough. What is worse, pervasive corruption in the government administration is another reason why the donor agencies had spurred the growth of so many NGOs in the country and have channeled billions of poverty-dollar through them. However, in the present case, too, some NGOs recommended by the government-owned repository of poverty-fund, the Palli Karmasahayak Foundation (PKSF) and the international agencies, Save the Children Fund and CARE, will monitor the fund distribution and the work to be carried out by it. Since the government itself is the implementer of this programme, there should be no cause for complacency in the present task either. The government has to be extra careful to ensure that such a huge sum of cash money for the poor might not go down the drain, but reach the intended beneficiaries.
So far so good. But the problem with this kind of programme is to reach the benefit to the real beneficiaries. This is more so for the simple reason that the target group of this project belongs to the households who are the least empowered and hence the least vocal. Since these people are the least empowered section of the community, it is natural that the administration, even at is local level, is also the least aware of their existence. How then is one going to bridge the huge gap between the local level administration, which is supposed to identify the beneficiaries to be awarded the jobs and the beneficiaries themselves? In fact, the crux of the problem lies here. In this connection, one may also take note of the phenomenon of the huge poverty-reduction industry in the country run by thousands of NGOs and all the poverty alleviation projects in operation under the various departments of the government. The govern-run projects in most cases are also operated in collaboration with donor agencies themselves as well as other NGOs.
Now the big question is: why cannot the government with its own administrative machinery spread throughout the country perform the task all by itself? Why are all these intermediaries necessary to implement such a simple-looking programme of giving job to the poor? What is more, there is neither any dearth of goodwill, nor of the fund to provide work to the poor. In this particular case, for instance, the fund is ready and has already been sent to the upazila level administration for its onward distribution to the poor who will be engaged in the infrastructure development work such as embankment building, earth filling and pond cleaning.
The major hurdle to the poverty-reduction activities is situated exactly at this point, that is, the point of delivery. For the government machinery is neither properly attuned to the task at hand, nor is it efficient enough. What is worse, pervasive corruption in the government administration is another reason why the donor agencies had spurred the growth of so many NGOs in the country and have channeled billions of poverty-dollar through them. However, in the present case, too, some NGOs recommended by the government-owned repository of poverty-fund, the Palli Karmasahayak Foundation (PKSF) and the international agencies, Save the Children Fund and CARE, will monitor the fund distribution and the work to be carried out by it. Since the government itself is the implementer of this programme, there should be no cause for complacency in the present task either. The government has to be extra careful to ensure that such a huge sum of cash money for the poor might not go down the drain, but reach the intended beneficiaries.