Bangladesh Evaluation MKP 2010 2012

Manab Kallyan Parished
Thakurgaon, Bangladesh
November 2012

Evaluation of Gender Rights and
Governance programme

Hear themspeak
Evaluation of MKP Project: Ensuring Gender Justice, Rights and Good Governance

ii

Hear Them Speak
EVALUATION REPORT
of
Ensuring Gender Justice, Rights and Good
Governance

A Project Implemented by

Manab Kallyan Parished (MKP)
Thakurgaon, Bangladesh

Sponsored by

Diakonia, Bangladesh

Evaluation Team
Laila Arzu Mand Banu
Mahbubul Islam & Muhammad Taher
November 2012

Photos by Sadequl Islam and Muhammad Taher

Cover page picture: Women narrating story of results from a Salish
(Indigenous dispute resolution mechanism)

iii

EVALUATION TEAM
Upon invitation from Diakonia Bangladesh, the evaluation team made a presentation on its plan and
approach of work at a meeting with the four partner NGOs (SARA, MKP, PARTNER & S&R) in Dhaka
during mid October 2012. This was followed by the signing of agreements and study of literature
before the field visits began. The first of the visits was undertaken to MKP in Thakurgaon from 10 to
14 November 2012 (inclusive) for the evaluation of Ensuring Gender Justice and Good Governance.
The 3 member team was led by Muhammad Taher, a research and evaluation consultant and specialist
in Rights and Governance. The other two members included a specialist in Gender: Ms. Laila Arzu
Mand Banu, and an Organisational Development specialist: Mr. Mahbubul Islam. Each of these people
have many years of experience in development policy and practice in Bangladesh and elsewhere, and
have been working as independent evaluation consultants for over 12 years.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
The evaluation team would like to express its gratitude to MKP for its whole hearted cooperation
particularly during the time of the field visit. Their readiness to provide us with any information we
required and facilitating meetings and visits according to our needs in connection to the work greatly
impressed us. We are grateful to all the stakeholders of the project that we met in long discussion
meetings, for their patience and remarkable open-ness. Particular thanks are due Mr. Rabiul Azam,
Director of MKP and Mr. Md. Sadequl Islam, Programme Coordinator for their full time attention to
our work and our health. We gratefully recall the kind personal attention received by one of the team
when he fell ill. We are equally grateful to Diakonia Bangladesh for entrusting us with this assignment
and ensuring that everything went smoothly as planned. We only hope that our modest efforts
through this evaluation will help MKP to better organize themselves into a more dynamic and
effective development organisation.

Mahbubul Islam
Laila Arzu Mand Banu
Muhammad Taher
Dhaka, April 2013

iv
TABLE OF ABBREVIATIONS

CBO Community Based Organisation
CSO Civil Society Organisation
DM Disaster Management
ESC Economic, Social and Cultural
FGD Focus Group Discussion
HIV/ AIDS Human Immunodeficiency Virus/ Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome
ICT Information and Communication Technology
ITK Indigenous Technological Knowledge
LEB Local Elected Bodies
LGI Local Government Institutions
MKP Manab Kallyan Parished (Organisation for Human Welfare)
M & E Monitoring and Evaluation
OD Organisational Development
PMEL Planning, Monitoring, Evaluation & Learning
PNGO Partner NGO
RBA Rights Based Approach
RIDS Responsive to Integrated Development Services
UP Union Parishad
SP Strategy Plan
SRHR Sexual and Reproductive Health Rights
STD Sexually Transmitted Diseases
SWOT Strength Weakness Opportunity Treaths
ToC Theory of Change
UDHR Universal Declaration of Human Rights
VDC Village Development Committee
WSC Ward Salish Committee


v
CONTENTS

EVALUATION TEAM ........................................................................................................................................... iii
Acknowledgement ............................................................................................................................................... iii
Table of Abbreviations .......................................................................................................................................iv
CONTENTS ................................................................................................................................................................ v
1. INTRODUCTION............................................................................................................................................ 1
1.1 Who it works with and why? ............................................................................................................. 1
1.2 How does it Relate to the Diakonia Strategy Plan? ................................................................. 2
1.3 Methodology .............................................................................................................................................. 3
2. KEY FINDINGS ............................................................................................................................................... 4
2.1 Background ................................................................................................................................................ 4
2.1 Socio Economic Context of the project ......................................................................................... 4
2.2 Important Features of the project ................................................................................................... 6
2.3 An Assessment of Progress................................................................................................................. 7
3. A Critical Review ....................................................................................................................................... 11
3.1 Effectiveness ........................................................................................................................................... 11
3.2 Relevance and Appropriateness ................................................................................................... 12
3.3 Impact ........................................................................................................................................................ 13
3.4 Sustainability .......................................................................................................................................... 13
3.5 Efficiency .................................................................................................................................................. 14
4. Conclusions on the Project ................................................................................................................... 16
4.1 Ward Salish Committee ..................................................................................................................... 16
4.2 Farmers Group ..................................................................................................................................... 17
4.3 Adolescent Girls Programme .......................................................................................................... 17
4.4 Harnessing Voluntarism ................................................................................................................... 18
4.5 Need for an Improved PME System ............................................................................................. 19
5. ORGANISATIONAL DEVELOPMENT ................................................................................................ 20
5.1 Strengths to build on .......................................................................................................................... 20
5.2 Limitations to overcome ................................................................................................................... 20
5.3 Planning for Human Resource Management .......................................................................... 21
5.4 Strategy Plan ........................................................................................................................................... 21
5.5 General Planning Procedure ........................................................................................................... 22
6. KEY CONCLUSIONS .................................................................................................................................. 23
6.1 Management System Review .......................................................................................................... 23
6.2 Need a Strong PMEL Process .......................................................................................................... 23
6.3 Need Higher Level Policy Advocacy ............................................................................................ 24
6.4 Does a New Phase have Particular Target? ............................................................................. 24
RECOMMENDATIONS ....................................................................................................................................... 26
ANNEXURES .......................................................................................................................................................... 28
Annex 1: Field-visit Schedule ........................................................................................................................ 29
Annex 2: Document Reviewed ...................................................................................................................... 30
Annex 3: SWOT Analysis ................................................................................................................................. 31
Annex 4: Terms of Reference ........................................................................................................................ 32

1
1. INTRODUCTION
This report came out of an evaluation process of the project entitled, Ensuring Gender
Justice, Rights and Good Governance implemented by Manab Kallyan Parished (MKP)
for the period January 2010 to December 2012. Additionally this also gives a brief
assessment of the organisational capacity of MKP and how it should be better organized
in order to make more effective contributions in development. This project is a
continuation of an earlier phase 2007-09 and is likely to enter a new 3 years phase from
2013. This evaluation is therefore well placed to take stock of its past and inform and
advise the organisation on its future path towards achieving an improved quality of
results for its beneficiaries, as well as for MKP. This would therefore try to throw light
on the prospects of the project and how a pragmatic approach to continuation of
support by Diakonia can help MKP emerge as a stronger partner in Bangladesh.
Working in the north-western part of the country, MKP has specialised in the areas of
gender equality, primary healthcare, childrens education, human rights and good
governance. Although Diakonia remains the oldest and most significant development
partner, MKP has had many others on its list that include OXFAM, Radda Barnen, ILO,
Proshika and CARE Bangladesh. Currently it has a working relationship with about a
dozen donors for different projects in public health, water and sanitation, childrens
education, disability development and so on. MKP has organised village level groups of
men and women engaged in agricultural enterprises and in social action against
different illegal practices and prejudices with particular focus on womens
empowerment. MKP has, under Diakonia support, worked with local youth volunteers,
adolescent girls groups, gender forum at urban level, to offer legal aid and related
support services to disadvantaged women victims.
MKPs work spreads over the districts of Thakurgaon, Dinajpur, and Panchagarh. As it
grew over the years, MKPs area of work had also begun to extend into newer sectors
and themes. For example, MKP has work experience in agriculture, environment, legal
aid, gender equality, human rights, good governance etc. However, the organisation is
known mainly for its focus on human rights, gender and democratic governance. Unlike
most other NGOs in the country and in the region, MKP has carefully avoided the micro-
financial services as it required completely different kind of technical orientation and
motivation. The leadership of the organisation is proud today of not having given in to
the temptations of making profit for the organisation. Its investment into building
social capital in terms of networking with different civil society and professional groups
appeared to have paid off very well. Established in 1984, MKP is one of the leading NGOs
in the region with strong linkages with different community groups, social organisations
and government agencies.
1.1 WHO IT WORKS WITH AND WHY?
Considering this background, let us now view who MKP works with and their reasons
for doing so? This is based entirely on a review of their documents and discussions we
held with them during our field visit. Having visited the field area, the following should
give a more authentic picture of the people and their situation there. The organisation
mainly works with landless and marginal agricultural farmers. A typical household in
this category would mainly survive by selling their physical labour on others fields,
having little or no land other than their homestead land and having no significant
2
household asset. Apart from their economic disadvantage, the communities they live in
have many social problems like discrimination between people; between men and
women, deep prejudices about relationships and many superstitions on the role of
nature in deciding human fate. Moreover, with limited access to education and lack of
access to health and other services, these remote districts of Bangladesh are generally
known to be more underdeveloped than other parts of the country. In order to achieve
the goal of establishing a hunger and discrepancy-free society, MKP adopts a bottom-up
participatory approach to community based development. Its Mission (as noted in the
brochure) is to establish: A just society both socially and economically through
upgrading the lives of poor and landless people, where they have access to
constitutionally given basic needs, irrespective of men and women.
The specific objectives of MKP work include the promotion of gender sensitive and
secular democratic environment within the organisation and in society. To ensure legal
rights and justice for all by establishing good governance, ensuring human development
through motivation, training and creating self-employment opportunities.
While MKP has made impressive institutional gains and made itself known among the
people for its valuable work, it has room for improvement, particularly in the area of
administrative management and human resource capacity. We shall discuss these in
more detail in the following chapters.
1.2 HOW DOES IT RELATE TO THE DIAKONIA STRATEGY PLAN?
The project undoubtedly meets the Diakonia strategic objectives and corresponding
thematic issues of reducing gender discrimination, increased respect for human rights,
democratic good governance and improved access to social and economic resources.
The way the project has been designed is to directly respond to the Strategy Plan of
Diakonia Bangladesh. Therefore, the question is not so much about to what extent the
project is aligned with the Diakonia Bangladesh strategy, but more about how
effectively are they contributing to the promotion of gender justice, human rights and
good governance, including increased access to social and economic services locally and
nationally? The discussion in the following chapters will closely review this, though
there remains a question of how the roles between a partner and Diakonia country
office are divided? Are the local partner organisations also responsible for making a
national impact by policy change? Or does the country office play the leading role in this
respect?
Having said that, there is a strong link of this project with the new Bangladesh Country
Strategy of Diakonia (2012-15). All the different result areas of Ensuring Gender
Justice, Rights and Good Governance reflect the three main thematic strategies of a)
Gender Equality, b) Human Rights, and c) Democracy and Good Governance. A small
difference may appear in improved access to social and economic services, which was
included in the previous country strategy, but not in this one. However, since the
themes are clearly interlinked, the Democracy and Good Governance should take care
of social and economic services needs. Because, this is very much within the economic,
social and culture (ESC) rights that democracy and good governance should ensure.

3
1.3 METHODOLOGY
This evaluation has adopted an approach of appreciative enquiry and tried to highlight
the good practices. It has adopted a participatory approach with the staff of MKP playing
a role in sharing with the external evaluation team their views on the strengths,
weaknesses, opportunities and threats as well as commenting on the earlier drafts of
this report. Moreover, at the end of the field visit in Thakurgaon, the team made a
presentation on the key findings. Their comments and views received on that day have
been included in this report.
Before starting the field trip, the evaluation team had reviewed all different literature on
the organisation; documents related to project application, annual reports, baseline
information on project households (2004), different policies, procedures, administrative
and training manuals besides, (audited) financial reports and financial procedures.
Please see a complete list of documents in Annex 2.
The initial review of literature formed the basis of developing a brief statement on the
theory of change for MKP. This required a synthesis of the organisational vision and
objectives and goals of the programmes of work. The following statement was
considered to reflect the key ToC:
Promotion of fundamental human values of dignity and mutual respect through
building community awareness and actions.
According to MKP a sustainable process of development is possible only when the basic
sense of justice and dignity of human existence is recognised and firmly established.
This articulation process of ToC was helpful in viewing the key intention and
assumptions of change that the organisation was working towards. It further helped the
evaluators in designing their interview questions administered in the field during the
visit to Thakurgaon and Dinajpur areas.
The visit to the programme area started with an introductory meeting with senior staff
of MKP. This had a very useful two way communication right at the start with the
evaluation team giving an introduction on the purpose of the evaluation and the method
of investigation to be followed, among other issues. The staff of MKP also gave an
introductory presentation on the programme and MKP the organisation. The occasion
was also used for conducting a self-evaluation on both MKP and the programme as
noted before. This was followed by visits to observe work on the ground with
community groups that comprised womens groups, mixed group of small farmers,
Youth Groups, Nari Forum, childrens schools, adolescent girls groups and held a
meeting with civil society groups in Thakurgaon. The details of these activities are given
in the Annex-1.
4
2. KEY FINDINGS
2.1 BACKGROUND
This is a rolling project with support from Diakonia Bangladesh, who has been the
longest serving partner of MKP since 1990. The previous two phases of Ensuring
Gender Justice, Rights and Good Governance have successfully ended in 2009 and
2012. A new 3 year phase was to start from January 2013 till December 2015. The
project reflects the goal of the organisation which is: to establish gender equity,
democracy, human rights, and good governance with the participation of people with a
view to establish an economically stable society (MKP Overview, 2012). The project
formulation process involved a participatory needs assessment. The process included
PRA workshops with participation of people from a cross-section of the local
community including MKP group members, school/ college teachers, students, religious
leaders, NGO activists, Civil Society representatives, and members of local elected
bodies (LEBs). The needs assessment was followed up by a staff workshop that gave the
project a structure with some sort of newness and new dimensions that included
some innovative activities (project Proposal 2010-12).
The major thrust of the project was intended to be on raising awareness of people about
the danger of a possible proliferation of HIV/ AIDS and how to prevent it. Besides, efforts
will continue to educate the communities about human rights, sustainable agricultural
practices, advantages and disadvantages of a free-market economy, mobilise Civil
Society to ensure that the rights of the right-holders are established and conduct gender
awareness training, including promotion of gender-friendly technologies.
MKP mainly works with rural (and peri-urban) landless households, especially with
women, and other minority groups including indigenous community and different
professional groups. As secondary stakeholders, the programme works with different
government and non-government officials and departments, including civil society
groups, religious leaders, students and teachers.

2.1 SOCIO ECONOMIC CONTEXT OF THE PROJECT
The northern districts of Bangladesh are generally regarded as one of the most
underdeveloped areas of the country, characterised by a high level of poverty, illiteracy,
ill health. The area is regularly affected by natural disasters like floods and droughts.
Access to services and resources for the poor in this remote region of the country is
remarkably low. The Baseline Survey conducted for MKP by Responsive to Integrated
Development Services (RIDS) in 2004 clearly reflected the above situation with detailed
data at household level. The survey was conducted among 225 households following a
random sampling method in 24 Unions of Thakurgaon, Dinajpur, and Panchagarh
districts where MKP works. A summary table of the key data is given in the following
page.
Although there was a surprise finding that 74.4 percent of people were literate in the
MKP project area, against the national rate of 64 percent in 2004, the indicators on
awareness on different health and legal rights were as disappointing as was expected.
5
For example, the level of awareness among the people about their rights, basic health
and hygiene issues and the legal protection that they can have against violation of laws
was very poor. Only 50 percent of children were registered after birth in the area, the
percentage of unregistered marriage was 62 percent, sixty percent of households did
not have sanitary latrines, 45 percent of households reported to have received and paid
dowry (illegal act) and only 46 percent of households were aware about HIV/ AIDS. A lot
of similar data from the survey gives us a picture of a social situation which was highly
vulnerable to different health and socio-economic hazards.
Table-1: Key Socio-Economic Baseline Data for MKP Beneficiaries
(From randomly selected 225 households in of MKP working area)
Sl. DESCRIPTION Data
1) Average Population per household (1110/225) 4.9
2) National Literacy rate 64%
3) MKP project area literacy rate 74.4%
4) Percentage of women earning cash income 36%
5) Households with monthly income of less than Tk.1,000 47%
6) Households with maximum monthly income of Tk.2,000 31%
7) Households with monthly income of Tk.4,000 and above 3%
8) Daily average wage for a man (day labour in Taka) 46
9) Daily average wage for a woman (day labour, in Taka) 33
10) Households received loans from different sources 75%
11) Households with average homestead land of 13 decimals 94%
12) Households with average size of arable land of 108 dec. 66%
13) Households with own/easy access to tube wells 88%
14) Households with (ring-slab set) hygienic latrine 40%
15) Households aware about HIV/AIDS 46%
16) Patients that visited local traditional doctors 63%
17) Patients that visited MBBS doctors 23%
18) Households that gave or received dowry 45%
19) Children registered at birth 50%
20) Marriage registration with legal documents 23%
21) Marriage without documents 15%
22) Unregistered marriage 62%
Source: MKP Baseline Study Report by RIDS, January 2004
On economic situation, 47 percent of households (size 4.9 persons on average) earned
less than Tk.1000 per month, which is considered extremely low for 2004 rates of
income (less than a dollar a day per person) and 75 percent of households were
borrowing money from MFIs and local money lenders. In terms of household assets and
land ownership the picture is rather unclear with 66 percent of households having an
average size of arable land of 108 decimals, while 94 percent households had average
6
homestead land size of only 13 decimals. It is possible that most households had leased
lands for share-cropping, but the small size of homesteads reflect a low level of land
ownership. Indeed, according to MKP, landlessness in the area was very high and it was
one of the major factors contributing to chronic poverty. In the absence of recent data it
was not immediately possible to ascertain the exact level of change happening over the
years since 2004, but the impression the evaluation team has received from the field
was that the villages and people living in these areas did not look significantly different
from average Bangladeshi villages.
However, a couple of ostensible differences were visible to the eyes of this team of
evaluators who although coming from Dhaka, have extensively travelled around the
country. A few refreshing points can be mentioned which favourably compares with the
rest of the country. Firstly, a) it is a sparsely populated region with higher land-man
ratio, b) existence of communal tolerance and harmony (between Hindus and Muslims
with relatively higher percentage of Hindu households), c) limited intrusion of fanatic
Islamist practices of gender segregation with smaller number of women wearing
burqah or veils, and e) a relatively more liberated and woman-friendly environment
with many young girls riding bicycles on the streets and women running shops, without
an eyebrow being raised. However this was the outer picture; the picture inside was not
as simple nor as rosy. For example, the land ownership pattern in the area is highly
skewed, the quality of services provided by different institutions was very poor,
opportunities for young boys and girls were limited with very limited access to
information and sporting activities. In some of the places we have visited, access to
electricity was extremely limited and there was no access to newspapers, let alone
computer or internet facilities.

2.2 IMPORTANT FEATURES OF THE PROJECT
The project has a lot of emphasis on rights issues. Promotion of human rights through
awareness raising and social actions was a major thrust. Besides its own direct efforts,
MKP has also helped local civil society groups help people from disadvantaged
communities to assert their rights and enable responsible people and organisations to
respond to the needs of these people. A lot of capacity building training has been
organized for the purpose. The following discussion reviews the progress of work as
seen in the field as well as in the reports by MKP till June 2012.
The project broadly has three inter-related objectives as reflected in its title, i.e., gender
equality, rights of the poor and good governance at local level. Reviewed in light of the
key theory of change of MKP, the project has strong relevance to its organisational
vision and mission. The long track-record of MKP in successfully mobilizing community
groups to address these fundamental and complex developmental issues has obviously
given the organisation a level of confidence and ease of implementation that can hardly
be matched by many local NGOs in Bangladesh. Notwithstanding some organisational
short-comings related to management and monitoring, MKP has been on track in
achieving changes in the lives of poorer people it has worked with.
The key purposes of the project was to ensure improved access to economic resources
and social services; improved level of awareness of, and respect for, human rights,
strengthening of the democratic process by facilitating participation of the CSOs in
7
different issues of local governance, and improving womens participation in different
socio-economic activities in order to promote gender equality in the society. The key
activities to achieve those results include: a) motivational work through small group
discussions and formal meetings, b) capacity building training, c) Salish/ mediation &
legal aid, d) Advocacy and Campaign, e) workshop/ seminar/ publication and f)
networking.
The project was to work in 210 villages with about 15,000 people, directly (target
group) but total population planned to be covered was 55,540. We shall review below
the progress of the project by results till June 2012. Reports with detailed progress of
the project have been duly submitted to Diakonia Bangladesh in their regular
Annual/ Six monthly Reports. These reports have extensive monitoring data with
minute details. However, in the absence of appropriate analysis of data in these reports,
it becomes very difficult to know the actual scenario of change. There are about two
dozen Union-wise completed Monitoring tables there. Unfortunately, these are neither
self-explanatory nor are there any explanatory notes. We only hope that the efforts
given to producing these statistical reports have some use now or in future. We shall
strongly recommend that each of these tables include a two line note explaining the
table and highlighting what change the given data represents.
2.3 AN ASSESSMENT OF PROGRESS
Based on our field observations and review of the progress reports, we shall present
below a brief assessment of progress of the project against the five key outputs or
results:
1. IMPROVED ACCESS TO ECONOMIC RESOURCES
The aim under this result is far greater than ensuring literal access to economic
resources. It has actually aimed at making people aware about the value of sustainable
agricultural activities and using appropriate environment-friendly technologies for both
off and on-farm activities. Many motivational sessions across the beneficiary groups and
members of the local government institutions (LGIs), i.e., Union Parishads (UPs) were
held that spoke about indigenous
agricultural technologies and
traditional know how. Over 120 group
members were trained in 6 different
batches by the end of 2011 on natural
resource management and indigenous
knowledge. The group members the
evaluation team spoke with were
convinced that compared to chemical
and pesticide dependent HYV and
Hybrid seed technologies, the
indigenous organic farming methods
Tree Plantation Drive organized by MKP in 2012 in Thakurgaon
were more sustainable and more environmentally friendly. Tree plantation, homestead
vegetable gardening, and organising Green Fair at Upazila level (UPz) were completed.
8
People in general looked quite enthusiastic about their change in behavioural patterns.
The model homestead vegetable gardening and tree-plantation campaigns have created
a lot of enthusiasm among the local people. The same messages of the value of bio-
diversity and about how to adapt to the effects of climate change have also been spread
among the boys and girls of local schools who have actively participated in some of
these activities, including Debate sessions.
Under this result, about six thousand men and women were trained in indigenous
knowledge and technologies for sustainable agriculture and all were engaged in either
paddy or vegetable cultivation. The groups appeared well motivated to organic farming
practices and were very aware about the negative long term effects of pesticides and
hybrid seeds. They spoke about farmers right to farmers seeds, which is being seized
by the multinational companies for their exclusive profit. They were determined to
resist hybrid seeds. In this respect the farmers had inter-group linkages and exchange of
ideas and experiences between them. Besides over four thousand women and 3,648
men were directly involved in different income-earning activities. As a result over nine
thousand households have reportedly become food secure. In the process they have
learned about many social and economic issues that they were formerly ignorant of.
Now local Upazila Agricultural Officers visit them to give classes on different
agricultural practices and marketing techniques.
2. IMPROVED ACCESS TO SOCIAL SERVICES
Besides raising community awareness about different sexually transmitted diseases
(STD) and HYV/ AIDS; sexual and reproductive health rights (SRHR), MKP had aimed to
increase awareness of people on primary health care including environmental
sanitation situation. From the baseline study in 2004, it was learned that 54 percent of
households were unaware about STD and HYV/ AIDS. After the project interventions
over the years, most people are known to have become aware of this and many people
have changed their behavioural pattern in this respect. The trained group members
continue to make people aware about these matters in their respective areas.
According to the baseline study report, although 88 percent of households had access to
clean tubewell water, about a staggering 58 percent of households in the area did not
have sanitary latrines. Majority of the household members (88%) did not have any level
of awareness about pre-natal and anti-natal mothers care resulting in high infant
mortality rates.
On Sexual and Reproductive Human Rights, MKP has a well tested training module by
which it has imparted training to young boys and girls, including project staff. With the
help of local administration, MKP has been trying to secure movement of women and
girls so that they are not subjected to sexual harassment. The programme has been
regularly organizing different awareness campaigns on the subject through organizing
workshops, training, school debate sessions, meetings with guardians of students and
organising human Chain demonstrations. As a result, there were over 8,700 CBO group
members playing roles in their respective localities on prevention of STD/ HYV/ AIDS
and SRHR issues in 2012.
3. AWARENESS AND RESPECT FOR HUMAN RIGHTS INCREASED
9
MKP has a number of institutional arrangements to raise awareness on human rights
among the local people. Besides its own farmers groups for men and women, there are
adolescent girls groups, youth volunteers group, and a womens forum called Nari
Forum comprised of women with social and political clout. All these stakeholders
have been mobilised to take part in different campaigns and social actions. They have
addressed the problem of trafficking of women and children across the border,
incidences of violence against women, under-age marriage, dowry, and illegal divorce.
355 Ward Salish Kendra members have received training on family law, while 193
complaints have been successfully disposed off through Salish till June 2012.
The CBOs and womens groups this evaluation team has met, have testified to a general
improvement in the awareness about different social evils like adverse effects of
polygamy, child marriage, and repression/ violence against women. However, digging
deeper into the issues reveal that complete eradication of these problems will take time.
Because these problems are so complex and are linked to so many different social and
economic factors that despite the knowledge of their negative consequences some
people are still sucked into the traps. As an example, the continued practice of dowry
illustrated the issue more clearly. Under a patriarchal social structure, where womens
control over resources and decision making processes are extremely limited, dowry
continue to represent a socially valid (although not legally anymore) extortionist
culture. The law in this regard has been able to offer only very limited practical
deterrence. The good news however is, this is now prima facie accepted as a negative
culture by most people in the communities. With the gradual enhancement of respect
for human rights including restoration of dignity of women in the society, the evil will
hopefully disappear one day. Progress in this respect by the project is undeniably
significant.
4. ACTORS WORKING FOR DEMOCRACY INCLUDING CIVIL SOCIETY STRENGTHENED
In order to strengthen civil society groups who can play a practical role in strengthening
democratic practices in the country, capacity building of the leadership was regarded as
an important step forward. Training on leadership to the NGO leaders, members of local
elected bodies (LEBs) and different civil society organisations (CSOs) were arranged.
Moreover, orientation training and workshops on Gender, Good Governance, and
Human Rights were given to religious leaders, political leaders, journalists, lawyers and
people belonging to different other professions.
Speaking with the members of the Civil Society groups it appeared that the issue of
maintaining transparency in all matters, particularly in public offices at the same time
while remaining accountable to people and authorities for their actions, was now
beginning to be understood by the concerned people. As a result, there were anecdotes
shared with the evaluation team on how things were taking positive turns compared to
the past. For example, a particular case was narrated where police tried to maintain
their neutrality and transparency when a woman victim of family violence was
hospitalised, and did not want to put up a case to punish the husband of the victim. In
this particular case the police asked for Nari Forums assistance in establishing justice.
However, some of these civil society groups, although very effective, seemed to be
somewhat dependent on MKP assistance. MKP needs to help them become independent
10
by making available small amount of resources with them so that these bodies can
immediately swing into action when a need arises.
5. GENDER EQUALITY IMPROVED
The objective of this was to reduce the incidence of violence against women, male
domination in decision making process and overall achieving an improvement in gender
sensitivity as well as improving awareness about reproductive health rights. The data
on progress against this result from the project, reflects the seriousness of the problems
in society. In more than two and a half years till June 2012, the project had stopped 297
attempts of child marriage, 24 illegal Hillah marriage, 259 illegal divorces and 194 cases
of polygamy. Work in establishing gender equality continues but it is difficult to achieve
any significant progress yet, when many structural changes needed for the purpose still
need to see the light of the day. For example, womens position under family law
continues to be discriminatory despite having an approved national policy against such
discrimination, thus the problem continues unabated, while projects like this continue
the fight.

MKP Participates in an Anti-poverty Rally
11
3. A CRITICAL REVIEW
Having observed the overall satisfactory progress of the project, the following presents
a critical view using the five evaluation criteria of Effectiveness, Relevance, Impact,
Sustainability and Efficiency. This is expected to further qualify the achievements.
3.1 EFFECTIVENESS
The programme of work is directly linked with the objectives of the organisation and
quite closely meets the Diakonia strategy plan. Though the project document did not
have clearly spelled objectives of its different areas of intervention, it has used the title
of the project (Ensuring Gender Justice, Rights and Good Governance) as its Goal and the
five outputs (or Purposes) as its key objectives. The five results of the project together
indicate what the project had intended to achieve with corresponding OVIs and MoVs
for each (i.e., access to economic resources, access to social services, awareness and
respect for human rights, strengthening democratic governance and gender equity). The
project proposal appeared to have missed the opportunity of briefly defining these
outputs outside the matrixes. In the absence of this, the evaluation process was slightly
handicapped when measuring effectiveness of the project.
Nevertheless, some of the instruments used to implement the project goal were very
useful and effective. For example, the community groups organised for agricultural
activities, Salish Committee, adolescent girls groups and the civil society group on
Gender and the Nari Forum looked well-organised and well-motivated. Together they
have generated a voice of the grassroots which is loud and clear. Among these various
groups, the variable level of loudness might indicate the level of their strength and
effectiveness. The loudest voice was heard from the Gender Forum comprised of urban
and educated women-folk. These women volunteers have a huge social and political
clout which they brought to bear on the programme to benefit poorer women in
accessing their rights. On the other hand, the village womens group and the adolescent
girls groups looked relatively less vocal and not so articulate about their problems and
rights. However, these core beneficiary groups were chosen because, unlike the urban
Gender Forum members, they were the most marginalised groups of society subjected
to all kinds of injustice and discrimination. Even if their voices were still a bit feeble, it
was quite clear to the evaluation team that they had come a long way from their
disadvantaged situation. Yet, we would insist on this small point that these poor women
should be helped to enable them to speak up in clear and unambiguous terms, the
purpose of their being in the groups, and what rights they demanded. The capacity to
literally voice their concerns and demand their rights in an articulated fashion should
help them in many ways towards achieving their rights.
MKPs efforts to network with different influential groups in the districts have helped
MKP attain a stronger stand in the local development sector, while the same linkages
have offered its organised village groups to gain valuable social capital. Ensuring rights
and gender equality requires effective backing from different social groups (CSOs),
which the project has very successfully organised. MKP should also try to reach out to
link with the appropriate national platforms to influence the national actors who make
policies and decisions in favour of the poor. MKP has grass roots credibility with it to
make a case for the poor and marginalised.
12
As a final point, one question confronting the evaluation team with regards to
effectiveness, was its rather large number of ninety seven activities under a relatively
small project of Tk.15.4 million covering three years! Could a fewer number of activities
(by trimming off some of the non-essential ones) not have helped it achieve better
effectiveness and deeper impact? We have further discussed this issue under Efficiency.
3.2 RELEVANCE AND APPROPRIATENESS
This is an ambitious project given the objective of ensuring justice and human rights for
people who are socially and economically very weak. Their poverty and illiteracy make
them vulnerable to exploitative actions by the powerful. The project appears to them as
a big support. It makes them feel less weak and, being organised, makes them feel
stronger when asking for access to resources and services due them. The interventions
under the project are very empowering for the beneficiaries. Unlike most NGOs working
in these districts, MKP has found a niche in addressing the more fundamental needs of
the disadvantaged communities than financial support services. Unless people are
aware of their true needs, rights and entitlements, they would be wasting their time and
energy finding the right way out of their situation to achieve socio-economic
emancipation. True, among the many different needs, the poor also have a need for
financial support services like savings and credit but what we found from our focus
group discussions with women members of MKP groups is, that microfinance was not
necessarily the priority need for everyone. For those who need it, and for those who
were eligible to receive such services, could relatively easily access the same as there
are many MFIs operating in these areas.
However, there are not many NGOs operating in the region who work with RBA (rights
based approach) to make government service providers accountable to the
communities. People realise that this approach makes government officers of different
departments more responsive to the needs of the communities. MKPs development
philosophy and actions in this respect have proved to be very appropriate in
establishing legally binding transparency and accountability of public institutions,
which is a big step towards fostering good democratic governance in the country. In the
process, MKP has also been successful in emboldening its position as an eminent Human
Rights actor in the region.
Ensuring good governance and gender justice is a relatively difficult proposition in the
field of development in Bangladesh, but MKP has demonstrated through its valuable
experience, how much this is relevant in achieving socio-economic emancipation of the
poor and disadvantaged people. It should project its story of success more widely
through well developed communication materials. It is common knowledge that gender
disparity, rights violation and lack of access to basic needs are more glaring in this part
of the country than elsewhere. It is also quite remarkable to note that when the
government plan to support a decentralised development process in the county is not
working for various reasons, MKPs work has actually paved the way towards that goal
from the bottom and this demands replication of the approach in different under-
developed areas in the country.

13
3.3 IMPACT
The project is mostly about capacity building, skills development and awareness raising
of the people at different levels which is considered fundamental to a longer term
development process. The impact it has been creating are behavioural in nature. They
are most likely to stay among the people for a long time to come and are going to
influence others in the households and communities. For example, when we talk about
equality between men and women, it instantly makes one aware of such needs
everywhere - in public or private organisations, at home and at work. The emphasis of
the project on establishing transparency and accountability has mainly been for public
sector organisations and LEBs, but that the principle is universally applicable and must
be observed by all concerned and for all time to come, becomes clear when we analyse
its causes and effects. We have thus observed that the community groups, Salish
Committees and the Gender Forum are all aware of the value of good governance in all
spheres of life. Our discussions with different groups of people revealed that this is a
new dimension (and learning) for many people and they now try to emphasise
transparency and accountability in all different places of their influence.
At community level, households are now aware of many other issues of development
which were not directly related to the project. For example, besides increased
realisation of sending children to school and maintaining good personal and
environmental health, people are aware of the value of maintaining communal
harmony, particularly the need to educate girl children and exercise their democratic
right to vote independently.
The following case story of Parul Begum has reportedly created an impact in the
community, particularly for those unruly men who wish to take advantage of the
relatively weaker position of women in the society.
Box-1: Salish saved Paruls Marriage

3.4 SUSTAINABILITY
Much of the project inputs have been to build capacity of different local institutions
through training, workshop and consultation meetings. In fact most of the project inputs
Parul Begum (40) from Kharibari Village in Thakurgaon district was being cheated by
her husband. He had secretly developed a relationship with another woman of the
village and was planning to marry her. When Parul came to know about it, she tried to
dissuade her husband from marrying another woman against here wishes. Although,
this was illegal, the man was bent on marrying the other woman. Being helpless, Parul
went to the Ward Salish Committee (Ward No.9, Kharibari, organized by MKP) with a
complaint.
In response, the Chair of the Salish Committee Mr. Abdul Khaleque served a notice
upon Paruls husband to appear before the Salish Committee. The committee was able
to convince the man that it was illegal and that he could be punished for the act (if he
had married another woman) according to the law. The man finally realized his mistake
and agreed to stop himself from marrying that woman. He continues to live with Parul
now without causing further problem. This has reportedly sent a message to others in
the community.
14
are of a technical, rather than material, nature. Use of effective learning tools, methods
and materials (e.g., training modules and information materials that the Evaluation
Team has reviewed) ensured that the community groups and members of independent
civil society groups, CBOs, NGOs and individual community leaders are sufficiently
aware and informed about the project themes and issues. Impact of this learning is
going to be reflected in different activities as they undertake the decisions they make in
their respective field of work. And based on our interaction with different project
stakeholders, it can be safely assumed, that this learning is not going to be forgotten
very quickly. While the trained individuals from the project will play very important
roles in their respective organisations, the information and knowledge that they carry
with them from the project is going to help influence positive decisions in support of
gender justice, rights and good governance.
In the particular context of Bangladesh society, promotion of justice and human rights is
a challenging proposition given the highly divided and hierarchical social structure and
deep-rooted superstitions and prejudices among the people. Nevertheless, the kind of
programmes MKP implements has a track record of achieving changes, and this project
is no exception. But to what extent the benefits of the changes are going to last will
depend on a number of external factors like, how different institutions dedicated to
protecting the interests of the poor are performing, how the democratic institutions at
different level were functioning in a transparent manner, and how the economic
progress of the country, with a concern about equity, continued.
As a knowledge-based programme, the learning that different stakeholders, including
the community groups have gained, are believed to have a long shelf-life. The
knowledge about rights (including sexual and reproductive health rights) and laws in
favour of women and children against illegal social practices (e.g., dowry, polygamy,
under-age marriage and violence against women) have created an informed community
who would continue to help others for a long time to come.
The evaluation team thus believes that while changing behaviour and attitude of people
is one of the toughest tasks of development projects, its benefits can have the most
durable effects in society
3.5 EFFICIENCY
The project has adopted a multi-pronged approach to ensuring gender justice, rights
and good governance with a diverse range of activities. The discussion above, under
effectiveness, has agreed that the project is relevant and effective. The nature of the
majority of work is very cost-effective as it relies mainly on the provision of non-
material inputs. The value that the work generates is definitely very high and cannot be
measured in financial terms. However, after a closer look at the sheer number of
activities to execute, one wonders could the project objectives not be achieved by a
fewer number of actions with higher quality?
For a three years project costing about Tk.15.4 million we see a long list of 97 activities
under five key results. It must be a nightmare to implement and monitor such a project
with maximum effectiveness and efficiency for an organisation like MKP which also has
many other on-going projects to care about. In the six monthly report for January-June
2012 there are 20 different annexes of non-financial numerical data with many tables
but little text explaining them. Having learned that the monitoring system of MKP has
15
lots of room for improvement, filling out elaborate forms to record such detailed
information (presumably, of limited value) is indicative of a system which is far from
being efficient. That is about the monitoring issue. What about actual implementation
management of the project?
Consider for example, the case of 15 activities under the result 5: Improve reproductive
health rights situation. These 15 different activities include training for 37 staff
members, one rally at district level, one discussion meeting at district level, one district
level painting competition (over a three year period). The evaluation team wondered if
some of the activities could not be grouped together to more closely reflect the
objectives of those actions? The other question that arises is why such a large number of
staff needs to be trained on SRHR? And why is this not separately presented as project
administration cost since normally, staff cannot be shown as direct beneficiary of a
development project.

Members of Salish Committee
16
4. CONCLUSIONS ON THE PROJECT
As a result of effective motivational work, both men and women are now aware of their
situation in the household as well as in the community. The increased awareness gained
through different activities under the project has given them a level of self-confidence
on what they do and what they plan to do. In other words, the target groups felt that
they now had a greater control over their lives than before. In this section we shall try to
present a few conclusions mainly through a review of some of the community structures
created by the project along with some general observations.
4.1 WARD SALISH COMMITTEE
The WSCs comprising men and women from a mixed social and professional
background appear as a strong social force in support of the community in resolving
conflicts and offering mediation services. This 12 member body with 6 women and 6
men, represents an informal local authority that dispenses justice in different family
disputes and people are indeed benefited from those (please recall the case study of
Parul above).
They have actually been successful in effectively resolving many disputes some were
recorded but some were not. The strong point about the group is their pragmatism and
open-mindedness. Unlike some of the other village groups, they are more thoughtful
and forthright in their opinions. For example, in discussing the problem of under-age
girls marriages and dowry, they readily accept that these are widely known as
notorious social evils yet, changing these practices have been more difficult than had
been imagined. All agreed that, as a first step, those involved with the committees must
practice what they preach. As per the old adage, Charity begins at home the
committee members and those who can be directly influenced by the project should be
asked to make personal commitments or vows to not engage in any of these illegal
practices.

A courtyard meeting of the Salish Committee

17
4.2 FARMERS GROUP
The village based 40 members farmers groups are an example of not just harmonious
co-existence between men and women belonging to different religious and cultural
background, but represent active social forces who are concerned about declining
ecological diversity and promoting environmental sustainability through the practise of
indigenous technological knowledge (ITK). As a result of group activities, and personal
efforts in homestead gardening and cultivation of field crops, many members of the
group have been able to increase their level of income earnings. Although, primarily an
agricultural farming development group, there were a range of other social and
technical issues that they have been dealing with as well. General awareness about
gender justice and rights appeared to be recognised. But members were obviously
keener on technologies, production and marketing issues than others. They need to be
informed that they comprised part of a project which was mainly about Gender-justice,
rights and good governance.
4.3 ADOLESCENT GIRLS PROGRAMME
This is a very interesting, relevant and effective development intervention - considering
that these boys and girls represent the future generation and leadership for the
community as well as for the country. The limited efforts given by the organisation on
this component appeared to have already shown promising results. More and more girls
would now like to be members of such groups and would like to be involved in different
activities. Because, this opportunity for coming together gives them a chance to discuss
issues and exchange views about many different ideas and experiences that they would
otherwise not be able to get. For example the issues around gender equality, family
laws, sexual and reproductive rights etc. Particularly impressive was the attitude of the
girls who ride bicycles to school, come to the centre and visit family and friends on their
own. They said that it gave them a sense of freedom and self-confidence. Since riding
bicycles by girls in Thakurgaon area is quite common for those who can afford it, it is a
mark of progress on its own right. The Director of MKP describes it as a symbol of a
vibrating youthful life. He thinks that when a group of girls pass by on their bikes, they
carry a strong political message: We girls are also capable of participating in the road
to progress and development by our own right. He added that as a result of their
assertion of right, the incidence of so called eve-teasing had already gone out of
currency in the district. According to him, people (parents as well as the community)
have learned to accept and appreciate it.

Adolescent girls at Multipurpose Centre
18

However, looking at it from the programmes perspective, this component for
Adolescent girls appeared lacking in lustre with very limited input and patronage. One
of the Adolescent girls group visited by the evaluation team in the afternoon found that
the girls meet in a rather shabby room with inadequate sitting arrangements and no
lights. They did not have books or newspaper to read nor any arrangements for indoor
games, let alone facilities for outdoor activities. It appeared that young girls coming
from distant places would not have much incentive to participate in the activities of the
group on a regular basis if they were not provided with some basic facilities.
Considering the value it generates for the project and for the society, increased level of
investment should be considered here.
The group of girls who the evaluation team met at the MKPs multipurpose centre in
Thakurgaon, have a play-field, a small library and some sports facility. This was known
to have been attracting more and more girls who showed an interest in joining the
programme. In order to meet the expectations of the girls, there needs to be some more
creative and imaginative activities included for the centre. For example, besides sports
and book-reading activities, there can also be essay writing competitions as well as
debates and quiz contests. The evaluation team has additionally suggested that a
computer with internet facility, which is not very expensive or inaccessible today,
should be made available to these groups of girls if possible.

4.4 HARNESSING VOLUNTARISM
One of the major strengths of MKP is its good-will among the local population,
particularly among the civil society. This has enabled it to draw on peoples voluntary
contribution to the benefit of the disadvantaged and poor. MKP has been quite
successful in enlisting support of the members of the civil society including young men
and women of the area who have been donating blood to save unknown distressed
patients fighting for life. The young blood donors met by the evaluation team looked
proud and keen. They were truly filling in a life-saving role for many poor pregnant
mothers to whom this is an invaluable service. Similarly, the members of the District
based Nari Forum represented the positive elite women power for the benefit of the
disadvantaged. They have been instrumental in resolving many problems of many poor
people of the local community who are not familiar with the legal processes and terms
and can hardly influence the authorities in seeking justice.
The programme thus appeared to have successfully harnessed the spirit of voluntarism
of the community in favour of distressed humanity. In return, this group of volunteers
express their satisfaction and gratitude to MKP for creating this opportunity to serve the
disadvantaged people. However, these civil society bodies are largely dependent on
secretarial support from MKP and are very loosely organised with no consistent plan for
periodical meetings. A group might meet once after one month or sometimes not before
3 to 4 months. Although, each of these forums have committees of their own, they do not
have a particular plan of action. While remaining informal has its advantages of working
around flexible time-frame for meetings and actions, we have suggested that each group
had an annual target and an annual plan of action including minimum number of
19
meetings each should hold. Besides, these groups also need to have a long-term vision
on how they wished to emerge as independent entities.

4.5 NEED FOR AN IMPROVED PME SYSTEM
Finally, in relation to programme effectiveness and programme management and
enhancing the institutional learning process, this evaluation would recommend
investing into developing a strong PMEL (Planning Monitoring Evaluation and
Learning) system for MKP. A review of the project documents and the PME framework
presented in these reveal many loop-holes. Firstly, in the weak narrative of the project
concept, and second, in the monitoring plan depicted (only) in the results matrixes.
These documents have exhaustive details of activities, but grossly insufficient
explanation of the rationale for those and explanation on how the quality of work would
be ensured. The review of the annual and six-monthly reports also shows a lot of
unqualified statistical data in many tables with no explanation whatsoever on what they
represented.
Meanwhile, the organisation has grown quite big with field areas spread over 3-4
districts and the number of staff has grown to a high level (over 550). It has a range of
projects and activities in all different places some are more than an hours drive from
the main office in Thakurgaon. This is undoubtedly a challenge for the management to
effectively keep track of the people, resources and activities. The way the current affairs
of administration and programmes are managed has a risk of causing wastage of
resources and not producing evidence of results and impact. Because in order to ensure
a high quality of programme outputs, the need for an effective close monitoring cannot
be over-emphasised. Currently, the PME that the organisation has, is an ad hoc one and
very narrowly project based. This is not the most efficient way to plan, monitor and
evaluate programme activities of an organisation and it is not the best way to utilise its
resources in the most effective and efficient manner.
The evaluation team therefore recommends that MKP, with active support from its
development partners, develop a central PME system that can be a source of
institutional learning as well as a helpful management guide.
20
5. ORGANISATIONAL DEVELOPMENT
It would not be unfair to say that MKP, like a couple of other Diakonia partner NGOs in
Bangladesh, has been overly focused on programmes and projects and very little focus
is given to organisational development. Over many years of its operation, the
organisation had time enough to concentrate its energy mainly in developing
programmes of work and securing resources for their implementation. Donors
interested in implementing a particular project in this geographical area (a priority
development zone for most), looked for the most experienced local NGO and found MKP
among the best. As the majority of these donors were here on a short-term basis, they
could not care less about the organisational future of their partners. Hence, except for
Diakonia, not many development partners showed interest in developing the core
organisational capacity and competence of MKP. Even for Diakonia, its major concern
seemed to have been in ensuring conceptual unity on the thematic issues, so that the
implementation quality remained correct and high. Capacity building support provided
to MKP was mostly on specific themes and contents of the concerned projects.
On the other hand, MKP remained mostly pre-occupied with responding to donor needs
for producing new proposals, reports, case-studies and so on. As it has always tried to
align itself only with donor needs, the organisational structure remained flexible and
very much project-centric. MKP did not have time to emerge as a self-contained
institution with a secure core funding source that could have enabled it to maintain a
group of core staff and implement long-term projects. Although, it has its basic systems
and procedures which can meet its donor and Govt. reporting requirements, MKP does
not yet have a proper central planning and central coordination mechanism. Nor does it
have a staff development plan with long term objectives. Without a clear and effective
central coordination and planning system, the organisation runs the risk of losing its
institutional memory, together with the valuable lessons it has generated for future.
5.1 STRENGTHS TO BUILD ON
With an annual budget of Tk. 45 million (roughly, US$570,000) and a staff size of about
560, MKP today is not only a large regional organisation in Bangladesh, it is the leading
NGO of the area. It has a large body of devoted staff and its work is focused only on this
particular geographic region. It has some valuable physical assets with an office building
and a training centre on its own land, along with necessary office equipment and
transport. The organisation has an accountable governance system with eminent people
on its executive committee. Above all it has a very high reputation as a helpful
development organisation among the people of the region.
Its management system is functional and it is able to coordinate implementation of
about a dozen small projects. MKP and its leadership have a good rapport with local
government administration as well as Civil Society comprised of people from different
professional groups. Most importantly, MKP is a trusted partner for the community
groups in different parts of the region, including those in remote rural areas.
5.2 LIMITATIONS TO OVERCOME
21
As noted before, all its work is either under one project or another with not one having
a long-term assurance of continuity. There is no core organisational programme of work
and no donors have yet agreed to cover costs of core support. As a result, every piece of
work has to be covered by one project or another. In other words, a high dependency on
project based work makes the organisation feel a little uncertain how the coming years
would be like? Even when there are enough donor assurances for support for a given
period of time, the organisation might still run into a cash-flow problem due to delay in
processing the application and obtaining government clearance for the fund.
5.3 PLANNING FOR HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT
The staff of the organisation feel that, being situated far from the capital city (500 km
from Dhaka), they often lag behind in adopting modern skill and technologies in their
work. For example, not many staff of MKP were sufficiently skilled in using ICT
technologies due to lack of exposure and experience. Similarly, MKP feels that it is often
unable to keep itself up-to-date with new information, new ideas, new concepts and
new skills required for the nourishment of a modern development institution. Similarly,
they lack appropriate technical competence in some of the areas like PME, research, and
knowledge management. The methods and systems they use for these purposes are a bit
outdated. For example, the accounts department is staffed with well-qualified people
with appropriate accounts management capacity. However, for the sake of increased
efficiency, computer-based financial management in these days, is very essential. It was
however, good to learn that they were planning to gradually computerise their accounts
system. Communication in English language was another area of their limitation that
has so far been addressed only by ad-hoc arrangements. This needs to be improved with
a planned process of staff recruitment and training.
As most of the staff members are under short-term contract, establishing a proper
personnel management system with substantial staff development measures has not
been possible for MKP. This has had a negative effect on the growth of the organisation,
which is unfortunate for an old organisation like MKP. It has a good number staff
members who have been working for a long time now, yet not entitled to usual benefit
packages (e.g., provident fund, gratuity, pension) that most organisations would offer.
MKP needs to plan now, how it can overcome this shortcoming in order to have a solid
institutional footing for MKP. It can explore about it by learning from different
established NGOs in the country and also by receiving professional consulting services
from management consultants.
5.4 STRATEGY PLAN
A review of different organisational policy and project documents reveal that MKP lacks
a coherent strategic vision
1
and consistent articulation of its strategic intents. The
organisation needs to have a clear shared vision on what it wants to achieve in future.
Like any well-developed organisation, MKP needs to have a strategy that guides its use

1
A strategic vision is defined as A dream of an intended reality; one that inspires, brings about
commitment and expresses the values of an organisation. This is not something that an organisation can
achieve on their own. It guides them in their work and which they believe can be achieved if enough
projects and organisations share the vision and work towards it (SP Toolkit by Janet Shapiro, CIVICUS).
22
of resources in order to accomplish a mission. It should thus reflect organisational
theory of change (MKP assumptions on how social change takes place). Although, MKP
now has its statements for vision and mission statements they do not appear to be part
of a structured strategy plan. We think it is time MKP developed a Strategy Plan that will
guide it into a new future with increased consolidation of its work for increased
effectiveness and efficiency.

5.5 GENERAL PLANNING PROCEDURE
As noted before, the organisation currently has many on-going small sized projects.
Compared to the past, it has far too many projects than before, yet the management
structure remained more or less the same. Hence, there is a strong need to update and
decentralise the management system and practice. Accordingly a central planning and
management mechanism that would maximise utilisation of its resources should be
developed. The linkages and synergies between all different programmes of MKP (e.g.,
water and sanitation, Rural Justice, NFPE, primary healthcare etc.) need to be
established and linked to a strategic plan. Domination of the people at the top is
reflected everywhere which disallows the benefits of a participatory development
process that ensures more effective decision making based on collective knowledge and
wisdom. Currently, it appears that there is no clear system of delegation of
responsibilities. This needs to be improved with some of the authorities responsibilities
delegated to other staff. At present, all different organisational decisions, big or small
seem reliant on the ED, which puts a heavy demand on his time? To improve the
situation, second line leadership needs to be developed and made more visible.

The Chair of MKP Inaugurates a Tree-plantation drive
23
6. KEY CONCLUSIONS
The operation of MKP is focused on empowerment of disadvantaged communities
through building social and political awareness mainly, but also to some extent through
building economic capacity with the help of agricultural enterprise development. This
has been largely relevant and effective. Its work components do promise wider and
deeper social impact leading towards a more equitable and inclusive social order. The
programme on Ensuring Gender Justice, Rights and Good Governance has created
increased access to knowledge, resources and services on health, education and
agricultural development for the poor rural communities. A better standard of living has
thus been promoted and the communities that MKP works with have experienced a
steady upward mobility.
6.1 MANAGEMENT SYSTEM REVIEW
As the volume of work has increased manifold over the years, it has necessitated the
organisation recruit many new employees and expand the work into newer areas. This
has naturally required an increased volume of financial and material resources in order
to manage. However, the management structure and system did not seem to have
improved to the extent necessary in order to cope with the growth. For example, the
current project-centred management practice and PME process has experienced stress
as reflected in some of their recent documents discussions with the staff. This situation
needs to be changed to achieve the desired level of efficiency, result and impact. The
evaluation team believed that a stronger central management and coordination
mechanism was necessary to improve the situation. At the same time MKP needs to
strengthen its management system and procedure as well as devote its attention to
developing an organisational strategy with revised Vision and Mission statements.
The organisation also needs to develop a culture and process of participative planning
and review with which a group of senior staff members will assist the Director in
producing plans and making decisions. Currently, the project based planning
responsibility is entirely on the shoulder of the Director. The work is very much desk-
based rather than processed based following the principles of participative planning.
Clarity in line management of staff is needed by clearly defining staff responsibilities.
For example, roles and responsibilities for Finance and Administration units should be
separate and not to be managed by the same staff as currently practiced. This will help
increase the level of effectiveness in work as well establishing transparency and
accountability. The Director needs to be relieved of managing too many posts as the
current Organogram does not have a provision for second tier management line that
would share some of his responsibilities. This should enable the Director to devote
more time in strategic thinking and planning for the organisation as well as for the
programmes.
6.2 NEED A STRONG PMEL PROCESS
Efforts are also needed to develop an effective PME (Planning, Monitoring and
Evaluation) system based on clear logic-based planning and review framework. The
current results framework that MKP follows (for Diakonia) can be further improved and
24
simplified. As it stands now, the reporting system of MKP appears overly detailed (20
Annexes), yet with inadequate information and analysis on impact.
The MKP needs to define and articulate the concepts and values of some of its successful
works in clearer terms, so that the ideas and experiences behind those are known most
effectively to others. It has to be done in such a way that everybody understands what
MKP specialties are there. For example, there needs to be documents defining and
explaining the roles and functions of Gender Forum, Cycle Girls and blood donors.
This will help establish MKP as an outstanding and creative orgnisation with innovative
models of work in social development.
6.3 NEED HIGHER LEVEL POLICY ADVOCACY
A review of Diakonia Country Strategy informs us that the project under evaluation
directly contributes to the strategic objectives of Diakonia Bangladesh and its thematic
issues of reducing gender discrimination, increasing respect for human rights,
promotion of democratic good governance and improved access to social and economic
resources. The local level work of MKP has over many years of networking, rapport
building and support, created an impact in reducing the incidence of rights violation,
improving gender equality and awareness about the need of transparent and
accountable governance system. However, as one can imagine, a lot of this is dependent
on changing national policies and the governance culture at the top. Much of the change
at local level may not be possible if changes at the higher level are not forthcoming. For
example, if implementation of the policy directives of the national Womens Policy does
not happen, the process of change at the community level in promoting gender equality
may not be expedited. Similarly, unless there is a noteworthy break-through in the
promised decentralization process through devolution of power to local government
authorities, promotion of good governance and having responsive local institutions
may remain a far cry.
Therefore, one might ask to what extent the project is contributing to the above, if at all?
How does it play a role, even in a small way, to making a change in the promotion of
gender justice, human rights and good governance including increased access to social
and economic services nationally?. While the value of community level improvements
achieved by the project cannot be under-estimated, a sustainable long-term difference
in this respect also cannot be expected without policy change and macro level
interventions. How has the effects of MKPs work influenced the national institutions or
the government in amending or adopting policies that would have lasting effects? Has
Diakonia used the lessons and examples created by its partners to mobilise national
opinions and thoughts?
6.4 DOES A NEW PHASE HAVE PARTICULAR TARGET?
It is heartening to note that Diakonia has remained a trusted development partner for
MKP in Bangladesh for a long time now, (since 1990). Such a long-term partnership has
had many practical advantages for MKP which sees Diakonia as their key patron and a
mentor. However, it was not clear if any particular criteria were used by Diakonia to
decide extension of a project phase? Does extension of a phase for an on-going project
entail commitment from the partner to achieve particular land marks? Or is extension
made because a particular value addition is promised by the new application for the
25
upcoming phase? Notwithstanding the practical advantages that entails continuation of
partnership relation between two trusted and tested institutions, the above question is
asked because the rationale for extension of phases and any conditions thereof was
somehow not spelled out explicitly anywhere. If a programme was continued to apply
the same set of solutions year after year to address the same group of problems without
creating additional values (not just more of the same) and adding new knowledge and
new lessons; or not having an eye to affecting changes at the macro level scenario with
an emphasis on sustainability of benefits, then it had better reconsider its decision in
this respect. Linked to this is the question of the usual rationale or conditions used for
phase continuation support to a partner by Diakonia? Are the partners required to offer
an innovative solution or a new approach to qualify for support to the new phase?
The above is however, not to suggest that it was not necessary to extend the phase for
this particular project. On the contrary, we believe that projects of this nature cannot be
expected to produce meaningful and sustainable results if longer term intervention of
10-15 years is not planned.

Youth Volunteers who work with MKP
26
RECOMMENDATIONS
1. That a programme for ensuring gender justice, rights and good governance would
require several years of work and many different activities in the particular socio-
political context of Bangladesh cannot be denied. What the evaluation has observed
however, is that there is not enough rationale for the projects movement from one
phase to another. There were some notes on the innovative posture the new phase
would have, but the elements of innovation were not explained in detail in the
project proposal. Regarding the incredibly high number activities, the questions that
comes to our minds is what are the relative values of one activity over another?
Could some of the activities not be grouped together under particular headings or
theme to show that a specific result is achieved by that? Could not implementation of
fewer and focused activities produce better results? It is therefore recommended
that for the sake of efficient and effective implementation and management of a
project, activities should be fewer and sharper. Moreover, it should be made explicit
that any extension of a project phase should meet a few conditions in order to
receive approval, for example, the proposal should have innovative elements
including more effective approach and necessary additions or deletions.
2. For ensuring participation of people from different walks of life into different
activities of MKP with regard to ensuring gender justice, rights and good
governance, MKP has helped forming different stakeholder groups at different
levels. We have Upazila based Gender Forum, District based Nari Forum, Ward level
Salish Committees, Adolescent girls groups and urban youth volunteers groups,
besides village level farmers groups and womens samities. It is understood that the
village and ward level groups with limited literacy skills of the members will need
support from MKP for a long time before they were able to function on their own.
But Upazilla and District based forums and committees are capable of functioning
independently. Therefore they need to be encouraged to develop their short and
long term plans of work including targets to achieve. Besides, they should also be
asked to develop a plan to become fully independent entities in future.
3. For the sake of developing MKP into a proper institution, it needs to find a way to
have a core group of staff with the required key competence under permanent
contract (all contracts are terminable though, under certain situations). This would
enable the organisation to plan investments in staff development and have benefit
packages for them like provident fund, gratuity, and pension. This should give MKP a
stronger institutional structure with much enhanced capacity to manage its affairs..
4. The organisation is overly dependent on the Director for all planning and decision-
making tasks. For a more effective organisation, MKP needs to have a system of
planning (Annual or biannual) in which representation of staff from all different
levels including the fields should be ensured. Similarly, for a more efficient
management of operations, the Director may plan to delegate some of his
responsibilities to some of his senior colleagues. He might also find it useful for the
purpose, to create a position of a deputy director.
5. Although, MKP is a grass roots organisation and its strength lies in successfully
mobilising local communities and public sector institutions for the benefit of the
27
poor, it is recommended that the organisation has an enhanced capacity in the areas
of research and advocacy, particularly at the national level. MKPs field level
experience should lend strong credibility to its policy advocacy work. Moreover,
success of its community level work on gender justice, rights and governance is
often reliant on changes in national policy. Therefore, MKP is encouraged to upgrade
its institutional capacity at that level.
6. For a modern, progressive organisation like MKP, the need for a SP (Strategy Plan)
cannot be over-emphasised because that should provide the organisation with a
shared vision and mission. It should provide MKP with valuable guidance in
developing a set of coherent demand-based programme of work. Therefore, the
organisation should invest some resources to obtain professional guidance in
developing a Strategy Plan.
7. A PMEL process should be introduced in MKP so that the organisation gets
accustomed to a regular (quarterly, six-monthly or/ and annual) planning and
review process. Moreover, strong M&E capacity is needed because the management
staff will constantly require information to produce reports for donors. Therefore
they need to develop systems, tools and skills in planning, monitoring and
evaluation.
8. TheMKP needs to offer permanent contracts to (at least) some of the older staff
members so that the organisation has a committed and motivated cadre of core Staff
who will be entitled to benefits like PF, Gratuity and pension. For that, provision will
be needed to create appropriate committees, agreements, get them registered if
necessary and produce procedures manuals.
9. As volume of accounts and accounting work is becoming bigger and more complex,
MKP should try to introduce computer-based financial management system. Besides,
in order to bring about an increased level of efficiency, accountability and
transparency, roles between the staff of Finance and Administration should be
clearly separated. It is recommended that the management structure and process in
the central office is reviewed and appropriate people are entrusted with specific
responsibilities as noted above.
10. Given the future potential of adolescent girls in the country (they are likely to be the
future leaders), the Adolescent girls groups should receive appropriate attention.
They should be provided with appropriate place to meet with minimum facilities
like book library, ICT (information, communication and Technology) and
entertainment facilities like sports and music.
11. MKP may decide to conduct a follow-up study based on the 2004 baseline study
report that the organisation has to assess changes in the socio-economic condition of
the people in its work area. This should enable the organisation to assess
effectiveness (or other wise) of its interventions
12. In order to be a more effective organisation and produce better results from its
work, MKP might decide to reduce the number of different projects or activities that
it is currently involved with and focus on a smaller volume of work. MKP should now
have an eye on quality rather than quantity. Diakonia may wish to help in this
respect by committing some necessary resources.
28

ANNEXURES
29
ANNEX 1: FIELD-VISIT SCHEDULE
Programme Schedule for visit to MKP, Thakurgaon in November 2012
Date Visits/ Meetings Remarks
10/ 11/ 2012
4.30-7.00pm
Arrival at Thakurgaon; Meeting with senior
project staff at MKP Training Hall
Executive Director presided the
meeting and project heads and
other senior staff were present
11/ 11/ 2012
10.00-11.00
Group visits and meetings with Durgapura Nari
Samity, Dakhin Shill Para Nari Samity, Dhakain
para Nari Samity
Samity President Ms. Shahida was
present and Momotaz of MKP
guided
11.30 -1.30 Meeting with Ward Shalish committee Khoribari,
Razaga union
Abdus Samad, Sasanka Ram Barman
of MKP accompanied
03.00-4.00pm Meeting with farmers forum Jogonnathpur,
Kalitola, Schoolpara Sadar upazila, Thakurgoan
Rahmat Ali of MKP, and Rais Uddin-
President, Falguni Roy-Vice
President
04.15-
05.10pm
Visit to Millpara Adolescent girls group at
Aoliapur union, Thakurgoan
Rumana Akther of MKP, Ms. Konok
Chapa, Secretary were present
12/ 11/ 2012
10.30-12.00
Meeting with Upazila Gender Forum of 50
members at MKP training Institute
Ms. Rekha Rani, Ms. Rehana elected
Upazila members and women
leaders - 20 members were present.
12.15- 1.10pm Meeting with Adolescent girls group at MKP
training Institute
21 member were present many girls
came riding Bicycles ,
03.00-4.30pm Meeting with civil society members at MKP
training Institute
Religious leaders, lawyers,
government official, teachers,
journalists were among 17 people
present in the meeting
04.45-5.30pm Meeting with youth Volunteeers donating blood
- at MKP training Institute
12 blood donors were present in
meeting
13/ 11/ 2012
11.00-12.00
FGD with Parpugi Fishers Samity at Parpugi,
Jamalpur Union
Ms. Shankhabala-President, Ms.
Parulbala-Secretary and Meher
Niger of MKP were present.
12.30-1.30 pm Meeting with ED at MKP head office At Head Office
03.00-4.30 Meeting with Nari forum at MKP training Hall About 30 participants; Luna from
MKP led
03.30-5.30pm Meeting with Finance personnel at MKP head
office
Mr. Naresh, Ms. Protima, Mr. Sijit
Kumer Das
08.00 pm Meeting with Mr. Abul Hossain Sarkar, Chairman
of the Executive Board, MKP
At MKP Guest House.

30
ANNEX 2: DOCUMENT REVIEWED

Serial Name of Document
1. Project Proposal: Ensuring Gender Justice, Rights and Good Governance,
January 2010- December 2012, MKP, Thakurgaon.
2. Six Months Progress Report for the project, Ensuring Gender Justice, Rights
and Good Governance, January-June 2012, MKP, Thakurgaon
3. Annual Progress Report for the project, Ensuring Gender Justice, Rights and
Good Governance, January-December 2010, MKP, Thakurgaon
4. Annual Progress Report for the project, Ensuring Gender Justice, Rights and
Good Governance, January-December, 2011, MKP, Thakurgaon
5. Manab Kallyan Parishad-MKP AN OVERVIEW
6. Country Strategy, Bangladesh 2012-2015, Diakonia, Dhaka.
7. MKP Baseline Study Report on Socio-Economic Status of the Beneficiaries by
RIDS, Dhaka. January 2004.
8. Kormi Niyog o Chakri Bidhimala
9. Shishu Odhikar Surakha Nitimala
10. Gender Policy (within organization)
11. Guidelines on Financial Policy, Accounting System and Practices for MKP
12. Action plan of Gender Justice Project
13. HIV & AIDS Policy
14. Audit certificate, report project and of MKP of 2010-11
15. Training materials on gender and human rights, watsan and health, family
law, environment, local agriculture,
16. Baseline survey report EGJRGG project, December 2010
17. Project proposal on EGJRGG, preprimary schooling MKP
18. Evaluation Report on Ensuring Gender Justice, Rights and Good Governance
project for 2010-11 by Avijit Roy, January 2012.

31
ANNEX 3: SWOT ANALYSIS

Strengths Weakness
Large number of devoted staffs
Focus on one particular geographical
region
Strong team spirit and congenial work
environment
Accountable to Government and Donor
Transparent and accountable
management
Have sufficient logistics arrangement
Experienced gender sensitive work
force
Organized and sensible group members

Dependency on project base activities
Lack of proper monitoring system
Lack of core organizational
programmes
Dependency on limited fund sources
Donor dependency cash in flow
Limited access to mainstream
development (information?)
Lack of modern skill and knowledge
in development management
Opportunities Threats

More focus for specialized programs
Strengthening other sectors and issues
like child rights, food security, climate
changes
Gradual development of PME system
Leading (organisation) in
socioeconomic development at local
level

Shortage of (sufficient) fund
Natural Disaster and uncertain
political situation
Employees turnover
Government policy for NGO
management

32
ANNEX 4: TERMS OF REFERENCE

TERMS OF REFERENCE
Name: Project evaluation of Diakonia funded projects:
Ensuring Gender J ustice, Rights and Good Governance with the participation of Rural People
Quality and Value-Based Pre-primary Schooling for Disadvantaged, Poor and Ethnic Minority
Children
Gender and Good Governance
J ustice and Human Rights for Underprivileged People (J HUP)
1. PURPOSE
1.1. Evaluate whether the interventions are on track and are likely to reach their objectives by
assessing the effectiveness, impact, relevance, sustainability and efficiency
1.2. Highlight good examples, practices, if any, within the projects
1.3. Where applicable, recommend how to improve the design and implementation of the
interventions
1.4. Assess to what extent the projects are making effective contribution to the present results
according to the current Strategy Plan for Diakonia
1.5. Recommendations regarding continuation/phasing out of the evaluated projects
2. BACKGROUND
2.1. Diakonia committed SEK 5,678,480, to four Diakonia supported projects during years 2010-
2012 that are scheduled to end in December 2012. Breakdown as below:

Project Budget
Partner: MKP, Thakurgaon
Project: Ensuring Gender Justice, Rights and Good Governance with the participation of
Rural People.
Period: J an 2010 Dec 2012
BDT 15,400,000
SEK 1,691,240
Partner: MKP, Thakurgaon
Project: Quality and Value-Based Pre-primary Schooling for Disadvantaged, Poor and
Ethnic Minority Children
Period: January Dec 2012
BDT 2,990,000
SEK 260,000
Partner: PARTNER, Rajshahi
Project: Gender and Good Governance
Period: Jan 2010 Dec 2012
BDT 20,142,132
SEK 1,870,240
Partner: SARA, Mymensingh
Project: Justice and Human Rights for Underprivileged People (JHUP).
Period: Jan 2010 Dec 2012
BDT 2,01,49,066
SEK 1,857,000

33
2.2. The major thematic areas of these projects are: Gender equality, human rights, democracy
and access to social and economic resources.

3. RECIPIENT
The recipient of these evaluations is Diakonia Bangladesh and relevant partner organisations
The evaluation, once finalised, will be shared with other relevant stakeholders as necessary

4. SCOPE OF WORK
The evaluation will assess progress over the past years considering projects effectiveness, relevance,
impact and efficiency of the criteria as below:
4.1. Effectiveness: Has the intervention achieved its objectives or is achievable using the current
design.
To what extent have the agreed objectives been achieved?
Are the successfully achieved activities sufficient to realize the agreed outputs
What are the reasons for the achievement or non-achievement of outputs or outcomes?
What could be done to make the interventions more effective
4.2. Relevance: are the interventions consistent with the needs, priorities of the rights holders and
the polices of partner country, partner and Diakonia
Are objectives in line with needs, priorities of rights holders and problem analysis
Do the interventions have the potential for replication and/or expansion

4.3. Impact: what are the overall effects of the intervention, intended and unintended, long term
and short term, positive and negative.
How the interventions affected the well-being of different groups of stakeholders
What would have happened without the interventions
What are the positive and negative effects
Do the positive effects outweigh the negative ones
What do the rights holders and other stakeholders perceive to be the effects of the
intervention on themselves
To what extend does the intervention contribute to capacity development and strengthening
of institutions

4.4. Sustainability: will the benefits produced by the interventions be maintained after withdrawal
of project support.
To what extent does the positive impact justify continued investments
Did stakeholders participate in the planning and implementation of the intervention to
ensure local engagement
Do relevant partners possess sufficiently strong governance structures and professional
capacity to sustain the activities
Is the technology utilized appropriate to the economic, social and cultural conditions of the
country
Are the interventions harmful to the environment

4.5. Efficiency: can the costs of the interventions be justified by the results
What measures have been taken during the planning and implementation phase to ensure
that resources are efficiently used
To what extent have the development components been delivered as agreed
Could the intervention have been done better, more cheaply, or quicker
Could an altogether different type of intervention have solved the same problem at a lower
cost
34

5. STAKEHOLDER

The work will be carried out in a transparent manner in consultation with the people relevant to
the interventions.
This should include Diakonia staffs, key personnel of partners, stakeholders, rights holders
and other designated persons as appropriate.
There should be active participation from relevant implementing partner organisations
It is essential that the evaluation is designed to enable target groups to constructively
participate in the evaluation process

6. METHODOLOGY

Desk and field visits, interviews (with individuals/groups) as required according to work plan.

7. WORK AND TIME SCHEDULE

Diakonia will receive a work plan prepared by the consultant, based on the present terms of
reference and on the time expected to carry out the tasks.
The length of the consultancy should be within five-six weeks.
Preferred deadline for submitting the tasks are by Mid November 2012 or according to agreed
work plan of the evaluator
The deadline for submitting the report will be stipulated in the contract signed between the
consultant and Diakonia according to an agreed work plan.

8. EVALUATOR
The assignment will be carried out by a team/ group of external evaluators who have:
knowledge of local context
experience of project evaluations, relevant issues and method
gender sensitive and possess knowledge of gender equality issues
proficiency in Bengali and English language skills

9. REPORTING AND DELIVERABLES
Draft reports should be presented within a reasonable time for feedback from Diakonia and partners.
Final report:
Four evaluation reports based on four projects of three partners
One summarized report for Diakonia based on key observations and recommendations
Printed and digital copies of the reports should be presented to Diakonias country office in Bangladesh.

10. OWNERSHIP AND CONFIDENTIALITY
The consultant should respect the confidential nature of all information acquired during this consultancy
with Diakonia. Diakonia is the sole copyright owner of the products stemming from this consultancy.

11. FORM OF PAYMENT
Diakonia will pay the consultant, upon certification that the services have been satisfactorily delivered, no
later than 15 working days after the submission of the reports.

Bangladesh Evaluation MKP 2010 2012

Caricato da

Informazioni sul documento

Titolo originale

Copyright

Formati disponibili

Condividi questo documento

Condividi o incorpora il documento

Opzioni di condivisione

Hai trovato utile questo documento?

Questo contenuto è inappropriato?

Copyright:

Formati disponibili

Bangladesh Evaluation MKP 2010 2012

Caricato da

Copyright:

Formati disponibili

Manab Kallyan Parished

Potrebbero piacerti anche