This study analysed three projects of SDC's local governance programme in Bangladesh. The study consisted of field visits with the objectives of better understanding how and to what extent the selected projects are effective in including, empowering and benefiting the poor, extreme poor and marginalised people. In that sense, it aimed to learn about projects’ interventions to work with and benefit vulnerable and most deprived, and the obstacles and constraints linked to these issues. Three SDC funded projects of the SDC Local Governance programme were analysed: Sharique (local governnace support programme), the Sustainable Solutions for Delivery of Safe Drinking Water (SDSD) projectand theRupantar project (on grassroots women’s leadership).

The three projects have a strong focus on community mobilisation & empowerment and on the delivery of accessible & effective public services. The processes of strengthening the demand side and promoting interaction between communities and UP [local government] bodies/local elite/service providers showed good practices and effective results benefiting the community and poor households:

• increased participation and influence of community members including poor men and women who are more capable to negotiate their interests in decision-making processes;
• increased transparency and social accountability in UP functioning as UP members better know their role, tasks and responsibilities;
• active mobilisation of community and UP bodies for the defence of women rights and the protection of women victims of violence;
• better access to a broad range of services and safety allowances.

Limitations and constraints lie in the difficulties for projects to deal directly with inclusion issues of the most vulnerable and to cope with the influence of power relations. Projects follow indirect intervention towards poverty reduction and rely on commmunity based organisation (CBO) members for the inclusion of poor, extreme poor and marginalised households. But voice, membership to a group and participation are in themselves expression of power and limit the inclusion of the most vulnerable groups. Mechanisms of interaction with the most deprived and wider accountability beyond the community group/committees were not easily identified.

Working with extreme poor and marginalised in local governance projects is undeniably a big challenge due to the state of local governance in Bangladesh and the specific support required to reach the most deprived and excluded. Furthermore, measuring the impact of local governance projects on the livelihood conditions of poor, extreme poor and marginalised groups is very difficult and projects have not yet disaggregated data about the inclusion and participation of different population segments. For further discussion and possible next steps the following recommendations are suggested:

• A more systematic use of poverty analysis tool is needed in the projects to strengthen the awareness of both CBO/Womens' committee (WC)members and local government on poverty issues. This should also increase their accountability to the whole community and beyond the organised groups and their members. A poverty analysis mapping poor households is only conducted in SDSD project. Rupantar and Sharique projects would increase their accuracy and effectiveness by developing similar tool at community level (CBO/WC) and with UP members.
• Projects targeting poor, extreme poor and marginalised should better differentiate poor from extreme poor and marginalised. Disaggregation of groups defined as “poor” and “women” is important to target most vulnerable sub-groups and to provide key information for monitoring results.
• Projects need to better understand the consequences of power relations and identify opportunities to cope with mechanisms of exclusion and discrimination. Power relations are barriers perpetuating inequality and poverty and have a strong influence in the Bangladeshi context. They impact on the projects’ implementation and outreach as they affect the capacity of poor, extreme poor and marginalised to raise their voice, claim their rights, access to services and participate in the community mobilisation.
• Transforming the mindsets and attitude of all stakeholders for more pro-poor awareness at local level should be enhanced in projects' implementation:community members, local government officials and projects' staff should be more sensitized to consider and advocate for citizens holding rights rather than beneficiaries or services recipients.

For more information about SDC's local governance activities in Bangladesh, please see: http://www.sdc.org.bd/en/Home/Local_Governance and for more information about this study, please contact Marie Gilbrin at marie.gilbrin@sdc.net