With the emergency “life saving” phase of CARE's relief efforts in Bangladesh nearing completion, CARE is starting to shift its focus to support that will enable people to return to their villages and rebuild their lives.

“We are now trying to take a longer-term approach,” Says Nick Southern, CARE Bangladesh's Country Director. “People are going to need support while they try to put their lives back together. That includes rebuilding their homes and reestablishing a livelihood that enables them to feed their families”

In the two weeks since Cyclone SIDR, struck Bangladesh 's coast on November 15, CARE, working with local partner NGOs, has provided emergency food packages and relief materials to 37,000 families, or roughly 185,000 people.  By the time the current phase ends in early December, CARE will have supplied a total of 85,000 families, or 425,000 people.

Bangladesh authorities estimate the final casualties from the cyclone at more than 3,200 people killed, another 35,000 injured and nearly two million acres of crops destroyed. More than a million homes were damaged. 

Although substantial amounts of food are now moving into the cyclone affected area, distribution has been uneven, with some villages getting sufficient supplies, and others being bypassed.  CARE's advantage is its long-standing relationship with local NGO partners, Prodipon, South Asia Partnership, Coast Trust and Resource Integration Centre.  The network on the ground along with close relationships with local civil organizations has helped CARE make more accurate assessments of who actually needs aid the most and to be more effective in the way the aid is distributed. 

CARE is continuing to distribute 1,100 tons of wheat provided by USAID's SHOUHARDO program to 60,000 families in Barguna Sadar and Patharghata, two of the worst hit sub-districts, where the damage from Cyclone SIDR was nearly 100%.

CARE is also working with the Dhaka Community Hospital (DCH) to provide 25 mobile medical teams now traveling through stricken villages have provided had consultations with 17,261 patients. More than 6,000 had injuries from the storm.  In addition,  CARE has been providing safe drinking water to thousands of people with then help of four mobile treatment plants that can filter 12,000 liters of fresh water a day, each or a total of 48,000 liters.

The next phase of CARE's relief operations will concentrate on helping people recover their normal lives.  Negotiations are currently underway with donors to significantly expand CARE's food distribution to cover a much larger area than its current focus, but CARE is also being asked to provide assistance in rebuilding and strengthening damaged homes. CARE will also incorporate disaster risk reduction during the recovery phase, in line with its “build back better” philosophy.

An important focus will be on refurbishing water supplies.  Many villages depend on ponds to act as mini-reservoirs, but most of these have now been contaminated. Mobile water treatment plants which were crucial in the emergency phase are too expensive to operate over the long term, so CARE is helping villages assess and then clean and refurbish their traditional water sources.

At the same time, CARE is continuing to distribute conventional supplies. CARE just received a donation 25,000 blankets and 12,500 plastic water containers from Britain 's Department for International Development. People will also need help earning a living while they rebuild their communities. “Livelihoods are an important consideration,” says CARE's Nick Southern.

The second phase of CARE's relief efforts is expected to last through February, but it is now expected that the overall recovery effort will last at least a year.

South Asian Civil Society Organizations (CSO) Forum on Responsible Business Practices was launched here Tuesday with a view to promoting corporate social responsibilities, and to ensure global development goals and universal human rights in South Asia Region.

Industries Advisor of the Caretaker Government, Geetiara Safiya Choudhury, formally launched the forum that includes eight countries -- Bangladesh, India, Pakistan, Nepal, Bhutan, Maldives, Sri Lanka and Afghanistan -- in a city hotel Tuesday evening, and hoped it (the forum) will contribute to making regional   relationship stronger. 

Deputy Country Director of CARE Bangladesh, Hasan M. Majumdar, Chief Executive Director of Partner in Change, India, Viraf Mehta and Adviser of Responsible Business Initiative, Pakistan, Dr. Faiz Shah spoke at the function where delegates from government, corporate sector, civil society organizations and international agencies were present.

CARE Bangladesh, in collaboration with Partners In Change (an NGO working on CSR), Delhi, hosted the second annual CSO Forum that unites 16 civil society organizations in the region.

In the last two days (12-13 Nov), delegates of the forum from Bhutan, India, the Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan Sri Lanka and Bangladesh worked together to shape up the forum and at the end, formally launched its vision and mandate for promoting ‘responsible business practices’ among the corporate sector across the region. They also agreed to a South Asia Frame of Reference for guiding constructive engagement between civil society organizations and companies ready to play a role in sustainable development.
 
The founding members endorsed the need for a common platform in South Asia to engage with companies in promoting socially and environmentally responsible business practices that would contribute to global development and universal human rights in the region.

The forum hopes to set up a secretariat in Dhaka by March 2008 but, in the interim, it will function from New Delhi.

Greater Participation of the Poor and Women to Strengthen Local Governance

A seminar on ‘Local Governance: Grassroots Experiences and Perspectives' was organized by Sharique , a local governance program, at Lake Shore Hotel today ( 12 Sept, 2007 ) with the call to strengthen local governance for greater participation of and benefits to local population, particularly those who are among the weakest segments of society.

Safar Raj Hossain, Secretary, Ministry of LGRD&C, was chief guest while Corinne Huser, Deputy Country Director, SDC, was special guest of the program. Stav Zotalis, Assistant Country Director of CARE Bangladesh, among others, spoke on the Program . Representatives of the government, donor agencies, NGOs, academia, Civil Society, media and Union Parishads were present.

The objective of the seminar, which was organized at the conclusion of the first year of the program's field implementation, was to focus on the grass-root experiences and diverse perspectives on local governance in rural Bangladesh, particularly in the context of the regions in which Sharique works.

Sharique, a Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation funded program, works in 100 Unions of Rajshahi and Sunamganj districts towards the goal of improved local governance for more equitable local development and poverty reduction. Intercooperation and CARE Bangladesh collaboratively implement it with local partner NGOs.

The main activities of the program include strengthening the capacities of Union Parishads, enhancing citizens' participation in local governance and promoting more effective coordination among all relevant local governance actors.

At the beginning of the session, Prasanta Kumar Tripira, Coordinator of Sharique program gave an overview of the impact of the program by last one year. He mentioned that more than 5000 participants both citizen and UP representatives took part in the local governance self-assessment exercises during the period while development of 'local governance improvement plans' was executed in 35 UPs; participatory planning and budgeting held in 29 UPs and co-financing support provided to 35 UPs .

Community and Union Parishad representatives who spoke at the seminar gave first hand accounts of the local governance situation and how they are trying to bring about desired changes. They stressed the important role that the Union Parishad can play in ensuring local development and provision of services in a way that can benefit the poor, women and other marginal groups.

Barrister Manzoor Hasan, Director of the Institute of Governance Studies of BRAC University, presented the keynote paper titled "Harnessing the Potentials of Good Local Governance" at the seminar. The paper highlighted that although the present local governance situation is quite poor, there are opportunities to make improvements through local initiatives.

Speaking at the function, Safar Raj Hossain, Secretary, Ministry of LGRD&C, said there is much room for improvement in the local governance situation as encountered at the Union Parishad level in Bangladesh . The Union Parishads are not very transparent or accountable to their constituencies, nor do they allow much room for citizens' participation in planning, implementation and monitoring of development activities, he observed.

"There is also lack of awareness and knowledge about the roles and responsibilities of UP bodies, not only among ordinary citizens, but also among many UP representatives themselves. Furthermore, community groups are not very well-organized either so as to have voice in local governance. The poor and women in particular have little participation and voice in the affairs of their Union Parishads".

Local Government secretary noted that there are existing laws and guidelines that are meant to promote people's participation, accountability and transparency in local governance at the Union level. Problems and challenges lie at the level of operationalizing existing laws and guidelines.

Safar Raj Hossain said that the government guidelines for the use of development funds lay down clear directions for developing, implementing and monitoring projects by involving and benefiting local people, including women and the poor. In this regard, lessons learned by Sharique in trying to operationalize such guidelines should be useful for other local government actors, he said.

At the end of inaugural session, Local Government Secretary unveiled cover of four books and manuals. These are: Compendium of laws in regard to UPs; Study on the local governance situation in Rajshahi and Sunamganj; UP gender analysis guidelines for facilitators, and Local Governance Self-Assessment Guidelines for Facilitators.

CARE Bangladesh has been active in providing relief and other help to the flood affected victims.  From the very early stage of flooding, field staff of CARE and its partners started assessing situation in the affected areas. At the beginning, CARE and partners were engaged in evacuating extremely poor and vulnerable families in high flood risk areas using country boats provided either by CARE or by the partners.

So far, CARE distributed 45 MTs of high protein BP-5 biscuits gifted by the Norwegian Government. A total 42,000 families in extreme vulnerable communities in greater Rangpur, Tangail and Sunamgonj received the BP-5 biscuits.

Currently, with the financial assistance from USAID, CARE is engaged in the distribution of dry food ration (rice, lentils, oil, iodized salt) among 18,000 families in 30 unions in the district of Kurigram, Gaibandha, Jamalpur, Serajganj, Sunamgang and Netrakona. CARE field office-level disaster committees have identified the unions and are implementing the response operations. Also, CARE has installed 2 water treatment plants in Sirajganj town and Islampur Upazila of Jamalpur district. Each plant is purifying 10,000 litres water/ day and distributing among communities where the normal water sources are contaminated.

On August 6, CARE Bangladesh attended a tele-conference with CARE International members and explained the situation and needs. A positive response has been received from the German MoFA and they are willing to support CARE relief activities with 100,000 EUR. Meanwhile, CARE Canada has also offered 15,000 Canadian Dollar for providing relief and other support to the flood affected people.               

CARE Bangladesh's partner Durjoy Nari Sangha and Pragati Life Insurance Company have singed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) here today (March 18, 2007) to provide group life and health insurance support to street-based sex workers.

An agreement to this effect was signed between Durjoy, a self-help group of street-based sex workers, and the Pragati Life Insurance Company at CARE Bangladesh Headquarters in the city's Kawran Bazar area this morning. Shanaz Begum, President of Durjoy, and M. Shefaque Ahmed, Managing Director, Pragati Life Insurance Company, signed the agreement on behalf of respective sides.

Pragati Life Insurance is the first ever (life insurance) company in Bangladesh that came forward in developing a product that would meet the needs of one of the most marginalized members of our society. In fact no where in the world has any mainstream health insurance product come to light which actually covers such populations. Under the MoU, members of the Durjoy Nari Sangha will enjoy group life insurance benefit and health coverage from Pragati Life Insurance company. At present, Durjoy has a membership of over 2500 members. It is based in Dhaka with branches in Rangpur and Khulna.

CARE Bangladesh has been working with HIV/AIDS vulnerable groups since 1995. One of the key strategies of the HIV Program is to facilitate the development of Self-Help Groups (SHGs) of communities vulnerable to HIV/AIDS and, to enable them to improve their quality of life. The program facilitated the development of a number of Self-Help Groups since its inception . Durjoy Nari Sangha is one of the main groups CARE has been working with.

Since July 2006, the HIV/ AIDS program has been making concerted efforts to strengthen the Self Help Groups through their institutional development and financial and business development services. Insurance is a key strategy for social protection and risk management for women with limited incomes who do not have the capacity to absorb shocks like sudden illness and can easily fall in to extreme poverty. The current MOU leads the way to developing affordable health and life insurance products that provide security and safety net for the self help group members.