5. Process of Participatory Planning and Budgeting at the Local Level

Formation of a WC is obligatory for organizing WS. The WC allows the public (school teachers, social workers, non-government organization (NGO) officers, freedom fighters, etc.) to participate in the decision-making process of the ward.

In the operational manual of UP, under LGSP-II project fund, it specifies the compliance of the formation of various committees, people’s involvement with these committees and functions of making plans for decision-making and implementation of those plans.

The chairs of those UPs are supporters of the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP).

The economic condition of this AL leader is not weak and his wife has no training in sewing. This incorrect distribution of benefit occurred due to the lack of social mapping, which is discussed in the next section.

The local NGO “Sacheton” works under the local governance project name “Sharique” in the Rajshahi District.

Official formalities mean the task of maintaining a record of formation of the committee.

Theoretically, the public are supposed to participate in the project selection and finalization process. Here, feasible means the possibility of implementation of those plans that are proposed by the citizens at WS, even though scrutiny would be given by the members of the SCs.

Theoretically, leaders in any organization need three types of skills: conceptual, human, and technical. These abilities depend on the types of administrators who run any organization. In any organization, there are generally three types of employee: top level management employees, middle level management employees and bottom level employees. It varies with what organizations need, what types of employees the organization has and what types of employees possess what types of ability (Katz, 1955, p. 33).

The Food for Work (FFW) programs by the World Food Program (WFP) have been implemented at Vadai UP by a local NGO named “Hitoishi”. The women of that locality deposit a fixed amount of money on a weekly basis with the NGO officials. According to the officer, the poor women members are depositing money with their organization. They receive a certain amount of food grain against the food distribution program of WFP. After a certain period, the women would get their money back. She argued that this program will enhance their economic capacity to invest the money in another employment generation program. The project officer of the “Setu Project” of ESDO, funded by the Cooperative for Assistance and Relief Everywhere (CARE), described his working procedure at Kakina UP as follows: “At first we, the officers of our project, divide the village people among small groups. We do well-being analysis of the local poor people. On the basis of the analysis we provided Tk. 8000–9000 as financial assistance to the poor men and women for the purpose of small business such as purchase for daily work, cow rearing, spice farming such as garlic and ginger etc. With this type of engagement with people, we are also doing some other project implementation. The people achieved 100% sanitation coverage. The people have decided what they need and we, the officials, have provided the service to help them to get it.”

There have been numerous national NGOs working in the study area. However, the beneficiaries of the projects have been selected by the NGO officials exclusively for the NGOs program implementation. A combined social map from the NGOs has not been made with the UP.

It has been observed that, at Hatikumrul and Ghurka UPs, there is involvement of two NGOs who are implementing a project entitled Char Livelihood Project (CLP). A local NGO named “Manab Mukti Sangstha” (MMS) is responsible for the development of the citizens affected by river erosion. In those UPs, their programs have been implemented for the betterment of the population of the UP. At first, the NGO officials conduct social mapping about the socio-economic condition of the citizens of certain UPs of their working areas. Women members were selected for implementation of various development projects at Ghurka UP based on that social mapping. The members were provided with a specific amount of food and money as per instruction of the funding agency.

At first, it seemed that people who were sampled for interview had really attended the WS of Wards 1, 4, and 7 of all UPs. However, it has been revealed that not everyone whose names had been listed in the book participated. In Hariyan and Gogram UPs, various service receivers’ lists such as VGD, FFW etc., have also been cross-checked with the participants of WS. During field visits, it was revealed that the names of the respondents in Hariyan and Gogram were not found among those entered in the resolution book at the planning process of WS. So four respondents from each UP had been selected from the concerned UP’s final service recipient list of FY 2012–2013.

The female respondents of Ward 4 and male and female respondents of Ward 7 of Hatikumrul UP were not found for interview, since the resolution book of Ward 4 did not contain any female participant’s name and the researcher did not find the participants of Ward 7 in their ward.

One Focus Group Discussion (FGD) session with female inhabitants has revealed how the UP functionaries organized WS with financial assistance from a local NGO. The announcement regarding the WS was made in the name of a cultural program of that NGO. The WM arranged the meeting and 117 people attended. A few participants of the FGD session were also present in the WS but their names were not included in the resolution book. Only seven demands regarding road construction, one tube well, and sanitary latrines were tabled at the meeting. The women participants did not make any demands at the meeting. This process took very little time and then the meeting turned to a cultural program with professional singers.

The decisions of the resolution of WS of various wards of Vadai UP revealed that the WS was specifically confined to LGSP-related demands and two demands were narrowly selected for each ward for the FY 2012–2013. The process just maintained the formality of selection. This WS failed to gather people’s demands. The meetings were organized at UP member’s premises. The neighbors were invited to the UP member’s home and entertained with tea and snacks. The formality of organizing a WS had been maintained and signatures of the voters were taken for quorum. The UP member did not understand the real objectives of the meeting and the gathering did not make any demands at the WS. FGD data revealed that for fulfilling the quorum, UP chowkiders were sent for collection of signature of the voters and the poor and powerless rural people were forced to sign the resolution book.

Appendix H shows the percentage of people’s participation at the WS for the planning of FY 2012–2013.

Interview Data, Vadai UP, Ward 1, 4, 7, 6 February 2014, Interview Data, Hatikumrul UP, Ward 4, 28 January 2014, and Interview Data, Hatikumrul UP, Ward 7, 26 January 2014.

Discussion on the formation and function of these committees is made in Chap. 4.

It has been revealed in the previous section that resource constraints are one of the reasons why the WMs did not organize WS and undertook some projects under LGSP-II funds. It has been revealed that the UP functionaries of different UPs have implemented a few projects narrowly within the LGSP-II fund.

FGD data of this study have also confirmed that some of the participants in the interviews were also members of that SC and participated at that SC meeting.

There is a provision in the Act of 2009 that specifies that nine officers of various government offices will work with their attached departments at UP level (see Appendix D).

A joint initiative under Danish and Bangladesh Government named Hygiene, Sanitation and Water Supply Project (HYSAWA) is facilitating and promoting UP-based investments focusing on the poor, unserved, and under-served areas. It has been revealed that the tube well distribution under the project is being operated by the NGO officials only.

Taking attendance for WS has been found to be an effective measure for monitoring ward-based planning processes. The signatures taken by the WMs are evidence of attendance of public at WS and are available in the WS resolution book.

Four OBMs of the Hariyan, the Gogram UP of the Rajshahi district, the Ghurka, and the Hatikumrul UP were observed. The UP officials also provided budget copies to the people participating at those OBMs.

Appendix I shows a budget copy provided by the concerned UP.

The Sacheton - a local NGO funded by the Sharique Project of Helvetas Swiss Intercooperation assisted the two UPs of the Rajshahi district whereas the UP functionaries of Ghurka and Hatikumrul UP organized OBMs. The focus of Sharique is to improve the condition of the poor, women and other marginalized groups of the society.

Article 14 of the Act of 2009 specified that the draft of the UZP’s budget has to be sent to the MP of that UZP, the UPs and to the municipalities etc., and uploaded to the UZP’s websites for public comment.