Making Voices Heard and Count in Bangladesh

 

The Leave No One Behind coalition in Bangladesh was founded in 2018. Since then, the country lead organisation is BRAC.

Current members (January 2021) are:

  • ActionAid Bangladesh
  • BRAC
  • CARE Bangladesh
  • CBM Bangladesh
  • Islamic Relief Bangladesh
  • Manusher Jonno Foundation
  • Save the Children Bangladesh
  • Transparency International Bangladesh
  • Plan Bangladesh
  • VSO Bangladesh

The country coalition has delivered a project pilot between 2018 and 2019, focussing on street dwellers and floating populations. Target SDG was SDG 3.8.

The scaled up project will be conducted between 2020 and 2022, focussing on SDGs 3, 10 and 16. Goal is to assess the accessibility of marginalised people to public resources and services and develop a feedback mechanism using community driven data. The project will reach at least 6.400 people from marginalised communities across 64 districts in the country (additional funding to increase scale).

Pilot Project (2018-2020)Ongoing Project (2020-2022)

Country PublicationsTargeted SDGs

Bangladesh Pilot

 

SDG Target

Target 3.8:

    Achieve universal health coverage, including financial risk protection, access to quality essential health-care services and access to safe, effective, quality and affordable essential medicines and vaccines for all.

Target groups

    Street dwellers and floating populations.

How did we engage marginalised groups in SDG monitoring?

    LNOB partners undertook a desk study to identify knowledge gaps, then convened group discussions, in depth interviews and key informant interviews in 3 sites with floating populations/street dwellers, govt. and non-govt. healthcare providers and policy makers (government officials). Using these methods, the survey team collected rich qualitative data to understand the experiences of the target populations.

Ways target groups are left behind

  • Street dwellers and floating populations in Bangladesh do not have access to quality healthcare and are excluded from almost all services offered by the government of Bangladesh.
  • Living on the street prevents street dwellers and floating populations from maintaining regular hygiene practices. They have low nutritional status and spend most of their income on food. Women are more vulnerable than men in terms of safety and security.
  • Street dwellers and floating populations generally do not visit health facilities or hospitals for common illnesses. Nearby drug shops are usually the first contact point for any treatment. In severe cases, they go to the Government Medical College Hospitals.
  • Financial hardship, long hospital queues, absence of identity cards and distance from services are the main reasons why they do not seek health care.
  • While there is a limited amount of free healthcare services available, these groups are excluded due to lack of money for tests or medicine and lack of information on the free services they are able to access.

What is missed in national reporting?

  • National surveys are based on the household, so they systematically exclude street dwellers/floating populations who do not have a fixed household address.
  • More broadly, national databases do not collect and represent disaggregated data on marginalized people.
  • Existing policies have failed to address the problems of healthcare in depth and identify the needs and priorities of marginalised people.

National advocacy impact so far

    The Bangladesh national coalition has collaborated informally with UNDP and WHO for technical support and resource mobilization. It has engaged government offices, including the NGO Affairs Bureau and the Bangladesh SDG Coordinator, who attended the first annual Leave No One Behind stakeholder meeting.

Recommendations

Service provision

  • Initiate mobile health clinics through public-private partnership (PPP) model to make services available for street-dwellers in a time and place convenient for them.
  • Introduce special identity cards to ease priority access to healthcare for floating populations/street dwellers and minimize the cost, especially of diagnosis and medicines.

Programme level

  • Improve coordination of interventions for floating populations/street dwellers.
  • Organise interventions to improve safety and basic amenities for floating population/street dwellers, including night shelters; day care centres; locker services; low cost hygienic food shops; free toilets and washing facilities.
  • Develop coordinated campaigns to build the awareness of floating populations/street dwellers on the existing low-cost services provided by public and private sectors.

Policy and health system level

  • Conduct a census of the floating population/street dwellers in Dhaka and other large cities to inform policy and programme planning.
  • Implement further research on floating populations and street dwellers to find out the best model for service provision for these populations including barriers and enablers that are accessible and acceptable to them, towards achieving universal healthcare by 2030 as envisaged by the government, leaving no one behind.

Ongoing Project (2020-2022)

Country PublicationsTargeted SDGs

Bangladesh Ongoing Project

Citizens’ Scorecard on public services and resources

Executive summary:

This project aims to develop a social accountability tool, which will be used to capture the voices of the most marginalised groups and make them heard by the government stakeholders. The tool will be used to evaluate the public services available to marginalised communities and increase awareness amongst service providers and local authorities to design inclusive services. Adding to that, this project aims to build the capacity of the marginalised groups so that they become able to utilize the tool as a feedback mechanism of the SDG progress monitoring.

Project duration 01/08/2020 – 31/06/2022
Desired goals and outcomes
  • Public Services (Specially Health) and resources are inclusive
  • Major policy gaps and operational challenges of reaching out to the marginalised groups identified and incorporated in policy recommendations
  • Developed National priority indicator wise SDG progress monitoring mechanism for the marginalised groups
Research focus topic(s) To assess the accessibility of marginalised people to public resources and services and develop a feedback mechanism using community driven data.
SDGs/indicators covered
  • SDG 3 (3.7 & 3.8)
  • SDG 10 (10.2)
  • SDG 16 (16.6 & 16.7)
  • Currently developing proxy indicators to measure SDGs 10 & 16
Data generation methodology(s)
  • Community scorecards used to collect views of marginalised groups in 64 districts; grassroots organisations trained to hold group discussions, scoring and Key Informant Interviews in 6-month intervals
  • Workshop held in August 2020 to develop scorecard
  • Indicators: inclusiveness, transparency, accountability and participation for healthcare (COVID-19 and regular diseases) and food / cash assistance (targeting and distribution) services
  • Continuous community-driven data used for trend analysis and advocacy
  • KII pool utilised for rapid assessments / perception surveys in the event of an economic / natural disaster (assessing their state and level or inclusion)
Marginalised groups targeted Ethnic Minorities (covered in 33 districts), Transgenders (in 64 districts), Sex Workers, Persons with Disabilities (in 64 districts), People living in Hard-to-Reach Areas, Dalits (64 districts), Bedes, People living with HIV/AIDS (in 64 districts), Acid Survivors, Elderly people engaged in begging (in 64 districts), Urban floating people (in 64 districts).
Research locations 64 districts in Bangladesh
Total number of people reached 6,400 (min. 100 persons per district)
Number of trainings / capacity building workshops 3 (online/offline trainings for grassroots organisations gather and train 10-20 community participants to collect scores in focus group discussions), aiming at mobilising at least 192 grassroots organisations
Number of dialogues with local authorities / decision makers 3
Number of dialogues with national authorities 2–4
Number of policy / service recommendations to be produced 2–3
Targeted government institutions
  • Ministries (esp. Ministry of Social Welfare and Ministry of Planning)
  • Local government (monitoring committee together with LNOB platform, once score card tool adopted)
Lead implementer BRAC
Other project partners
  • ActionAid Bangladesh
  • CBM Bangladesh
  • Islamic Relief Bangladesh
  • Manusher Jonno Foundation
  • Plan International Bangladesh
  • Save the Children Bangladesh
  • Transparency International Bangladesh

The ongoing project in Bangladesh is supported by the Robert Bosch Stiftung.

Country PublicationsTargeted SDGs

Bangladesh Publications

Infographic - Basic Public Services for the Marginalised Groups in Bangladesh

This infographic visualizes the key findings and methodologies from the coalition's recent MVHC project.

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Basic Public Services for the Marginalised Groups in Bangladesh

This report highlights the key findings and methodologies from the coalition's recent MVHC project, and offers recommendations to the duty bearers to address the gaps in government services.

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Report on Citizen Scorecard Project

The report summarises the national coalition's project "Citizens’ Assessment of District Level COVID-19 Responses"

Cover image of the report from the LNOB Bangladesh coalition titled "Citizens’ Assessment of District Level COVID-19 Responses: Focus on food-cash assistance and health services for the marginalised groups"

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Infograph on Citizen Scorecard Project

Infograph on the national coalition's project "Citizens’ Assessment of District Level COVID-19 Responses"

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COVID-19 Wreaking Havoc on Bangladesh’s Poor: A Story of Food, Cash, and Health Crises

This article highlights the situation of ten marginalised groups in Bangladesh, including ethnic minorities (indigenous peoples), river gypsies, elderly people involved in begging, people living with HIV/AIDS, people living in hard-to-reach areas, sex-workers, and Dalits.

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Summary - Pilot study Bangladesh

This document outlines the findings from the Bangladesh LNOB coalition's work during the pilot phase 2018 - 2019

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Our Target SDGS in Bangladesh

Click on the SDG to reveal more information

3. Ensure healthy lives and promote well-being for all at all ages
3. Ensure healthy lives and promote well-being for all at all ages

3. Ensure healthy lives and promote well-being for all at all ages

Ensuring healthy lives and promoting the well-being for all at all ages is essential to sustainable development. Significant strides have been made in increasing life expectancy and reducing some of the common killers associated with child and maternal mortality. Major progress has been made on increasing access to clean water and sanitation, reducing malaria, tuberculosis, polio and the spread of HIV/AIDS. However, many more efforts are needed to fully eradicate a wide range of diseases and address many different persistent and emerging health issues.

Related Bangladesh Targets

3.7

By 2030, ensure universal access to sexual and reproductive health-care services, including for family planning, information and education, and the integration of reproductive health into national strategies and programmes

3.8

Achieve universal health coverage, including financial risk protection, access to quality essential health-care services and access to safe, effective, quality and affordable essential medicines and vaccines for all

10. Reduce inequality within and among countries
10. Reduce inequality within and among countries

10. Reduce inequality within and among countries

The international community has made significant strides towards lifting people out of poverty. The most vulnerable nations – the least developed countries, the landlocked developing countries and the small island developing states – continue to make inroads into poverty reduction. However, inequality still persists and large disparities remain in access to health and education services and other assets.

Additionally, while income inequality between countries may have been reduced, inequality within countries has risen. There is growing consensus that economic growth is not sufficient to reduce poverty if it is not inclusive and if it does not involve the three dimensions of sustainable development – economic, social and environmental.

To reduce inequality, policies should be universal in principle paying attention to the needs of disadvantaged and marginalized populations.

Related Bangladesh Targets

10.2

By 2030, empower and promote the social, economic and political inclusion of all, irrespective of age, sex, disability, race, ethnicity, origin, religion or economic or other status

16. Promote just, peaceful and inclusive societies
16. Promote just, peaceful and inclusive societies

16. Promote just, peaceful and inclusive societies

Goal 16 of the Sustainable Development Goals is dedicated to the promotion of peaceful and inclusive societies for sustainable development, the provision of access to justice for all, and building effective, accountable institutions at all levels.

Related Bangladesh Targets

16.6

Develop effective, accountable and transparent institutions at all levels

16.7

Ensure responsive, inclusive, participatory and representative decision-making at all levels