BRAC Blog

BRAC ranked #4 in the TOP 100 NGO list by Global Journal

noreply@blogger.com (Michelle Chaplin) — Wed, 25 Jan 2012 15:53:00 +0000

This month's issue of The Global Journal ranked BRAC as #4 in its list of top 100 NGOs in the world. Here's what they had to say about us:

Size is not necessarily a reflection of quality. To focus on the fact that BRAC (formerly the Bangladesh Rural Advancement Committee) has grown into the world’s ‘largest development organization’, therefore, is to miss the real story of this enterprise’s remarkable leadership in the fight against global poverty.

Established by former Shell Oil executive Sir Fazle Hasan Abed in 1972 soon after the independence of Bangladesh, BRAC was part of an influential wave of organizations – alongside the Grameen Bank and ASA – that went on to revolutionize development strategies not only in their home countries, but across the world. Unlike its counterparts, however, which focused on refining and expanding their pioneering micro-credit and micro-finance models, BRAC also added a range of social programs to the mix and has continued to diversify and leverage its unique ability to achieve economies of scale over time.

While still involved in micro-finance activities – indeed, having issued approximately $5 billion in micro-loans to date – BRAC reaches more than 110 million people with its holistic, sustainable approach to poverty reduction that uses these micro-finance groups as a social platform to deliver scaled-up services in health, education, business development and livelihood support. Moreover, the organization has expanded its model into nine other countries in Asia, Africa and the Caribbean.

Currently doing everything from training door-to-door health volunteers, to implementing a mobile health project whereby volunteers can share real-time information about their patients, to running 32,000 informal ‘BRAC Schools’, and giving almost 7 million people access to sanitary latrines, BRAC is in many ways a microcosm of the entire international development sector in one organization. Unlike most of its overseas counterparts, however, BRAC covers almost 80 percent of its $485 million budget through a number of social enterprises, including a dairy project, a chain of retail handicraft stores, a pioneering poultry venture and commercial fish farming.

At the same time – realizing that massive scale also means ample scope for inefficiencies and wastage – BRAC has emerged as a leader in program monitoring and evaluation. The organization has established a standalone Research and Evaluation Division that collaborates with academic and research institutions and other development organizations to gauge the effectiveness of its interventions.

Looking ahead, BRAC is preparing to shift its focus towards city-based schemes in anticipation of the projected one-third growth in Bangladesh’s population over the next five years.

BRAC Kanon makes a Debut at Dhaka International Trade Fair

noreply@blogger.com (BRAC Blog) — Tue, 17 Jan 2012 06:17:00 +0000

A little BRAC flavour has been added to the Dhaka International Trade Fair (DITF) 2012! A stall for BRAC Green Enterprise Kanon is present at the 2012 fair, imparting a touch of BRAC Enterprises, its values and its mission on all in attendance.

BRAC Kanon is a solar-powered sales and display center that is the country’s first ever green retail outlet promoting environmental responsibility and resources sustainability. As an outlet of BRAC Green Enterprise, BRAC Kanon enables environmentally conscientious consumption by featuring products and services from BRAC Solar, Nursery, Recycled Handmade Paper, and Sericulture. The outlet offers ornamental, medicinal, timber and fruit plants, seedlings, landscaping and plant rental services, silk products crafted by rural artisans, recycled handmade paper products and office stationary, and energy saving solar instant power supply and power solutions.

BRAC Kanon was inaugurated in Dhaka on December 3rd. As a green initiative, BRAC Kanon aims to encourage city-dwellers and corporate offices to help save our planet through the conservation of energy and funds. BRAC Kanon continues to investigate and implement new resource and energy saving materials, products, services and business models.

BRAC Announces its first Global Facebook Competition

noreply@blogger.com (BRAC Blog) — Tue, 10 Jan 2012 09:16:00 +0000

In celebration of the 40th anniversary of BRAC in February, BRAC has announced an innovation challenge competition. You too can take part. Innovation is one of the core values of BRAC, world’s largest development organization. Visit BRAC’s blog and website to get a sense our strategy, previous activities, and the people we work with. Some major issues that we are currently confronted with are climate change, urban poverty, realizing the potential for the young people. See also the facebook album where we are highlighting forty of our best innovations from the past. Come up with your own solution on how you can change the world to a more inclusive and equitable place.

First round: Summarize your idea, in a succinct Facebook post. The first round of submission will be ending on 22nd January 2012. Users will post their innovation ideas. The winners of this round will be decided through the number of ‘likes’ and votes from a panel of judges within BRAC.

Second Round: 10 of the best ideas will be announced via Facebook update/tweet. These individuals will then be encouraged to submit a lengthier summary and explanation of their innovation via email. Based on which, the winner will be announced on February 6.

What Kind of Innovations are we looking for?
“Truly transformative innovations arise from urgent need” -Sir Fazle Hasan Abed.

Remember: Space is limited, so choose your wording carefully. It is important to mention the problem you are addressing, the idea, any evidence that the idea will work and the size of the population that it will be helping. Keep in mind, the winner is partially determined by the amount of ‘likes’ you generate, so be ready to sell the idea to the Facebook community. Also BRAC judges will score ideas based on relevance of problem it is trying to solve, its innovativeness and its potential for scaling.

Dates: You can submit your ideas up until January 23rd. Voting (likes) can continue until 11.59 AM, January 23th. But the earlier you submit the more chances you have to get the votes.

Where: www.facebook.com/bracworld

Eligibility: Anyone in the world with a passion for innovation and development is eligible for the event. In order to participate, you must “like” BRAC on Facebook. Those who want to know the results also have to like the page to get the updates from the BRAC pages.

Grand Prize:

A chance to develop your innovation project further at BRAC's Social Innovation Lab
Aarong (BRAC's retail shopping outlet) Gift Certificate and/or gifts.
Copy of the book 'Freedom From Want' autographed by Sir Fazle Hasan Abed, Founder and Chairman of BRAC
Ticket to the 40th Anniversary Exclusive Gala Event, 10 February in Dhaka.

Facebook Page: www.facebook.com/bracworld
BRAC twitter Page: twitter.com/#!/BRACWorld

Beyond Microfinance

noreply@blogger.com (Michelle Chaplin) — Thu, 05 Jan 2012 13:15:00 +0000

The following was originally posted by Daniel Vidal on the Whole Planet Foundation blog.

Access to capital for the poor is absolutely critical if we want to eradicate poverty. It’s why at Whole Planet Foundation, this is what we focus on – raising funds to distribute to microfinance institutions (MFIs) who lend the money out to the poor. Unfortunately, the poorest countries also tend lack proper infrastructure, access to public health servants and even plans to protect its citizens from natural disasters. We’ve seen the heart-breaking results of this in Haiti, who has suffered seriously in the past years from earthquakes and hurricanes. Another unfortunate truth is that, because of these exterior influences/factors access to capital isn’t the only thing the poor need.

What if your business is running perfectly, you’re saving money and about to send you children to school, but a flood hits and washes all your product away? Or a family member becomes sick and you need to use to your savings to travel 100 miles to receive medical attention? It’s the unavoidable that can stop any progress the poor make.

This is why it is so great that some of our partners offer services beyond microfinance.

Pro Mujer, a partner in Latin America, offers high-quality, low-cost primary health care in addition to its microfinance services and business and empowerment training. You might remember from the podcast that I posted a little while back. Learn more.

“Pro Mujer believes that health is women’s most precious asset, a key to their wellbeing and success in the home, the workplace, and their community. Health care is particularly crucial for entrepreneurs because an illness can deplete savings and other assets, keep them away from their business, and cause other disruptions that can threaten a business.”

Fonkoze, our partner in Haiti, is also very innovative in their offerings. They have many different programs to help them better serve the poor in their region, but, what might be the most important, at least recently, is their disaster relief programs. Learn more.

“However, our experience has taught us that, while special programs are effective, our clients deserve a permanent solution to help them better protect the assets they work so hard to build. Therefore, in 2009, Fonkoze and its local insurance partner, AIC, began developing the details of a new catastrophic insurance product that would cover the personal and business assets of Fonkoze clients in the case of natural disaster.”

We also partner with BRAC, in several regions around the world. BRAC has an extensive network and many services, but one that I particularly like is their education programs. Watch the video below to learn more.

“To date, nearly 5 million children, mostly girls, have graduated from BRAC schools and an overwhelming majority of them have gone into the public school system, performing, on average, better than their mainstream peers.”

It’s these services and programs that we take for granted, I think especially here in the US, but it’s these services and programs that can make a tremendous difference in the lives of the poor. I think as long as we have continue down this path, we can slowly, but surely, eradicate poverty and empower the poorest of the poor, providing them with ways to reach the quality of life that they all deserve.

Note: Each of these MFIs do more than I have the space to talk about, and we have many more partners that all have their own unique offerings. I encourage you to explore them yourselves by visiting our implementing partners page.

What programs do you think are most important when serving the poor?

Same Continent, Different Worlds

noreply@blogger.com (Michelle Chaplin) — Wed, 04 Jan 2012 13:59:00 +0000

The following was originally posted by Tejal Desai, a Kiva Fellow working with BRAC in Sierra Leone, on the Kiva Stories from the Field blog.

Ow de body! Are Sierra Leone and Rwanda still danger zones? What challenges do Ugandans most commonly face? Kiva Fellows from KF16 bring you another unique perspective from the diverse and vast continent of Africa! We patched together an overview of each of our placement countries that includes: basic socioeconomic stats, common stereotypes (and to what extent they are true or false), greatest challenges, most common loan products at our respective field partners, and the borrowers’ most common use of their profits. Our part 2 series follows the Kiva Fellows through Sierra Leone, Rwanda, and Uganda. We hope our summaries give you a new perspective on the continent and its distinct countries that we’ve been fortunate to explore, thanks to the Kiva fellowship!

1. Basic country stats

% Living Below Poverty Line: 70.2% (CIA World Factbook)
Average Annual Income: $903 (kiva.org)
% Women in the Workforce: Adult female pop labor force participation: 65.4%, but women only earn 42% as much as men.

2. Most common stereotype about Sierra Leone
One common stereotype is that Sierra Leone is a very dangerous place to live and visit, with rebel crime and diamond smuggling being widespread occurrences.

Sierra Leone’s decade-long civil war, which ended in 2002, has been brought to the attention of mainstream audiences by films like Blood Diamond, and has tainted this beautiful country’s image. Although this war is responsible for over 2,000,000 displaced Sierra Leoneans and 50,000 dead, Sierra Leone as a nation has been making strides forward to leave behind the legacy, has invested in the development of its infrastructure, and is considered one of West Africa’s safest destinations.

3. Greatest challenge
Sierra Leone’s high cost of living creates many challenges, as it is seldom adjusted for inflation, especially with the rising costs of food and fuel. For some perspective: rice, a Sierra Leone staple, runs about $25-30 for 50 kilograms, a taxi ride across town costs $1-2, and almost 70% of the population lives under $1.25 a day. BRAC borrowers cite inflation as the biggest threat to their businesses, as depreciating inventory creates holes in revenue and risk for increasing their quantity of goods. Hassan, picture above, owns a grain shop in Waterloo, Sierra Leone, and says inflation makes it difficult for him to keep up with losses in the value of gari (processed cassava, photo above) and rice.

4. Most common loan product at field partner, BRAC Sierra LeoneThe microloan is the most popular ($100-$300 loans), but another loan product on the rise is the SEP loan – small enterprise loan, which is offered to business owners who want to expand their business (more info here).

5. Clients’ most common use of profitsMany BRAC borrowers utilize their profits to expand their businesses, but a majority cite paying for school fees and education this as the most common use of their profits. The cost of primary education in 2004 was 53,000 SLL (around $26) per student, and has only increased since. Parents struggle to cover the costs of additional costs that come with education: school supplies, increasing costs of transportation, and uniforms.

Whitney Webb & Kathrin Gerner, Rwanda

1. Basic country stats
Rwanda has a population of 10.6 million with 56% of the citizens living below the poverty line. The average annual income is $1000 USD and women make up 53% of the workforce.

2. Most common stereotype about Rwanda
The first things that come to most people’s minds when they hear Rwanda? Genocide. War Zone. Danger. These are some of the key words I heard from people in reaction to hearing where I was placed for my fellowship.

Yes, Rwanda suffered the worst genocides in recent African history. There is no changing the fact that roughly 20% of the Rwandan population was murdered in 1994. However, the country has since moved forward with acceptance and strength. Today, Rwanda is one of the cleanest, safest, and most organized countries in Africa to live or visit.

3. Greatest challenge
One of the big issues in Rwanda right now is the lack of available land. Rwanda is the most densely populated country in Africa and the population continues to grow at 3% a year. Roughly 90% of the population makes a living through agriculture. There is simply not enough land to go around.

Every time I visit the land of some of our agricultural borrowers, I am amazed at how small the plots actually are. The average landholder owns 0.5 hectares of farmland. It is unbelievable to see these plots stretch up the side of a hill that seems too steep to even climb.

There have been several government programs established such as land consolidation, improved seeds and fertilizers, and the irrigation of unusable land. Progress has been made, but as the population is set to double in 24 years, Rwanda will continue to fight an uphill battle.

4. Most common loan product at field partner, Urwego Opportunity Bank of Rwanda (UOB)
The most common loan product at Urwego is the group loan. These loans are usually used to grow businesses selling vegetables, clothing, kitchen goods, or textiles. The group members are accountable for each other and guarantee one another’s debt.

5. Clients’ most common use of profits
The most common intended use of profits from a loan is to create a savings account. Many borrowers state that they wish to put money away to create a better future for their families.

Andrew Huelsenbeck, Uganda

1. Basic country stats

Population: 34,612,250
Languages: English (schools, law and some newspapers and radio), Luganda, and many others
Religions: Roman Catholic (41.9%), Protestant (42%), Muslim (12.1%)
Age Structure: 0-14 (49.9%), 15-64 (48.1%), 65+ (2.1%)
Population living below the poverty line: 35%
Average Family Income: about $200 per year
Sex division in the work force: Nearly three quarters of all formal salaried positions are held by men. But if we also count the informal sector, then the numbers are much closer to being equal, with women constituting about 47% of the workforce.

Sources include the CIA world factbook, Gorilla Safari, and Taxation and gender equity: a comparative analysis of direct and indirect taxes in developing and developed countries by Caren Grown and Imraan Valodia.

2. Most common stereotypes about Uganda

Ugandans are short-sited and will not succeed at paying back loans because they will use the money on other side projects.
Ugandans are difficult to employ because they often misappropriate company funds.

Both of these are actually fairly common problems in Uganda, but the problem seems to have less to do with the Ugandan people, and more with incentive structures. Many Ugandans have a lot on pressing issues on their plates: hungry and sick family members, school fees, houses and other construction projects, expensive funerals, etc. It makes sense that they would get money any way they can and then use it to cover the costs of these things in the short term. It also makes sense for Ugandans to not work hard and to take money if they are not monitored and are not in danger of losing their jobs, or worse, in danger of facing serious legal repercussions. Without penalties, I think many people elsewhere in the world would act similarly.

BRAC Uganda has done a fantastic job of creating incentive structures to prevent this kind of behavior. They train their borrowers in financial management and make them sign formal promissory notes before receiving any money. In addition, BRAC has many program managers and an entire department devoted to constantly monitoring borrowers and employees. When, for example, there is any evidence that an employee has misappropriated funds, managers in the Country Office will launch a full-scale investigation and will terminate the employee if necessary. These measures help immensely in navigating around stereotypically Ugandan tendencies.

3. Greatest challenges

Power outages: At the BRAC Uganda Country Office, the power is out about 50% of the time. This is because the hydroelectric dam on the Nile is not producing enough energy to power all of Kampala all the time. At BRAC, we are lucky in that we have a back up generator, which kicks on every time the power goes out. But for other business owners who don’t have the luxury of owning a generator, these outages can substantially reduce productivity. This is especially true for business owners just outside of Kampala, who sometimes see only a few hours of power each week.

Inflation: Inflation has been a huge problem in Uganda recently. Hovering at around 30%, it has reduced real incomes and has substantially increased the costs of living and doing business. This, in conjunction with regional droughts, has caused the prices of staples like matooke, sweet potatoes and charcoal to skyrocket.

4. Most common loan product at field partner, BRAC Uganda

Standard group microloans, which range anywhere from 100-800 USD. They are given to more than 125,000 women who are members of around 6,000 community-based microfinance groups throughout Uganda. BRAC also provides these women with training, technical assistance and helps them find ways to save. The women that receive the loans are often between 20 and 50 years old with little or no education. Virtually none of them have access to the formal financial sector or even to other microfinance products.

5. Clients’ most common use of profitsThere are a number of ways that Ugandans are using the profits they are gaining from microfinancing. These mainly include sending their children to school, reinvesting in their businesses, and buying plots of land to build houses for their families.

Pathways to Secure and Sustainable Livelihoods

noreply@blogger.com (Michelle Chaplin) — Tue, 03 Jan 2012 15:00:00 +0000

The following was originally posted on The MasterCard Foundation blog.

The MasterCard Foundation has partnered with BRAC USA and BRAC Development Institute to test a new model to move people out of extreme poverty. This project is conducted in collaboration with CGAP and Ford Foundation. Michelle Chaplin, Program Manager at BRAC USA, highlights progress and impact of the project in Ethiopia.

In October 2011, Ann Miles (Director of Microfinance at The MasterCard Foundation) and Susan Davis (President and CEO of BRAC USA), visited the Ethiopia CGAP-Ford Foundation Graduation Program in Tigray. This program is a global effort to understand how safety nets, livelihood training and microfinance can be sequenced to create a pathway to help the poorest move, or “graduate,” out of extreme poverty. The CGAP-Ford Foundation Graduation Program is helping to implement ten Graduation Pilots in eight countries, in partnership with local organizations.

The MasterCard Foundation partnered with BRAC USA to support BRAC Development Institute (BDI) in conducting qualitative research on the pilot programs as well as monitoring the implementation of the programs. What effect do the programs have on the lives of the participants? What are the challenges that the participants face? To what extent have their lives improved? In collaboration with CGAP and the Ford Foundation, BDI has conducted qualitative research in Ethiopia, Haiti, India and Pakistan.

Through the qualitative research, we have learned that program participants in the Ethiopia pilot are saving formally for the first time and productive assets given to them from the program are generating income. Participants can now envision coming off the Government of Ethiopia’s Productive Safety Net Program and graduating into a secure and sustainable livelihood. The Ethiopia qualitative research paper will be published in January 2012 and all other papers can be accessed on the CGAP-Ford Foundation Graduation Program website.

While on their visit in Ethiopia, Ann and Susan attended a workshop that assessed the early successes and challenges of the program in the wider context of programs in Ethiopia that aim to reach the poorest and regions affected by food insecurity. The following short film highlights key takeaways from that workshop. It captures the stories of the participants and insights from facilitators of the Ethiopia pilot program.

The Year in Microfinance

noreply@blogger.com (Michelle Chaplin) — Thu, 29 Dec 2011 13:01:00 +0000

The following was originally posted by BRAC USA President & CEO Susan Davis on the Financial Access Initiative (FAI) blog.

Critics of microfinance have knocked down an army of straw men in recent years, and 2011 was no different. But it’s high time for microfinance practitioners stop being defensive. We know enough about the perils and potentials of poverty-focused microfinance to address the real needs of the poor.

Early champions, including Sir Fazle Hasan Abed of BRAC, Mohammad Yunus of Grameen and Ela Bhatt of India’s Self-Employed Women’s Association, recognized that financial services alone would not be sufficient to break the bonds of poverty. Critics of microfinance became more shrill in 2011, but as a recent article in The New Republic points out, “the growing backlash is in danger of overcorrecting.”

Going into 2012, the microfinance field faces three key challenges:

Serving the ultra-poor. We’ve seen that in poor countries, those at the bottom 10 percent of the economic pyramid too often remain impervious to microfinance-based solutions. With pilots in eight countries worldwide, CGAP and Ford Foundation are now adapting and testing “graduation programs,” a holistic and rigorous approach to helping the ultra-poor get on a pathway out of poverty. Based on BRAC initiatives launched in Bangladesh in the 1990s, the programs involve asset transfers, consumption stipends, savings, social support, financial education and coaching to bolster self-confidence. BRAC research showed that 80 percent of the ultra-poor “graduate” and stay out of extreme poverty five years after these programs ends. The majority then take advantage of micro-finance.

Advancing “microfinance multiplied.” Major philanthropies have already caught on to the BRAC approach of “microfinance multiplied,” which amplifies the impact of microfinance services by using networks of self-employed entrepreneurs to provide additional livelihood development services to the poor. The MasterCard Foundation, for example, is expanding BRAC’s programs in Uganda, with interventions across livelihood and education value chains. (See our chapter on “Using Microfinance Plus Agricultural Services to Improve Rural Livelihoods and Food Security,” in New Pathways out of Poverty.) The partnership is well on track to reach 4.2 million people, or 12 percent of the country’s population, by 2016.

Using technology appropriately. In a world enamored of technology, it’s often the low-cost, low-tech solutions that have proven the most viable. But mobile solutions have finally arrived in microfinance and will see increased emphasis in 2012. This year saw the launch of bKash Limited, a subsidiary of BRAC Bank, allowing easier reach of financial services to those previously deemed “unbankable,” including the poorest and most vulnerable members of society.

As Yale economist Dean Karlan points out, microfinance still offers “a range of valuable economic tools,” but the key is to focus on the actual needs of the poor: not just loans, but real opportunities to lift themselves out of poverty.

Susan Davis is President and CEO of BRAC USA. FAI invited Ms. Davis and others to offer her insights and reflections on the important events, opportunities and challenges facing microfinance this past year. This post is the first in an ongoing series featuring guest bloggers on the Year in Microfinance. These contributions will be posted weekly on the FAI site into the New Year. FAI also invites you to participate by telling us your own thoughts and opinions about the year in microfinance via comments.

Year in review 2011

noreply@blogger.com (BRAC Blog) — Thu, 29 Dec 2011 09:47:00 +0000

2011 has been a pivotal year for BRAC, in almost every aspect.

Providing warmth in times of drastic weather change

noreply@blogger.com (BRAC Blog) — Mon, 26 Dec 2011 10:31:00 +0000

Last week, multiple individuals in Bangladesh’s northern regions lost their lives due to lack of adequate warm clothing. The temperature recently significantly dropped, leaving many villagers unprepared for the elements, often leading to tragedy.

BRAC Education Programme immediately responded by distributing a clothing package worth two crore BD taka ($250,000). Clothing was distributed in in 15 districts amongst 108,750 recipients of underprivileged backgrounds.

BRAC is also hosting a “warm clothes drive” in Dhaka, in which individuals can donate old/used clothes. The donation bin is located on the ground floor of BRAC Centre, 75 Mohakhali, Dhaka, Bangladesh.

BRAC-ing Barriers to Development

noreply@blogger.com (Michelle Chaplin) — Thu, 22 Dec 2011 20:03:00 +0000

The following was originally posted on the Kravis Prize blog. BRAC's founder, Sir Fazle Hasan Abed, won the Karavis prize in 2007.

It’s evident in their work that Kravis Prize winners are making great strides towards achieving the United Nations Millennium Development Goals. One example is BRAC, which offers programs around the world that span topics from microfinance to girls’ education and health care. BRAC USA CEO Susan Davis recently was featured on ABC News and discussed BRAC’s involvement in the Million Moms Challenge, which aims to reduce child mortality and improve maternal health:

“Things have really improved. Just look at the number of deaths that have happened from women dying from childbirth. We’ve been able to almost halve it to 12,000 a year to 7,300. … So in terms of setting a goal for the year 2015 that the whole world is striving to achieve, we’ve gotten there, at least in these few areas. And I think for Bangladesh, we’re on track to get there and that is dramatic.”

She also discussed BRAC’s strategy to implement change:

“BRAC has figured out a way to prevent the leading causes of death during childbirth. The solutions aren’t particularly high-tech or don’t often require advanced medical degrees. They only require that we work directly with the poor, within their communities, and trust them to do the things that are needed, with a small amount of proper training, to take care of their neighbors.”

To read more of what Davis has to say, click here for her op-ed and a brief video.

To find out more about 2007 Kravis Prize winner and BRAC Founder Sir Fazle Abed, go to our page.

Help her make a future of her own design

noreply@blogger.com (Michelle Chaplin) — Wed, 21 Dec 2011 17:02:00 +0000

In the village in Bangladesh where Shumi grew up, it was considered taboo for parents to let their daughters go outside. That meant no access to education, no freedom, and probably an early marriage to a much older man.

Instead of succumbing to this fate, Shumi joined BRAC's adolescent girls program, where we provided her with a safe space to meet other girls, life skills education, a microfinance loan of $37 and training on how to start a business running a beauty salon.

Thanks to your support, Shumi is generating income for herself and her family. Now, she has the courage to stand up for herself and the girls in her village — she's even a mentor in her local BRAC girls club!

Help Shumi and BRAC provide the same guidance and opportunities to other women and girls by making a gift to BRAC today. A gift of $100 will help a girl like Shumi change her own life, and she will multiply your gift by forging a pathway out of poverty for her family and her community. This is the Girl Effect.

40 Years of Freedom: A Reflection

noreply@blogger.com (BRAC Blog) — Tue, 20 Dec 2011 09:46:00 +0000

16th December 2011, Bangladeshis around the world, celebrated the 40th Victory Day. Four decades earlier, the state of East Pakistan was dissolved; resulting in the birth of a new nation, Bangladesh. Nine months of bloody civil war, marked by atrocities, genocide and vicious war-crimes left an already struggling nation in shambles, both socially and economically.

The return of millions of refugees, along with the lack of necessary foreign aid further deteriorated the already drastic situation. It was out of this seemingly hopeless situation, that UK expatriate Sir Fazle Hasan Abed formed the Bangladesh Rehabilitation Assistance Committee (BRAC).

BRAC and Bangladesh are joined at birth. The bond is inseparable and an emotional one. As Bangladesh modernized, developed infrastructure, received global recognition for innovative practices, so did BRAC. There is a lot of room to grow for both Bangladesh and BRAC, but there is certainly much to celebrate. Considering the circumstances and unfavourable odds, Bangladesh and BRAC remarkably grew.

BRAC conducted nation-wide programmes to honour this milestone. In the Dhaka metropolitan area, a “mobile photo exhibition” toured the city on rickshaws vans. The rare and breathtaking photographs, contained images of the War of Liberation, the atmosphere around the revolutionary movement, the devastation and suffering of war, as well as the growth and relief efforts in nearly every segment of Bangladeshi society. The photographs are eye opening. A country which just 40 years ago was emerging from ashes is now sending its citizens by the thousands to assist in other nation’s post-war relief.

Outside of Dhaka BRAC hosted cultural programmes in all Bangladeshi divisional cities. Cultural programmes, including popular theatre, traditional music, dance, and a screening of the documentary Mukhti Gaan (Freedom Songs) were the highlights of the event. Bengali culture, which just 41 years ago was heavily repressed by totalitarian regimes, was celebrated in full in pomp and circumstance. Participants from all segments of society flocked to the BRAC events which were held in Khulna, Sylhet, Barisal, Rangpur, Chittagong, and Rajshahi.

This was a tribute to the visionaries, freedom fighters, and every day people who made the vision of Bangladesh a reality, a humble offering to their immortal shrines.

We are indebted to their struggle and sacrifice, and vow to continue making their vision a reality by investing our time, effort, and minds into developing this nation socially, and economically.

Hope In The Slums: Inside A Birthing Hut with Deborah Roberts

noreply@blogger.com (Michelle Chaplin) — Fri, 16 Dec 2011 18:29:00 +0000

The following post was written by ABC News Correspondent Deborah Roberts on the Million Moms Challenge blog about her recent trip to Bangladesh to see BRAC's programs working to save the lives of mothers and children.

ABC News Correspondent Deborah Roberts visits a Bangladeshi slum to learn more about grassroots programs to save the lives of moms and newborns. (Shumon Ahmed/ABC NEWS)

When I went into labor with my first child 13 years ago, I expected, like many moms- to-be, smooth sailing. It wasn’t. After 18 intense hours, my labor had not progressed much. So my skilled and trusted obstetrician ordered a cesarean section. My disappointment over having major surgery soon gave way to joy over my beautiful daughter. Three years later, I had a second C-section with my son. I healed well and didn’t think much about the medical intervention surrounding my birthing experiences, until last month.

As I prepared for a story on maternal mortality, I realized that what happened to me could have been life-threatening if I lived in another part of the world. The statistics are stunning: Every 90 seconds a woman dies during pregnancy or childbirth. That’s 1,000 girls and women a day… more than half a million women every year. And experts say more than 80% of these deaths are preventable.

And I made another shocking discovery. The United States, a country which spends nearly $3 trillion annually on healthcare has an astoundingly high maternal mortality rate. One international group ranks us 50th in the world, behind countries like Albania and South Korea. Two women in this country die each day due to pregnancy-related problems. And for black women the number is four times higher for reasons that are unclear.

My birth state of Georgia has one of the highest maternal mortality rates in the country. I visited the Atlanta Medical Center where Dr. Bradley Bootstaylor offered a stunning, and controversial theory: that we may be leaving women vulnerable to complications by turning childbirth into a medical event instead of allowing it to happen more naturally. He worries about the routine reliance on ultrasounds, epidurals and C-sections. His hospital is now taking a low tech approach to childbirth. They have eight midwives on staff who discourage painkillers and offer alternatives like massage, walking during contractions and warm tubs of water to allow women to get through the birth experience more naturally. While there are no published studies to suggest that medical intervention leads to maternal deaths, there is no arguing that maternal mortality is a problem in the U.S.

Some countries, however, are making extraordinary progress. Believe it or not, one of them is in the developing world. Bangladesh, one of the most densely populated countries on the planet - nearly 150-million people in an area the size of Iowa – is somehow creating a miracle. Over the last decade the deaths of new mothers has dropped dramatically – by 40 percent! Today Bangladesh is one of just 16 countries on the path to achieve the United Nations’ Millennium Development Goals – including cutting maternal deaths by 75% by the year 2015.

I traveled 8,000 miles to the capital city of Dhaka to see what was happening. There I met Dr. Kaosar Afsana. She’s an academic working with BRAC, an international aid group, which has had a major role in saving the lives of Bangladeshi women. In a country where close to 80 percent of women give birth at home, BRAC has discovered that the lack of skilled medical care during childbirth is at the heart of the problem.

Afsana took me by boat to a local slum called Korail. As we wound our way through narrow alleyways I met young mother after young mother. Afsana explained how women, often teens, really, die at alarming rates in Bangladesh due to hemorrhaging, obstructed labor, infections, poor nutrition and lack of knowledge about childbirth. And worse, most don’t trust the medical system to help them. So BRAC decided that the key to change is in delivering medical attention to the doorstep of expectant women.

We visited a birthing hut where eight pregnant women, wrapped in colorful saris, were being instructed on the basics of what to expect during delivery and how to recognize a possible complication before it’s too late. I asked how many of them planned to come back to the hut to deliver, and all raised their hands. The hut was clean and had a warm feeling. Then, we got word of a birth happening in a hut nearby. We raced through the litter strewn streets to another birth center to find a bright-eyed, beautiful baby boy who was just delivered by 25-year old Rina. Both mother and child, surrounded by four skilled female birth attendants, were doing fine. A nice safe birth. Six hours later, Rina was on her way home. She was escorted by two women who helped with the birth and possibly spared her life threatening complications. We could call them Rina’s guardian angels.

On the last day of my visit, I met with Richard Greene, an official with United States Agency for International Development (USAID), the U.S. government’s humanitarian aid arm. A Virginia resident now living in Dhaka, Greene is one of the architects for a new cell phone program that has enormous promise to improve health outcomes for pregnant women and new moms. Its success makes sense: more than half the population carries a cell phone

The plan is to text or call pregnant women to give them critical alerts about their pregnancies timed to their due date. They get reminders to take vitamins, see a health worker or eat healthy food (poor nutrition is a big problem in Bangladesh). Once the baby is born, they get text messages about breastfeeding and potential problems to look out for. Health workers also carry cell phones, and with a few keystrokes can upload data on specific patients to a server so doctors can monitor a pregnant woman health throughout the pregnancy.
The pilot program, called MAMA, is still in its infancy. It’s an idea that’s catching on. When I returned home I learned of a similar texting program in the U.S.

It’s called Text4Baby, and it’s a free messaging service. All a mother has to do is text 511411 and put in the word BABY or BEBE (for Spanish service), along with her due date or her child’s birthday, and she’ll receive three personalized, health-related text messages a week through her entire pregnancy and the first year of her baby’s life.

There’s an old African proverb: to be pregnant is to have one foot in the grave. The hope among those engaged in the fight against maternal mortality is that those ancient words will soon be forgotten.

Find out more about saving the lives of moms and babies, watch ”20/20″ Friday at 10 p.m. ET

Helping Women In Bangladesh And Beyond

noreply@blogger.com (Michelle Chaplin) — Thu, 15 Dec 2011 12:46:00 +0000

The following was originally posted by Susan Davis, President & CEO of BRAC USA, in support of the Million Moms Challenge.
video platform video management video solutions video player

You may not have heard about BRAC. As a development success story, it’s one of the world’s best-kept secrets: Founded 40 years ago in Bangladesh by Sir Fazle Hasan Abed, we’re the world’s largest antipoverty nonprofit, reaching an astounding 138 million people with programs in microfinance, health care, girls’ education and other fields in 10 countries.

We’re also a pioneer in the field of maternal health — and we believe it’s time to put an end to preventable deaths during childbirth. We salute the Million Moms Challenge and we’re proud to be a part of this campaign to do so.

BRAC has figured out a way to prevent the leading causes of death during childbirth. The solutions aren’t particular high-tech or don’t often require advanced medical degrees. They only require that we work directly with the poor, within their communities, and trust them to do the things that are needed, with a small amount of proper training, to take care of their neighbors.

Just a few years ago, for instance, home births in unsanitary conditions were the norm in the slums of Bangladesh. In the areas in which we work, we’ve managed to reduce the percentage of home births from 86 percent to 25 percent over the course of just three years. We did this by setting up “birthing huts” in the slums themselves – places with a sterilized mattress, a trained midwife and a low-cost birthing kit. And we trained an army of 80,000 poor women to delivery low-cost medical services to their own villages and slums, while allowing these women to earn extra income doing so. We’ve started providing them with mobile phones, with simple applications that help them keep accurate patient records – and allowing them to call a doctor when complications arise.

Formerly the Bangladesh Rural Advancement Committee, BRAC has been called not only the largest but also the most efficient non-governmental organization in the world. Our maternal, neo-natal and child health programs have reached 24.5 million people – about the population of the state of Texas. We’re making a real difference, and we believe we can multiply these numbers by spreading the BRAC approach worldwide.

Things are changing. We invite you to help us spread the good news with the Million Moms Challenge.

Take Action: Find how you can help BRAC by visiting them on Global Giving.

Members of BRAC's girls club help write a book

noreply@blogger.com (Michelle Chaplin) — Fri, 09 Dec 2011 13:35:00 +0000

Based on stories written by 20 participants in BRAC’s Social and Financial Empowerment of Adolescents (SoFEA) Program in Bangladesh, Shuba and the Cyclone is a playful children’s book about the adventures of an endangered Ganges river dolphin in the wake of a cyclone. The book also highlights the inspirational work of BRAC’s programs in Bangladesh and features BRAC’s Farzana Kashfi as an inspirational female role model.

Shuba and the Cyclone is the tale of a Ganges River dolphin who must find her way home after a cyclone. Published by the nonprofit organization Dot-to-Dot Children’s Books, the book is based on stories written by participants in BRAC’s SoFEA program in Damrai, Bangladesh. Dot-to-Dot’s creative writing team selected favorite elements written during the workshop and combined them into a single story, making Shuba and the Cyclone an expression of the collective creativity of the young women who helped write it.

Please join us in giving a global voice to BRAC’s newest young authors and spreading the word about BRAC by sharing Shuba and the Cyclone with children in your life and recommending it to your friends and family. 40% of the proceeds will be donated to BRAC when you enter the promo code BRAC at the time of purchase.

Click here to purchase your copy now!

Malaria Dreams: Tales from a Kiva Fellow

noreply@blogger.com (Michelle Chaplin) — Mon, 05 Dec 2011 15:48:00 +0000

The following blog post was originally written by Tejal Desai, a Kiva Fellow finishing her fellowship with BRAC in Freetown, Sierra Leone.

Beautiful Freetown sunset

As my Kiva fellowship winds down, I reflect on the memorable journey I’ve been privileged to experience through the Kiva Fellows Program as a member of its 16^thclass. Through personal revelations and humbling lessons in adaptation, microfinance work, cultural differences (and a unique incidence of malaria), I’ve grown attached to beautiful Sierra Leone. Throughout the fellowship, I’ve found my journey paralleling that of a character in a humorous novel, Malaria Dreams by Stuart Stevens, in which a man travels through the Central African Republic in one mission in mind: to find a friend’s Land Rover and drive it back to Europe — only to find that his 3-month journey has a lot more in store for him than he anticipated, and nothing goes exactly as planned. My fellowship similarly followed suit with its own surprises, bumps in the road, and memorable moments.

This journey started with a phone call. Much like the experience of my KF 16 friend, DJ Forza, this call arrived out of the blue, and was received with some degree of hesitation. As I was daydreaming about my placement relocation (first placement was planned for the Philippines) to the South Pacific gem, Samoa, two weeks before Kiva Fellows training, Kiva Fellows Program staff informed me that there was an urgent matter we needed to discuss.

A ball of tension immediately struck me in the gut. As the conversation progressed, I learned that, due to unforeseen circumstances, I wouldn’t be going to Samoa… and I wouldn’t be going to the Philippines. I would be going somewhere for this fellowship, but the location was yet to be determined, and I would find out in a few days.

Three days later, KFP informed me that Sierra Leone was the most available placement, and that I would have to make the decision and shift gears as soon as possible. I think my response at that moment was, “Wow. Ok. Can I think about it?”

My family started to wonder what I had gotten myself into, what I signed up for. There was a lot of head shaking and concerned looks shared amongst my family and friends, and a lot of pity faces that conveyed, “Oh jeez, Tejal, you’re nuts. What ARE you doing?” I recalled images and scenes from the movie “Blood Diamond,” reports in the news about corruption, documentaries about civil war, and tried to push them far out of my mind. Kiva Fellow alum assured me to relax and do more research, and shared their overwhelmingly-positive experiences in “Swit Salone.” Shortly after, at KF16 training, I met over 20 amazing individuals who signed up for the same experience of spending almost 4 months in unfamiliar surroundings, and realized that if I’m crazy, I have many crazy friends right by my side to help me through this exhilarating journey. And so it began…

A warm welcome

With the BRAC SEP staff in Kenema.

Salone undoubtedly welcomed me with open arms, with its people being some of the warmest and most accommodating I’ve ever met, and its weather being comparable to a rainforest sauna. On my first day at BRAC, I was pleasantly shocked at how quickly the staff took me under their wing, instructing me how to take public transit around the city, taking me to beaches and local football matches, and planning weekend outings.

Additionally, the Kiva Coordinator, Mbalu, and I found ourselves inseparable: we stuck side by side on field visits, trainings, even for fun weekend cooking sessions. And when I wasn’t at the office, I found new friends in local business owners, school kids in the neighborhood, and families that religiously welcomed guests with a friendly, “How de body?” (Krio for “How is your health?”).

The rainy and humid weather forecast made for exciting adventures navigating through Freetown on the back of motorbikes and cramming into poda-podas to jet across town to complete Kiva deliverables with Mbalu. There really is nothing quite like taking a motorbike ride through a torrential storm in Freetown!

Speed bumps, pot holes, and the trough of disillusionment

Like every journey, mine hit quite a few bumps and pot holes along the way. In Kiva Fellows training, we were told to expect a trough as we progressed through our Fellowship workplan. My “fall” into the trough occurred slightly early, around week two, while I was starting a large project that would help take BRAC Sierra Leone from Pilot to Active status in their partnership with Kiva. A few of the catalysts that induced my “falling” into the trough were a combination of understanding cultural differences, adjusting to a new work environment, and finding a groove to personal productivity.

At first, I tried absorb and observe as much as possible in the new work environment: work culture, policies, traditions, best practices, hierarchy, field work, microfinance products and programs – without passing judgment on what could be “better” or more efficient. But little did I know that my KF-powered brain was already in go-mode, looking for ways to improve things and not actually taking the time to understand how systems worked, and more importantly, why they were the way they were. This resulted in major frustration, miscommunication, misunderstandings, and many hand-on-forehead moments.

Those six weeks in the trough, although very difficult, proved to be some of the most eye-opening of the entire fellowship, and brought to light a very humbling and important lesson: modifying my definition of success and using different benchmarks to measure productivity will in turn change the way I viewed efficiency. As soon as I realized this (thanks to the help of family and friends who gave the golden advice!), everything seemed more manageable, clear, and sensible.

A third struggle I encountered, and unfortunately have never quite overcome, was understanding the weight of poverty and economic conditions in Sierra Leone, and realizing as a Kiva Fellow, as a foreigner, and as an individual, there were few things I could change on my own and had control over, but many more that I could not change. This has by far been the hardest reality to digest. And although microfinance work does help hundreds of thousands of people in Sierra Leone, the reality is that microfinance alone won’t solve all problems, it won’t heal an entire nation.

Swit Salone, it's been real.

Reflection

Despite these challenges, the growth, knowledge and friendships I’ve gained in Sierra Leone have made this fellowship a memorable and life-altering experience I won’t forget. The wonderful people I’ve met, the warmth of the people, the food, the natural beauty, and of course the work I’ve done at BRAC Sierra Leone will always remain fondly with me.

I think back to that memorable day in August when Kiva called me to introduce me to this opportunity, and have never been more thankful to have given the chance to find a home in Sierra Leone during my fellowship. I’m very sad to leave, but know that soon enough, I will find myself back in the embrace of Swit Salone.

BRAC’s Adolescent Clubs: Raising HIV Awareness among Youth

noreply@blogger.com (BRAC Blog) — Thu, 01 Dec 2011 15:39:00 +0000

Despite being one of the low HIV- prevalence countries, Bangladesh still remains exceedingly vulnerable to an HIV epidemic due to overpopulation, gender inequality, and the grim state of poverty in the country. Experts have predicted that without any proper prevention, the prevalence in the general adult population could rise to as high as 2% in 2012.

BRAC’s Adolescent Clubs (Kishori Kendro) and Adolescent Peer Organised Network (APON) offer life skills based education- facilitated by their peers- on different social and health related issues, such as reproductive health, sexual abuse, children’s rights, gender, HIV/AIDS, STI, eve teasing (verbal sexual abuse), child trafficking, substance abuse, violence, family planning and many others. The purpose is to develop adolescent life skills and raise awareness of important but stigmatised issues. The Special Network for Adolescent Photographers (SNAP) allows girls to not only receive training on digital photography but are given the option of taking it up as their profession. The girls take photos relevant to social issues, such as HIV/AIDS, and organise exhibitions to raise awareness within their communities.

Sports are an integral role to play in helping to bring people together and to address key issues and encourage social changes. BRAC’s Adolescent Development Programme uses sports as a means of communication to disseminate important information to the mass audiences. Communication activities such as a rallies, courtyard meetings, interactive theatre, multimedia shows and cultural programmes are organised in the playground besides sports to reinforce the message delivered through the competition, related to HIV/AIDS prevention and stigma reduction. To support this process, appropriate communication/campaign materials were developed and distributed to the participants.

The programme is observing World AIDS Day across Bangladesh by actively engaging the people in communities from all spheres of the society. A rally, IPT shows, complementary football/cricket matches and discussion forums are taking place throughout the day. The whole event will create awareness about the significance of the day. To generate mass awareness, different communication materials, such as banners, festoons, leaflets, T-shirt slogans for children etc. are also produced.

Asqual and Mehrat climb out of extreme poverty

noreply@blogger.com (Michelle Chaplin) — Thu, 01 Dec 2011 13:39:00 +0000

The below article was originally posted by Ann Miles, Director of Microfinance at The MasterCard Foundation, and Susan Davis, President & CEO of BRAC USA on the CGAP-Ford Graduation Program blog. Earlier this month, Ann and Susan visited one of the Graduation Program pilot projects in Ethiopia.

Her hand shot up each time we asked a question. Asqual, a 25 year old single mother, is a beekeeper and lives outside Wukro in northern Tigray, Ethiopia. We visited her to learn more about her experience in the ‘graduation’ program being implemented by an NGO called REST in collaboration with DECSI, a microfinance organization. Through a partnership with The MasterCard Foundation and BRAC USA, BRAC Development Institute is conducting qualitative research about the pilot program in Ethiopia and other countries as they aim to help extremely poor households ‘graduate’ from the bottom 10% to being moderately poor and able to take advantage of microfinance.

Asqual’s daughter is 7 years old and her mother lives with them, too. We visited her home, a stone house and a small yard where she keeps her beehives, and had an opportunity to hear her story. Asqual started with two beehives and has since expanded to ten. She is optimistic about the future. She plans to purchase five more beehives with a microfinance loan.

Asqual standing in front of her beehives from the program.
She hopes with the help of a microfinance loan she can purchase more beehives.

She also participated in a focus group discussion with us and other young people later that day. We asked the group what is best about life in Ethiopia. The group was puzzled about this question and didn’t know how to respond. The best educated, Asqual, who has completed Class 10 answered:

“Living here all things are available but we were unaware of how to use the natural resources around us, how to get money, how to change lives. We have everything it takes, the resources, the labor- this area is good- it’s just a lack of awareness. My only regret is that I didn’t start earlier- it’s about knowledge, to know and seize opportunities.”

Meherat is a 38 year old mother of two girls, aged 15 and 19. Growing up, Meherat had a very difficult life. She never went to school, not even a day. She said, “There were 7 of us. All of us worked in other people’s homes to get food. We had no chance for any education or exposure to learning.” She has rented her labor to better off households until now. Meherat explained, “Now I am better. I have a bright future. I’ve improved my life situation. I send my children to school, in class 8 and 11. We have enough to eat.” Meherat planned for her two children and then stopped. She said that she wanted to be able to provide for them, “whatever is necessary.” She hopes her daughters have a life much better than hers.

Meherat received 2 cattle from REST worth 4700 birrs. She is fattening them and will sell them for meat. She has .25 hectare of farm land. In the past, she rented it out to someone else to farm using a sharecropping arrangement. But the person who had the oxen to plow the land got to keep 3/4 of the harvest. Now that she has cattle, she plowed the land herself and got to keep the entire harvest. Meherat wistfully said, “If this project had come at my young age, my life would have been so much better.”

She received income from the safety net program and the land. She will also get money from the animals once sold. She has been saving with DECSI, the local microfinance institution serving 60% of households in Tigray. Meherat said that in the future, she plans to take a loan from DECSI and keep growing her profits.

As we were preparing to leave, we asked this bone thin woman with weathered skin, ‘What did you eat today?” Somewhat surprised, she answered, “Who me? Bread. I had bread. I will eat some vegetables from the garden with injera (bread) later today. Food is expensive. Pulses and beans have been going up. One kilo of beans is now 12 birr.” I asked about the eggs from the chickens I see in the yard. She said “I sell the eggs for salt and coffee. I use them to buy this.” She added, “I know the way of life, I know what a balanced diet is. My plan is to save as much as I can to keep upgrading my life.”

Meherat proudly showed us her passbook; it said she has 2,078.81 birr (USD 122.28) in savings.

Graduating the poor out of poverty in Ethiopia

noreply@blogger.com (Michelle Chaplin) — Wed, 30 Nov 2011 13:12:00 +0000

The below article was originally posted by Sandeep Kaur, a Communications Officer at BRAC Development Institute (BDI) on the CGAP-Ford Graduation Program blog.

Currently, BDI, BRAC USA and The MasterCard Foundation are researching the outcomes of several pilots of the CGAP-Ford Graduation Program, which adapts and replicates BRAC's Ultra Poor program in seven countries

In recent news, the devastating famine in East Africa has highlighted Ethiopia’s chronic food insecurity and vulnerability to drought. Yet despite the recent food crisis that has affected millions, there is a positive story from Tigray, northern Ethiopia.

The Ethiopia Graduation Pilot was the first of the CGAP- Ford Foundation Graduation Pilots launched in 2010 in the African sub-continent. Implemented by the Relief Society of Tigray (REST) in Northern Ethiopia the program builds upon the Government of Ethiopia’s Productive Safety Net Program (PSNP). Through this pilot, REST is working with 500 of the poorest PSNP beneficiaries.

Program participants have been engaged in cattle fattening, sheep and goat fattening, honey production and petty trade since summer 2010. According to DECSI, the microfinance institutions providing financial services to participants, people are already saving regularly, probably indicating that they are starting to generate income from their small enterprises. REST has also noted that participants’ housing conditions have improved.

Although, impact results from the program are not due out until one year after the pilot’s end, the pilot is eager to share its experience and lessons from implementation. In October 2012, REST, The MasterCard Foundation and BRAC Development Institute (BDI) convened a workshop in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia to bring together donors, policy makers and practitioners working on issues of extreme poverty and food insecurity in Ethiopia.

Teklewoini Assefa, Director, REST
giving the welcome speech at the workshop

The workshop provided an opportunity for REST to share lessons and discuss important issues with donors, policy makers and practitioners including representatives from The MasterCard Foundation, USAID and CARE Ethiopia to name a few. During the workshop, Dr Mulugeta, REST, gave an overview of the Ethiopia Graduation Pilot. Sana Khan, from IPA, presented on the baseline survey findings, thus painting a detailed picture of extreme poverty in the pilot area. A dynamic exchange followed with questions such as: How do you develop public-private partnerships to build-up markets? What are appropriate financial services in high inflation environments? Are asset transfers always needed or can the poorest make good use of small loans such as tested with the “Household Asset Building Program” and “Productive Safety Net Program Plus”?

In the next two weeks, we will be featuring a new blog series on the Ethiopia Graduation Pilot, with contributions from The MasterCard Foundation, BRAC USA, BDI and others.

Mobile Health Services: Innovating the way we serve the underprivileged

noreply@blogger.com (BRAC Blog) — Tue, 29 Nov 2011 12:05:00 +0000

Initiated in January 2007, BRAC’s Manoshi programme was launched to reduce maternal, neonatal and child mortality rates in urban slums. It is one of the biggest interventions, with a strongly monitored and efficient health service delivery system. Approximately 8,000 community health workers are providing maternal, neonatal and child health services at the doorstep, providing supportive skilled birth attendance and arranging timely referral of complications to hospitals. Nevertheless, there are still scopes for improvement in several key areas, including preventive care, emergency management and resource optimization.

Considering the availability of telecommunication network and services in Bangladesh, BRAC along with ClickDiagnostics (a pioneering US-based m-Health company) has jointly designed a mobile health service model for Manoshi, with the aim to improve maternal, newborn and child health with enhanced efficiency and effectiveness. Addressing the issue of targeted preventive care, this mobile-based platform is used by the community health workers to collect data through a step-by-step decision tree (Bangla), eliminating unnecessary processes such as the need to decide when and which data to collect, and converting those into useful information.
Ensuring real time electronic patient record generation and transmission through General Packet Radio Services (GPRS - a packet-based wireless communication service), automated medical response and automatic risk categorization and assessment, targeted and prioritized medical response, scheduling work, referral monitoring and real time work alerts are key features which make m-Health a more efficient service.

In this automated system, emergency management is driven centrally by a hotline centre with an easy-to-remember short-code, ensuring single point contact for all emergency cases. Once that is completed, arranging the ambulance and informing nearby hospitals can be done on time. Instant digitalization of all data entered using this system can enhance managerial functions automatically in a much easier and more efficient manner.

In July 2009, a pilot mobile based data collection and service delivery system was developed for the health workers, which covered approximately 18,000 households and 2,000 pregnant women. The pilot provided evidences of a very user-friendly system, reduced data collection time and error in data recording, instantaneous reporting, and efficient program management through sophisticated supervision and monitoring.

After the successful completion of the pilot and observation of the positive results, Manoshi is expanding the BRAC-Click m-Health model to all of the six city corporations. Concurrent with the deployment in the urban areas under Manoshi, the BRAC-Click m-Health model will also be replicated in the rural areas of BRAC Maternal Neonatal and Child Health Programme. It will be the first of its kind for any m-Health model in remote locations with widely dispersed and disadvantaged populations.

Implementation of m-Health in this field is unique, as the first large scale deployment in the world. The incorporation and seamless integration of m-Health technologies in BRAC's proven delivery model can present a novel scope for reducing maternal, newborn and child mortality in its vast coverage areas, and generate research based evidence on the success of m-Health services.

Field Trip to Noakhali: learning more about the lives of char settlers

noreply@blogger.com (BRAC Blog) — Sun, 27 Nov 2011 04:34:00 +0000

Last week, I was part of an interdisciplinary team that traveled to Noakhali. Our task: to understand the unique challenges facing the villagers living in Bangladesh’s chars and envision how BRAC could create an integrated program tailored to their needs. Chars are newly formed land masses as a result of gradual deposit of silt carried down by major rivers. In addition to natural hardships like frequent flooding and lack of fresh water due to salinity, in many cases chars fall between administration areas and lack formal government and basic services. Drawn by the opportunity to claim and own land, an estimated 6.5 million Bangladeshis live on chars (that’s about 5% of the population), many in dire poverty.

In 1994, the Government of Bangladesh established the Char Development and Settlement Program (CDSP) to bring together multiple ministries and non-governmental organizations to develop infrastructure and build social capital on the chars. Now entering its fourth phase, the program has reached almost 900,000 char-dwellers with services ranging from microfinance to schools to reforestation. BRAC joined the efforts in 2005 mainly to coordinate and support the activities of five NGOs working in Boyer Char, the designated area of the third phase of CDSP. Though a recent BRAC study showed some significant improvement in livelihoods of the participant households, the authors mention that only a modest impact on education has been achieved.

When the third phase came to a close in 2010, funding for all activities in Boyer Char ended. Some initiatives, such as a new elementary school, continued through community financing. Many programs were unable to sustain themselves, despite great need. As BRAC was already in the process of applying to implement programs in the chars chosen for the fourth phase, several BRAC staff suggested that we consider establishing programs in Boyer Char as well. With me on this field visit were a diverse group of colleagues, representing programs including Human Rights & Legal Aid Services, Community Empowerment, Gender Justice & Diversity, Microfinance, and Water, Sanitation & Hygiene.

We drove onto the char using a new road with a sturdy bridge that crossed the channel. As we’re entering the dry winter season, we were spared the threat of flood. Waiting for us was a group of women who had participated in the microfinance activities. From their comments, it quickly became apparent that the issues were numerous. Many did not own their land and have a cut of their harvest extorted by self-appointed “landlords” in the area. There is only one public toilet in the area, and many of the households do not have sanitary latrines. Unavailability of water during the dry season is a major issue as well both for crops and drinking water. Access to primary education expanded greatly over the last few years. However, those who wish to enroll in post-primary school must travel by rickshaw to the nearby town. The transport costs and the distance preclude many students, particularly girls, from attending. No local options for formal health services exist. Locals rely on quacks (local ‘healers’ practicing without formal training), particularly now that most of the community health workers trained during the project period have become inactive. Most women must rely on their husbands to collect health products from the nearby market, as they themselves rarely leave the village.

We also spoke with women who formerly comprised a Polli-Shomaj (village-society), through which they had learned about their rights, social services and local government to better empower them for community advocacy. Having had their last formal class over a year ago, these women are feeling increasingly disempowered as the group disintegrates and their knowledge fades. Many also voiced a sense of frustration because although they know how to take legal actions, they lack the necessary support and resources to realize them when for example, land or a harvest is usurped, a husband abuses a wife, or when their daughters are harassed.

One woman in the Polli-Shomaj was trained as a community health volunteer. When the program ended, she found a different channel to procure medical products and continued to sell them locally. Her family has also installed a solar panel and offers neighbors the option to charge their phone there for a small fee, saving them a trip into town where the nearest electricity is available. Informal household visits yielded other innovations. Many men leave Boyer Char to seek employment as day laborers and brick-field workers, and they have learned to send remittances using not the nascent bKash mobile banking service, but cell phone credit!

Talking to these people, I was amazed by how resilient, optimistic and resourceful many are. A testament to their potential was the transformation of the char from one big sandy stretch of land to a green and bountiful area in just a few years. With the improvements in communications and forestry, the casual observer likely would not even realize where the mainland ends and the char begins! It’s exciting to hope that BRAC can build on these accomplishments to empower communities to further move out of poverty and thrive.

By Ishtiaque Hussain, BRAC Social Innovation Lab

Two sides of the same coin: how the UNDP and BRAC identify challenges to poverty differently

noreply@blogger.com (BRAC Blog) — Wed, 23 Nov 2011 20:27:00 +0000

A few weeks ago the UNDP launched its 2011 Human Development Report titled "Sustainability and Equity: a Better Future for All", and as a part of the research team, I was proud to see my name on it. The report had long been in preparation and I had almost forgotten about it, as since September I have been contributing to another major development organization, BRAC. My involvement with these two organizations has been similar, in that they share a common mission and have many overlapping goals. But my exposure to both worlds has made me recognize how greatly their approaches to identifying solutions to poverty differ, even when they have independently identified the same problems.

The UNDP’s Report has indicated that the Human Development Index (HDI) has risen globally in the last 20 years, which means that as a whole, quality of life and access to resources have generally improved across the board. But we are now faced with another obstacle in the path to building sustainable livelihoods: the degradation of our environment.

Although this problem affects people of all nations and socioeconomic backgrounds, the bottom billion of our society bears the largest burden. Environmental concerns make the already complex problem of poverty even more complicated. In order to identify solutions, we need to understand how the problem is exacerbated on a policy level, a societal level, and a human level.

BRAC is the world’s largest development organization in both manpower and scale focused on empowering poor populations by providing them access to resources, capital, and education. In contrast to the UNDP’s report, that is generated by academicians and researchers, BRAC collects its data at a grassroots level, working directly with communities and learning from its experience on the ground. Despite the different approaches, both organizations are focused on a common mission: to find the most effective and sustainable solutions to systemic poverty.

Both organizations have recognized this new challenge of environmental degradation, which forces countries with a low HDI to adapt their development strategy to conserve depleting resources or to refashion or eliminate industries that are no longer sustainable in a degraded environment. By default, the most vulnerable populations are unjustly affected by these changes in strategy. Poor populations and particularly women and children are relegated to geographic areas that are susceptible to natural disasters and are not viable locations for adequate economic activity. One strategy proposed by the HDR 2011 suggests that policy makers need to re-think the development model and integrate equity concerns in development policies. It underlines the need for policy makers to “avert environment degradation” with measures such as adaptive disaster responses.

At BRAC, this is already in practice. BRAC's program on Disaster, Environment and Climate Change, for instance, integrates disasters preparedness into their community empowerment programs. With projects such as the Microclimatic Weather Stations and the Geographical Information System, BRAC helps its clients decrease their vulnerability to environmental challenges. This results in a less unequal development policy, making the poor an active development partner.

Another way BRAC helps redress inequities in development is by working directly with the communities, training them and gathering information from indigenous people for disaster risk reduction. BRAC has long understood that an empowered community will have more tools to face environmental degradation and understand the need to lessen their adverse impact on the environment.

I have been fortunate to have exposure to both approaches, BRAC’s grassroots approach on one side and UNDP’s academic approach on the other, and understand that they are equally important methods to identify and eliminate sources of inequity.

By Shital Beejadhur-Rathod, BRAC USA Contributor

Students from all over the world interview BRAC founder

noreply@blogger.com (Michelle Chaplin) — Mon, 21 Nov 2011 15:50:00 +0000

After winning the WISE Prize for Innovation in Education, BRAC Founder and Chairperson Sir Fazle Hasan Abed meets with students from countries including Haiti and Sierra Leone, who interview him about BRAC's education initiatives.

Microfinance Pioneer Sir Fazle Hasan Abed, Founder of BRAC, Advances “Business in a Box” Strategy

noreply@blogger.com (Michelle Chaplin) — Thu, 17 Nov 2011 18:09:00 +0000

The world's largest antipoverty organization advocates a market-oriented approach to job creation and poverty alleviation, putting poor borrowers on a path to prosperity by giving them a “business in box.”

BRAC, the world’s largest development organization, lays out its “microfinance plus” approach to defeating global poverty at the Global Microcredit Summit 2011 in Valladolid, Spain, this week. Presenting BRAC’s strategy to over 2,000 delegates at the annual microfinance conference, Sir Fazle Hasan Abed, the founder and chairperson, advocates a market-oriented approach to job creation and poverty alleviation that puts poor borrowers on a path to prosperity by giving them a “business in box.”

It’s an approach that development experts call “micro-franchising.” Working in poor communities, BRAC develops sustainable business models that can be easily replicated, creating networks of self-employed micro-entrepreneurs who earn extra income by delivering vital services that achieve a social good.

More than 137.5 million of the world’s poorest families received a microloan in 2010, an all-time high, according to the Microcredit Summit Campaign. BRAC itself reaches over 8 million borrowers, a number rising steadily thanks in part to this year’s launch of bKash Limited, a mobile financial service provider in Bangladesh and a subsidiary of BRAC Bank, the organization’s bank targeting small businesses.

But development organizations should think beyond microfinance to make strides against poverty, BRAC’s founder says. “Financial services alone are not sufficient to break the bonds of poverty,” says Abed, who launched BRAC in Bangladesh in 1972. In a paper presented at the conference, Abed explains how BRAC has combined microfinance with agricultural services to improve rural livelihoods and food security in Bangladesh and around the world.

Now in 10 countries, BRAC has built a global network of 150,000 micro-franchised entrepreneurs providing services in agriculture, poultry, livestock and health. Abed calls it a “holistic, sustainable, market oriented approach” to poverty alleviation that uses microloans, training and branding, while offering borrowers low-cost access to inventory, efficient distribution systems and continuous support.
“BRAC provides the branding, inventory and training to the micro-entrepreneurs, who in turn provide training and product to BRAC microfinance clients and others in the villages where BRAC operates,” writes Abed and co-authors Dr. Mahabub Hossain, Susan Davis, and Rod Dubitsky in the paper, “Using Microfinance Plus Agricultural Services to Improve Rural Livelihoods and Food Security,” which will appear in the forthcoming volume New Pathways out of Poverty (Sterling, Va.: Kumarian Press).

“The entrepreneurs, in turn, earn income by selling the goods BRAC provides at a mark-up. For example, BRAC entrepreneurs earn between $15 and $20 per month in the provision of poultry vaccination services. Farmers in turn get a valuable service and expect to benefit by enjoying a material drop in poultry mortality. Such a ‘Business in a Box’ not only provides a valuable service and income, it is a more sustainable model than other programs that provide vaccines free (which may not be available to all farmers and may not be reliably available).”

Micro-franchising has proved useful in bridging the last mile in the delivery of vital goods and services, says Susan Davis, the president and CEO of BRAC USA and one of the paper’s co-authors. “A poor person can find a bottle of Coca-Cola today anywhere in rural Africa – but not mosquito bed nets and condoms,” says Davis. “Distribution is a real challenge that organizations never speak about, but it is one of the most critical hurdles in reaching the poor. Microfinance institutions can effectively bridge this gap. For instance, BRAC reaches more than 8 million women, every week – at their doorstep, in providing credit and financial services. Can you imagine the potential of a sustainable distribution model like this?”

BRAC began its experiments with micro-franchising decades ago when it realized that merely lending to the poor would not be enough to lift them out of poverty. Dramatic improvement would come, however, with better access to markets, fairer prices, knowledge transfer and higher quality inputs like high-yield seeds and new breeds of chickens. BRAC created agricultural enterprises and services to enhance the business prospects of its microfinance borrowers and other members of poor communities. It used the same approach in providing health care, raising an army of “community health promoters” to provide simple but vital services in slums and villages, like de-worming medication and oral rehydration solution to treat diarrhea in young children.

Though largely unknown outside the international development community, experts have long noted the size and scope of BRAC’s success in Bangladesh. Paul Collier, author of The Bottom Billion, has called BRAC “the most astounding social enterprise in the world.” The Economist called it not only the largest but “one of the most businesslike” nongovernmental organizations in the world.

Today, BRAC is scaling up its micro-franchising approach outside its native Bangladesh. Through a ground-breaking $45 million partnership with The MasterCard Foundation, BRAC has built a network of 3,500 micro-franchised entrepreneurs in Uganda providing critical livelihood and health services to the poor. It currently operates in ten countries: Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Haiti, Liberia, Pakistan, Sierra Leone, South Sudan, Sri Lanka, Tanzania and Uganda.

About BRAC
BRAC, formerly the Bangladesh Rural Advancement Committee, is a global development organization dedicated to alleviating poverty by empowering the poor to bring about change in their own lives. BRAC’s holistic approach aims to achieve large scale, positive changes through economic and social programs that enable women and men to realize their potential. BRAC was launched in Bangladesh in 1972 and today reaches more than 138 million people in Africa and Asia through its programs that address poverty by providing micro-loans, self-employment opportunities, health services, education and legal and human rights services. Learn more at http://www.bracusa.org.

About the Microcredit Summit Campaign
The Microcredit Summit Campaign is a project of RESULTS Educational Fund, a U.S.-based advocacy organization committed to creating the will to eliminate poverty. The Campaign was launched in 1997 and, in 2007, surpassed its original goal of reaching 100 million of the poorest families, providing credit for self-employment and other financial and business services. The Global Microcredit Summit 2011 is held November 14-17 in Valladolid, Spain. http://www.globalmicrocreditsummit2011.org.

Letter from Tanzania: Reaching the Unreached

noreply@blogger.com (Santhosh Ramdoss, BRAC USA) — Tue, 15 Nov 2011 15:40:00 +0000

A few weeks ago, I found myself in Mbeya, the southernmost region of Tanzania. It's not an easy task to get here, for Mbeya lies some 800 kilometers from the capital, Dar-es-Salam, near the borders of Zambia and Malawi. I was travelling with a representative from the Whole Planet Foundation to see BRAC's microfinance and livelihood programs in action, curious to see how BRAC Tanzania was making it all work, providing affordable financial services to the poor in one of the most remote parts of the country.

On this particular morning, we pay a visit the town of Uyole and the surrounding villages. After a quick pit-stop at the BRAC branch, where we meet the Branch Manager, Roda Hassan, we head out to participate in a microfinance group meeting and hear from BRAC's borrowers directly. It was still early, and the credit officers were out making the rounds. Each BRAC credit officer attends at least three group meetings every morning, a ritual that happens all across Tanzania, where on any given day 600-odd credit officers head out in the early hours to meet thousands of clients right at their doorsteps.

The group we're meeting today is called Mapya, after the village of the same name outside Uyole. The borrowers take turns introducing themselves. The Mapya group consists of about 30 members, most of them in their third or fourth loans. About four to five members are first-time borrowers.

At this point, I'm curious to learn how the borrowers' lives have changed after taking three, four and sometimes even five loans from BRAC. So I ask the question. Their eagerness to answer overwhelms me.

"I was able to get electricity in my house two months ago," says Ameena. The money she's saved through extra income helped pay for the connection; it all started with a loan from BRAC.

Salima, meanwhile, tells me that she's actually building a new house. Roida almost had tears in her eyes when she shared the story of sending her kids to school.

There is no doubt in the minds of these women that their lives have changed since they became BRAC clients. I soon realize I'm the one who'd been harboring doubts.

BRAC staff from the Uyole Branch, with Brian Doe from the Whole Planet Foundation and BRAC's Country Representative Gunendu Roy

Over lunch, I have a chance to chat with BRAC Tanzania's Country Representative, Gunendu Roy, and the Regional Manager, Rabiul Hassan, who oversees the Mbeya region. I share with them my amazement at seeing our programs working seamlessly in a remote place like Mbeya. I realize during my conversations what a significant part of BRAC's success is due to the commitment, dedication, patience and agility of our staff -- people like Gunendu, Rabiul and Roda.

Take Rabiul, for instance. Originally from Bangladesh, he amazes me with his fluency in Swahili. He has overseen the opening of every single branch office in the Mbeya region and two other districts nearby. He probably knows the names and businesses of most of the borrowers in the area. This is a person who oversees lending to 15,000 clients across 15 branches.

With staff like him and such great leadership from the Country Representative, it's no wonder BRAC is able to make things work -- even in the most remote corners of Africa.