An Evaluation of Ngos Working in Bangladesh on Poverty Alleviation

Though substantial efforts are being made by the NGOs for the purpose of poverty alleviation, many a times these efforts are not adequately effective. The reasons for this ineffectiveness are many namely, lack of information, guideline and trust. To put it another way, there is a lack of proper information dissemination on the part of the NGOs in this sector. The message is not properly formulated neither is it properly distributed to the target segment. Then again, not only the NGOs but the target segment is not putting in the required endeavors to gain the assistance of the NGOs operating in this sector. In fine, we notice an acute need to fill this gap of information distribution and collection, which we believe can be alleviated by proper marketing initiatives.

In order to complete this term paper, we will choose 10 NGOs which are operating in this sector. We will demonstrate how they are operating in this sector and try to chalk out their strengths and weaknesses. This study has some specific objectives to make it effective. Broad objective of the study is to evaluate the activities of Netherlands funded NGOs working in Bangladesh. More specifically, objectives are – To have an insight of the activities NGOs performing in Bangladesh; major sectors they are working on.  To have knowledge about prevailed poverty level in Bangladesh; its extent and effect. To evaluate the poverty alleviation programs of some of the major NGOs in Bangladesh. SCOPE The position of NGOs in Bangladeshi society is quite unique. Bangladesh is home to the largest national NGOs in the world, as well as to a multitude of middle- and small-sized NGOs that operate on a national, regional or local level. The Bangladeshi NGOs literally reach out to millions of people in both rural and urban areas.

This study comprises extensive case studies of a cross section of NGOs in Bangladesh. The Bangladeshi NGOs that were subject of study and their partners in the Netherlands both, Bilance (formerly Cebemo), ICCO and Novib, have been closely involved in the various stages of the study. It is important to emphasize that the role of the case studies to be undertaken of the NGOs is to provide insights into the achievements of NGOs in Poverty Alleviation in Bangladesh as a whole. Most NGOs, and particularly the larger ones, have several donors and a range of activities.

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Fieldwork in any individual organization is concentrated only on a program conducted by one particular donor assistance, namely donor agencies of Netherlands, and will not attempt to assess the NGO’s overall range of activities.

Methodology

The research approach followed for this report is mainly observation and analysis of the information accumulated through observation. For the evaluation of the information a number of intellectuals, peers and experts were consulted so that the researchers could get a better insight of the information gathered.

Sampling The samples used in this report were mainly selected on the merit of their donor agencies. As mentioned in the scope section, the samples were chosen from those NGOs only which are getting assistance from donor agencies of Netherlands and The Royal Netherlands Embassy. Data Collection, Contact Methods and Instruments used Various printed materials of the NGOs were used for data collection. However, majority of the information was gathered from The Royal Netherlands Embassy and Association of Development Agencies of Bangladesh (ADAB).

Personal contacts were mainly used to gather the information, the details of which are provided in the annexure of the report. The following tools are used in conducting the report: - Interview - Observation - Secondary data .

In terms of methodological limitations, the main constraint was the relatively limited amount of fieldwork which could be undertaken in comparison with the enormous scale of NGO operations in Bangladesh. Some other limitations in conducting the above mentioned tasks are as follows: - Lack of access to all the NGOs chosen Reluctance on the part of the NGOs to share information - Lack of financial support to go and observe the NGOs operations in rural areas .

The Netherlands support to Bangladeshi NGOs is mainly geared to the pursuance of poverty alleviation, first in rural but of late also in urban areas. However, in consideration of the target groups of Bangladeshi NGOs, rural and urban poor and particularly women among them, the common denominator of the Netherlands-funded NGO activities has been poverty alleviation.

The evaluation concentrates on credit, training and related services of Bangladeshi NGOs, conducted with support from the Co-Financing Agencies (CFAs) Novib, ICCO and Cebemo (now Bilance), or from the Royal Netherlands Embassy in Dhaka. It does not cover some other major activities of NGOs, notably emergency relief, health and education. Poverty alleviation is an important objective of the overall Netherlands’ development cooperation program with Bangladesh. In recent years, the Embassy in Dhaka has also substantially assisted NGO programs, particularly in the fields of education, health, women’s activities and income generation.

The study expanded from its original exclusive concentration on CFA-assisted programs to take account of this development. NGOs receiving assistance have implemented programs mainly targeting the following issues: – Poverty alleviation – Concretization and mobilization of local groups; – Development of local and regional organizations of the poor to defend their rights and interests. THE SECTOR Bangladesh, along with other countries in the region of South Asia, is among one of the most densely populated countries and has an extremely high rate of poverty.

According to the United Nationals Human Development Report, 86% of Bangladeshis live below the poverty line. Both domestic and world agencies, such as the Government of Bangladesh (GOB), international donors, and non-governmental organizations, have been trying to become more involved with Bangladesh to assist the government in improving the economy and alleviating poverty. For example, during the last few decades, the country has been subject to experimentation in the form of different rural development approaches. However, despite the help of such groups and programs, poverty persists in Bangladesh.

The structure of rural poverty A fundamental aspect of rural poverty is unemployment and under-employment. In almost all rural areas the supply of labour is much higher than available agricultural work. Opportunities outside this sector are extremely limited and increasing at a much slower pace than demand. The oversupply of labour results from two factors: a high concentration of landownership and rapid population growth. The structure of urban poverty One response to the lack of basic opportunities in the rural areas is migration to urban areas.

The rate of urbanization by far exceeds the rise in employment opportunities, despite the steady growth of the predominant garments sector. Urbanization has therefore promoted a rapidly expanding category of the urban poor, estimated in 2007 at 15 million people, of who 9 million were considered extremely poor. Since the rural situation is unlikely to substantially improve, it can be anticipated that migration to towns and cities will increase, exacerbating the problems already experienced. Assessment by NGOs of the situation of the poor

The NGO sector in Bangladesh began at the time of mass relief and rehabilitation efforts, during and after the Independence struggle. This stage was replaced by early efforts at rural development, during which NGOs gave much attention to increasing overall rural productivity. The results of this were disappointing, since it became clear that the rural elite had managed to appropriate the greatest share of the benefits of growth. Thereafter, NGOs began to make their analyses of poverty in terms of the prevalence and dominance of national and local power structures.

Poverty was therefore seen as a multi-dimensional problem, which requires changes in the social structure for its alleviation. This type of analysis is illustrated by the ‘Problem Tree’ provided below. Year Plan of Proshika, one of the major Bangladeshi NGOs. Most NGOs would broadly support this approach to analyzing poverty. Over the years, however, substantial variations have entered the sector concerning how NGOs can contribute towards the alleviation of poverty.

NGOs currently operate in a comprehensive range of sectors including: integrated rural development, savings and credit, family planning, income generation and training, women’s development, health, education, adult education, relief and rehabilitation, social awareness and motivation, agriculture, fisheries, legal aid, human and civil rights, rehabilitation of blind and/or disabled, child development, children’s homes and orphanages, environment and forestry, and public health.

These operational sectors are combined in various ways to meet local needs, NGO capacities and donor and/or Bangladeshi government requirements. In addition to these specific activities, most NGOs have an underlying concern to raise the capacity of the poor to participate in national social and democratic processes. This is undertaken through raising the organizational strength of the poor by group formation and development.

Some major activities of NGO operation are outlined below. Poverty alleviation Since poverty is so pervasive in Bangladesh (see Chapter 2), the great majority of the poor are functionally landless, and there are relatively few formal sector employment opportunities in rural areas, poverty alleviation strategies of NGOs have focused particularly on possibilities for income generation through self-employment. Education Most NGOs see education in one form or another as essential to long-term poverty reduction and empowerment.

Many see literacy as a vital component in raising the capacity of poor households to operate in their social environment. Adult literacy programs have been favored by some NGOs, while others claim that experience has shown that the poor cannot afford the time commitment required for the attainment of full literacy. Their concentration has therefore shifted towards functional literacy. The interpretation of this concept varies widely and in many cases means little more than introducing the ability to write a signature, which is, however, in itself a socially valued skill. Health and family planning

Few development NGOs are concentrating on specialized health and family planning programs, although many include elements of these sectors in broader activities. Even organizations which began in this area have tended to broaden out to include income generation elements to enable the poor to access health care services and products. Environmental activities Poverty and landlessness have forced people to live in areas unsuitable or dangerous for habitation. This exacerbates the tendency for frequent disasters which are often a combination of natural events with inappropriate settlement patterns.

Population pressure also often leads to excessive pressure on limited land and associated natural resources. Many NGOs in the years after Independence placed considerable emphasis on the necessity for land redistribution to reduce the pressure on environmentally vulnerable areas. Focus on women Ideologically, many NGOs have focused much of their attention on women, on the grounds that they suffer from multiple forms of deprivation and exploitation. This concentration has been reinforced by the experience of Grameen Bank and many NGOs that women are more likely than men to repay credit received. At a later stage, donors also placed heightened attention on the importance of women’s participation in programs which they supported.

The NGO programs are expected to promote progress towards: structural poverty alleviation, promotion of women in development, strengthening the rights of the individual and environmentally sustainable development. Structural poverty alleviation implies a sustainable improvement in the position of poor individuals and groups. The activities undertaken by all NGOs studied are targeting structural poverty alleviation and are therefore relevant to this goal.

All of the NGOs studied are also promoting the interests of women through their programs. In the NGOs studied, between 50 per cent and 100 per cent of direct beneficiaries are women. The NGOs studied also tackle the policy goal of strengthening the rights of the individual, through such activities as legal rights training, improving awareness of and access to Government services, literacy and non-formal education and emphasizing the need for the poor to participate in democratic processes. Credit (and savings) These programs are the major activity targeting poverty alleviation.

Two streams of activity have emerged. On the one hand, there are programs which supply regular and reasonably high amounts of credit to the ‘moderately poor’ on a semi-commercial basis. These achieve high repayment efficiency and help move these beneficiaries out of poverty. On the other hand, there are NGOs which supply small, or large but irregular, amounts of credit. These achieve varying repayment rates and are not sustainable alleviating poverty in a sustainable way, but are rather providing a ‘safety net’. Training Training has had a mixed impact on poverty among its clients.

Skills-based training associated with credit is seen by most of the poor as the combination necessary to offer the potential for economic improvement. Training in the broad fields of empowerment and health and nutrition can play a positive role, but are less valued by the clients than skills training. An area into which few NGOs have ventured, but which is commonly cited as the real need of many of the poor, is the creation of non-farm employment opportunities. Tribal communities in particular cited this as having far more potential value than credit.

Social Empowerment Social Empowerment achieved by the programs is not as dramatic as originally hoped for by the NGOs. Even though NGOs provide a wide range of services and activities covering much of the country and with millions of participants, these have not led to any major change in the social order. Fundamental factors of rural society, notably the unequal distribution of power and the prevalence of landlessness have not changed. Other services Many other services of NGOs relate to the credit and training components.

They include provision of resources for income-generation projects, such as livestock, tree saplings and improved seed varieties, environmental health inputs such as pit latrines and boreholes, often at subsidized prices, and legal aid. Some of these services are provided by NGOs involved in integrated development projects, whilst others are supplied by specialist NGOs, usually operating on a small scale. MAJOR DONORS NGO fund flows contain both inputs for regular programs and projects and one-off amounts to alleviate the impacts of the natural calamities which regularly strike various areas of the country.

In 2006, for example, some $150 million of funding from external donors was received by Bangladeshi NGOs, supporting over 1,000 projects. At this time, there were about 20 major bilateral and multilateral donors, 13 of which were each providing over $1 million per annum. Western CFAs and NGOs were another major source of incoming funds. Drawing on its contacts within the international network of Catholic institutions, Cebemo was able to commence cooperation with Bangladeshi partners shortly after Independence.

Cebemo has gradually developed partnerships with some 30 organisations in Bangladesh. Specific objectives and intervention areas of these organisations cover a broad range, including basic education and occupational training, advocacy for human and legal rights, health care, promotion of women’s interests, savings and credits, and income-generating activities. Within the context of its South Asian program, Cebemo’s presence is very substantial in Bangladesh. Two of the biggest NGOs in the subcontinent have close links with Cebemo, namely ASA and Caritas Bangladesh.

Novib began developing its network of partners in Bangladesh shortly after the country gained independence from Pakistan in 1971. In the early years, a small number of large projects in the health sector (notably a pharmaceuticals factory) caused high disbursements. Of the three Dutch CFAs active in Bangladesh, Novib makes the largest financial allocations. Currently, around 80 per cent of its disbursements in Bangladesh go to the Bangladesh Rural Advancement Committee (BRAC) and Proshika Kendra. Novib is the leading partner in the donor consortium for BRAC and currently chairs a similar platform for Proshika Kendra.

It currently supports 16 partners in Bangladesh and will add one more by the year 2012. ICCOIn its program in Bangladesh, ICCO has worked closely with church-related partners in the Netherlands, England and Germany. At present only about half of ICCO’s partners are Christian-based, although they receive the bulk of its funding (at least 70 per cent). ICCO’s policy is to maintain the number of its counterparts at around . Traditionally, the relationship between ICCO and its partners in Bangladesh encompasses more than strictly development issues.

The historical church-institutional linkages are still an important element in the evolution of cooperation programs, although this has not kept ICCO from establishing substantial cooperation programs with secular development organizations. Activities related to lobbying, advocacy for human rights, promoting institutions of civil society, communication and information on North–South issues are considered important components of the relationship with the partners. A recent example is the support given to documenting and facilitating the international dialogue on the Flood Action Plan.

The enormous growth of NGOs since Independence is evidence of a degree of tolerance on behalf of the Bangladeshi Government. However, the relationship between the two sectors has not been smooth or consistent. For many years Government insisted that NGO funding from outside the country should be separate from and in addition to amounts negotiated between it and international donors. Regulation of the sector was extensive and the associated bureaucracy slow moving, causing delays and frustrations to NGOs and their donors.

Locally based NGOs which are not receiving foreign funding must be registered under the pre-Independence (1961) Voluntary Social Welfare Agencies (Registration and Control) Ordinance. This was supplemented in 1978 by an instrument designed to control the flow of foreign funds, the Foreign Donation (Voluntary Activities) Regulations Ordinance of 1978. This Ordinance resulted in an almost unworkable set of procedures under which all relevant Government Departments were invited to comment on each project for which foreign funds were planned.

The law was amended by the Foreign Contributions (Regulation) Ordinance in 1982, but with no great effect. NGOs and donors worked as best possible under the Ordinance until 1988, when disaster relief was rendered ineffective by its bureaucratic requirements and Government felt it necessary to act. An NGO cell was established within Cabinet Division of the President’s Secretariat and each Ministry dealing with NGOs had to form a high-level Steering Committee to cover this area.

In 1989, in the face of considerable donor and NGO pressure, Government decided to establish an NGO Affairs Bureau to streamline procedures and improve coordination among Government Ministries. The Bureau is attached to the Prime Ministers’ Secretariat. The NGO sector is perceived by some donors to have a number of important deficiencies. These include the following: – Limited size, scope and impact – Loose structure, often with limited accountability to beneficiaries – Inadequate attention to the ‘very poor’ – Unduly influenced by donors’ interests, this may not reflect the priorities of the poor. Ineffective strategy and implementation of measures to build institutional capacity and self-reliance among the poor – Insufficient attention to monitoring and evaluation – Weak planning and management capacity – Lack of broad social and economic perspective – Inadequate technical, professional and managerial skills. The few very large NGOs are often seen as free from most of the above limitations, but as prone to bureaucratization at the operational level and to excessive reliance on charismatic founders at policy level.

As a major component of the evaluation of the Netherlands assistance for poverty alleviation, a fieldwork assessment, based on case studies, was made of the activities of 10 NGOs participating in it, as partners of CFAs or of the RNE. Case studies of the Netherlands assisted organizations have been described in the following chronology: Cebemo Assisted: – Association for Social Advancement (ASA) – The Baitul Aman Trust – Caritas Bangladesh – Shaw Unnayan Novib Assisted: – Bangladesh Rural Advancement Committee (BRAC) – Proshika Manobik Unnayan Kendra Royal Netherlands Embassy Assisted – Shakti Foundation – Sheba – UBINIG.

Background ASA was founded later than the first wave of NGOs which operated during and immediately after the Independence struggle. It was set up in 1978 by a group of development workers formerly with BRAC, CCDB and Government. It aimed to mobilize the poor to form grass-roots organizations which could become involved in the development process and eventually challenge the unequal rural social order. Management structure ASA has a central office located in Dhaka, accommodating the Chief Executive, four coordinators, seven associate coordinators and 40 staff.

Below this are unit offices, which manage field-level activities such as group formation, development education, training, savings, loan disbursement and repayments. A unit office coordinates (in principle) 60 groups containing 1,200 members. Each unit office has six staff, comprising the Unit Officer (UO) four 4 COs (Community Organizers) and 1 ‘peon’ (general worker). COs are responsible for all field-level activities, supervised by the UO. Bank accounts are operated by any two of the COs, UO or RC (Regional Coordinator). For ten to fifteen units there is a Regional Coordinator.

He has no separate office or staff and is located in a convenient office to travel his region. For each two RCs one member of central-level staff is assigned to supervise and assist. The central internal audit section regularly audits unit office and group accounts. Donors ASA has a variety of funding sources for its Savings and Credit Program. According to its 1994 Annual Report, its activities were funded by its Partners Group of donors in 27 thanas, by DANIDA in 11 thanas, by a loan from PKSF (Palli Karma Sahayek Foundation, a Government facility offering loans to NGOs) in 14 thanas, and from its own resources in 35 thanas.

The ASA Partners’ Forum consists of Cebemo, DIA Netherlands, HEKS Switzerland and Misereor, Germany. The Forum meets together with ASA on an approximately annual basis and discusses progress, makes financial commitments or proposals, and gives feedback to ASA on the partners’ views of its achievements.  ASA has over 400,000 group members, 99 per cent of them female.  It was set up in 1978 and began its work by strengthening people’s organizations through concretization and training.

Organizations became strong and took social actions, but the poor economic status of members made the achievements unsustainable.  The intended apex organizations of members’ groups could also not be sustained, because poor people lost interest when no tangible benefits came from them. Furthermore, the apexes aroused suspicion and hostility among the rural elite.  The second phase of activities focused on development education, income generation, credit and women’s development. This also achieved much, but the integrated development concepts took long to realize, while members placed higher priority on access to credit. The third and current phase is centered on savings and credit through groups. At the same time, participation in the groups contributes to raise awareness of development issues and helps create a new category of people with leadership skill in rural society.  The ASA program is focused almost entirely on women. About one third of its own field staffs are women, but this is not reflected in management positions.  Management procedures are decentralized, well-documented and effective.  The credit program is standardized and highly disciplined.

It provides regular loans of between Tk 2000 and Tk 6000 to all members. Many members of the ‘hard core poor’ do not wish to participate in savings and credit schemes, but prefer to concentrate on daily laboring, which gives an immediate return.  Although ASA provides no formal training on such issues as how its members can best access services available from government or other providers, its members are well informed on these topics. They state that through meeting regularly and sharing information, such knowledge is disseminated. ASA credit has improved the standard of living of members and their households. Although women receive the loans, most of the money is directly used by men. Women note that their role as the channel to credit has raised their status in the household.  As well as access to credit, many women indicated that skills training would be useful to them and possibly enable them to utilize more of the credit received.

Group members in the area studied compare NGOs on the basis of their perceived characteristics and choose between them. ASA is seen as having a lower interest rate than other NGOs. At district level, there is relatively formal coordination between NGOs or between NGOs and government.  ASA has adopted the concept of economic empowerment as the key for the solution of a broad range of problems of the poor.  ASA is striving to attain its own self-reliance, but does not aim to make its groups self-reliant.  As its income has increased, ASA has reduced service charges to members.  ASA intends to continue operating primarily as a ‘bank-like’ NGO.

Baitul Aman Trust is an Islamic welfare organization in the coastal district of Patuakhali. It was founded in 1981. Until the early 1990s its major emphasis was on running an orphanage, mosque and charitable dispensary and providing Islamic education to the residents of the orphanage. Its project area was Patuakhali sadar thana. With the help of local and sometimes international funds Baitul Aman has also organized various social programs and income-generating activities for poor people. During the 1980s it organized vocational training on operating sawing, welding and sewing machines. Occasionally it distributed income-generating equipment to destitute, both male and female.

Baitul Aman Trust is a small local Islamic welfare organization, which has been working in the coastal district of Patuakhali since 1981, mainly on social development, welfare and skills training activities.  Its groups have 941 members, 53 per cent of whom are female. In 1994, it registered with the NGO Affairs Bureau and began a community development project in a remote area, in which no other NGOs are working.  The project aims to organize 60 groups with a total of 1200 members, impart literacy, functional education and preventive health care training, develop savings habits and disburse credit. Because of its limited financial resources, the organization has been able to give its staff little training and few formal guidelines on work practice. For the same reason, Baitul Aman has only been able to provide credit to about one quarter of its members. Many of those not served have begun to lose interest in group activities.  The credit program is not supported by training in technical skills.  In the absence of large NGOs, Baitul Aman is playing an important role in a remote area.  It lacks access to the technical assistance it needs to upgrade its largely untrained staff. Its resources are inadequate for the credit needs of the area.  The Executive Director is a local politician who has blended his political role with directly providing a service to poor people.

Organizations within the Caritas network are present in 142 different countries, including Bangladesh and Netherlands. Caritas began operating in the country before Independence, in 1967. At that time, it focused its work in the country’s small Catholic community. The 1970 cyclone proved a turning point, as Caritas immediately set up a relief program in the Noakhali area.

Caritas proposed a US$ 30 million relief and rehabilitation package, at that time the biggest in Catholic Church history. Donor response was massive and within 15 months, US$ 45 million was raised to finance the program. In order to avoid creating dependency, the operation moved to a 5 year plan to create work opportunities for the destitute. After the immediate relief phase, early efforts at development concentrated on raising agricultural productivity, with an emphasis on new technology such as power tillers.

Government as well as many NGOs cooperated in this effort, which led to enormous increases in food production. However, Caritas began to realize that only those who had connections to the rural power structure were really benefiting from the progress made, whilst the poor stayed the same, or even declined as the rich bought up their land. Since land is the major asset in Bangladesh, those with power will struggle to maintain it and have always managed to successfully withstand attempts at redistribution.

Caritas was the innovator of the Rower Pump, of which nearly one million are in use to supply irrigation and drinking water. This had a major impact on health and productivity.Caritas has about 275,000 members, 52 per cent of whom are female.  It began in East Pakistan in 1967. After early relief and rehabilitation programs, it concentrated on helping raise rural productivity through technological innovations, disseminated through cooperatives.  Although productivity was raised, the benefits were not mainly reaching the poor.

Caritas then became a pioneer in the field of consciousness-raising and empowerment programs, coupled with savings, credit and training.  In principle, Caritas now has one program with 43 elements, which can be made available to members groups on request.  One of the core programs, which receive substantial Netherlands assistance, is Development Extension and Education Services (DEEDS), which has been running since 1979 and now has about 100,000 members.  There is a three tier institutional structure in the DEEDS program.

At the base are village level groups, whose chairpersons are members of the next level, the union committee. These committees are in turn represented on a than level committee, which is known as the apex body.  Apex bodies receive five years of direct assistance from Caritas, after which they take control of their own assets and management, with Caritas phasing itself out into a support role.  The field study found that several groups operating under ‘phased out’ apexes were found to suffer from a lack of confidence among members concerning their financial management.

Loans were said to be unevenly distributed among members with a tendency to favor group leaders. Allegations of financial irregularities were also sometimes made.  Group members, particularly those in leadership positions, receive substantial training, with an emphasis on institutional development.  Skills centered training is also available, but not on a scale to meet the demands of all members who would like to receive it.  Apex bodies have substantial financial responsibilities, which they find it difficult to fulfill. Furthermore, members have high expectations regarding credit and the apexes have insufficient funds to meet these.  Members have received much training concerning the strength of their collective power. This had led to increased participation in political processes. Female members feel that they have gained social mobility and respect through participation in group activities.  Women members are not optimistic about changing deep-rooted social customs and practices which discriminate against them. Caritas is seen by its members as adopting a humane approach to credit repayment, as well as charging a low interest rate.  However, its procedures are seen as slow as to result in unequal distribution of the limited funds available. Caritas’ intention to transfer responsibility to apex bodies is an ambitious one, and the majority of group members exhibit little direct concern in the sustainability of these bodies.  The program does not appear to reach the ‘core poor’.  Although Caritas has a high proportion of female staff, many of these are volunteers.

The further up the management structure one goes, the smaller the proportion of female staff.  Caritas targets for coverage of the poor in particular areas have not been met, largely because of increasing competition from other NGOs for the same target groups and because of the lower than expected capacity of existing group leaders to stimulate formation of new groups.  Since Caritas has far less credit funds available than its members demand, there is an in-built pressure among existing members against new group development. Within existing groups, the average number of members declines over time, due to drop out without replacement.  All new groups are intended to complete a weekly training program over a one year period, but for many this takes substantially longer.  Group leaders must maintain many types of record and many of them lack the training or the time to do so.  The work load for an Associate Field Officer in new DEEDS areas varies from 35 to 90 primary groups, with an average of 42 groups.  Caritas collects much data, but this is often not systematic or appropriate for management purposes. Caritas ‘project management is therefore based more on general and individual perceptions than on systematic feedback from the field which should be the primary goal of a monitoring system’.

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