Project Plan

Community Development and Building Community Capacity against Corruption

Introduction

Corruption is defined as manners breaching rules or departing from the official duties of a public role due to private gains (Nye 1997: 417). It is a challenge against development process and governance. Rogow and Laswell focus that it damages public interest (1970:54). The World Bank (2000) argues that the corrupted practice reduces public service delivery, misdirects civic resources, demoralizes civic trust, decreases public revenue and declines the reliability of the state (Cited in zafarullah and Siddiquee 2001: 466). However, corruption is deeply rooted in public service delivery organizations in the context of Bangladesh. (Mollah and Uddin n.d.: 1). Citizens do not obtain the services unless unauthorized payment is paid to concerned officials (Siddique 1999: 94). Every citizen experiences sufferings from corruption but the poor undergoes more sufferings (Mollah and Uddin n.d.: 1).

This project focuses on to develop a community among the people of ‘Naogaon’ district of Bangladesh (i.e. ‘mezzo’ level (Shevellar 2010)) to build up awareness against corruption among them. It also aims to work in creating demand for greater accountability in public service delivery organizations with the facilitation of Transparency International Bangladesh (TIB1) in order to fight against corruption. In so doing the project report presents a view about the stakeholders associated with the system of public service delivery organization in Bangladesh. The report also provides the strategies which are used in this project. Then it highlights the action plan and the associated risks with appropriate safeguards for implementing the strategies.



‘TIB is an accredited national chapter of Berlin-based Transparency International. It is registered as a non-governmental organization since 1998, TIB catalyses a social movement against corruption and advocates for effective policy reforms’ (SDC Bangladesh n.d.).

Rationale of the Project

Iftekharuzzaman (2004) argues that corruption diffuses in each sector of Bangladesh with losses approximately 3 percent of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP). According to the report of TIB, ‘per capita loss of household earnings to bribery in six selected sectors of public service delivery was estimated to be 7.94 per cent’ (cited in Iftekharuzzaman 2004). The author also highlights that the poor and the other disadvantaged sections of the society who are outside the orbit of power-structure at any stage are the worst victims of corruption. Access to basic services at the delivery end of key public sectors becomes conditional upon the capacity to make unauthorised payments. On the other hand, the powerful are the direct beneficiaries of corruption developed a strong vested interest for sustaining the network of corruption (Iftekharuzzaman 2004).

Knox (2009) argues that lack of political will from within the policy community in Bangladesh sustains this harmful corruption issue. Therefore, the public sector is highly involved in corruption (Knox 2009: 123). Thus in Bangladesh corruption is deeply rooted in top down approach. On the other hand, community participation can create positive change by increasing ‘social associations (contacts), trust, and increasing engagement with governance infrastructure’. It makes sure that the requirements and desires of the common people are met (Schurmann and Mahmud 2009: 537). Therefore, common people can have a positive role in applying demands for change since they are the sufferers (Knox 2009: 123). Considering the intense sufferings of the common people and the failure of top-down approach to ensure basic services in a valid way, in my project I am interested in active bottom-up approach for community participation in combating corruption.

The Aim of the Project

The main aims of this project are to develop a community to

• build-up awareness among the common people and

• work with TIB as a facilitator in order to participate actively to create demand for ensuring greater accountability and transparency for combating corruption.

This project intends to build-up community through the processes of inter-subjectivity dialogue, invitation and networking to encourage people against the corruption issue and to make awareness about their right. It will increase the level of participation by common people. It will also involve community people to fight against corruption. It can build up consensus among community members and improves service delivery in public service delivery organization. Finally it will broaden the range of representation for maintaining public interest against corruption.

Again, public officials place accountability towards stakeholders in the community in second position (Tange, 1982 cited in Corbett 1996: 198). Collective action of the community can have great impact in this context. Community awareness and their involvement can raise accountability of the service providers in controlling corruption. Therefore, the project aims to work with TIB as a catalyst to work collectively to create demand for greater accountability. Knox (2009) argues that TIB puts emphasis on community movement to create force for institutional change (‘second order change’ (Shevellar 2010a)) especially in reducing corruption. TIB works in partnership and collaboration arrangements with local level community by guiding bottom-up action for change in Bangladesh with the objective of ‘fight against corruption’ (Knox 2009: 123, SDC Bangladesh n.d.). Therefore, in collaboration with TIB the project aims to activate community participation to provide transparency and accountability of government services. Advocacy and monitoring of the members of the community can make service providers further reactive to the perceived needs of communities (Schurmann and Mahmud 2009: 537).

Analysis of Public Service Delivery System

 This section provides the analysis of the key stakeholders such as political actors, public servants, civil society associated with public service delivery system of Bangladesh.
Political actors
In constitutional authority relationships public servants are accountable only to ministers and ministers are accountable to parliament which in turn accountable to the people (Corbett 1996:197). However, the reality is not that simple in case of Bangladesh. Zafarullah and Siddiquee (2001) argue that corruption does not work separately in the public sector of Bangladesh. Political leaders in power involve in major corruption. Consequently administrative corruption is an attachment of political corruption. Misuse of public resources and remarkable setback in decision making along with substantial corruption produce indescribable difficulty to the public. The culture of ministerial responsibility is weak in Bangladesh (2001: 482). Ministers can take personal responsibility for all administrative lapses in their departments (Mulgan 1997:32). Zafarullah and Siddiquee (2001) argue that not often a minister decides to recognize liability for lapses and offer his resignation in the context of Bangladesh. Rather ministers try to defend themselves and their personnel. (2001: 482). Therefore, the politicians often ignore the accountability towards the public.
Public Servants

Siddiquee (1999) argues that bureaucracy is an essential part of existing states. Bureaucracy provides vital public services and implements various programmes of socio-economic development (Siddiquee 1999: 88). In a parliament system of government public servants recognize the power of political authority to control, locate priorities, and reallocate resources and make sure compliance with orders (Dwivedi and Jabbra 1989: 6). Therefore, political accountability is the prerequisite for bureaucratic accountability (Siddiquee 1999: 101). However, Siddiquee (1999) argues that bureaucratic accountability in Bangladesh is undermined due to the very nature of bureaucratic institutions. Bureaucracy in Bangladesh is traditionally stronger than political institutions. This provides bureaucrats a high level of independence in administering their own dealings (Siddiquee 1999: 99). Again, public officials show indifference to public needs and lacks moral principles (Zafarullah and Siddiquee 2001: 470). The common people are the victims of bureaucratic disregard and poor governance (Zafarullah 2001: 483). Again, openness and transparency are alien concepts in public bureaucracy of Bangladesh (Khan 1997). Public servants do not intend to share information about decisions with citizens ultimately contributes to corruption.
Civil society
Civil society is vital to the community development process. Schurmann and Mahmud (2009) argue that it includes all voluntary organizations and associations such as mosque congregations, labour unions, professional associations, and NGOs etc. It increases engagement with governance infrastructure for positive change. It can provide transparency and accountability of government services through advocacy and monitoring. Therefore, it can play a robust ‘watchdog role’ by creating a crucial room. It can make service providers responding quickly to the apparent requirements of the people. Only grassroots participation through such civil society activities can make sure the efficiency of service delivery. Civil society can connect service providers with communities. However, civil society in Bangladesh fails to sustain the wants of the society. It lacks community engagement and societal faith. It fails to scrutinize government activity. In fact, in the context of Bangladesh NGO is the dominant part of civil society which is involved in service provision. This diverts the NGOs to embrace the state accountable for its misdeeds. Again, the NGOs cannot support the contribution of citizens into the policy development due to engage in service provision (2009: 537).

Appropriate Strategies to Mitigate the Issues

 Checking corruption is not a simple task. But determined actions will go a long way to minimize it (Mollah and Uddin n.d.: 15). The strategy involves the integration of different perspectives of reality to mitigate the core issues of the system. To achieve the desired social changes in this project, I will utilize following strategies.


Strategy 1: Inter-subjectivity of Dialogue

This is the starting journey of community development. Westoby and Owen (2009) highlights Buber’s (1947) framework in community development. This framework emphasizes the transformation of relationships from ‘I–It’ to ‘I–Thou’ within community. The move from I–It logic toward inter-subjective thoughts is the foundation of community development. Community building requires the listening and understanding of people’s concerns. This approach of community building enables concerns into public concerns of social change. This process sets up the ‘inter-subjectivity’ as moving from ‘I’ to ‘You’ to ‘We’ (2009: 4-5).

Strategy 2: Geometry of Moving

Westoby and Owen (2009) argue that the community development practice facilitates people collectively work together to create communal change through civic action. Therefore, after inter-subjective dialogue stage, this strategy engages others to build a community development process. This stage invites others to participate in thorough public action. This invitation is the move from single relationship of ‘I-Thou’ (dyads) to relationships of three people (triads). However, this relationship is not limited to three people only rather is the fundamental unit for community action (2009: 5-6).



Strategy 3: Networking



Westoby and Owen (2009) argue that uniting community-orientated networks is the requirement of community development practice. Networking involves people acting cooperatively in order to bring about the desired social change (2009:8). Lederach (2005) emphasizes strategic networking for peaceful community building (2005: 80). Westoby and Owen (2009) emphasizes that the networking creates social spaces for knitting relationships and connections to form structures of community. Thus networking mobilizes and links people together about their concerns. It can play an effective role in shifting the hypothesis from observation to action rather than the summation of efforts of total individuals (2009: 10).
Westoby and Owen (2009) also argue that the geometry of web weaving is based on nodes and hubs. A key person acting as a central hub can create the perception of increased stability within the web. However, this practice can have the inverse effect of increasing the vulnerability of that web by reducing the resilience and effectiveness of the networking practice. Therefore, the co-creative work of building more nodes and fewer hubs reflects better technical approach to enabling community development practice. Again, social capital helps building durable networks. For example, ‘bonding’ emphasizes a web of like minded people. Therefore, networking process is centred upon the dialogue and invitation throughout the social process (2009: 11-12).

Strategy 4: Structuring Community Action

Westoby and Owen (2009) argue that structuring community action is the organizational form of stabilizing activity over a period of time in practice. It engages the ‘horizontal’ and ‘vertical’ dimensions. The ‘horizontal’ dimension is achieved by the engagement of practitioners through the processes of exchanging ideas, invitation and networking. The ‘vertical’ dimension is achieved by engaging the power structure with community to deal public concern (2009: 13-15).


Collaboration is an approach to attain vertical dimension of community structuring. Petermen (2004) argues that the voice of the common people is heard in this process. Collaboration can be performed through partnerships with different bodies like government officials, community facilitators etc. This collaboration practice provides facilitation for active community participation (2004: 266, 271). According to King and Cruikshank (2010) facilitators can use ‘social learning process’ to achieve purposeful change by allowing people for reacting changes. This learning process provides systematic approach for the required intensive action to build engagement capacity of the community (2010: 7-8).



Strategy 5: Community Mobilizing



Green and Haines (2002) argue that mobilizing includes direct action taken by the community. Community activates its members through ‘social action campaigns’. These campaigns can help in changing verdicts, communal structures, and cultural viewpoint. Different tactics such as petitions, community education, teach-ins etc use in the action campaigns (2002: 41).


Strategy 6: Monitoring


Green and Haines (2002) argue that monitoring the improvement of action plan is required. This monitoring is significant on continuous involvement of the community members by presenting the results of their works. It offers whether corrections are required in the action plan or not. The accomplishment of the Action plan depends having bench marks and performance indicators on monitoring results. Reviewing the action plan and comparing with bench mark can help progression of the project as well. This succession ultimately promotes further participation by community members (2002: 55-56).


Project in Action

 Action Plan for Strategy 1


‘Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it’s the only thing that ever has’- Margaret Mead. This saying encourages me to utilize community development practices as tools to build up awareness among community members of ‘Naogaon’ district of Bangladesh for fighting against corruption. This district is situated at the north-west of Bangladesh. It is mostly populated with vulnerable, marginalised people (Knox 2009: 124). As an action of strategy 1, I share my private concern with my friends (from the community of Bangladesh who are studying at UQ) whether they have the similar concern like me or their own concerns or views about the corruption issue. For this I took the opportunity of a gathering of Bangladeshi students at the occasion of Bengali new year celebration at ‘Guyatt Park’ on 14 April, 2010. Everyone feels the similar concern about the issue like me. But one of them who is from that part of the country showed his deep interest to work collectively for building social change against the corruption issue.


Action Plan for Strategy 2

We will invite some of our friends and colleagues who are staying in that locality via e-mail to share their feeling about this issue. In this stage we want to move our project from dyads to triads stage. At the same time, we will invite them to visit my blog which is created for the reflection of this project and welcome them to move forward to share their feelings or comments about this issue. The blog will provide the social change agenda we are seeking for and the details of the project plan. The blog will also offer links to some recent reports on corruption issue and the project which is on going in combating corruption of various sectors in district and national levels of Bangladesh.

Action Plan for Strategy 3


To implement the strategy 3, we will choose hub from that locality. We will create many nodes from different categories of people such as teachers, ‘Imam’ of mosque (religious leaders), public servants, private employees, NGO workers, students, etc to bring about the desired social change. We will use blog and e-mail to communicate with the members of that locality. Moreover, our hub will deliver hand written leaflets reflecting our concern and change agenda after the Friday prayer of the local mosque which is a big gathering to contribute to build the network.

Action Plan for Strategy 4



To give the organizational form to the network, both horizontal and vertical aspects of community development will be required. Horizontal aspects of engagement will be achieved through implementing the strategies 1, 2 and 3. For vertical dimension we will collaborate with TIB which is the only NGO in Bangladesh working with its core objective of combating corruption (SDC Bangladesh n.d.) to facilitate us to achieve our goal. TIB offers technical and financial support to the anti-corruption activity in local and regional level of Bangladesh (Knox 2009: 124). The partnership policy of TIB is provided in appendix. TIB will act as a facilitator through training and advocacy to engage public service delivery organizations of the locality for ensuring greater accountability towards the common people. At the same time, our network will engage various local community based bodies (e.g. mosque committee, youth club, sports club etc.) to represent the involvement of wider community. We will form an anti-corruption committee in the locality including local political leaders, public officials of delivery organizations along with people from other different sectors. Thus the community will use ‘outside-in’ (Shevellar 2010) approach to create demand for social change.


Action Plan for Strategy 5

Our organization will mobilize community residents through social campaigns. We will arrange rallies and public demonstrations to create public demand against corruption. Creating demand can increase the accountability of public service delivery organizations towards their stakeholders. Moreover, we will utilize community education programs in mosques, community meetings to create common awareness among people to corruption practices. Here, we will also collect citizen charter from different delivery organizations of the locality and inform the common people about the right of the recipients and the fees of the services. We will write letters to the editors of local newspapers to highlight the movement against corruption issue. On the other hand, we will monitor and provide the feedback to the public service delivery organizations for any changes required.



Action Plan for Strategy 6


We will monitor the action plan through regular communication and meetings. To make the action plan successful we will fix the deadlines for each stage. We will present our results to the blog in order to encourage the community members for continuous involvement. The blog will invite comments from our members and modify any actions for proper corrections. Through discussion among community members, we will set our bench marks and performance indicators for monitoring results. Then the review of the action plan will compare the bench mark to measure the success of the project. Ultimately this achievement will encourage common people to participate more actively.


Possible Risks and Associated Safeguards of the Project

Rigidly holding the agenda might have inverse effect on effective inter-subjectivity of dialogue (Westoby and Owen 2009: 5). Therefore, in this project we will emphasize on community dialogue to build up relationship in a mutual purposeful way. We will provide space for listening to others’ stories and understand their concerns about the issue.
While moving to the triads relationship the third person might feel inferior and unstable. Again, dictating the relationships by one person can create problem in triads stage (Westoby and Owen 2009: 6-7). In addition, self interest based community can propose varied connected networks (Gilchrist 2004: 95). Therefore, new members will be welcomed by building explicit temporary goals and triads relationships will be cooperative and mutual interest based. Ultimately flexible network can help building durable community.
Welcoming strangers in the invitation stage can create negative effects in community development process (Westoby and Owen 2009: 6). However, in our project in triad stage we will contact with the people known to us officially or socially. But the problem of inviting strangers will arise while building networks. In that case we will fix some minimum eligible criteria to include members in the networks and will try to contact them through their organization or association. Again, larger webs can leave many people feeling isolated in networking activity (Westoby and Owen 2009: 13). To combat this problem, provision for sharing resources and developing close bonds will be encouraged (Gilchrist 2004:95).

The whole network may face vulnerable situation if a person acting as hub drops out then (Westoby and Owen 2009: 11). Therefore, choosing hub is critical to form a network. In this context we need to choose person who is widely respected and responsible for holding the position of hub. On the other hand, the response of online dialogue through e-mail and blog might not give quick result in the context of Bangladesh. In that case making phone call can be an effective alternative approach. Moreover, we will use direct communication with the community members through our local hub.
The partnership policy of TIB is to collaborate with like minded organizations or groups. However, we might face challenge for getting technical and financial support due to lack of available resources for the time being. Despite that we will continuously build our network with the local bodies to strengthen our community development and move forward to continue our activities for the success of the project. Alternatively, we will approach to draw the attention of the other donor agencies to support us in this context.

The tendency of holding the key position is a chaos while engaging government. To solve this problem we have to underpin the broader understanding in the local context and ultimately focus on social change agenda. Again, community involvement against corruption can provoke corrupt individuals. However, we will clear our goal that this project aims to build general awareness of common people against corruption; it is not against any individual or existing government.

Again, some members of our network might feel frustrated with the techniques of monitoring of the overall action plan. However, we will present ourselves in the friendly atmosphere and motivate all the members about the importance of making the project successful in the greater interest of the community. Finally, time is a major constraint for this project to implement all the action plans. However, we have already initiated the project and will continue it in the course of time.


Conclusion

Corruption is a challenge for the development process for Bangladesh. Corruption makes lives difficult especially for common people of the country. Therefore, to combat corruption my project aims to build-up awareness among the common people and to create demand for greater accountability of the public service delivery organization towards service recipients. The report analyses the system of public service delivery organization in Bangladesh. This shows that the top-down approach is not able to ensure the proper accountability towards its citizens. The report then provides the appropriate strategies for the project. It includes strategies for building community, collaboration to build the capacity of the community, mobilizing community and monitoring the action plan. It also provides the action plan to implement the strategies. Then the report highlights the assumed risk associated with the strategies and action plan and provides safe-guards accordingly.

References


Corbett, D. 1996. ‘Accountability and Ethics’. In Australian Public Sector Management. NSW: Allen & Unwin.

Dwivedi, O. and Joseph J. 1989. ‘Public Service Responsibility and Accountability’. In Public Service Accountability a Comparative Perspective. West Hartford, Con.: Kumarian Press, INC.
Gilchrist, A. 2004. A Well-Connected Community: a Networking Approach to Community Development. UK: Policy Press.

Green, P. and Haines, A. 2002. Asset Building and Community Development. Thousand Oaks: Sage.
Iftekharuzzaman. 2004. ‘Corruption in Bangladesh: Upside Down?’ The New Age, Fourth Year Anniversary.

Khan, M. (1979). Administrative Reform in Bangladesh. New Delhi: South Asian.

Khan, M. n.d. Political and Administrative Corruption: Concepts, Comparative Experiences and Bangladesh Case. A paper prepared for Transparency International Bangladesh Chapter.

King, C. and Cruickshank, M. 2010. ‘Building Capacity to Engage: Community Engagement or Government Engagement?’ Community Development Journal. Advance Access Published on April 13, 2010: 1-24.

Knox, C. 2009. ‘Dealing with Sectoral Corruption in Bangladesh: Developing Citizen Involvement’. Public Administration and Development. Vol. 29: 117–132.

Lederach, P. 2005. The Moral Imagination: the Art and Soul of Building Peace. Oxford : Oxford University Press.

Mollah, M. and Uddin, M. n.d. ‘Combating Corruption in Bangladesh: Some Strategies’.

Mulgan, R. 1997. ‘The Processes of Public Accountability’. Australian Journal of Public Administration. Vol. 56(1): 25-36.

Nye, S. 1979. ‘Corruption and Political Development: A Cost-Benefit Analysis’. In Bureaucratic Corruption in Sub-Saharan Africa: Toward a Search for Causes and Consequences. M. Ekpo ed. Washington, D.C.: University Press of America.

Petermen, W. 2004. ‘Advocacy vs. Collaboration: Comparing Inclusionary Community Planning Models’. Community Development Journal. Vol. 39(3): 266-276.

Rogow, A. and Laswell, H. 1970. ‘The Definition of Corruption’. In Political Corruption: Readings in Comparative Analysis. A. Heidenheimer ed. New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winstan.

Schurmann, A. and Mahmud, S. 2009. ‘Civil Society, Health, and Social Exclusion

in Bangladesh’. Journal of Health Population Nutrition. Vol. 27(4): 536-544.

SDC Bangladesh. N.d. ‘Paribartan- Driving Change for Good Governance’. Accessed 2 March, 2010. Available at http://www.swiss-cooperation.admin.ch/bangladesh/en/Home/Local_Governance/TIB.
Shevellar, L. 2010. ‘Orientation to the Course’. PowerPoint Presentation at Workshop 1 on SWSP 7123: Community Planning Engagement and Governance. University of Queensland.

Shevellar, L. 2010a. ‘Orientation to the Course’. PowerPoint Presentation at Workshop 5 on SWSP 7123: Community Planning Engagement and Governance. University of Queensland.

Siddiquee, N. 1999. ‘Bureaucratic accountability in Bangladesh: Challenges and limitations’. Asian Journal of Political Science. Vol. 7(2): 88 — 104.

Westoby, P. and Owen, J. 2009. ‘The Sociality and Geometry of Community Development Practice’. Community Development Journal. Advance Access Published on February 12, 2009: 1-17.

Zafarullah, H. and Siddiquee, N. 2001. ‘Dissecting Public Sector Corruption in Bangladesh: Issues and Problems of Control’. Public Organization Review: A Global Journal. Vol.1: 465–486.

Appendix



Partnership Policy of TIB
Scope of Partnership/Cooperation

The term ‘Partnership’ or ‘Cooperation’ indicates relationships or arrangements ranging from participation in, and collaboration with, and/or joint organization or cosponsoring of, specific events and/or programmes to common platform, forum, coalition and/or other forms of institutional arrangements that would promote and/or strengthen a social movement against corruption and towards increased demand for accountable and transparent governance in Bangladesh.
Terms of Reference
• TIB shall participate in, and/or facilitate and develop institutional and/or programmatic or issue-based partnerships with all such organisations and/or initiatives that would promote TIB’s vision values, mission and objectives. Commitment of partner organizations to transparency and accountability is a point to be considered as a minimal requirement.

• All partnerships shall be on equal footing, and with due recognition of all partner’s contributions-organizational, technical, financial and/or otherwise.

• The use of TIB name and logo in connection with any partnership/cooperation shall be only on the basis of approval of TIB, and shall be limited to the purpose and duration of the partnership only.

• All partnerships shall be on voluntary basis having no implication of imposition in terms of objectives, ideas and policies, and organizational, technical and financial capacity.



(Source: TIB Partnership Policy, Available at http://www.ti-bangladesh.org/PartnershipPolicy.pdf)