14 January 2015, Dhaka. BRAC’s Water, sanitation and Hygiene programme held a dissemination and impact sharing workshop  on 14 January 2015 at BRAC Centre to share its experience and future strategy with the stakeholders.

BRAC started its WASH programme in 2006 to tackle contamination issues. The significant achievement of reducing open defecation from 42% to 3%  (from 2003-2012) was the major finding of the research. The programme works through an intensive implementation strategy to reach rural population from all walks of life. Starting from individual household visits, cluster meetings, schools, mosque forums, formation of village WASH committees promoting rural sanitation centres and regular advocacy workshops are the key implementation strategies of the programme.

BRAC’s vice chairperson and interim executive director Dr Ahmed Mushtaque Raza Chowdhury chaired the workshop where director of BRAC’s WASH programme gave the keynote presentation on the future strategy for BRAC’s WASH programme. Ms Martine van Hoogstraten, deputy head of mission, head of economic affairs and development cooperation, Embassy of the kingdom of the Netherlands in Dhaka and additional secretary of ministry of LGRD ms Zuena Aziz were present as guests of honour.
 

7 January 2015, Sierra Leone.

Interventions include cash transfers, radios and safe spaces for girls; efforts will help recovery efforts by providing livelihood assistance for affected families and support for adolescent girls

BRAC, in collaboration with the Ministry of Social Welfare Gender and Children Affair (MSWGCA), has started distributing cash grants to young Ebola survivors with the aim of starting small livelihood activities, while also supporting adolescent girls in Ebola recovery efforts.

Distributed in the districts of Port Loko, Kambia, Moyamba and Pujehun, the cash grants have been given to orphans below the age of 22, sexually abused children, and families with children affected by Ebola. The grant amounts consist of two disbursements of 200,000 leones ($47) each, paid one month apart. BRAC is targeting 1,050 beneficiaries within the four districts, with 96 having receiving payments as of January 7. The initiative is funded by UNICEF Sierra Leone.

Meanwhile, BRAC is also working to close the gaps created by schools closures in the wake of the Ebola crisis. Its Empowerment and Livelihood of Adolescents (ELA) project is providing 840 radio sets (four for each of 210 communities), along with textbooks, exercise books, pens and pencils to boost the learning capacity of non-school goers. This promotes the Ministry of Education’s Emergency Radio Teaching programme which has immensely helped adolescents and children stay focused. The BRAC intervention targets 24 chiefdoms in Port Loko, Kambia, Moyamba, and Pujehun.

With schools and most recreational centres closed amidst the economic crisis, girls have been limited in movement and confined to their homes. This creates a stressful situation in families and communities while exposing adolescent girls to abuse, violence, and exploitation. BRAC has synced its Ebola-related activities to existing efforts to end child marriage and teenage pregnancy, as these issues are all closely related.

Funded by UNICEF, BRAC’s Empowerment and Livelihood for Adolescents (ELA) programme provides safe spaces for adolescent girls, life-skills and livelihood training, microloans and community mobilization for reduction of teenage pregnancy and child marriage. It is a part of a network of girls’ clubs in five African countries with 77,000 members as of November 2014.

The existing ELA clubs’ spaces have also been used as social centres for the communities, supporting mentors to provide sexual and reproductive health training for adolescent boys and girls in smaller groups of five. The mentors, well-trained on key Ebola messages, in turn conduct door-to-door Ebola sensitization meetings and soap distribution near the clubs. Educational materials are also offered, turning the clubs into community libraries.

Owing to the fear of Ebola survivors being stigmatized, staffs and mentors have been trained on how to counsel and give support, such as psychosocial and psychological training, to people affected by the disease, helping them integrate back in their communities after treatment.
 

26 December 2014, New York.

“From Aid to Enterprise,” a case study released by  BRAC on the 10th anniversary of the Indian Ocean tsunami, suggests a  path from grant-based aid to sustainable interventions and for-profit  enterprise.
 

Mangalika and her husband, K.G. Sirisena, recall the wall of water  that swept over their home in coastal Sri Lanka ten years ago. “Eight  feet of water came into the house,” she says. “The only things left were  the clothes we were wearing. We were lucky to escape with our lives.”

Dec. 26 marks the 10-year anniversary of the Indian Ocean earthquake and tsunami,  one of the deadliest natural disasters in recorded history. An  estimated 230,000 people in 14 countries lost their lives in the  disaster and immediate aftermath.

To mark the anniversary and highlight the possibilities for renewal  in areas hit by wars, epidemics and natural disasters, BRAC, the  development organization based in Bangladesh, has released a case study  on its experience in Sri Lanka, “From Aid to Enterprise: BRAC’s Evolution from Relief to Sustainable Financial Services in Sri Lanka.”

Mangalika and her husband, featured in the report, were running a  home-based business servicing Singer-branded and other electronic  appliances, employing 12 part-time employees and making a profit of  roughly $750 a month. The tsunami laid waste to their business along  with countless others.

Mangalika with her husband and three sons in front of the family's new repair center.                  

"Crises  of historic magnitude can lead to equally historic gains if women have  the tools they need to seize control of their lives and wellbeing." –  Susan Davis

In “From Aid to Enterprise,” officials at BRAC discuss the challenges  of transitioning an initially grant-funded nonprofit development  organization into a sustainable microfinance institution, and in this  case a for-profit microfinance provider eventually sold to the private  sector in 2014.

“At BRAC, our objective is not to create a surplus for investors, or  to perpetually use donor funds,” says S.N. Kairy, group CFO of BRAC and  BRAC International. “It is to sustainably serve poor people. We prefer  to start with subsidy and donor funds, and then gradually move to  sustainability. That movement has to be driven by clients and their own  ability to borrow greater amounts in their own time.”

A path forward

“From Aid to Enterprise” suggests a path for other countries in a post-conflict or post-disaster stage.

January marks the five-year anniversary of the earthquake that  destroyed large parts of Haiti, for instance. BRAC entered Haiti shortly  after the earthquake and now runs a center that provides artificial  limbs and orthotic devices for those in need. Modeled on a similar BRAC  center in Bangladesh, the BRAC Limb and Brace Center in Haiti is on a  path toward full cost recovery.

The experience of BRAC in Sri Lanka also offers hope for recovery from the Ebola epidemic currently devastating parts of West Africa, according to Susan Davis, president and CEO of BRAC USA.

“Despite the situation we find ourselves in today with the rapidly  unfolding crisis in West Africa due to the spread of the Ebola virus,  it's worth looking at trends from recent decades to understand how  philanthropic capital can build models of sustainability,” Davis wrote in The Huffington Post recently.  “Crises of historic magnitude can lead to equally historic gains if  women have the tools they need to seize control of their lives and  wellbeing.”

BRAC operates microfinance, agriculture, girls’ empowerment and  education programs in Sierra Leone and Liberia, and is part of the Ebola  Survival Fund, a coalition of nongovernmental organizations determined  to crush Ebola.

“From Aid to Enterprise” documents the rare trajectory of BRAC’s  operations in Sri Lanka, evolving from philanthropically funded relief  operations to a commercial financial services company serving the poor.

Livelihoods lost and regained

More than 35,000 people lost their lives in Sri Lanka during the  Indian Ocean tsunami. More than 800,000 were displaced, and according to  official estimates, more than 150,000 people lost their livelihoods.  About 90% of those affected lost productive assets, including their  dwellings.

BRAC’s initial post-tsunami relief interventions in Sri Lanka were  geared towards recovery and rehabilitation efforts, including the  cleaning and disinfesting of contaminated water wells, constructing  latrines to prevent health hazards, and replacing lost and damaged  school materials. Beginning in 2006, as the need for immediate disaster  relief and rehabilitation efforts subsided, BRAC moved towards providing  micro-loans and facilitating economic development at the community  level.

BRAC took a phased approach to entering the sustainable microfinance  sector. Within a year of operations, it had reached more than 26,000  clients, making it a significant microfinance provider in Sri Lanka.  Starting in 2007, selected clients – mostly women heads of households,  widows, and those without other assistance – began receiving training on  poultry and livestock rearing, agriculture, and enterprise development.  Women were trained in basic business planning, assessing the market,  locating wholesale options, handling day-to-day bookkeeping, and  interacting with customers. A capacity development program also helped  strengthen other local organizations.

Regulatory hurdles for microfinance

A local microfinance expert quoted in “From Aid to Enterprise”  credited BRAC’s robust growth with “well established management  practices, systems, and a ready methodology largely replicated from  Bangladesh.”

By 2007, the company had evolved to a fully-fledged microfinance  operation, and a near replication of BRAC’s microcredit model in  Bangladesh BRAC scaled its operations to a portfolio of over USD 11.2  million, serving 74,000 borrowers at its peak in 2011.

After 2011, BRAC loan portfolio began to contract as a result of  capital constraints that resulting partly from Sri Lanka’s lack of  regulatory framework. There were ambiguities and restrictions on how  microfinance organizations could fund their operations. BRAC’s legal  structure effectively prohibited it from borrowing funds on a commercial  basis from international sources, and its ability to finance operations  through savings deposits was constrained by government directives,  resulting on a squeeze on access to capital.

In June 2013, BRAC partnered with Lanka Orix Leasing Group (LOLC), a  longstanding provider of leasing and insurance and other financial  products in Sri Lanka with its own existing microfinance practice (LOLC  Micro Investment Ltd), to acquire a majority stake in a regulated  financial services company, the for-profit Nanda Investment and Finance  PLC (NIFL). In 2014, in response to new changes to the Sir Lankan  central bank’s capitalization requirements, the board of BRAC  International sold its 59.33% stake in the jointly held company, BRAC  Lanka Finance PLC, to Commercial Leasing and Finance PLC, a subsidiary  of its partner, LOLC.

The sale was completed in September 2014, marking BRAC’s exit from  Sri Lanka and ending a successful transition from aid to enterprise.

“Sri Lanka is successful because we started with grant funding,” says  Kairy. “This is the best way to set up, as it allows you to really  reach the poor, and then allows a path for sustainability to emerge. If  there is no grant, then in effect, you are serving a higher income  portion of the population, perhaps the moderate poor. But to eventually  get to a place of sustainability while serving the poorest, an  organization needs some level of subsidy at the start.”

Download the full Sri Lanka case study, “From Aid to Enterprise,” here.

 

At BRAC’s Board Meeting on 3 December, Australia, BRAC and the UK reiterated their commitment to work on ending violence against women and girls in Bangladesh. This joint statement was released as part of the 16 Days of Activism against Gender Based Violence Campaign.

In issuing the statement, BRAC Chairperson Sir Fazle Abed said, “Empowering women and girls is the key to successful economic and social development. BRAC has always believed in collaborations- hence, once again, if we want to deliver real results, the government, private sector and civil societies need to work together to fight gender disparity. I am proud of the progress made in Bangladesh, but there is still work to be done.”

“Investing in girls and women has a transformative impact on growth and poverty reduction,” said Paul Whittingham, Deputy Country Representative for DFID Bangladesh. “That is why, as strategic partners, UK, BRAC and Australia support women and girls to live free from violence, and support their education, health and economic empowerment so they can achieve their full potential.”

“Our shared approach is to work with men and boys as well as women and girls to make sure that women are valued by society and from there to ensure their social and economic rights.” added Priya Powell, Counsellor (Development Cooperation) at the Australian High Commission.

With the support of Australia and the UK, BRAC’s advocacy and social and economic development programs empower women to be actively engaged in household decision making, reduce incidences of violence against women and build the confidence of students to protect and protest against sexual harassment.

The 16 Days of Activism against Gender Based Violence Campaign started on 25th November 2014 and this year the theme is “From Peace in the Home to Peace in the World: Let’s Challenge Militarism and End Gender-Based Violence". This theme is well aligned to the gender strategies of all three partners. As a part of this campaign, BRAC has organised discussion forums, rallies, poster displays and other awareness creation activities across Bangladesh. BRAC is also participating in events organised by the Government of Bangladesh and other organisations to mark this campaign.

Violence against women and girls affects a large majority of the female population, regardless of their socio-economic status. A national survey done by BBS  shows that about 87% of currently married women have experienced some type of violence in their lifetime; (65% have experienced physical violence, 80% have experienced psychological violence, more than one third have experienced sexual violence, in each case, perpetrated by their intimate partners or current husbands). About one third of women have paid dowry for the current marriage. Bangladesh has the highest rate (65% of child marriage) in South Asia. A very recent survey done by ActionAid reveals that 85% of urban women and girls face some form of sexual harassment the in public domain.

Strong legislation is in place but effective implementation remains a challenge. There are other challenges around provision of support services, capacity of law enforcement agencies and having access to justice. Australia, BRAC and the UK are focused on continuing their work together to address these issues through effective programs and also developing new programs that address emerging social problems related to gender based violence.