Making governance work for the poor

Two-member Samata delegation meeting Hilary Benn at DFID Headquarters: Advocacy for NGOs working to make governance work for the poor

Good governance is not just about government, it is also about political parties, parliament, the judiciary, the media and civil society. It is about how citizens, leaders and public institutions relate each other in order to make change happen. Election and democracy are an important part of the equation, but equally important is the way government goes about the business of governing. Good governance requires three things: (i) state capability, (ii) responsiveness, and (iii) accountability. This means citizens, civil society and government need to work together to build effective state and provide better governance to reduce poverty.

In the preface of the white paper, Mr. Hilary Benn says, "What makes the biggest difference to the quality of governance is active involvement by citizens -- the thing we know as politics. Good governance and development are about the people and governments of developing countries working out this deal for themselves. Each country needs to decide its own economic and social priorities, and the best people to hold governments to account are those who live in the country and are most affected by its decisions".

People want to be governed well, and to have a say in what happens in their lives. They want to be safe. They want the chance to earn a decent living for themselves and their families. And they want to be treated fairly by their government and public officials. These aspirations are enshrined in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, and the Millennium Declaration of 2000. But the reality for many people in poor countries is very different. Effective states and better governance are essential to combat poverty. States which respect civil liberties and are accountable to their citizens are more stable.

Our government's Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper (PRSP) also gives significant importance and accords high priority to improve governance in the country. Major points stated in the PRSP for improving governance include: establishing good governance in all spheres of administration, expediting separation of the judiciary from the executive, appointing an ombudsman, making attempts to raise the police force as a neutral institution, keeping the administration free from undue influences, ensuring transparency and accountability and undertaking proper measures to provide appropriate clientele service and reduce corruption in government offices. But not much so far could have been done.

The PRSP, however, also identified some constraints to have good governance in the country. The first is the primordial imperative of maintaining political capacity vis-à-vis contenders. Such preoccupations leave little room for active engagement in governance issues. The second is the pressure for responding to the electorate's demand for “development”. There is a real problem here of how society itself understands and appreciates “development”. The third critical constraint is an inherited bureaucratic culture which tends to emphasise “administering” (meaning, control the capacity to punish) rather than “governing” (meaning, foster rules and norms to deepen good governance). Promoting a good governance agenda against such deep-seated constraints is easier said than done.

Meanwhile some NGOs have tried to reduce poverty through their efforts and in the process helped to have good governance at local level and further. Their success or failure is, however, relative. But it is certain that they could bring some worthwhile changes in society, specially in the lives of its poorer section, through their respective programmers, thus reducing poverty of a significant section of people at least. However most of them believe that without improving governance by establishing transparent, accountable and pro-people government poverty cannot be reduced sustainably. Samata, one such NGO specifically working for the landless poor as prices and has been working to have better governance from grassroots to national level in which the landless and the marginalised people can have active participation and a say in decision making. It has already become very much successful in enabling the poor, marginalised and landless people to organise, make their voice heard, exercise rights and develop knowledge and skills which not only lead to an improvement in their livelihoods and well-being, but also improve governance at village, Union and district level.

Chronically poor people have been heavily dependent on networks of patronage to secure access to land, employment opportunities and development benefits. But these networks have been rarely to their advantage, with benefits heavily skewed in favour of more powerful patrons. However, through the organisation, landless men and women could create a space for themselves which both challenges existing power relations and provides a platform to make claims and seek redress to rights violations and misgovernance.

Over time, Samata has moved away from an approach based primarily on increasing people's ability to demand accountability, to one which encourages greater linkages between citizens and the offices of authority. It places emphasis on including local government and other authorities and power holders as “partners” in the development and reform process. It actively implements a policy of supporting members for election to the Union Parishad, Gram Sarkar and other socio-politico-economic decision-making committees. Presently, 6,168 landless males and females are members in different decision making committees, 2216 landless males and females are members of Gram Sarkar and 458 landless males and females are members of Union Parishad.

In this way, the poor and marginalised people have representative voice in local decision-making and can ensure that issues which affect poor people's lives are constantly on the agenda. This is also important because it contributes to a process of more equitable decision-making. And this way Samata could pull out 1,53,859 landless households with 8,00,067 people from extreme poverty through recovery and distribution of 78,468.19 acres of khas land and khas water bodies.

In addition, it could also make progress in growing further support for pro-poor development and influence of the landless poor people is apparent in decision making with regard to changes in policy and practice. Three government acts and one national policy have been amended as a result of its advocacy. It has been creating awareness on different policy issues such as the need for the repeal of existing char land laws, establishing a separate land commission for the indigenous people living in plain lands, and changes in the sugar cane grinding ordinance.

In order to make governance work for the poor there is a need to have intensive and integrated effort of government, political parties, NGOs, private sector, civil society, media and citizens. Building better governance takes time and has to come from within country, although international partners can help. Some development partners have already played a significant role in strengthening CSOs, NGOs and government which needs to be continued. On July 04 last Samata's two-member delegation (Executive Director and DirectorAdvocacy) met with Mr. Hilary Benn, at DFID Headquarters and requested to continue international supports for the NGOs and civil society organisations which are working to make governance work for the poor.

They see the problem of poverty as primarily structural so there is a need to focus on policy reformation, establish good governance and build the capacity of government to respond to the poor. The works which the rights based NGOs and civil society organisations are doing in the country needs to be strengthened and extended across its length and breadth.

Md Abdul Kader and Sohel Ibn Ali are executive director, respectively, and director of samata, a national non-governmental development organisation.