Limits to and opportunities for scaling participation: lessons from three city-wide urban poor networks in Dhaka, Bangladesh

Abstract

In Dhaka, three urban poor networks play a central role in advocating for the rights and entitlements of low-income settlement residents. Despite their numerous achievements, this article outlines how attempts to scale participation via these networks are limited by three overlapping state–civil society processes: (1) the politicization and increased monitoring of non-governmental organizations (NGOs); (2) shifting donor preferences towards service delivery and the creation of new community-based organizations (CBOs); and (3) the ongoing dominance and paternalism of NGOs towards low-income settlement residents. By situating these findings within existing understandings of in/formal governance and political participation, it can be argued that attempts to scale may struggle to evade or transform deep structures of dependency, patronage and intermediation. Recognizing that scaling can and does occur under these conditions, the article outlines opportunities to support the city-wide networks and alternative forms of organizing, to address pressing needs and priorities.

External stakeholders in the governance of slums in Ghana

“…According to research (Agyabeng et al , 2022), governments’ inability to prioritise slum governance with an integrated slum administration system and a dedicated policy document is to be blamed for the surge in slums. Such contributions from stakeholders help in filling the critical void created by the state in the affairs of slums (Cawood, 2021; Power and Wanner, 2017). Importantly, stakeholders’ inputs and contributions to slums in particular and the overall implications for the governance of slums in general create positive impressions about their generosity.…”

“…Stakeholders' contributions to vulnerable communities and groups cannot be quantified in a single research study, including the current one. Studies have shown that stakeholders have filled service provision gaps in the areas of water, sanitation, education and health care (Cawood, 2021;Power and Wanner, 2017). Their contribution does not only enhance specific areas in the slums, but it has also allowed national governments to provide the basic needs of slums (Meredith and MacDonald, 2017;Mitchell, 2015).…”

Development of a Recordkeeping Culture in Community‐Based Organisations in Bangladesh

“…Bangladesh was chosen as the research context because hundreds of NGOs have been facilitating community‐based groups and supporting them to become formalised and registered (Cawood, 2021; Datta, 2007; Sultana, Ahmed & Shiratake, 2020). According to Marwell (2004), community‐based organisations are organised around a particular geographic place or a “community” with significant regular participation of “community members” in the organisations to operate programs to meet the needs of disadvantaged residents in their local geographic space.…”

Informal Services in Asian Cities: Lessons for Urban Planning and Management from the COVID-19 Pandemic

“…Recognizing the relevance and urgency of enabling civil society and NGOs to demonstrate alternative approaches to sustainable and equitable development, as in Bangladesh, is being emphasized even by influential market-oriented global institutions like the World Economic Forum (Saleh 2022). This is also urgent because whereas Bangladeshi NGOs and CBOs have been effective and critical in providing shelter and services, in megacities like Dhaka, entrenched structures of patronage, dependency, and intermediation involving state, civil society, and external actors also pose challenges for scaling up participation (Cawood 2021).…”

“…Local grassroots organizations and CBOs representing the urban poor and their settlements are often organized into "federations," which are registered as nongovernment entities, like many of their constituent organizations. For more information, see Cawood (2021) and Taylor (2020).…”