Nongovernmental Organizations and Evaluation: The BRAC Experience

Ahmed, Salehuddin; Rafi, Mohammad

doi:10.4324/9781351325325-56

Cited by 1 publication

(4 citation statements)

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“…Abed saw that Bangladesh as a whole was ravaged and that focusing on any one region would not be helpful (Jonker, 2009). There was a need for large-scale projects that could serve as many people as possible across the entire country (Ahmed & Rafi, 1999). As a result, BRAC scaled up its activities (Lovell, 1992).…”

Section: Grow Big and Sustainablementioning

confidence: 99%

“…Regarding BRAC's drive to address the needs of more and more people, Abed commented that «small» is beautiful but «big» is necessary (Smillie, 2009). He also compared BRAC's expansion initiatives to sowing seeds of change and wanting them to multiply manifold (Ahmed & Rafi, 1999). To grow big, to run more projects, and to support more people, BRAC needed money and resources, but they did not want to be solely reliant on donors and government support.…”

Section: Grow Big and Sustainablementioning

confidence: 99%

“…He knew that if BRAC remained small, it would be unable to deal with the existing power structure. For BRAC, small was beautiful but big was necessary (Ahmed & Rafi, 1999). Abed stated:…”

Section: Grow Big and Sustainablementioning

confidence: 99%

“…Donors did not want to fund pilot projects; they were more interested in projects that were already tested, had shown positive outcomes, and would work (Jonker, 2009). Increasingly, donors were eager to see how funds were used and how grassroots people were benefitted (Ahmed &Rafi, 1999). Abed soon realized that charitable donor funds would not always be there to support BRAC's innovations and experiments that were critical for its growth.…”

Section: Pilot Project and Donor Independencementioning

confidence: 99%

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Bangladesh: An Analysis of BRAC’s Shift from Freire’s Critical «Conscientization» to a Neoliberal Self-Optimization Approach of Development

Fateh

2022

ETE

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This article provides a critical analysis of a Bangladeshi development-NGO BRAC’s shift from Paulo Freire’s «conscientizing» education to a neoliberal self-optimization approach of development. Focusing on BRAC’s founder Fazle Hasan Abed’s intentionality and BRAC’s adult literacy programs, I examine why BRAC abandoned Freire’s conscientizing education rooted in Catholic-Marxist social movements in Brazil, and embraced a market-driven development strategy based on market capitalism. In the analysis I place BRAC at the intersection of the international context of the early 1980s, examine BRAC’s relationship with the Bangladeshi regimes, and investigate the ramifications for BRAC and the people to whom this institution offered programs. My findings suggest that, although Freirean philosophy was foundational to BRAC’s organizing principles and the design of its adult education curriculum (Smillie, 2009; BRAC, 1977), BRAC deserted Freirean philosophy to submit to the local power structure and hegemony of the international aid industry. At the dawn of neoliberalism (1980–1995), BRAC adopted microfinance, microfinance literacy and profit-driven development initiatives to capitalize on the struggle of the poor in favour of its organizational growth and sustainability. In the process of evolving into the largest and most business-like NGO in the world (Economist, 2010), BRAC modified and depoliticized Freire’s radical conscientization in its curriculum and development strategy to align itself with the local power structure, the Bangladesh state, and international donors.

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Section: Grow Big and Sustainablementioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Grow Big and Sustainablementioning

confidence: 99%

“…He knew that if BRAC remained small, it would be unable to deal with the existing power structure. For BRAC, small was beautiful but big was necessary (Ahmed & Rafi, 1999). Abed stated:…”

Section: Grow Big and Sustainablementioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Pilot Project and Donor Independencementioning

confidence: 99%

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