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Boat schools in Bangladesh bring into question the diligence of social welfare funding agencies
by saurabhpanjwani on Sep 29, 2007 Category: Education Tags:
A group of journalists from a Bangladeshi news agency investigate the activities of an NGO called Shidulai Swanirvar Sangstha (SSS) which supposedly runs a network of "boat schools" in the Sunderban delta region. These boat schools provide basic education and agricultural training to people in remote, disadvantaged regions of Bangladesh, and even fulfill some of their power needs (by providing them night-lamps charged using solar panels). SSS has received quite a bit of media attention (even in the West) and was recently lauded with million-dollar awards from funding agencies of the ranks of Bill and Melinda Gates foundation and UNDP.
The journalists claim that the whole busness of SSS is basically a sham. On paper, they claim to own and run a troupe of 88 high-tech boats (equipped with solar panels, PCs, DVD players and 1500-book libraries) but in reality, they seem to be in possession of just 5 boats (out of which only 2 are fully functional). Their executive director boasts that their system serves about 90,000 marginalized families in Bangladesh whereas only 0.5% of people in the area seem to know about the boat-school concept (let alone make use of it).
If the findings of this study are correct, it seriously brings into question the trustworthiness of the agencies which are backing the whole program (the article names 3 of them: Bill-and-Melinda Gates foundation, UNDP, Santa Fe Conservation Trust) and the methods they use to evaluate social welfare projects in general. I don't see any obvious holes in the article and I'd say the investigation seems to have been conducted very carefully and the analysis is quite rational.
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A related article http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-gatesx07jan07,0,6827615.story?page=1&coll=la-home-headlines offers many insights into the internal functioning of such philanthropic funds. Although very long and (IMO) not well analyzed, it does show that the investments made by these funds are not always good.
I think all such interventionist programs should be supplemented with some basic ICT tools for continuous monitoring/social-auditing to provide transparency and accountability. I believe this is ideally supposed to be the role of media, and philanthropic foundations should set aside a certain %age of their funds to create a monitoring infrastructure. This will considerably help improve the benefits gained from other investments and endowments made by them. I think the real benefit of organizations like Kiva and GiveIndia is that they have incorporated auditing as an essential part of their program, rather than simply easing the flow the money.
Well, ICT tools can only go so far in building effective monitoring systems. One needs that "human in the loop" to do the bullwork and to do it honestly. I'd say an effective monitoring infrastructure should involve 75% investment in humans in 25% investment in ICTs.
What's most disturbing about the boat school study is that these funding agencies aren't even doing the basic groundwork required to evaluate social welfare projects (forget about putting a monitoring infrastructure in place). Giving a gift worth one million dollars to an NGO which basically does not exist (or exists only on paper) is totally unacceptable from a foundation that aims to eradicate AIDS from the face of the planet. It also points to the poor quality of journalism promoted by western news agencies. (Read the Washington Post article I pointed to.)
I liked the LAtimes article in your post, Adi. It does point to a serious gap in the implementation of organizations like the Gates foundation--the insulation between the endowment and investment wings of such orgs needs to be addressed and the Gates foundation doesn't seem to care much about it. To me, just the fact that the foundation puts in 5% into welfare and 95% into corporate investment (much of which goes to notorious companies like Shell and Abbott) is rather surprising and, IMO, highly injudicious.
You hit the nail on the head! The need for local media (ICT + people) through community radio and other efforts, coupled with the use of laws like RTI, is pretty much the distillation at which I arrived after many many months of confusion. I've actually applied for a funding proposal based on this philosophy; let's see how it goes :)
Also, finding the right human-ICT mix is unlikely to be a case of "one size fits all"! For example, education is a domain that inherently requires a bigger human component.. whereas, say, sustainable agriculture, is one where the the ICT component could be bigger.
anyway, we are digressing from the main theme of this thread, i guess....
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