& Oxford University Press and Community Development Journal. 2005 All rights reserved. For permissions, please email: [email protected] doi:10.1093/cdj/bsi093 Advance Access Publication 17 August 2005

Sustainability of communitybased organizations of the rural poor: Learning from Concern’s rural development projects, Bangladesh Dipankar Datta

Abstract Based on two decades of grassroots experiences, Concern Bangladesh has developed a federation structure to ensure the sustainability of community-based organizations (CBO). Despite capacity-building inputs to all federations, only a few of them have been able to operate without substantial external aid. This lack of progress relates to a ‘one size fits all’ capacity-building strategy and other sociopolitical issues such as the alienation of federations from the wider community and to political manipulation. Successful federations demonstrate that a committed leader who ensures participation, respects transparency and accountability, and promotes second line leadership can contribute positively to sustainability, even in an adverse sociopolitical context, and with limited capacity-building support.

Introduction Community-based organizations (CBOs) are grassroots organizations managed by members on behalf of members (Edward and Hulme, 1992). They are often the only organizations that the poor feel that they own, trust, and can rely upon. They are most successful when they are initiated by rural people themselves or by local leaders (Esman and Uphoff, 1982). When CBOs form with support from outside agencies, there are often difficulties with their organizational sustainability (Narayan, 1999), a view supported by Concern Bangladesh from its integrated rural development projects in Bangladesh. Community Development Journal Vol 42 No 1 January 2007 pp. 47–62

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Community-based organization sustainability can be viewed as a stage of empowering organizations where members are capable of planning and implementing their development initiatives independently. The fundamental requirement for a CBO to be sustainable depends upon the power that lies within it (Abdullah and Ali, 1998). This paper brings to light the learning that Concern has acquired on the challenges inherent in promoting CBO sustainability and the efforts that are being made by Concern to overcome these. The author has been consistently involved in giving strategic direction to Concern in relation to the sustainability of community organizations in Bangladesh, and has led several action research projects on this issue. The paper reflects the learning gained from field experiences as well as drawing upon other research.

Evolution of Concern Bangladesh’s community development approach Concern initiated community development interventions in 1980 in Jafflong (Bangladesh), applying a popular service delivery approach. Jafflong is a remote and disaster prone ‘haor’ area, with a total absence of nongovernmental organizations (NGO) and government services. ‘Haor’ refers to a large bowl-shaped tectonic depression, which receives surface runoff water by rivers, and consequently, a ‘haor’ becomes a very extensive water body in the monsoon season and then it dries up and becomes a vast plain of rice fields. There is no permanent road communication between the villages, and for six months of the year, travel is only possible by boat. Most of the families are landless poor and their main occupations are share cropping or marginal farming, stone collecting from rivers, and day labouring. This is also an area of religious fundamentalism and, in response to any social problem, religious leaders act as judges and women are expected to stay at home as reflects conservative values. The project began by establishing one health and one nutrition clinic in Jafflong to supply medicine and to give support to malnourished children, respectively. This was followed by technology transfer activities in modern cultivation methods by providing farmers with irrigation pumps, fertilizers, high-yielding variety seeds, and training. Infrastructure development activity was also undertaken in the form of road and culvert construction to connect villages. By the mid-1980s, it was realized that the heath and nutrition activities were not bringing any sustainable changes in community behaviour, and agricultural activities were not reaching the poor landless and marginal farmers. Consequently, the project was gradually phased

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out, and by 1989 an integrated rural development project was initiated focusing on mobilizing and organizing the poor. To work directly with the poor in a traditional society can be challenging; however, good rapport with local religious leaders, developed during the service delivery projects, enabled Concern to do so. Ten to fifteen people of the same gender and background were organized to form each primary group. To increase participant confidence, Concern conducted consciousness raising and skill development training, as well as savings and credit, functional education, and environmental protection related activities. The group members had been sitting in weekly meeting on a regular basis, where they discussed different socioeconomic and environmental issues, sanctioned new loans to their members and collected weekly savings and loan repayment instalments. Each group maintained a resolution book, a savings record book and loan repayment record book. Each group consisted of three leadership positions, namely President, Secretary and Cashier, which formed a working committee and took all grouprelated decisions. Concern worked with the members to select leaders, adopting criteria based on the level of social acceptance, literacy, intelligence, social mobility, facilitation skills, the capacity to be proactive, family support and levels of confidence. Sometime after the formation of the groups, the members encountered clashes with some religious leaders, who were particularly involved in money-lending activities. These leaders labelled group members ‘idolaters’ and asked villagers to boycott them in all social activities including ‘Janaja’ (a prayer for the salvation of a departed soul before the burial of the body). A minority also burnt Concern’s school and chopped down roadside trees planted by group members. The reasons of this clash were twofold: (a) the business of providing loans with high interest rates was shrinking with the introduction of the group’s revolving loan fund, and (b) they started feeling a loss of power as a result of the increased awareness and economic empowerment of the poor. To overcome this problem, Concern took a non-confrontational approach by capitalizing on its good relationship with most of the religious leaders, which had been developed during the earlier infrastructure development phase. An intensive orientation programme was undertaken for religious leaders on every detail of the group’s activities. Concern encouraged and ensured participation of religious leaders in different social and environmental awareness training events, which contributed to their self-realization about the positive aspects of forming groups. In addition, Concern was also successful in securing the support of the local member of parliament and the local village administration staff in motivating the religious leaders.

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In the early 1990s, Concern began to recognize the challenge of primary group organizational sustainability in relation to its project phase-out strategy. To address this, a secondary level organization at village level was formed that was supposed to (a) assist the groups in running organizational activities and in resolving differences that may arise within or amongst groups, and (b) strengthen members’ capacity to fight the forces of underdevelopment and thereby enable them to acquire access to public/private resources, services and institutions. Leaders represented their respective groups in the village organization, whose structure reflected the primary group. Leaders were provided with intensive organizational capacitybuilding support in the form of training, coaching, and exposure visits. Throughout this process, about three thousand people were organized into 162 female and sixty-four male groups, and twenty-nine village organizations were created. By the end of 1995, Concern had completely phased itself out from the area, confident that the community organizations were able to run their activities independently. However, a participatory assessment conducted two years later revealed that only thirty percent of the village organizations and their associated groups were still active and that those that were still functioning prevailed despite facing a general funding crisis, while the rest were either malfunctioning or had been dissolved (Datta, 1998). Contributing factors to success Research suggested that the successful groups and village organizations had had strong leadership and were transparent in information-sharing and decision-making. The membership, through a process of election, had selected trustworthy and competent leaders for the working committees and had set a specific quota for women’s membership of the committee. In those instances where Concern succeeded in facilitating the group to take full control of their own savings fund, the members consistently valued their ‘ownership’ of the group. Having control over savings funds meant members identified the groups and village organizations as their own and not those of Concern Bangladesh. This is an unusual approach as, typically, NGOs in Bangladesh control the CBO savings funds as a part of their microfinance policy. Successful groups and village organizations reduced the risks of financial mismanagement by opening bank accounts, setting rules, introducing written policies, and maintaining daily accounts (Ostrom, 1990). Except in cases of emergencies, the loan disbursement system was on a first-come-first-serve basis, both at the level of group and village organization. The loan realization system was also formalized with a strict repayment schedule. Members were fined if they failed to make either monthly savings or a loan repayment on time.

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Reasons behind the failures Group members’ access to credit suffered a sudden setback following Concern’s phaseout as its revolving loan fund was withdrawn. As a result, many women joined with other NGOs (these NGOs started working in the area in the late 1990s), mostly following the pressure of spouses, who saw it as an easy way to continue their access to cheap credit. Inevitably, this frustrated the other group members, who became disinclined to continue their activities. The number of male groups in each village organization was usually onethird of that of the female groups. Yet, it was the men who gradually acquired the most important seats on working committees. They also underestimated and undervalued women’s roles and capacities. Under the pretence of being too busy during the day, they called group meetings at night, thereby restricting women’s participation, and took the opportunity to manipulate organizational funds. Inadequate funds led to the adoption by group leaders of a strategy to allocate loans on a priority basis to the most needy members of groups. Unsatisfied members perceived this as favouritism, creating a situation of mistrust and suspicion. A significant number of groups suffered from the problem of adequately maintaining financial accounts, which meant cashiers tried to maintain these by memory. They soon found that these memorized accounts were not in accordance with those of the members’ personal written accounts, further undermining trust among members. Corruption and malpractice, both by the members and leaders, contributed directly to the disbanding of many of the groups and village organizations. Many group leaders violated group norms by manipulating the savings funds and disbursed large amounts in loans to friends. After switching their allegiances to other NGOs, many female members did not repay the loans they had taken from the savings fund, while many husbands also refused to repay loans taken from the savings fund by their wives. In the absence of an alternative leadership, group activities became stagnant when the group leader died, abandoned the group, or failed to run activities for any reason. Some leaders also demanded incentive payments, feeling that they were not receiving sufficient benefit compared to the amount of time invested to ensure groups ran smoothly (Kamara and Kargbo, 1999) and when general members refused to provide these, some leaders quit the groups and ultimately groups became inactive in the absence of second-line leadership options. A workshop was organized in mid-1998 with the members and leaders of community organizations in Jafflong to identify potential solutions to organizational sustainability. Despite a strong perception that the community

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organizations were beneficial, the members of dissolved groups were not interested in reviving their activities, having lost trust in those leaders. However, surviving groups strongly supported Concern’s continuing presence to help overcome the problems they were experiencing and to strengthen organizational activities. The general members of both malfunctioning and active groups emphasized the importance of Concern’s presence in the area for an indefinite period of time, even in a limited form. They linked the benefit with the immediate solution of internal group conflict and fund shortage problems. In contrast, most of the leaders suggested forming a federation in Jafflong for the sustainability of the community organizations. However, they sought a close association with Concern for a certain period of time with a special focus on capacity building. By forming a Federation community, leaders envisaged that they would benefit from having a legal identity, stronger coordination and cooperation among village organizations, greater access to local resources, better management of the revolving loan fund, mutual linkages with local institutions, and greater potential for mass social action against corruption, exploitation of the poor, and environmental degradation. It was interesting to observe, when leaders shared their opinions, that the members did not disagree, but rather displayed a high level of dependency on the leaders’ opinions. The perceived disempowerment of the group was related to the programme’s approach of viewing the leaders as the core of the group. Leaders were generally better educated, setting them above the rest of the members and, apart from the programme’s regular development activities, they received a wider range of training from different organizations, attended workshops, and participated in exposure visits, which increased their capacity and insight, as well as ambition.

Framework for a way forward After two years of the complete phaseout, Concern was reluctant to commit itself to full-scale long-term involvement, fearing that it might continue to foster dependency. In addition, because a number of national NGOs had also started working in the area from the late 1990s Concern felt it could not justify a return to the community. Instead, efforts were made to establish functional linkages between the community organizations and the operating NGOs, hoping that would ensure ongoing support for organizational building and would solve the funding problems. However, this failed, because the operating NGOs put two key conditions on linkages: groups and village organizations had to go through a restructuring process, and they should hand over the savings funds to the NGOs. These conditions were rejected by local leaders, who feared a loss of organizational identity.

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To find a most suitable strategy, the programme team then visited a number of like-minded organizations, conducted a national-level experience-sharing workshop, and researched a number of best practice experiences. It became evident that local organizational structures that had three tiers or more, notwithstanding the effectiveness and reliability of communication and cooperation between organizational levels, were more successful than those that existed as simple, unattached organizations. In a classic study of 150 local organizations across the developing world, Esman and Uphoff (1982) developed scores for the performance of different tier organizations and found that the performances of three- and four-tier organizations are nearly 1.5 times and two times higher than two-tier organizations, respectively. They defined a four-tier or more organization as a federation and argued that this multitiered organization performed better when their base organization was smaller, rather than larger. To ensure the sustainability of multitiered organization, Korten (1980) argued for the need to promote a ‘learning process’ approach by fostering bottom-up capacities rather than by designing and trying to implement ‘blueprints’ for organization. Uphoff (2001) characterized this as a ‘catalytic’ approach, meaning that organizational structures, purposes and procedures are not imposed from outside, but rather are developed together with rural communities, so that their directions and leadership are thoroughly understood and supported. Catalysts are different from ‘change agents’ or ‘extension personnel’ in that they are not promoting a particular change or new technology. Instead, they aim to help communities build their own capacities for identifying and solving problems, emphasizing autonomous action and self-reliance. Through this process the organization acquires a degree of institutional standing that contributes to achieving organizational sustainability (Ilchman and Uphoff, 1998). Thus, after securing institutional attributes, organizations will have more capacity to improve cooperation and achieve their goals because of the legitimacy and status acquired in the minds of many, if not all, members of the public. Uphoff (1994) argued that the strengthening programme of CBOs should focus on decision-making roles and processes, resource mobilization and management, communication and coordination, and conflict resolution. As these functions are effectively performed, organizations will build up acceptance, loyalty and commitment, enabling them to function even more effectively, thereby further enhancing their institutional status. Using this theoretical framework, it was decided that Concern would work only with strong village organizations and their associated groups, and would concentrate on forming and working on Federation capacitybuilding. If floundering groups and village organizations expressed an interest, strong village organizations would assist their revival by attempting to

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resolve outstanding conflicts. Based on this decision, in late 1998, the formation of ‘Shanti Palli Unnyan Federation’ was facilitated by involving nine strong village organizations, with each group represented at the village organization level and each village organization at the Federation level by their respective leaders. The governing body of the Federation, commonly referred to as the General Committee, consists of two representatives from each village organization. The members are elected by their respective village organization for a two-year period. The general committee approves all policies, rules and regulations, yearly activity plans and budgets. The members sit every six months to review the Federation’s activities. The Executive Committee consisted of nine members, chosen from the General Committee through a ballot vote cast by the group members. The executive members were the principal agents in managing the development of the Federation and were to be in office for two years. In summary, the group leaders become members of the village organization, whose most competent members then become members of the General Committee of the Federation, and, finally, its most competent members become members of the executive committee through a democratic process.

Federation capacity-building Early in 1999, a week-long workshop was organized to develop an effective local-level capacity-building action plan, during which members and leaders identified seven capacity areas by using an open-ended method, ‘Appreciative Inquiry’ (Datta and Islam, 1999). As a capacity-building process this method supports innovation and change by translating images of what might be possible into reality and beliefs into practice (Cooperrider and Whitney, 1999). The capacity areas regarded as the most important building blocks for the Federation were as follows: .

.

. .

A Federation with a specific and unique identity owned by the primary group and village organization members unified by a cause. The requirements and aspirations of Federation members are defined by the members themselves and the activities of the Federation are identified, prioritized and planned by its members. The activities are managed and implemented through the initiative of the Federation itself. There are built-in participatory systems for monitoring and evaluating the activities undertaken by the Federation.

Sustainability of community-based organizations of the rural poor .

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The Federation interacts with other community and local-level institutions, and influences the decisions of such institutions, and mobilizes support and services from them. The leaders of the Federation are chosen from among the members of the groups through a democratic process. The members of the Federation own, control, mobilize and generate the resources, which are sufficient to meet the financial requirements of the Federation.

Upon identifying the capacity areas, an action plan was developed, which included the identification of tasks under each capacity area, identifying the most relevant persons to accomplish these tasks, setting a deadline for the completion, and a commitment for mobilizing the required resources. Capacity-building activities began with completion of the organizational formalities, such as chalking out a vision, finalizing the mission and drafting the constitution, as well as enrolling the general and executive committee members, defining their respective roles, deciding on the location of the permanent office premises, and governmental registration. All this was done to establish the Federation as an independent body. It was followed by a set of activities designed to build management capacity, including financial management and the proper handling of loan funds. This was to ensure that Federation activities were carried out efficiently without management impropriety or breach of trust among the members while maintaining procedural transparency. Mishra and Shah (1992) suggest that the ability to manage a complicated structure like a federation depends to a large extent on the quality of leadership. Lyon (2003) adds that trust in leaders is one of the key conditions for the sustainability of CBOs. Thus, capacity building activities were principally targeted at the executive and general committee members, as the principal agents in managing the Federation. In addition, a number of activities were undertaken targeting both the Federation leaders and members to build capacity in local-level advocacy, lobbying and networking, and relationship building with local institutions. The practice of democratic principles and developing an alternative leadership had always been a priority in all capacity-building efforts. It is worthwhile to mention here that although there is no specific quota for women representation on either of the Federation’s general and executive committees, about eighty percent of the members of both of these committees are women. This is in part because the total number of female groups is approximately three times higher the male groups, which automatically ensues their greater representation. Although female leaders

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appear to suffer from a lack of confidence and are slow at decision-making, they are sincere, place an importance on women’s issues, and are more effective in promoting participation compared to male leaders. In contrast, male leaders are skilled in discussion and can take quick decisions, even in relation to those associated with risk. Despite being outnumbered, male leaders have the capacity to influence their female counterparts in decisionmaking processes. For example, while female leaders argue for the need to allocate resources from the annual budget to undertake day observation activities to prevent violence against women or legal rights training for group members, male leaders prefer to invest money in income-generating activities. Confidence-building and negotiation skills among female leaders were also a priority in the capacity-building process, not only through training, but also by sending them on different ‘exposure visits and workshops’, ensuring their participation in the resource mobilizing process from local government and providing coaching from project staffs.

Replication of the federation model Within two years of its establishment, Shanti Palli Unnayan Federation had begun to show signs of success in strengthening organizational capacity and in numerous social development actions. Although the Federation started working with only nine village organizations, by the end of 2000 it had successfully revived four others. Securing permanent office space in the local government office is the best example of its acquired reputation and recognition of its work at the local level. Based on this unprecedented success, the model was quickly replicated in four different rural development projects located in Gowainghat, Khaliajuri, Itna, and Dimla, and twenty-eight new federations were formed by mid-2001. It is worthwhile to mention here that the first three areas were also located in the ‘haor’ area and the last one located in the ‘char’ area (riverine islands and bars). Like Jafflong, these were also isolated, remote and disaster-prone areas. However, except Gowainghat, the areas were not strongholds of religious fundamentalists. In last four years, a number of action research projects were conducted to capture the learning from this model (Goyder and Khondkar, 2003; Gebreweld, 2004; Ghani, 2004; Naser, 2004). These have illuminated the Federation’s achievements as well as highlighting barriers to sustainability.

Federation achievements There exists a high sense of ownership of the federations among group members. It was not personally owned, but rather owned by all of its

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members. Members relied upon it and considered it an important local resource (Narayan, 1999). Federations have enabled poor women and men to talk about their rights. It is important, however, to disaggregate their involvement on the rights issue in groups and the federated structure. They reported that Concern had exposed them to the notion of rights through consciousness-raising training in groups, but that when they came together in a federation, they began to talk about rights and what they could do to achieve them. The move from rhetoric to action came about through involvement in the Federation, in which they began to realize the increased strength and power that the unity of groups could bring. Federations have contributed to raising women’s status in the community. Traditionally, for poor housewives to work outside the home violated social norms and was a source of tension and shame. At work, women were forced to wear a long veil and could not talk with male strangers. They were not allowed to vote freely at elections, according to their choice. Women now not only cast their vote but also compete in the election. Thus, of the twenty-five women of different federations who contested the last election of the Union Council (the lowest level of local government), held in March 2003, eight were elected. Household violence against women was an accepted social norm. However, more recently, women group members not only worked outside the village, but also visited government and NGO offices and banks without the use of the veil. If a husband physically abused his wife in public, other women of the village protested against this. Previously, no women had the power to call a village ‘salish’ (village court), but now they can. Factors that have strengthened women’s abilities have included a capacity to fulfil basic family needs from self-employment, increased mobility, and transactions with other members of the community, as well as a reduction in fear and uncertainty as a result of an increase in organizational strength. Federations were now getting involved in advocacy and direct action activities, such as applying to the Fisheries Department for official access to local fishing pockets that had been taken over by outsiders and submitting lists of the landless to the local government office to try to secure access to the government-owned lands. Local government was also keen to harness Federation resources to support national programmes on immunization and adult literacy, particularly in public awareness raising activities. Federations are also serving as forums for conflict resolution between group members and there are many examples of members taking the initiative in an attempt to resolve domestic, marital and financial quarrels. The increasing acceptance of federations at household, community and local government levels are without doubt enhancing their institutional status (Ilchman and Uphoff, 1998).

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Barriers to federation sustainability Overall, the progress of federations towards sustainability has not, however, been very encouraging. Of the twenty-eight newly formed federations, only five are ready to be independent of Concern. These have been sufficiently empowered to plan their tasks through participatory discussion, proper fund management, and to liaise with other service-providing organizations.

Differences in understanding of objectives Over the years, a perceptible culture of dependency has developed in the minds of group members. The federations were formed very quickly without adequate groundwork to bring changes in the members’ mindsets to prepare for their eventual independence. Consequently, the underlying objectives of many of the newly formed federations remain ambiguous, and, most importantly, are unclear to the members themselves. Federations embody at least three slightly different concepts: .

.

.

The federation is seen as the executive body that will take over and manage the revolving loan fund. In this sense the need for a federation originates from the design of the microfinance programme, and the successful creation of revolving funds, which will require management even after Concern’s withdrawal. Linked to this, federations are seen as a key part of Concern’s exit strategy, implementing components of the existing projects at a lower cost. Beyond this, there are hopes that federations can become a positive force in local politics, and women elected to union councils will actively serve their members’ interests. In this way it is hoped that the federations might, in the long term, become agents for social change in the area.

Ineffective replication of capacity-building process The use of appreciative inquiry for capacity assessment and as a guide to the development of the capacity-building action plan was a success for Shanti Palli Unnayan Federation. Facilitation is a vital and skilled component of the appreciative process, playing a significant part in determining the outcome and initiating a catalytic approach to capacity building. However, due to financial constraints, facilitating this process in all the newly formed federations was not undertaken. Instead, the capacitybuilding process was replicated, but because of direct replication, the members of many federations could not get totally involved. As a result, these members felt a lack of ownership of the capacity-building action

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plan, and argued that the capacity-building input was not appropriate in relation to their existing capacity and needs. This confirms the argument of Uphoff (2001) that the absence of the catalytic approach in capacity building and community ownership jeopardizes the sustainability of the organizations. Alienation from the greater community Narayan (1999) argued that the paradox for the poor is that they benefit more when the groups include the rich, but only up to a point, after which their voices become silenced. To avoid the concentration of leadership and resources with the influential men in the village, federations involved only the poorer sections of the community. However, in areas where there are strong family and/or social linkages and dependency relationships among families of different socioeconomic strata, the federations are facing an additional challenge due to the artificial segregation of the community, which derives from the alienation of federations from the wider community, and subsequent difficulties in securing social recognition, a key barrier to achieving a legal identity, and access to local resources. Political manipulation Political leaders often see federations as important vote banks for them. They understand that the most effective way to secure the votes of group members is through the federation leaders. Different strategies are adopted to influence the leaders, the most common one bring the offer of financial benefits. However, there are risks involved, including the prospect of property being destroyed, thereby jeopardizing its future, by angry defeated parties. Finding spare time The project wrongly assumed that the associated women members would have enough time to devote to their respective federations. The women felt that as housewives they had very little time to spare for federation activities, but felt guilty that they were not utilizing whatever skill project staff had taught them. Many regretted not being able to find spare time due to their individual livelihood earning activities. To overcome this problem, federations are now recruiting their own workers to manage organizational activities, including the maintenance of records and accounts, which is a positive step towards self-managed federations. However, the surplus cash in-flow is often insufficient to regularly pay workers’ salaries and most are recruited on a part-time basis and have only a limited commitment to the federations.

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Concluding remarks Community organizations face different types of challenges. At the village organization level, the key challenges for sustainability were in funding shortages and leadership corruption. To overcome these challenges, a federation structure was developed. However, despite making an effort to provide adequate capacity-building inputs to all the federations, many were unable to match the efficiency of the relatively successful ones due to the limitations implicit in the replication strategy of the capacity-building activities and the sociopolitical context in which the federations are alienated from the greater community. The differences in understanding the objectives of the federation by the different groups and tiers give rise to a communication gap between members. Managing time constraints and balancing both household demands and community service simultaneously caused dilemmas for federation members. Finally, political manipulation can be an undermining factor. In this adverse context, successful federations, such as Shanti Palli Unnayan Federation, can act as models. Successful federations are already evident as they realize new opportunities for the empowerment of the poor. The key learning can be summarized as follows: .

.

.

Organizational sustainability should be viewed as a whole, examining the organization’s external environment and internal capacities, addressing both through capacity-building work (Giffen, 2002). With regard to the external environment, sociopolitical issues need to be examined and a strategy developed that identifies and addresses the skills and abilities needed to sustain their operations. When assessing internal organizational capacities, a clear identity is paramount. Only a catalytic approach to capacity building can contribute to developing an agreed mission and values (Uphoff, 2001). The replication of capacity-building efforts by documenting and duplicating technical elements, such as techniques, materials, procedures, and schedules seldom bears fruit. This fails to focus on the ‘probable’ or tacit knowledge embedded in experienced people, so essential to the success of capacity building – the style, passion, humour, energy, relationships, processes, cultural context, and other intangibles. Replicating a successful capacity-building process in a new federation requires that tacit knowledge or the wisdom of the experienced team be infused within the new team as well. Other vital preconditions for organizational sustainability are trust and leadership. These ingredients are particularly important in enabling organizations to deal with and influence the environment

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in which they are situated (Heap, 2000). The community’s trust in organizations stems from two sources: their performance in the community, and the clear demonstration of accountability. Strengthening internal management systems contributes to establishing accountability. A committed leader who respects accountability and transparency, ensures participation in all decision-making process, and promotes alternative leadership within the organization can positively contribute to sustainability, even in an adverse sociopolitical context, and with limited capacity-building support. Participation takes time, and women’s workload is heavy. Consequently, women typically find it difficult to participate in the dayto-day activities of the organization. Despite this, ensuring women’s participation in the organizational decision-making process is critical; otherwise, women will be further marginalized.

Finally, the sustainability of CBOs is a complex subject and one where there are no ‘one-size-fits-all’ solutions. For this reason, sharing experiences, both positive and negative, is possibly the most fundamental kind of support that can be given. Dipankar Datta is Partnership and Capacity Building Adviser, Policy Development and Evaluation Directorate. Concern Worldwide. Address for correspondence: House 58, 1st Lane Kalabagan, Dhaka 1205, Bangladesh; E-mail: [email protected]

References 1. Abdullah, T. and Ali, A.K.M.M. (1998) Stock Taking of Good Practices of the Organizations Promoting Sustainable CBO, Enfants du monde, Dhaka, Bangladesh. 2. Cooperrider, D.L. and Whitney, D. (1999) Appreciative Inquiry: Collaboration for Change, Berrett-Koehler Communications, Inc., San Francisco. 3. Datta, D. (1998) Organisation Building and Organisational Sustainability: Impact Assessment, Capacity Assessment and Hope for the Future, Concern Bangladesh, Dhaka. 4. Datta, D. and Islam, M. (1999) Capacity Assessment of Shanti Palli Unnayan Federation, Jafflong, Shylet, Concern Bangladesh, Dhaka. 5. Edwards, M. and Hulme, D. (eds) (1992) Making a Difference: NGOs and Development in a Changing World, Earthscan Publications, London. 6. Esman, M.J. and Uphoff, N. (1982) Local Organizations: Intermediaries in Rural Development, Cornell University Press, Ithaca, NY. 7. Gebreweld, F. (2004) Report on the Assessment and Analysis of Issues Related with Internal Capacity & Sustainability of Community Based Organizations, Concern Bangladesh, Dhaka.

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