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Rise of the Corporate NGO in Bangladesh
Bangladesh is now known as the land of the largest non-governmental organisation (BRAC), and the largest microfinance institution (Grameen Bank). In the last four decades since independence, Bangladesh has become more marketised, more globalised, and more urbanised than ever. It has had spectacular success in garments export, remittance and food production. The country also has seen a dramatic growth of microcredit and NGOs. Nevertheless there has been very slow progress in poverty reduction, and there has been catastrophic destruction of environment and increase of inequality. An attempt has been made to explore the role of NGOs, their emergence with the rise of the neo-liberal world view and new economic order, as also their retreat, polarisation, integration and subsequent corporatisation.
Anu Muhammad (anujuniv@gmail.com) teaches economics at Jahangirnagar University, Dhaka.
We link the poor to the market.1
Since independence, Bangladesh has witnessed a spectacular growth of foreign-funded non-governmental organisations (NGOs). The rise of NGOs in Bangladesh coincided with the new world order based on the structural adjustment programmes (SAPs) and poverty alleviation (read adjustment) programmes (PAPs). Although SAPs appeared officially in the mid-1980s, the programmes and prescriptions it holds were very much in the agenda since the early 1970s. Since World War II, the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) have been working to shape postcolonial economies in line with the global capitalist system.
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