Delivering DecentralizationSlum Dwellers Access to Decision-Making for Pro-poor Infrastructure Services inBangladesh, Nepal and Sri Lanka By: Engineer Md Mahobul Islam Plabon

1. DELIVERING DECENTRALIZATION
Slum Dwellers Access to Decision-Making for
Pro-poor Infrastructure Services in
Bangladesh, Nepal and Sri Lanka
By: Engineer Md Mahobul Islam Plabon

2. The Project
April 2012 – March 2016
Faridpur & Jessore
Bharatpur & Butwal
Kurunegala &
Akkaraipattu

3. Target Accomplished
31,644 Women and men in 82 communities
84 Slum dweller organisations
06 City-level Community Forums
06 Municipalities

4. Expected Results

5. Model for change
Slum Dwellers
Capacity to plan
and engage
Capacity to work
with slum dwellers
Improvement
plan
Annual Development Plans: Local
Authorities and other Stakeholders
Money and Expertise
brought together from
project and beyondPriorities Chosen &
Delivered
Technology
Management
Results…
Project as
catalyst for
change
• Sustainable services
• Empowered communities
• Continuing system
• Knock-on benefits
Awareness
Local Authorities

6. Slum Dwellers Organisations
Bangladesh 30 Slum Improvement Committee (SIC)
Nepal 43 Tole Lane Organisation (TLO)
Sri Lanka 11 Community Based Organisation (CBO)
Representative & inclusive
Gender sensitive Democratic Empowered
Mostly Govt. Registered

7. Ensuring democratic process to make
committees functional
SIC committee formation by community
people in presence of municipal Mayor
Change in leadership of SIC by democratic
election facilitated by municipal
authorities and supported by NGOs

8. Participatory planning process
SIC/CBO/TLO Members are trained by experts and local
authorities to formulate CAP

9. CAP preparation by communities

10. Community leadership and communication
skill enhancement
Skill Training to community leaders and community people

11. Town wide Slum Dweller Federation:
SIC (Bangladesh), TLOCC (Nepal) & CBO Network (Sri Lanka)
CIF Election & Oath Taking by the
leaders facilitated by municipality and
supported by local organisations

12. Capacity Development of Municipal representatives and
officials for pro-poor planning and budgeting
Capacity building training of Las on budget preparation and
development

13. Peer to peer learning between LAs
Municipality and community representatives
from Nepal visited Bangladesh to share
experience
Knowledge and experience sharing between
Kurunegala and Akkaraipattu municipal
councils.

14. Leveraging Resource: Municipal Budget
Jessore, Bangladesh Bharatpur, Nepal
Municipal Mayor sharing pre-budget plan with community leaders

15. Leveraging resource: External Sources
Nepal
CAP Exhibition organised by TLOSharing Community Action Plan with Local
Authorities and others stakeholders

16. Leveraging resource:
Engaging other stakeholders
Involving Ministry of Economic Development in Kurunegala, Sri Lanka for
piloting Grama Sabha system as a village level governance mechanism

17. Pro-poor
Infrastructure
Services
Community
Infrastructure
Appropriate
Technology
Participatory
Selection
Cost SharingRegular O&M
Participatory
M&E

18. Community managed infrastructure
Overhead Water
Tank, Nepal
Community Toilet,
Bangladesh

19. Cost & kind participation by community
people for infrastructure construction
Access road construction in Nepal

20. Healthy and clean slums
Community people regularly clean premises like community house cum mother
care centre in Nepal and house entrance in Kurunegala

21. Green solutions to waste management
Production of community based bio gas has mitigated the
energy need of the communities in many houses.
Akkaraipattu home based waste management system became an eye opener to
the municipalities to provide better services to the urban poor settlements.

22. Green Job creation
Community people have found new job opportunities through engagement in waste value chain and
recycling

23. Improving livelihoods of Girls,
Mothers & Marginalised people
Adolescent girls in Bangladesh
producing sanitary napkins
establishing SaniMart business
system
Young mothers in Nepal making
handbags from plastic jute
sacks in mother care centre
Women in mountainous
Kurunegala of Sri Lanka earning
extra income through home-
gardening

24. Advancing skill
for livelihood
improvement

25. Social and cultural empowerment beyond
project support
Women from low-income communities participated
and won the prize of the district level cooking
competition in Faridpur.
Children have received football training with
support from district authority.

26. Self initiatives by communities
Many of the targeted communities
received “Open defecation free-ODF”
status in Nepal.
The slum dwellers organisation Forum in
Jessore organised sharing meeting with
another slum dweller umbrella
organisation.

27. Exchange with National Urban
Development projects
Participatory approach of CAP preparation has been praised and acknowledged by the
representatives of UPPR (Urban Partnership for Poverty Reduction). UPPR is the largest
urban project for poverty reduction in Bangladesh run by the government and UNDP.

28. Learning Sharing at regional level
Regional Closing workshop of IUD was
participated by representatives from the
EC, Nepal and Sri Lanka Embassy, LGD,
DPHE, INGOs, Local media, etc.

29. Knowledge sharing at Regional and
International Forums
 SACOSAN V in Kathmandu, Nepal
 World Urban forum in Naples, Italy
 Governance Training Workshop in
Dhaka, Bangladesh
 News published in World Urban
Campaign Newsletter
 Training course on governance with
LTDA, Nepal

30. Learning from Evaluation
 Highly effective in terms of community organization, planning and
linkage with LA.
 Marginalized communities, especially women have found voice and
dignity in terms of being able to participate as equal to other members
in municipal meetings, and express their demands and perceive and
execute plans.
 The community organization and CAPs have been implemented very
successfully in all three countries.
 Quality assurance and maintenance of infrastructures should be given
more priority.
 Mainstreaming of new practices by communities and LAs should be
more effective.

31. Recommendations from Evaluation
 Scaling Up IUD Lessons: Megacities in South Asia, where the problems
are more complex.
 Collaboration with National Training Institutions: Identify the
potential national training institutes for incorporation of the lessons
into regular curricula for bureaucrats and elected representative.
 Reaching Out to Urban Networks: Prepare specific plans of
engagement with each network and allocate budget accordingly.
 Policy Advocacy: Practical Action, along with like-minded sectoral
agencies, could work together to create demand for national policy
and strategy. Regional platforms could also be used to press for policy
reform.

32. Recommendations from Evaluation
(contd.)
 Finding Market for Local Products: Engage with business groups
(professional associations, merchant associations, chambers of
commerce) to identify better opportunities to market the products and
services by the low-income communities.
 Setting the Agenda for Future Regional Program: This should include
seeking large funding, policy reform, active learning agenda, & large
scale training.

33. Thank you