HEADLINES OF THE DAY: ANOTHER 15,000 PEOPLE DIED YESTERDAY BECAUSE THEY WERE TOO POOR TO LIVE. THE RICH INCREASED THEIR WEALTH YESTERDAY BY $0.3 BILLION. THE 21st CENTURY VERSION OF THE FRENCH REVOLUTION IS ONE DAY NEARER.
“O Ye rich ones on earth! The poor in your midst are My trust; guard ye My trust, and be not intent only on your own ease.”
Bahá’u’lláh
A preview of the unpublished book A CIVILIZATION WITHOUT A VISION WILL PERISH: AN INDEPENDENT SEARCH FOR THE TRUTH by David Willis at willisdavid167@gmail.com. CHAPTER 1: INDIFFERENCE TO POVERTY (Part 74). This blog is a continuation of the review of FREEDOM FROM WANT: THE REMARKABLE SUCCESS STORY OF BRAC, THE GLOBAL GRASSROOTS ORGANIZATION THAT’S WINNING THE FIGHT AGAINST POVERTY by Ian Smillie published 2009.
The largest plant biotechnology laboratory in Bangladesh
Printpack was established to meet BRAC’s growing packing and distribution needs for dairy products, salt, and seeds. Each month the factory consumes 100 tons of packaging material and eight tons of ink for labeling. The idea behind the tissue culture laboratory was to claim a portion of the import market with locally produced varieties that could increase Farmer’s productivity and income. Today BRAC has the largest plant biotechnology laboratory in Bangladesh. The fourth-generation potato plantlets yielded over 400 tons of certified seeds, and, in the winter of 2006, the lab produced 6,000 tons of disease-free potato seeds in its adjacent fields.
Avian flu
It was unlikely that Bangladesh would avoid the avian flu that began to ravage Asia in the mid 2000s. BRAC identified 275 hot spots, areas where migratory waterfowl gathered, and there it trained tens of thousands of poultry farmers. In March 2007, the first case was diagnosed and by the end of the month, it had spread. In January 2008 it hit 47 of the country’s 67 districts. BRAC imported 2,000 sets of personal protective gear from China for people who would use disinfectant and gave half to the government. BRAC survived the crisis, but at a cost. There had not been a single case of avian flu at any of its farms or hatcheries, but the temporary downturn in prices had an impact on the financial bottom line.
Chapter 9: A Simple Solution
Almost every project BRAC undertook had an evaluation component
In 1977, BRAC had 200 staff, one of whom was Mushtaque Chowdhury who understood very little about poverty and the process of development, but who had an incredible thirst to know. That thirst was the origin of the organization’s early monographs on poverty and its attempts to understand the political economy of village life. As part of this need to understand, almost every project BRAC undertook had an evaluation component built into it, designed to help the organization learn from what it was doing.
BRAC would send dozens of promising young people to study
As the programs became more sophisticated, BRAC sent Mushtaque to Britain for a master’s degree. One of the most effective ways to keep its best staff, in the absence of large salaries, was to ensure the greatest job satisfaction possible. Over the years, BRAC would send dozens of promising young people to study in Europe, North America, and Asia. All of them had to post a bond before they went, promising to stay with BRAC for at least three years after their return.
The Oral Therapy Extension program (OTEP
In January 1992, 100 or more senior NGO people from around the world, along with as many academics and NGO watchers, gathered in northwest England at the University of Manchester to discuss the idea of “scaling up,” that is, how to increase the developmental impact of NGOs. If an initiative is to be scaled up, it must work and be cost effective. BRAC’s first major effort at scaling up was in the unlikely area of diarrhea, through a program that eventually became known as the Oral Therapy Extension Program (OTEP). It was the OTEP expansion between 1981 and 1991 that gave BRAC the experience, staff, and confidence it needed to put real meaning behind the concept of going to scale.
Potentially the most important medical discovery of the 20th century
Diarrhea is one of the biggest killers of children in the developing world. It is a symptom of problems that can be caused by a virus, parasites, toxins, or bacteria, such as the one that spreads cholera. The real breakthrough was made in 1968 at the Pakistan-SEATO Cholera Research Laboratory in Dhaka. Once the right mix of ingredients (water, glucose, and salt) was discovered, mortality rates fell to only 1%. The Lancet said it was “potentially the most important medical discovery of the 20th century,” and UNICEF credited it with saving the lives of 2.8 million children between 1980 and 2000.
This was not the answer for Bangladesh
In February 1979, when BRAC began its first field experiments with ORS, the organization was precisely seven years old. It had accomplished a lot, and it had learned more, but, where health was concerned, it was still feeling its way. Taking a cue from China’s “barefoot doctors,” BRAC had started as early as 1973 to train locally recruited paramedics in Sulla to treat simple illnesses and provide basic family planning information. BRAC also experimented with a prepaid health insurance program. During the days of cyclone relief on Manpura, Abed had developed a professional as well as a personal relationship with Lincoln and Marty Chen. Lincoln knew instinctively that, even if enough packets of ORS could be produced, this was not the answer for Bangladesh.
Experts from Geneva were dispatched in an effort to halt the experiment
Mushtaque, now intimately involved in planning the project, recalled the objections that came from the medical establishment and the World Health Organization. Experts from Geneva were dispatched in an effort to halt the experiment. “We decided to go ahead anyway, with or without their approval.”