Knowledge and Confidence: Setting Examples for Development in Bangladesh

By: Toby Kruger, UNB Student, 2007 CLA-ACE Internship with the Asia Foundation in Bangladesh

This past summer I had the opportunity to participate in an internship organized by Canadian Lawyers Abroad (CLA) and hosted by the Asia Foundation in Dhaka, Bangladesh. The Dean’s Office at UNB Law provided generous financial support for the experience, in addition to funds raised at the CLA student chapter annual fundraiser, “A Taste for Justice” held last February. 

Bangladesh is a small, seemingly disaster prone nation tucked between Myanmar and India on the Ganges river delta. Despite its small size, it boasts a population of over 150 million people, making it one of the most densely populated areas on earth. Bangladesh is a fascinating country in many respects, but particularly so from an international development perspective. Because of its susceptibility to devastating natural disasters, the country has frequently made international headlines, and as a consequence has at times been a darling of relief aid.

Yet relief aid is temporary, and many of the modern theories of longer term development aid are first produced in Bangladesh and then exported to the rest of the world. For example, rehydration salts to treat diarrhea were first popularized in Bangladesh. The Grameen Bank, a revolutionary micro credit lending scheme that has assisted in lifting millions of people out of the darkest reaches of poverty, finds its origins in the country.

Thus, with the eyes of the development world on Bangladesh, what happens on the ground there has a great potential to impact other regions of the world struggling to break free from the scandal of poverty. The focus of my internship in Bangladesh was Legal Empowerment for the Poor. There are many definitions of “legal empowerment,” but the project I was involved with defined it as the ability of women and disadvantaged groups to use legal and administrative processes and structures to access resources, services, and opportunities. Specifically, the project was meant as a pilot to test strategies to increase the benefits everyday citizens realize from Asian Development Bank (ADB) projects. The ADB, the World Bank’s sister, funnels hundreds of millions of dollars to developing states every year. However, even the ADB itself is not immune to the realization that some – even many – of the monies do not in fact reach the populations they are intended to benefit.

For example, legal empowerment is essential in a situation where a development aid program aims to bring social and economic benefits to women and other marginalized groups, but residents of areas served by the project receive little information about the project, including the rights and entitlements that it confers or the steps to be followed to take advantage of them. Imagine a rural water project wherein a series of small dams and canals is to be constructed to manage agricultural water supplies. Residents whose land is flooded as a consequence of the construction are, on paper, entitled to compensation, yet they are either not aware of the fact or afraid to approach the authorities or both. Legal empowerment is designed to minimize this effect and can help disadvantaged people and communities access benefits and enforce their rights.

Working with local stakeholders and development professionals (including some that were legally trained) I worked to enhance the benefits that women or other disadvantaged groups derived from an ADB small-scale water resources development project. Directly applying the concepts of Rule of Law and governance learned in the classrooms of Ludlow Hall at the University of New Brunswick, I worked to address the legal, administrative, or other constraints that affected people’s equitable participation in and benefit from the project, focusing on the interaction between local water management committees and the affected population. Through a series of awareness and outreach activities, including community trainings, theatre presentations, and legal aid provided by local human rights groups, we found that in a short time we were able to create awareness and increase confidence amongst users of the water infrastructure and as such were able to increase the livelihoods of beneficiary populations.

Legal empowerment and the Rule of Law have a substantial contribution to make to international development. There are two hallmarks of legal empowerment:

• Knowledge: Do people know their rights, and are they familiar with the rules that define their responsibilities and access to specific services?
• Confidence: Do people feel confident to assert their rights?

There is a severe deficit of both knowledge and confidence throughout the developing world. Tackling these barriers is essential to achieving successful poverty alleviation outcomes.

The overall outcome of the pilot project I worked on in Bangladesh will be to integrate the strategies to enhance knowledge and confidence used in rural Bangladesh into mainstream development projects. In that way, I had an opportunity to apply my legal training to meaningful and sustainable change. At the same time, I gained tremendous experience that I will carry back to the community at Ludlow hall. To me, the experience confirmed the notion that a legal education can be used as a powerful means of social change, both at home and abroad.