Capacity Training Needs Assessment of UP & UZP - nirapad

Capacity Training Needs Assessment 

of 

Union Parishad and Upazila Officials 

Rural Employment Opportunities for Public Assets 

(REOPA) 

November 2007

Capacity Training Needs Assessment of UP & UZP under REOPA 

________________________________________________________________________ 

Table of contents 

Map: REOPA Districts......................................................................................................................................i 

Acknowledgements ..........................................................................................................................................iii 

Executive Summary.......................................................................................................................................... 1 

1. Introduction................................................................................................................................................... 3 

1.1 Structure and roles of the Government institutions from centre to the local level ................................ 3 

1.2 Evolution of LGIs since independence .................................................................................................... 4 

2. Significance of Training in Development Initiatives ................................................................................ 9 

2.1 Objectives of the Training Needs Assessments (TNA) ..........................................................................10 

3. Methodology of the TNA - survey and principle of sampling ...............................................................10 

3.1 The study team .......................................................................................................................................10 

3.2 Target groups.........................................................................................................................................11 

3.3 Selection criteria of Upazila and Union Parishads (UP)..................................................................... 11 

3.4 Sources of information...........................................................................................................................11 

4. Limitations of the TNA ..............................................................................................................................12 

5. Key findings of the TNA – analysis of information ................................................................................13 

5.1 Present system at Upazila level.............................................................................................................14 

5.2 Planning .................................................................................................................................................16 

5.3 Implementation ......................................................................................................................................17 

5.4 Monitoring .............................................................................................................................................18 

5.5 Financial management ..........................................................................................................................19 

5.6 Status of existing training profile in Upazila ........................................................................................20 

6. Present System at UP level.........................................................................................................................20 

6.1 Planning and implementation................................................................................................................22 

6.2 Monitoring system..................................................................................................................................26 

6.3 Financial management ..........................................................................................................................27 

6.4 Status of training of UP officials...........................................................................................................28 

7. Women Empowerment...............................................................................................................................29 

8. Recommendations - the way forward.......................................................................................................31 

9. Implementation Strategy: ..........................................................................................................................32 

10. Conclusions................................................................................................................................................37 

Annexes:...........................................................................................................................................................40 

Annex 1: Chronological changes of Local Government before independence ..........................................40 

Annex 2: Chronological changes of Local Government after independence.............................................41 

Annex 3: Local Government system in Bangladesh....................................................................................42


________________________________________________________________________ 

Annex 4: Process of conducting TNA meetings ..........................................................................................43 

Annex 5: Status of Departmental Training Received by Upazila officials.................................................45 

Annex 6: Status of Participants who attended FGD Session at Upazila & UP levels...............................48 

Annex 8: Demography Information at a glance on REOPA Working Area...............................................50 

Annex 9: Names and contents of Training Programme for LGI officials at UZP level............................51 

Annex 10: Names and contents of Training Programme for LGI officials at UP level ............................53 

Annex 11: Sources of Books and Literature................................................................................................56


________________________________________________________________________ 

Map: REOPA Districts 

i


________________________________________________________________________ 

List of Abbreviations 

ADB Asia Development Bank 

ADP Annual Development Programme 

BD Basic Democracy 

BRDB Bangladesh Rural Development Board 

CARR Committee doe Administrative Reorganization and Reform 

CBN Cost for Basic Need 

CE Community Engagement 

CIDA Canadian International Development Agency 

CSC Capacity Strengthening Component 

CST Capacity Strengthening Team 

DAEO Department of Agriculture Extension Officer 

DC Deputy Commissioner 

DEX Directly Execution 

DFID Department For International Development 

DoF Department of Fisheries 

EC European Commission 

FFW Food For Work 

FGD Focus Group Discussion 

GoB Government of Bangladesh 

GP Gram Parishad 

KII Key Informants Interviews 

LCS Labour Contracting Societies 

LDF Local Development Fund 

LGB Local Government Body 

LGD Local Government Division 

LGED Local Government Engineering Department 

LGIs Local Government Institutions 

M&E Monitoring and Evaluation 

MDG Millennium Development Goals 

MLGRD&C Ministry of Local Government, Rural Development and Cooperatives 

MP Member of Parliament 

NGO Non-Government Organization 

NILG National Institute of Local Government 

PIC Project Implementation Committee 

PIO Project Implementation officer 

PMC Project management committee 

PTF Project Task Force 

REOPA Rural Employment Opportunity for Public Assist 

RMP Rural Maintenance Programme 

SDO Sub Divisional officer 

SWOT Strength Weakness Opportunity & Threat 

TDCC Thaana Development Coordination Committee 

TNA Training Needs Assessments 

TR Test Relief 

UDCC Upazila Development Coordination Committee 

UNDP United Nations Development Programme 

UNO Upazila Nirbahi Officer 

UP Union Parishad 

UZP Upazila Parishad 

VGD Vulnerable Group Development Programme 

VGF Vulnerable Group Fund/Feeding 

ii


________________________________________________________________________ 

Acknowledgements 

This report could not have been written without the support of officials of Local 

Government Institutions (LGIs) of the identified Upazilas and Union Parishads. We are 

very grateful to them for the time they gave to the Training Needs Assessment (TNA) 

survey team, despite their busy schedule. The team also acknowledges the continuous 

assistance received from the six District Officers and six Field Assistants of REOPA – 

CST. The report is a symbol of co-operation and assistance among the different 

stakeholders who contributed without hesitation to one united goal: strengthen the 

capacity of LGIs. For any errors and omission, the responsibility rests entirely with the 

survey team members. 

This document has been produced with financial assistance of the European Union. The views 

expressed herein can in no way be taken to reflect the official opinion of the European Union. 

iii


________________________________________________________________________ 

Executive Summary 

Local Government Institutions (LGIs) play a key role in the development of the rural 

economy. Their contribution towards poverty alleviation and promotion of economic 

growth is vital for national development. To achieve this, however, is a formidable task. 

Positioned between the Central Government Ministries which determine the allocation of 

resources as well as the nature of interventions to be implemented at the grassroots level 

on the one hand and the rural communities who look upon them as the answer to their 

immediate needs, officials of LGIs are performing a difficult task that requires striking a 

working balance between these two key constituencies. 

The performance of LGI officials is further affected by the high incidence of poverty and 

vulnerability of the rural poor to natural calamities which enhances their food insecurity. 

The rapidly emerging changes in the sphere of development, along with the new global 

phenomenon such as globalization, migration and others, are having a profound impact on 

the roles and responsibilities of LGI officials. While there is a need to keep abreast with 

the changing development scenario, at the same time there is an urgent need to refine 

their skills and capacities for delivering demand-driven services at the local government 

level. The challenges they face, as well as their inherent strengths and weaknesses, are 

encapsulated in this Training Needs Assessment (TNA) survey which has been prepared 

by the Capacity Strengthening Advisors of the Rural Employment Opportunities for 

Public Assets (REOPA) Project’s Capacity Strengthening Team (CST). The aim of this 

survey is to highlight the existing situation under which the LGI officials are functioning 

and based on this assessment prepare a set of recommendations that would serve as a 

future strategy for enhancing their capacity to meet the new challenges of their job. There 

is also a focus on topics such as gender constraints which women members of the Union 

Parishads (UP) are presently experiencing and the emerging difficulties arising from the 

non-involvement of the communities in the planning and implementation stages of the 

development process. The ultimate objective is to emphasize the need for a participatory 

and professional delivery of services by the officials of the LGIs to encourage pro-poor 

investments and ensure ownership and sustainability of the development projects that are 

being created as a result of this close collaboration between them and the communities in 

which they function. 

In this context, one of the primary objectives of the REOPA Project, which is jointly 

being implemented by the Government of Bangladesh, the European Commission (EC) 

and the UNDP, is to strengthen the capacity of the LGIs and their officials to improve the 

quality of services that would have an immediate impact on increasing the opportunities 

for generating rural employment and income. In particular, the major area of focus of the 

Project’s Capacity Strengthening Team (CST), which is UNDP’s contribution to the 

Project, is the provision of technical assistance to strengthen and enhance the capacity of 

the Government, both at national and local government levels. This survey was 

undertaken as a part of this initiative to assess the situation on the ground and thereafter 

come up with recommendations for addressing some of the needs of the LGI officials 

which would bring about a definite improvement in their delivery of services. 

Beginning with the Introduction which outlines the development of the local governance 

concept in Bangladesh since the very beginning and provides details on the structure of 

the Government, both at the Central and local levels, Chapter 2 on Objectives of the 

Training Needs Assessment (TNA) Survey and Principles of Sampling identifies the 

1


________________________________________________________________________ 

primary aims of this exercise. This is followed by Chapter 3 on The Methodology of the 

Training Needs Assessment survey, which contains details on the different sources from 

which the relevant information was gathered including the composition of the study team, 

specific nature of the target groups, sample size, and selection criteria of the survey areas. 

In Chapter 4 on Limitations of the Survey, some of the major constraints experienced 

while undertaking the survey have been highlighted and this is followed by Chapter 5 on 

Key Findings of the TNA- analysis of information which constitutes the focal point of 

this report as it provides details on the pertinent issues relating to the functioning of the 

LGIs officials – their inherent strengths as well as handicaps which need to be addressed. 

This is followed by a categorization of this information at the Upazila and UP levels with 

respective strengths and constraints of officials at both levels. 

Based on this in-depth analysis, Chapter 6 dwells on the Recommendations - the way 

forward, which outlines some of the major inputs required to make a change in the 

present system of LGIs. The points identified here which could make this difference are 

examined in detail in Chapter 7, Implementation Strategy, which presents details of the 

specific approach needed to put the recommendations into action. Finally in the 

Conclusion there is a reference to the crucial role of the LGIs officials in the context of 

Bangladesh’s development and economic progress and the need to make every effort to 

ensure that this core group of local government officials are provided with opportunities 

to improve their capacity to provide quality services to the communities amongst whom 

they are stationed as part of their official duty. This would guarantee that they become 

agents of change and make a difference in the standard of living of the rural poor. This 

would also be their litmus test to prove they are functioning effectively for the 

constituencies whom they serve. 

The sustainable socio-economic development of rural Bangladesh which is the primary 

goal of REOPA Project can be achieved when the LGIs officials are convinced of the 

need to use their services and interventions towards this end. The generation of rural 

employment and income with the active participation of the communities in the decisionmaking 

process can become a reality if this core group of officials is made a part of the 

whole development process. 

The TNA report has been prepared with this objective mind and it is hoped the areas of 

focus identified in Chapters 5 and 6 would serve a beacon while developing future 

interventions for enhancing the capacity of the target groups and prepare them to function 

as real agents of change. 

2


________________________________________________________________________ 

1. Introduction 

1.1 Structure and roles of the Government institutions from centre to the local level 

The People’s Republic of Bangladesh has one central Government with 41 different 

ministries. The country is divided into six Administrative Divisions (Dhaka, Barisal, 

Khulna, Rajshahi, Chittagonj and Sylhet) each Division is placed under a Divisional 

Commissioner. The divisions are further subdivided into districts with a District 

Commissioner (DC) as the Chief Administrator. Since the administrative reorganization 

of 1982, the country has been divided into 64 Districts and Thanas have been upgraded to 

Upazilas or Sub-Districts. At present, below the district level there are the 490 Upazilas 

with an Upazila Nirbahi Officer (UNO) as the head of the administration. 

The Ministry of Local Government, Rural Development & Cooperatives (MLGRD&C) 

has an important portfolio as it deals with Local Government Institutions. At present, the 

local government system of Bangladesh comprises three categories: urban, rural and 

special areas. The rural local government consists of three tiers: Zila Parishad, Upazila 

Parishad and Union Parishad. 

All the Ministries at the central level are represented at the Local Government level 

through their corresponding departments and although these are located at the Local 

Government level, are within their jurisdiction. 

One serious limitation experienced by 

the Local Government (LG) 

authorities is that they have been 

delegated power by the Central 

Government through legislation which 

makes it mandatory for them to 

function in line with the provisions of 

the concerned Act and thereby binds 

them within the parameters of the Act 

– if they have not been conferred with 

the necessary authority according to 

the Act, the Local Government 

officials cannot legally take action to 

enforce the Act.. According to the 

Ordinance or Acts on LG bodies, the 

Central Government is vested with the 

authority to determine or modify the 

size and boundaries of the LG bodies 

and to formulate rules and bye –laws 

The Bangladesh Constitution, adopted in 1972, 

provided a strong foundation for local government. 

Article 59 and 60 state: 

"59 (1) Local government in every administrative unit 

of the Republic shall be entrusted to bodies, composed 

of persons elected in accordance with law. 

(2) Everybody such as is referred to in clause (1) shall, 

subject to this Constitution and any other law, perform 

within the appropriate administrative unit such 

functions as shall be prescribed by Act of Parliament, 

which may include functions relating to (a) 

Administration and the work of public officers; (b) the 

maintenance of public order; (c) The preparation and 

implementation of plans relating to public services 

and economic development." 

Source: Bangladesh Constitution, 1972. 

in this connection. Consequently, Local Government authorities are dependent on a few 

limited powers and functions that have been delegated to them by the Central 

Government. 

The Central Government on its part, issues circulars and directives on different issues 

pertaining to the LG bodies and has full jurisdiction over them. Apart from the general 

power of legislation, there are also specific instruments of control at the Central 

Government level. The relationship between the Central Government and the LG as 

3


________________________________________________________________________ 

determined by the specific means of control exercised by the former over the latter can be 

grouped under three broad categories: institutional (composition of councils, local 

elections, personnel etc), financial and administrative. 

The Local Government Act provides broad power and functions to Union Parishads (UP 

which are mainly civic functions, police and defence functions, revenue and general 

administrative functions, development functions and transferred functions (which may be 

transferred by the government from time to time). In addition, through the Local 

Government Act, all the functions of UP are divided into 10 mandatory or compulsory 

and 38 supplementary responsibilities for the UPs in dealing with the local community. 

There is a close linkage and networking between the local communities and the UPs 

exercising different mandatory and supplementary functions. 

1.2 Evolution of LGIs since independence 

Local Government Institution (LGI) in pre-independent Bangladesh: 

The history of local government in Bangladesh can be traced back to the British colonial 

period when local self-governing ‘Panchayat’ at village level was set up under the Bengal 

Village Chowkidari Act in 1870 to establish their administrative control at the grass roots 

level. With the implementation of the Chowkidari Act in 1870, several villages were 

organized into a Union and Chowkidari Panchayat (Organization) was set up in each 

Union. The District Magistrate of the Government appointed five members for the 

Chowkidari Panchayat for three years .The Panchayats were responsible for appointment 

of Chowkidars (village police) for maintaining law and order. The village police were 

paid through collection of Chowkidari tax from the villagers. 

In fact, under the Chowkidari system members were considered as government 

functionaries rather than representative of the villagers. The Panchayats were used mainly 

to assist the administration in maintaining law and order and for collecting taxes. They 

had no role and function in respect of development activities. 

With the introduction of Lord Ripon's Resolution on local self-government in 1882 which 

was passed in 1885 as the Bengal Local Self-Government Act III, Union Committees 

were formed at the village level, Local Government Boards at the sub-divisional level and 

District Boards at the District level. 

With the promulgation of Bengal Village Self- Government Act of 1919, Union 

Committees were abolished and Union Boards and District Board were established. Two 

thirds of the members of Union Board were elected and one third nominated. The 

Chairman was elected among members of the Union boards. However, this system of 

nomination was abolished in 1946. 

During the British rule (1870-1947) a number of experiments were made with the Local 

Government system in the subcontinent, which were geared towards protecting and 

promoting the colonial interests of the British Empire. As such, the experiments were 

intended to devise a system that would serve British imperial interests. 

After the emergence of Pakistan in 1947, the provincial Government of East Pakistan 

initiated some important changes in the Local Government system. In 1958, a system of 

4


________________________________________________________________________ 

local government known as Basic Democracy ( BD) was introduced and under the Basic 

Democracy Order of 1959 local government bodies were set up at four tiers viz. Union 

Council at Union level, Thana Council at Thana level, District Council at District level 

and Divisional Council at Divisional level. On average, a Union comprised an area of 

10,000 inhabitants and the Union Council was constituted with 10 to15 members, Two 

thirds of the members were elected by voters and one third was nominated by the 

government. The members would elect a Chairman and one vice chairman from amongst 

them. Under the Basic Democracies Ordinance, 1959 the Union Council was authorized 

to impose taxes on property and other sources to build its own fund in addition to existing 

Chowkidari fund. Government grant was given for rural works programme and for the 

formation of the Union Parishad office 

The Thana Council was constituted with public representatives and government 

functionaries. All the Union Council chairmen in a Thana became the representative 

members while the Sub Divisional Officer and all Thana level officials were the official 

members of Thana Council. The Sub Divisional Officer and the Circle Officer 

(Development) were the Chairman and Vice Chairman of the Thana Council respectively. 

Virtually, the above four-tier system under Basic Democratic reflected a new innovation 

of a clear resemblance of the union councils and municipal committees of the British 

days. (Please see Annex 1: Chronological changes of Local Government (UP) before 

independence.) 

Brief history of the evolution of LGIs in Bangladesh 

The present structure of Local Government in Bangladesh is the result of the 

developments that have been in place at different levels during different periods through 

the introduction of laws/ordinances to form local bodies at village, Thana, District and 

Divisional levels. 

Since independence in 1971, several attempts have been made at strengthening the Local 

Government system in Bangladesh in order to deliver services more effectively to the 

people, especially those residing in the rural areas. While changes have been made from 

time to time in terms of the arrangement of the tier system in the Local Government, 

nevertheless, it has not yet been developed as a strong self-dependent representative of 

the State fit to deliver need-based services for the communities amongst which the LG 

offices are located. Therefore, the structure of the local government system has not 

changed much over the different phases of reforms introduced by the Government. 

Some of the major developments in evolution of the LGIs are as follows: 

i) The first initiative began immediately after the independence of Bangladesh in 

December, 1971 and ended in 1975. In 1972, with the President’s Order Number 22, the 

name of the Union Council was changed to Union Panchayat and an administrator was 

appointed to manage the affairs of the Panchayat. The name of Thana Council was 

changed to Thana Development Committee (TDC) while the District Council was named 

Zila Board or District Board. Again in 1973, Union Panchayat's name was changed back 

to Union Parishad. However, the functions and source of income remained unchanged as 

in the Basic Democratic (BD) system, 1959 

5


________________________________________________________________________ 

Towards the beginning of 1975, the Central Government further took another radical 

initiative to recognize Local Government at the district level and Bangladesh was divided 

in to 61 districts by upgrading all the sub-divisions as districts. It was decided that each 

district will be headed by a District Governor to be appointed by the President. It was 

also decided that a District Council consisting of political, administrative and military 

representatives will be set up to advice the Governor on issues relating to local 

development. The District Governor had absolute power and control over the regulatory 

and development issues of the district. There was no mechanism of accountability to the 

Council which was actually a consultative body without any power to veto decisions 

made by the Government. The ultimate aim of the above system of Local Government 

was to impose and implement central plans through the absolute control of the Governor. 

However, the move finally did not materialize as the regime was overthrown in a military 

coup in August 1975 soon after the announcement of the new system. 

ii) The second initiative was introduced with the declaration of Local Government 

Ordinance in 1976 in which the Local Government would comprise of Zila, Thana and 

Union Parishads for the rural areas and Purashavas for the urban areas. For the first time 

nomination of women members in UP was introduced. Though executive powers were 

given to the elected Chairman, nevertheless, the Government reserved the supervisory 

and controlling power over the UPs by providing authority to the Sub-divisional Officer 

(SDO) of the Central Government to instruct, control and suspend UP members, if found 

to be necessary. 

During this regime Government experimented with a new tier called the Local 

Government Body (LGB) for rural development in each of the 68,000 villages, in 1980. 

According to this system, the Local Government establishment was to be based on the 

concepts of Sanirvar (self-reliance) Gram Sarker (village), headed by Gram Prodan ( head 

of the village) with a view of strengthening the Local Government, providing more 

autonomy, helping the communities and mobilizing them at village level for 

development works. Gram Sarkers were given responsibility for increasing food 

production, expanding mass literacy, promoting population control/family planning 

activities and maintaining law and order. However, due to the change of political regime 

in 1981, this system of local government was never fully implemented. 

iii) The third initiative was made in 1982 which abolished both the Thana Development 

Committee (TDC) and Gram Sarker. The military regime in power took initiatives to 

introduce a massive decentralization programme based on the recommendations of a 

Committee for Administrative Reorganization and Reform (CARR) 460 existing Thanas 

were upgraded in to Upazilas giving them a democratic mandate and considerably 

enhanced the power and authority of local development bodies. The significant features 

of the Upazila system were: 

• A democratically elected Upazila Chairman will be head of Upazila Parishad 

• The Upazila was to plan and implement all development activities. 

• The elected Chairman of the UPs would be represented in the Upazila. There were 

also three nominated women and one male member in the Council of members. 

• A large number of activities like health, education, development infrastructure, 

rural works/food for work etc were transferred to Upazila Parishad. 

• Senior officials of various departments were posted to Upazila and were made 

accountable to Upazila Parishad members. 

6


________________________________________________________________________ 

• Upazila was declared to be the focal point of local administration. 

• Upazila Parishad was authorized to make plan and implement projects without 

seeking approval from the district authority. 

With these features, the Upazila system reflected a significant step forward in the history 

of decentralization in Bangladesh at the grassroots level. As a result, the development 

programmes and other activities created a lot of enthusiasm among the local people. 

However, in the mid ‘80s it started declining with the reduction of Government allocation 

to the Upazilas. Similarly, Upazilas failed to mobilize resources from often local sources. 

The smooth functioning of the Upazila system was also hampered by lack of coordination 

among the various departments, conflicts and tensions were observed between 

the elected Chairmen and bureaucrats, technocrats and politicians. Moreover, widespread 

corruption and misuse of public money at the Upazila level were observed. 

Consequently, the Upazila system was criticized from different quarters as a result of 

which it became vulnerable and could not survive. 

This was followed by the new government of BNP which came into power following the 

general election in 1991. It dismantled the Upazila system and replaced it with 

decentralized structures at appropriate levels. The Upazila was renamed Thana and the 

executive officer was authorized to control the defunct Upazila Parishad. Instead of 

decentralizing local government, the BNP government chose to install the Thana 

Development Coordination Committee (TDCC) at Thana level. The TDCC was formed 

with the Chairmen of UPs, three women members, and the head of Thana based 

government officials. The TNO (Thana Nirbhai Officer) was made the member secretary 

of the TDCC. One of the UP chairmen was to preside over the monthly meetings of the 

TDCC by rotation. 

However, the TDCC could not perform an effective role in the implementation of the 

development programmes due to lack of leadership skills among the UP Chairmen. 

Coordination among the Chairmen and various department officials also proved to be 

difficult. Since Government officials were accountable to their respective ministries for 

their responsibilities, TDCC had no administrative control over them, which was a major 

cause of concern for promoting development interventions. 

The above facts demonstrate that despite the best intention of the political parties in 

power to introduce decentralization at the grassroots level, it never actually happened. On 

the contrary, the trend indicated a gradual shift towards increased centralization with little 

or no room for the LGIs to function independently and effectively. As a result, till 1996, 

Local Government bodies in Bangladesh did not experience any institutional reform for 

ensuring grass roots level democracy and participatory development. In fact, the colonial 

intervention had a lasting impact over the local governance system; no effective and 

viable Local Government system could emerge. It is often alleged that by conducting 

local elections based on democratic norms, the Central Government tried to politicize the 

Local Government bodies. 

When the Awami League came to power in 1998, it kept a pre-election commitment to 

develop a strong decentralized and effective Local Government. Immediately after 

forming the Government, it appointed a high powered Local Government Commission 

consisting of eight members headed by a Member of Parliament in September 1996 to 

determine the framework for rural Local Government with the objectives of 

7


________________________________________________________________________ 

decentralization and participation. The Commission submitted its report in May 1997 

that suggested a four-tier system of Local Government: Gram Parishad at village level, 

Union Parishad at Union level, Upazila Parishad at Upazila level and Zila Parishad at Zila 

level. The Commission also recommended: directly elected council chairmen at all levels; 

elected women members at all levels; inclusion of NGO and other local development 

agencies representatives as non-voting members. It suggested the strengthening of 

Councils in terms of authority, resource-based local level planning, local budgeting and 

implementation; provision for bureaucratic accountability to local representatives at 

relevant levels; constitution of a permanent legislative Local Government Commission 

and Finance Committee. The Commission further highlighted the need for delegating 

extensive power to local bodies for staff management and mobilization of financial 

resources. 

The Government in principle accepted the recommendations of the Commission and 

decided to adopt an innovative approach in their implementation. In 1997, legislation was 

passed to form Gram Parishad (GP) at the Ward level, the lowest tier of Local 

Government. It consisted of elected ward members of UP as Chairmen, six male and three 

female members to be elected by voters of each Ward in the Union. The GP was assigned 

as 14 categories of functions including socioeconomic surveys and adjudication of petty 

disputes to help UP in the smooth discharge of its functions. 1 Another change was the 

division of each Union into nine Wards in the place of the existing three Wards. In 

December 1997, through the new amendment, the election of 4500 UPs was held and 

women members were elected directly in the reserved seats. 

In December 1998, a local Government Upazila Parishad (UZP) Act was passed in 

Parliament that provided creation of an elected Council at Thana/Upazila level and 

election to this council was scheduled to be held within six months. In line with the new 

UZP system, the Chairman was to be elected directly by the people and he would be head 

of the UP with executive powers. The Chairmen of the UP and municipalities would also 

be the members of the UZP. One third of the total numbers of women members of the UP 

and municipalities concerned would be represented in the UZP. 

Some fundamental features of this LG Act are: Members of Parliament (MP) would work 

as advisers to the UZP while the Upazila Nirbahi Officer (UNO) would act as Secretary 

to the UZP. The Upazila was given authority to impose and collect revenue from the nine 

sources of Tax, Tools and Fees. Functions of the UZP was included in preparing five 

year plans for social and economic development, implementation of activities of 

transferred government officials of different line agencies and their supervision and 

coordination, maintaining law and order, etc. Supporting and coordinating activities of 

cooperatives and NGOs in the Upazila is also one of the functions of UZP. However, the 

government reserved the right to turn down UZP plans or suspend them if they were 

found to be inconsistent with law. 

Although the Upazila Parishad Act was passed by the Parliament in 1998, UZP has not 

yet been constituted. Presently, UDCC (Upazila Unnayan Samannaya Committee) is 

working at the Upazila as a partial replacement of UZPs. 2 

1 NGOs & Local Government Reforms in Bangladesh: paper presented by Prof. Zarin Rahamna Khan, 

NGO Dialogue Workshop, IDB Bhaban, 1-2 March 1999, p. 7. 

2 Local Government in Bangladesh, Kamal Siddiki, revised third edition, 2004. 

8


________________________________________________________________________ 

In 1997, the Gram Parishad Bill was replaced by the Gram Sarker Bill that was passed on 

26 February 2003 and it retained the four-tier system. Both Gram Parishads and Gram 

Sarkers have been designed to function as integral parts of Union Parishad without being 

given the status of an independent Local Government body. It was formed on the basis of 

Wards of Union, headed by Ward Commissioners. In both the Parishad and Sarker 

System, the Ward territory is the official jurisdiction. However, the significant difference 

is in the composition of the body. While the Gram Parishad was a combination of directly 

elected and nominated members, the Gram Sarker Bill clearly opted for nominated 

members only. Besides the Gram Sarker Prodhan (Chief), who is the Ward 

Commissioner, all the members of the 13-member body are to be nominated. However, 

the recently published report of “Committee for Accelerating & Strengthening Local 

Government” November 2007 recommended a three-tier local government system 

(Union, Upazila and Zila Parishad) dropping out the concept of “Gram Sarkar”, which 

has already been approved by the cabinet of the Caretaker Government (please see 

Annex 2: Chronological changes of Local Government (UP & UZ) after independence). 

The system of Local Government in the Hill Districts 

In addition to the rural-regional and the urban local governments, a third form of local 

Government system exists for the three Hill Districts of Bandarban, Khagrachari and 

Rangamati. It is has been structured along two parallel sub-systems: (1) a sub-system of 

three circle chiefs; (2) a sub-system hierarchically divided as regional Parishad (council). 

(Please see Annex 3: Chart of existing Local Government system in Bangladesh.) 

2. Significance of Training in Development Initiatives 

Training is a learning process that changes the performance of a man or a group of people 

by providing skills, knowledge and education on a particular subject. This is an evolving 

process that requires regular updating of the skills for specific target groups to ensure they 

are at the cutting edge in delivering their expected duties. To achieve the task of 

regularly updating the skills of the identified groups, it is essential to assess the existing 

gaps between what is required of a person or a group of people to perform their work 

competently, and what is their present level of skills/knowledge. Therefore, a “training 

needs assessment” (TNA) is a tool for determining the kind of training that is required to 

fill in this gap. 

Based on the management theory of McGhee & Thayer that an analysis of training needs 

is best undertaken at the level of the organizations, job and persons, 3 the present TNA has 

focused on–the job analysis of the local government institutions (LGIs) officials to 

highlight their specific responsibilities and how they need to be performed effectively. 

The results of this TNA aims, therefore, to highlight the gaps between existing skills of 

LGIs officials and the inputs required to make them function efficiently. This survey 

would also highlight the present limitations which the target groups are experiencing and 

which is preventing them from achieving a level of excellence that would enhance their 

quality of performance. 

3 Training Needs Assessment (TNA) for REB /PBS Personnel: Training Directorate-Rural Electrification 

Board (REB), NRECA & USAID, March 2007, p. 197. 

9


________________________________________________________________________ 

2.1 Objectives of the Training Needs Assessments (TNA) 

In keeping with the aim motioned in the previous section and the objectives of Rural 

Employment Opportunities for Public Assets- Capacity Strengthening Team (REOPA- 

CST) in particular, its focus on strengthening the capacity of LGIs, training can be 

identified as one of the main tools for building the capacity of the officials of LGIs 

(Union Parishads or UP & Upazila or UZ) as they will be the focal points for the 

implementation of the 3 core components of the Project: road maintenance, block grants 

for casual labour and basic services delivery. Consequently a TNA of the target group 

officials of UP & UZ, is an urgent input that would help to develop a strategy for 

addressing the needs of these officials and thereafter designing appropriate capacitybuilding 

interventions. This would also provide the officials with an opportunity to have a 

training experience that would enhance their capacity to address the needs of the poor 

rural communities through the implementation of demand-based development schemes. 

The main objective of the TNA is to assess the situation on the ground regarding the 

existing capacity of LGIs officials and based on this design a strategy that would address 

their identified needs. This would also provide the officials with on-the-job training 

opportunities in order to improve their capacity to implement the different activities of 

REOPA Project. 

The main objectives of the TNA are: 

Asses the present capacity of LGIs officials regarding their responsibilities in 

meeting the needs of the communities among whom they are working, 

Identify the core ‘entry points’ for designing appropriate interventions to meet 

this challenge, 

Increase the capacity of officials of LGIs to implement pro-poor investments 

through the formulation of a participatory approach towards development 

issues, 

Promote awareness among LGIs officials about the ownership and 

maintenance of public assets by rural communities on a sustainable basis. 

3. Methodology of the TNA - survey and principle of sampling 

The methodology of the TNA includes collecting information from different sources, 

identifying the criteria of selecting target groups/ people and locations, determining the 

sample size, designing questionnaires, etc. During the study, it has been attempted to 

find a clear insight and perception of the respondents through Group Discussions/Focus 

Group Discussion (FGD) and Key Informants Interviews (KII). 

It is a qualitative assessment, which refers to the methodology and subsequently made a 

conclusion about the existing situation and constraints faced by the respondents in case of 

planning, implementation and monitoring of the development projects. However, this 

qualitative assessment does not show anything about the quantity of the respondents’ 

opinions. (Please see annex - 4: Process of conducting TNA session.) 

3.1 The study team 

The Survey team consisted of two Capacity Strengthening Advisors, six Districts Officers 

and six Field Assistants from REOPA-CST. All of the members of this team are well 

conversant with the different participatory techniques of gathering information from the 

communities and preparing the foundation for information collection. 

10


________________________________________________________________________ 

3.2 Target groups 

Primarily Upazila officials and representatives of UPs are considered as target groups of 

the TNA as they will be involved in the implementation process of the REOPA Project. 

The main target groups are: 

(1) Upazila officials: Officials of different agencies who are working at Upazila level 

such as UNO, Upazila Engineer, Upazila Women Affairs Officer, Upazila Project 

Implementation Officer, Agriculture Officer, Fishery Officer, Livestock Officer. 

(2) UP officials: Chairman and members of Union Parishad who are the public 

representatives at the grassroots level. 

Sample size: 

In total, 12 Upazila and 36 Unions under 6 REOPA districts were covered by the TNA. 

First, two Upazilas were selected from each REOPA-District. Similarly, three Unions 

were selected from each of those Upazilas. During the selection of the Upazila and 

Unions, the following criteria which were taken into consideration are given in the next 

section. (See Annex 7 for the name of the Upazilas and Unions under the TNA and 

Annex 8 for Demography Information.) 

3.3 Selection criteria of Upazila and Union Parishads (UP) 

Upazilas and UPs were selected according to the following criteria: 

Upazila selection: 

• The first category of Upazila was made on the basis of a high incidence of 

poverty level, high population density, low education level, increased 

vulnerability of the population to natural hazards and external threats, remoteness, 

vulnerability in case of women ( such as: less mobility, less economic activities , 

lower education level, violence) etc. 

• The second category of Upazila was selected on the basis on moderate levels of 

poverty, population density, education and gender concerns. 

Union selection: 

• The first Union was selected from the Sadar Union of the sample Upazila in order 

to get the opinions of those UP representatives who are dealing with the urban 

people close to Upazila that are a little bit different from the remote UPs. 

• The second Union was selected on the basis of a high incidence of poverty , 

high population density, lower education level, extreme vulnerability, remoteness, 

vulnerability in case of women (such as: less mobility, less economic activities , 

lower education level, violence) etc. 

• The third Union was selected from a moderate category e.g. where poverty level, 

population density, education level and communication are average without any 

extreme cases. 

3.4 Sources of information 

Primary and secondary sources of information have been used for writing this report. 

Primary information was collected during the TNA by using the prescribed checklist/ 

questionnaire for collecting views of the officials of Unions and UZ who are the target 

groups. This primary information was collected through Focus Group Discussions (FGD), 

which is qualitative in nature. In addition to Group Discussions, some Key Informants 

11


________________________________________________________________________ 

FGD with 

UP& UZ 

Officials 

Key 

Informants 

Interviews 

Literature 

review 

(Secondary 

data) 

Final 

Report 

Interviews (KII) were 

also conducted with the 

different government 

officials and women 

members at Upazila 

level & UP levels 

respectively with a 

view to getting a more 

in-depth knowledge of 

planning, 

implementation and 

monitoring systems 

being followed in these 

institutions. Moreover, secondary information from different relevant literatures and 

documents has been used for analyzing and reviewing the history of local government 

system, current status and the required area for capacity strengthening of local 

government officials. 

4. Limitations of the TNA 

There were certain limitations experienced by the concerning officials of REOPA-CST 

while undertaking the survey. However, the TNA mission team of REOPA-CST tried to 

overcome them and prepared their in-depth report. Some of these constraints which 

pertain to methodology, timing of the survey discussions, and the collection of 

information from primary and secondary sources are as follows:- 

The survey methodology has a distinctive qualitative bias which provides little 

room for reference to quantitative data, especially during the Focus Group 

Discussions (FGD) in which about 10-12 officials from the different departments 

at the Upazila level and about 14 UP officials were usually present. 

The full session/ meeting of the TNA required at least four hours (which is 

equivalent to half a working day) for collecting the necessary information on the 

basis of the designed questionnaire. As a result, there were some practical 

difficulties which the survey team encountered especially in the context of time. 

This constraint was especially pronounced during the questioning into sensitive 

issues and gathering the relevant information from the assembled officials. 

Moreover, the survey coincided with the holy month of Ramadan which left the 

respondents quite exhausted at the end of these long sessions. Some officials at 

the Upazila level especially the UNOs in view of their heavy burden of 

responsibilities were often seen to be in a hurry and sometimes had to leave 

halfway through the sessions. 

At the FGDs, the survey team was able to collect information pertaining to general 

issues only which were applicable to all the departments at the Upazila level. This 

was due to the fact that respondents preferred to give only this kind of information 

for reasons not known to the TNA team. 

In some cases at the UP level, the members especially women were hesitant to 

discuss at length or raise some issues relating to the accountability and 

transparency of affairs of their respective UPs, particularly in the context of the 

12


________________________________________________________________________ 

Chairman’s role. They seemed a bit hesitant in the presence of the other male UP 

members to come out with their individual opinions spontaneously. 

The information from the different Upazilas and UPs have been gathered and 

compiled manually for different reasons which may leave some room for 

inadvertent gaps in the process of collecting the information. 

However, despite the above mentioned limitations, the survey team took every 

precautionary measure to ensure that the feedback obtained from the survey was 

substantial and based upon actual facts based on the situation on the ground. For instance, 

with a view to removing the inconsistencies in the feedback obtained from the FGDs, 

individual interviews with the officials of different departments (such as agriculture, 

fisheries and Upazila Engineers) were also conducted to fill in the gaps. Similarly, 

discussions were held again with the UP women members individually, who generally 

remained silent during the Group Discussions at UP level. Secondly, with a view to 

reiterate the authenticity of the earlier data that had been collected, the team members 

painstakingly cross-checked secondary information details obtained from different 

sources such as journals, books, references on Local Governance from concerning official 

institutions and other relevant sources. The objective has been to provide a realistic and 

detailed account of the existing situation on the ground regarding the strengths and 

comparative advantages of officials of LGI in implementing pro-poor schemes and also 

the limitations they are experiencing that need to be addressed for achieving sustainable 

development. 

5. Key findings of the TNA – analysis of information 

The key findings derived from an analysis of the group discussions held with the different 

representatives of the target groups highlighted the different aspects of their official 

responsibilities, ranging from designing, planning, implementing as well as monitoring 

and evaluation. The observations made by the target groups who were interviewed bring 

out both the strengths and weaknesses of the respective positions in which the officials 

are presently working. Despite the presence of a considerable number of constraints in 

this regard, the survey observed there were some areas of institutional strength which 

could become potential channels for enhancing the capacity of the LGIs and the their 

officials. 

In all, 101 Upazila officials at Upazilas level and 442 UP representatives at the UP level 

attended the Focus Group Discussions (FGD) during the different session of the TNA. It 

is worth mentioning here that out of the 504 UP representatives in the 36 Unions who 

were invited, 88% attended the FGDs. Similarly, in case of Upazila, 120 officials were 

invited, of which 85% attended the FGDs. (Please see Annex 6: Number of Participants 

who attended FGD session at UP & Upazila levels. 

Some of the strengths of the officials of LGIs noted are: 

Sound expertise and experiences of officials: Officials of the LGIs contacted during the 

survey have strong academic backgrounds and technical expertise in their respective 

fields such as agriculture, fisheries, livestock etc. However, technical expertise can only 

be effectively utilized if they are given the opportunity to apply their skills while 

discharging their duties in line with the local level planning and implementation as well 

as during the monitoring phase. This can be done if there is appropriate delegation of 

authority to enable the qualified officials to provide the necessary technical back-up. 

13


________________________________________________________________________ 

• Regular coordination meetings are held among UP, UZ, NGO and even civil 

society representatives are invited at Upazila level. These gatherings provide a 

unique opportunity to exchange and share each others’ experiences. 

• Regular UDCC meeting: The Upazila Development Coordination Committee 

(UDCC) is a significant forum for inter-agency coordination where people’s 

representatives (UPs) have the opportunity to share issues relating to 

development. UDCC meetings are chaired on a rotating basis by a Union 

Chairman along with three women UP members and members from the civil 

society. 

• Women participation: The regular presence of Women UP members who are 

very active and eager to get involved in the development of planning and 

implementation of different initiatives. 

• Public representatives: UP officials are acceptable to the community as public 

representatives and they are able to take decisions on behalf of the communities 

they represent. 

• Community representation at UP level: In some cases, community leaders 

attend the UP meetings as members of UP Standing Committee and sometimes 

participate in the deliberations of open budget of the UP, which provides a good 

link between the UP officials and the communities. 

5.1 Present system at Upazila level 

Before dealing at length with the constraints at Upazila level, it is important to introduce 

the official responsibilities of the Upazila officials as follows: 

There are 26 departments in each Upazila related to the corresponding Ministries at the 

national level. The TNA team interacted with those officials of the Upazila whose 

portfolios are relevant to the objectives of REOPA Project and included the following 

officials: Upazila Nirbahi Officer (UNO), officials dealing with Agriculture, Fisheries, 

Livestock, Women affairs, Social Welfare, Upazila Engineer-LGED, Project 

Implementation Officer (PIO), Youth Affairs, and others. Some of these officials will be 

represented at the Upazila REOPA Committee which would be established to supervise 

the implementation of three different components of the Project: road maintenance, block 

grants for casual labour and the delivery of basic services for targeted interventions to the 

participating rural communities. 

Most of the line departments are accountable to their superior officers at the 

corresponding Ministries who also allocate the resources for the implementation of the 

relevant development projects. As a result, the Upazila level officers are left with limited 

influence on resource allocation for development purposes as they are mostly decided at 

the Central Government level. 4 . Therefore, the primary responsibility of the officials of 

Upazila is implementing the decisions taken at the Central level and thereafter monitoring 

the progress of the development projects for reporting back to the respective line 

Ministries. 

The following table highlights some of the major departments at the Upazila level and 

their corresponding responsibilities at the Upazila level: 

4 Local Government and Service Delivery to the Poor, Bangladesh- Case Study: Asian Development 

Bank Institute & UNCDF. Paper presented 9 th -13 th February 2004. 

14


________________________________________________________________________ 

Table 1: Line agencies officials working at UZ level 

Sl. # Department Officials at 

Upazila level 

Responsibilities and field level activities 

1 Civil Administration, UNO -Appointed by the Central government and a representative of civil 

ministry of 

administration at local level with authorized power of administrative 

establishment 

coordination between all departments at Upazila level. 

-In charge of the decision-making process especially with regard to 

the allocation of ADP block transfers and the selection of Vulnerable 

Group Fund (VGF) and Vulnerable Group Development (VGD) card 

holders. 

2 Department of Upazila Providing extension service, training and advice to farmers on 

Agriculture 

Agriculture agricultural development related issues in order to promote 

Extension (DAE) Officer 

productivity, as well as sustainable agriculture to achieve the goals of 

food security and poverty reduction. . 

3 Dept of Fisheries Upazila Providing extension service, training and advice to farmers on 

(DoF) 

Fisheries Officer fisheries development in order to increase productivity. 

4 Dept of Livestock Upazila 

Livestock 

Officer 

5 LGED Upazila 

Engineer 

6 Department of 

Women & Children 

Affairs 

7 Department of Social 

Welfare 

8 Department of Relief 

& Rehabilitation 

9 Development of 

Youth & 

Development 

10 Dept of Public Health 

& Engineering 

Women Affairs 

Officer 

Upazila Social 

Welfare Officer 

Upazila Project 

Implementation 

Officer (PIO) 

Upazila Youth 

Development 

Officer 

Upazila Public 

Health Engineer 

11 BRDB Upazila Rural 

Development 

Officer 

Providing extension service, training and advice to the farmers on 

livestock development to increase productivity and adopt new 

techniques for raising livestock 

Planning, designing, implementation and monitoring of the 

development schemes within the jurisdiction of the department at the 

Upazila level. 

Raising awareness and advocacy for women empowerment, gender 

mainstreaming and children’s rights with focus on Child 

Trafficking and other relevant issues. 

Ensure protection of women, implementing project on gender 

violence, women development, empowerment and protection of 

Women and Children etc. 

Providing training on women’s entrepreneurship development. 

Implementing programs like old age allowances, disability 

allowances, grants and aids to acid burnt victims 

Implementing programmes for the welfare of the by-passed, 

disadvantaged segment, unemployed, landless, orphans, distressed, 

vagrants, socially, mentally and physically handicapped, poor, 

helpless patients, juvenile delinquents. 

Implementation of schemes relating to the construction of earthen 

roads and schools at Upazila level 

Providing training and credit support to the youth for self 

employment through poverty alleviation programme, motivational 

and awareness on different important issues like prevention of 

HIV/AIDS, STDS, anti-drug campaign and behavioural development 

of the young people. 

Installing and repairing tube-wells, providing support for pure 

drinking water and hygienic sanitation. 

Group formation in line with the cooperative societies, providing 

training and credit to the groups, implementing the programs for 

savings and income generation for the poor communities at 

grassroots level. 

Source: Government of People’s Republic of Bangladesh, web site & Programme Document-CARE- 

Interoperation, SDC funded Local governance Programme-July 2006 

Constraints in planning, implementation and monitoring identified among LGI 

officials at UZ level: 

The findings of the TNA underpin the fact that in spite of having a number of different 

opportunities and areas of comparative advantage at the Upazila level, especially in the 

15


________________________________________________________________________ 

context of implementing and monitoring the development schemes, they have not been 

exploited to the fullest extent. While reasons for this can be varied and manifold, some of 

the major obstacles that prevent the full utilization of the resources allocated to the 

Upazila are summed up as follows: 

5.2 Planning 

For implementing the different development schemes, the major sources of funds at 

Upazila level are Block Grants from the Annual Development Programme (ADP), and a 

small portion comprises the revenue generated from local markets and other funds which 

are directly channelled through the budgets of the line departments such as special grant, 

project allocation, food aid, etc. These funds are allocated on the basis of the area’s 

population, geographical extent and remoteness. 

“Planning is generally prepared at top level 

management so it will not give time to cope with 

the local problems. Time of planning and its 

implementation is also different. This gap creates 

serious problems at the implementation stage.“ 

UNO, Batagi, Barguna 

Generally, the Upazila level officials are 

not involved in the planning of the 

development projects as their role is 

primarily that of an implementer. 

Neither the Deputy Commissioner (at 

the district level) nor the UNO have any 

responsibility for the preparation and 

coordination of comprehensive regional development plan (UNDP 2003). This fact has 

been highlighted in the following text passage “----the LGED, while relatively efficient at 

service delivery and programme implementation, does little to support local government 

itself. Indeed, it could be argued that it undermines the local government bodies, through 

planning, managing and implementing the programs from centre.” 5 As a result, the 

associated sectoral planning and implementation process of different line departments at 

Upazila levels is also determined through centralized decision making including the 

choice of infrastructure model and service delivery mechanisms. However, in spite of this 

centralized process, there is recognition that it is vital to have a coordinated planning 

system developed at the Upazila level. At present, this is provided by both the UNO and 

Upazila Development Coordination Committee (UDCC). Nevertheless, the line agencies 

of Upazila are assigned to prepare schemes based on the allocated budget under the ADP 

Block Grants given by the respective Ministries with little or not much co-ordination 

among them which causes difficulties at a later stage. 

During the course of the survey, participants were asked what steps they had followed 

during the planning and designing stages of the development schemes assigned to their 

departments. They informed the following steps are generally taken by the UZ officials: 

• Preparation of schemes, 

• Designing of schemes, 

• Estimation of cost of schemes, 

• Submission to the UDCC for approval 

Based on these discussions and after analyzing the above steps, it seemed that under the 

Government’s Annual Development Programme (ADP), UZ officials do not add value to 

the Programme by bringing some basic elements of planning for the development of the 

5 SLGDFP-Mid Term Evaluation Report-April 2003, page 17. 

16


________________________________________________________________________ 

schemes under consideration. Consequently, the basic elements of planning are missed 

out at the preparation and designing stages of the different development schemes. For 

instance, issues relating to problem and cause analysis, objective analysis, needs 

assessment and situation analysis, alternative analysis, stakeholders’ analysis and risk 

analysis are not given due consideration. Some of the salient fundamental problems that 

the interviewed officials raised are: 

• Fund allocation is made on the basis of population, areas and remoteness as it is 

allocation based on planning needs rather than being determined on the actual 

needs of each area, 

• Presence of political pressure during the selection process of the schemes, 

• Limited community participation in the planning process especially by the women 

representatives, 

• Lack of contribution from community or beneficiaries to promote ownership and 

sustainability, 

• Lack of coordination in the UDCC meetings among the officials representing the 

different departments/agencies, 

• Professional conflicts between the specialists and generalists in the UDCC 

meeting. 

5.3 Implementation 

All officers at the Upazila level of the different line agencies are exclusively responsible 

for executing programmes and project activities within their jurisdiction. When asked 

about what methods or steps they usually adopt during the implementation phase of 

project activities, none could specify the processes or steps for implementing such 

activities. 

However, while going through the details 

during the course of the discussions, the 

following constraints were observed 

which are generally encountered by the 

officials of the line departments during the 

implementation stage and this has a 

“We, Upazila officials, are supposed to make 

planning, designing and implementation of the 

development project, but virtually we are 

chained in every step by the higher authority.” 

Agriculture Officer, Kamarkhand, Sirajgonj 

knock-on effect on the programmes in achieving the ultimate goals. Some of the 

identified constraints include: 

• UZ officials do not get enough time to implement the activities of the designed 

and approved schemes under the Annual Development Programme (ADP) due to 

the inordinate delays in receiving the annual allocations for the Upazila. It was 

observed that allocated funds for implementing the schemes are usually not 

released to UZ offices on time. In most cases, the fund is released at the end of the 

financial year, in May-June, as a result of which the implementation of the 

programs is not undertaken efficiently and effectively, thereby losing its 

qualitative impact on the beneficiaries. 

• Prevalence of political pressure during the planning and implementation stages of 

the projects, especially during the selection of the beneficiaries. 

• The allocated funds are not adequate to meet the demands of the communities and 

this often results in social conflicts during the implementation stages and 

sometimes delays in the completion of the projects. 

17


________________________________________________________________________ 

• The UZ Engineers, LGED of the 12 Upazila informed that they face constraints in 

acquiring land for maintaining the proper design of infrastructure while 

constructing roads and small culverts on the roads for drainage improvement 

during the rainy season. 

5.4 Monitoring 

All the officials who attended the discussion meetings on TNA informed that they are 

responsible for routine monitoring activities of development programmes and projects 

during the implementation stage. As a result, further questions were posed to them as to 

what tools and techniques they applied and what methodology they followed while 

preparing the monitoring reports. They mentioned the following steps that were 

undertaken by them during the monitoring of projects: 

• Physical verification of the programmes. 

• Completion of the prescribed format which is considered as a monitoring tool and 

submitting it to the concerning department at district level. 

A few officials of the Agriculture Department mentioned that for some donor-funded 

projects like DANIDA, they were asked to monitor the activities according to the donor’s 

guidelines and they had received training on their specific monitoring system. 

According to the principle of Monitoring, Activity & Output, Monitoring is regarded as 

Process Monitoring while Purpose and Impact 

Monitoring is considered as Result Monitoring. 

However, throughout the discussions with the 

Upazila officials, it was assumed that without 

having knowledge of monitoring methods, the 

UZ officials are engaged only in the Process 

Monitoring (Activity & Output Monitoring) 

whereas Results Monitoring (Impact) is 

“Monitoring means “ensure the execution 

and effectiveness of the programmes and 

to know the weakness of ongoing project 

activities, finally to keep the concerned 

authority updated on the progress of the 

project activities.” 

UZ Engineer Balaboo Upazila, Narsingdi 

conspicuous by its absence. Therefore, it was clear to the TNA team that the four 

significant elements of monitoring are not applied by the UZ officials during the 

monitoring cycle of the development project activities: 

Some of the major constraints in this connection can be summed up as follows: 

• Lack of knowledge of participatory monitoring and evaluation techniques 

(PM&E), 

• No scope for processing the data and writing qualitative information on a needbased 

basis, 

• Absence of opportunity to acquire skills on detailed report writing due to the 

mandatory requirements of submitting reports in the prescribed format, 

• Lack of skills of UP members in managing programmes and providing 

information on the project activities to the UZ in writing. 

• Lack of sufficient manpower and transportation facilities which hampers the 

monitoring activities. 

After the focus group discussion, some key principles of the objectives of monitoring and 

what they expected from the results of routine monitoring of the development projects 

were explained to the officials. These principles emphasized the Effectiveness and 

18


________________________________________________________________________ 

Efficiency of the project activities and keeping the higher authority updated on the 

progress of the activities being undertaken with the funds allocated to them. 

5.5 Financial management 

The TNA findings confirmed that all the officials of the Upazila had received the 

allocated fund against ADP from the Government through Upazila Accounts Officer. 

Therefore, there is no scope for preparing budgets as the funds are allocated by the head 

of the line departments at district level. The UZ officials have to submit the financial 

statement of the programmes and their progress in a prescribed format. Sometimes they 

get financial objections for the expenditure incurred and have to provide clarifications to 

the Accounts Department. Findings also show that most of the departments at Upazila 

level have their own Accountants who are responsible for maintaining departmental 

accounts following the prescribed guidelines of the department. However, none of the 

respondents handling finance have received any training on financial management 

system, except the Project Implementation Officer (PIO) and Upazila Engineer, LGED. 

Since Upazila Parishads are yet to be constituted and UDCC is performing the work 

during this period, the accounts of receipts and expenditures of the Local Government 

bodies are required to be maintained according to the manner prescribed by the Local 

Government Acts and Ordinances. According to the Local Government Act, the annual 

statement of accounts of the UZP is to be prepared after the end of every financial year. 

Then the statements are to be forwarded to the prescribed authority by 31 December of 

the following year. A copy of the annual statement is to be placed in the Parishad office 

for public inspection. After considering all the objections and suggestions made by the 

public, the Parishad is then required to bring it to the notice of the audit authority. In the 

Upazila Ordinance 1982, the Government and the Deputy Commissioner (DC) have been 

mentioned as the prescribed authority. The Upazila Accounts Officer maintains accounts 

of receipts and expenditures of the Parishad. The accounts of every local body are audited 

in a manner directed by the prescribed authority. 6 

However, in general, following problems are faced in the case of financial management: 

• Officials face difficulties in providing proper clarifications on the financial 

objections raised by the Audit. 

• As they receive ADP grant at the end of the financial year, they face time 

constraints in submitting annual expenditure. 

• Upazila officials have to maintain different financial systems for different projects 

and there is no uniform accounting system for all the projects. 

All the officials interviewed during the TNA depend on the departmental Accountant for 

maintaining and preparing accounts information and reports. Due to lack of proper 

knowledge of financial management, the officials, who are head of the different 

department at Upazila level, they are not able to perform the tasks related to financial 

statements in a professional manner, nor are they able to provide appropriate 

clarifications to the audit objections. 

6 Local Government in Bangladesh, revised edition, 2005-Kamal Siddiki, pages 200-202. 

19


________________________________________________________________________ 

5.6 Status of existing training profile in Upazila 

The TNA team discovered that some of the LGI (UZ) officials had conducted and also 

received a number of training inputs to increase their knowledge and skills for improving 

their performance. Nevertheless, these training interventions are not sufficient for filling 

in the gaps that still exist in implementing their duties and addressing the development 

challenges within their jurisdiction. 

Finding shows (please see Annex 5) the number of training courses that UZ officials 

received. “Departmental Training” was organized by the line ministry and “Non- 

Departmental Training” provided by the different donors and NGOs. Almost all officials 

who attended the TNA discussions had received departmental training in their respective 

fields of technical specialization. A few officials had also received non-departmental 

training including gender & development, disaster management, poverty, PRA etc. It was 

observed that LGED Engineers received more training than the other officials both in 

departmental and non departmental areas of skills. Among the respondents from 12 

Upazilas, 5 LGED Engineers, 4 Fisheries Officers, 3 Livestock Officers , 3 Project 

Implementation Officers and 3 Women Affairs officers had received non-departmental 

training in different areas of development. It is reported that LGED Engineer of 

Khamarkhand Upazila of Sirajgonj has not yet received any training as he was appointed 

recently but would be going for training soon. Among the UZ officials, it was observed 

that Women Affairs Officers receive the least number of departmental training courses as 

compared to their male colleagues. 

During the discussions on the issue of training 

received and need for future development, it 

was observed that were very few officials who 

had actually received training on different 

development topics other than their own 

technical subjects. Most of them did not get the 

opportunity of acquiring diversified knowledge 

and skills through orientation and training 

“Upazila officials have heard the name of 

PRSP and MDG but they do not have the 

scope to see it although all the government 

development plans and activities at the 

Upazila level are dealing with MDG & 

PRSP in connection with poverty reduction 

and human development.” 

UNO, Chunarughat, Hobigonj 

courses on different development issues such as participatory planning , implementation 

and monitoring and decision making process, gender mainstreaming, poverty and 

sustainable livelihoods, environmental impact assessment & resource management etc. 

An important revelation that came out during the discussions on TNA with UZ officials is 

their desire to participate in training programmes relating to Millennium Development 

Goal (MDG), Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper (PRSP) and other related issues. They 

indicated that so far they are only familiar with the acronyms of MDG, Poverty Reduction 

Strategy Paper (PRSP) and others without actually receiving in-depth information or 

exposure as to what these names really stand for and what they could do to implement 

and achieve the specified targets. (Names and numbers of the departmental and non 

departmental training courses are mentioned details in the Annex 5.) 

6. Present System at UP level 

Before analyzing the responsibilities of Union Parishads (UP) in connection with 

planning, implementation and monitoring of development projects, the major functions 

and responsibilities of officials, a brief reference to the Local Government Act will be 

relevant to be made here. 

20


________________________________________________________________________ 

The Local Government Act of 1983 provides broad powers and functions to the Union 

Parishad (UP). The Village Court Ordinance and Village Court Rules, 1979 also give 

responsibility to the UP for adjudicating petty civil and criminal matters with the help of 

people’s representatives. A village court (Gramma Adalat) consists of a Chairman and 

two members nominated by each party to the dispute, totalling five members including 

Chairman, UP. One of the two members nominated by each party to a dispute must be a 

member of the concerned UP. 

In this context, the responsibilities of the UP include the following functions: 

• Civic duties, 

• Police and defence responsibilities, 

• Revenue and general administration related duties, 

• Development activities, 

• Transferred functions (which may be transferred by the government time to time) 

• Judicial responsibilities. 

In addition, through the Local Government Act, the UPs are given 10 mandatory and 38 

supplementary/optional functions. The ten mandatory functions are: 

• Protect law and order and provide support to the administration in this connection; 

• Take initiatives against crime, indiscipline and smuggling; 

• Take the different development projects independently such as agriculture, social 

forestry, fisheries and livestock, health and nutrition, small and cottage industries, 

irrigation, communication etc; 

• Expand the activities of family planning; 

• Develop local resources and ensuring their use; 

• Protect public properties such as roads, bridges, culverts, embankments, canals, 

telephone, electricity etc; 

• Review activities of different development organizations and taking 

recommendations from the UNO, if necessary; 

• Encourage communities to use healthy sanitation systems; 

• Register death and birth, beggars and the disadvantaged people/poor; 

• Involve in population census periodically. 

Some of the optional functions are: protection and maintenance of public roads, open 

spaces, playgrounds, plantations, graveyards, canals, ponds and water supply for drinking, 

ensure healthy environment and sanitation at UP level etc. 

The Local Government Act, therefore, provides a wide range of functions and 

responsibilities to UPs as the grassroots level representative of the Government. The 

executions of these functions are, however, not co-related to resource allocation. 

Moreover, although the UPs have significant responsibilities for the implementation of 

development activities given by the Local Government Act, they have only limited 

powers in the context of enforcement. UPs receive an annual allocation of development 

funds through the Annual Development Programme (ADP) Block Grant, in which a UP 

can administer up to 5 schemes not exceeding Tk. 75,000 in total value in any one year. 

The UPs are generally able to undertake earthworks, tree plantation and food-aided 

schemes, and any projects financed from their own funds which are not adequate to 

address the development needs of their constituencies. This is not sufficient to meet the 

demands of the local population. This allocation under the Block Grant is given through 

the UDCC on the basis of population, geographic location and remoteness. 

21


________________________________________________________________________ 

Constraints in planning, implementation, finance and monitoring identified among 

LGI officials at UP level: 

During the course of group discussions with UP members and Chairmen, while 

undertaking the TNA, they were asked to highlight some of the major constraints which 

they are experiencing in implementing their responsibilities during the execution of the 

development projects. They were also asked to outline the steps they are presently 

adopting during the planning, implementation and monitoring of the development 

schemes or projects within their jurisdiction. 

The issues given below are those connected with the planning, implementation and 

monitoring as well as financial management of the UPs which have been experienced 

during the implementation of development schemes / projects. 

6.1 Planning and implementation 

Members and Chairmen of UPs do not 

have sufficient knowledge of planning, 

designing and implementation while 

discharging their responsibilities related to 

development portfolio. They are still 

following the traditional methodology 

where the numbers of schemes are selected 

in consultation with the respective UP 

members and after that it is sent to the 

“In fact we are not given responsibility for 

choosing schemes according to our desires. We 

depend on Upazila/UDCC for budgeting, 

planning, estimation, supervision and approval 

of the schemes. Despite Government efforts for 

strengthening the UPs, nevertheless Upazila 

officials are still all in all.” 

UP Chairman, Mirza Nagar, Pushuram, Feni. 

Upazila/UDCC for approval. This process ignores all the valid principles of Participatory 

Project Cycle Management (PPMC) such as participation of all stakeholders and 

transparency, dialogical communication, systematic analysis etc. 

The findings of the survey reveal that UPs are asked to submit their proposals for 

development schemes to Upazilas once the ADP Block Grant has been allocated. 

Accordingly they (UPs) prepare proposals sharing this with the other members of the 

Council. These proposals focus only on the allocated budget without assessing the local 

needs as well as the technical, financial and environmental issues. In practice, UPs 

simply select the schemes matching the allocated budget which has been given to them 

and are entirely dependent on the Upazila officials, especially the LGED Engineer who is 

responsible for the whole process of planning, designing and cost estimation for the 

development schemes. 

Some of the practical difficulties being experienced by the UPs which were observed 

during the TNA especially in the context of planning and implementing their 

development responsibilities are as follows: 

a) Budgetary, financial and service delivery: There is a clear imbalance between the 

official tasks assigned to them and the available resources at the UP level. Only 1 % 

of the ADP is transferred to the UP level with specific instructions for utilization, 

thereby leaving little scope for the UPs to take into account local needs and priorities. 

22


________________________________________________________________________ 

In addition to the tenuous linkage between taxes and service provision at the local 

level, the UPs also face difficulties in collecting and raising local resources 7 . 

- UP’s capacity for the development of local infrastructure and service delivery is 

restricted due to the limited amount of the ADP allocation and the complexities 

involved in the funds flow process. It reduces the visibility and legitimacy of the 

UP in the eyes of the local community. As a result, UPs fail to capitalize on the 

potential role of local self-governance with a view to guiding and managing more 

effective and accountable local services to the communities. Moreover, “very 

weak linkage between UPs and the Upazila line departments similarly limits the 

allocative and productive efficiency of infrastructure and service delivery.” 8 

The report of “Committee for Accelerating 

& Strengthening Local Government”, 

November 2007, underlined the 

strengthening of local government 

financially with a view to making dynamism 

of the activities of public services delivery at 

the grassroots level. It is suggested to 

remove the differentiation among the 

different LGIs in case of distribution of 

income collected from leasing of the hatbazaar 

(local markets). 

Source: Committee Report, November 2007 

- The inability to prepare their own 

annual plan from their own 

resources due to insufficient 

collection of revenues by the UPs is 

matched by the recent loss of 

revenue collection from local 

markets, water bodies, khas land etc. 

This loss of revenue has struck a 

severe blow to the Upazilas and 

especially their ability to mobilize 

resources for the development of the 

communities living close to the UPs. 

- The Block Grant which the UP receives directly from UDCC is not sufficient for 

addressing the demands of the community which are presented through respective 

Ward members. Very often, misunderstanding is created among the UP members 

while the allocations are made by the Chairmen. 

- UPs do not receive their payments for the development schemes by Upazila on 

time, which hampers the implementation of development projects. It seems to be 

common practice that the UPs get their funds at the end of the financial year, e.g. 

in May and June, which makes it difficult to plan, design and implement 

development schemes effectively. 

- The quality of the work cannot be assured due to lack of fund flow on time. 

Generally UPs are asked to complete the entire implementation process of 

schemes within one month. 

b) ADP Block Grant, political pressure and interference: UPs have to face 

considerable political pressure in the selection of development schemes and 

beneficiaries. The TNA findings show that Special or ADP allocations to UPs depend 

on the patronage enjoyed with the political party in power particularly with the 

7 Programme Document :CARE-SDC funded Local Government Programme, July 2006, page 2. 

8 Project Document: Local Governance Support Programme-Learning and Innovation Component (LGSP- 

LIC)- Government of the People’s Republic of Bangladesh & UNDP UNCDF, January 2007, page 5. 

23


________________________________________________________________________ 

different Members of Parliament (MP). This has been pointed out in the following 

remarks “The political system at the local level is arguably underpinned by a system 

of patronage. Resource allocations from higher tiers of government to localities (such 

as Special Relief Programmes and the ADP allocation to UPs) are often determined 

by personal or party political imperatives rather than by need, and there is seldom 

transparency in this process.” 9 

Some of major difficulties experienced in the allocation of ADP Block Grant are 

as follows: 

The use of Block Grant is tied to strict national guidelines; its local allocation is 

not always transparent and the timing often is not matched with the local budget 

process. Uncertainty is experienced in the amount to be received and the timing of 

future grants which makes planning and implementation of development works 

extensively difficult. 

Although there is a formula for the allocation of funds of UPs, this is not always 

followed in practice and there is no consistency in the allocations among the UPs 

as well as in the annual allocations each year. 

ADP’s funds are not directly allocated to the UPs but are routed through the 

Upazila which means a further delay in the disbursement of funds. 

In addition, UPs receive political threats while resolving local disputes under the 

Village Court of UP. It is reported that in some cases UP Chairmen have 

displayed unwillingness to resolve the local disputes under Village Court. 

c) Constraints in selecting beneficiaries: The findings of the TNA reveal there are 

several constraints in selecting the beneficiaries for the development projects such as 

Food For Work (FFW), Vulnerable Group Development (VGD)/Vulnerable Group 

Fund (VGF) cards, Old-age and Widow Allowance etc. According to the present 

practice, allocation for development projects is done by Upazila based on the size of 

the population and area of the concerned Union Parishads. The number of the 

beneficiaries is also fixed by Upazila as UPs are only asked to select them 

(beneficiaries). Some of the significant issues which were observed in case of 

beneficiary selection are: 

It is not demand-driven rather it is supply-driven as UPs cannot fulfil the local 

demands and needs during the selection process. 

Members of UPs are subjected to political pressure as a result of which they do 

not always function impartially during the selection process. 

UPs do not consult the local communities during the selection process of 

beneficiaries which creates a kind of social conflict and dissatisfaction among the 

members of the communities as they feel they are being excluded from the 

decision-making process. 

. 

9 Local Government Pro-poor Service Delivery: Bangladesh Case Study-paper presented in the Manila 

workshop by GHK sponsored by Asian Development Bank & UNCDF, November 2003, page 12. 

24


________________________________________________________________________ 

d) Selection of development schemes: In general, under the ADP, UPs are asked to 

submit proposals for different development schemes based on the allocation given by 

Upazila. Consequently some of the difficulties encountered by UPs are: 

- Local demands are not met due to resource constraints, 

- Schemes are not selected properly due to political pressure on the UPs during the 

selection process, 

- Opinions of communities are ignored due to inadequate allocation of budgetary 

funds, 

- Creation of misunderstanding between UP members during the Ward-wise 

distribution of schemes. 

e) Technical issue: The Project Implementation Committees (PICs) of UPs generally do 

not have the necessary technical knowledge for reviewing the cost and design of the 

schemes. They are unable to get assistance from UPs in making the cost estimates of 

Schemes/Projects due to lack of technically qualified staff at UP level and as a result 

they depend on the Upazila officials for this purpose as indicated in the following 

statement: “The UP constructs and maintains roads, bridges, and culverts etc. as a part 

of its functions. But, due to lack of technical staff, it cannot perform this function 

properly”. 10 

Generally, UPs submit the proposal of schemes to the Upazila under the ADP 

schemes and thereafter the Upazila Engineer makes the cost estimation and designs 

the schemes. The rate for labour estimated is based on the rules of the Government 

and does not match with the prevailing market rate. For instance, the respondents of 

the TNA informed that the current rate of Government for labour is Tk. 750 for each 

CFT of work undertaken, whereas at present, the local market rate for labour is about 

Tk. 2000 for each CFT. Due to the differences between the rate of Government and 

the prevailing market rate, UP members are not able to maintain the quality of works 

especially with respect to earth works. 

f) Community participation: During the implementation of the different development 

schemes and projects, UPs encountered a number of social conflicts especially in 

cases relating to the collection of soil, cutting of trees and acquiring lands for 

increasing the size of the rural roads and the construction of culverts on the roads 

since there is no provision to pay compensation to the affected families. It is 

understood that during the planning stage, the implementing officials did not discuss 

with the respective families and neither did they bring the matter to the attention of 

the community leaders. Thus, in effect there was no participation of the affected 

communities in decisions which affect their lives. 

According the Local Government Act, UPs are supposed to form 13 Standing 

Committees, comprising UP members and Chairmen, and representatives from civil 

society. These Committees are mainly in the fields of finance, education, health & 

family planning, epidemic control and sanitation, audits and accounts, agriculture, 

fisheries and livestock, women and child welfare, other development works etc. This 

fact has been clearly assessed in the following lines. “Given that responsibilities for 

the implementation of the above and other services lie with the government line 

10 Local Government in Bangladesh, revised edition, 2005, Kamala Siddiki, page 162. 

25


________________________________________________________________________ 

departments at the Upazila level and above, in general these committees can have 

little more than a liaison and advocacy role. Moreover, in practice few of these 

committees are operational.” 11 

“Committee for Accelerating & Strengthening Local 

Government” submitted its report on 13 November 

2007 to the Government, in which it indicates measures 

to ensure transparency and people’s participation in 

preparing budgets of LGIs. It is also mentioned to 

inform the local community and take their opinions on 

the ongoing activities of the Local Government 

Engineering Department being implemented under the 

respective Local Government Institute. 

Moreover, civil society is also 

expected to be involved in the 

implementation of schemes and 

projects through PIC to provide 

support to UPs in the 

management of development 

activities and engaging Labour 

Contracting Societies (LCS). But 

very often they are not involved 

actively in the PIC. 

All these factors contribute to the fact that although involvement of the community 

and the representation of the civil society in the development works at the grassroots 

levels indicate the transparency and accountability of the UPs to the local 

communities. However, in practice, these committees are hardly functional. In 

general, civil society does not have any role in the planning, implementation and 

monitoring of the development projects at the UP level. Community participation and 

the representation of the members of civil society in the different Standing 

Committees is, therefore, merely theoretical and has never been practiced. 

To sum up, UPs do not adopt a Community Engagement (CE) process during the 

selection of schemes or even the planning stage; as a result of this social conflicts 

occur during the implementation stage. 

6.2 Monitoring system 

Preliminary findings show that UP members and Chairmen including PIC are primarily 

responsible for monitoring the activities of development schemes within their respective 

jurisdictions, although they do not have adequate knowledge of the monitoring 

techniques. In spite of having insufficient knowledge, they perform the following jobs as 

part of the monitoring system for the development schemes. 

- Visits by members of Project Implementation Committee (PIC) for assessment of 

the work although they are unable to estimate the real progress due to lack of 

technical knowledge. 

- Filling up of prescribed formats provided by UZP, and generally the UPs depend 

on the Secretary without focusing on the reality. 

- Generally, no corrective measures are taken to improve the quality of the works 

based on the supervision of the PIC. 

- The reports are submitted to the UZP with the signatures of respective UP 

Chairmen although he/she may not have physically verified the contents of the 

forms before they are being submitted. 

11 Local Government Pro-poor Service Delivery: Bangladesh Case Study-paper presented in the Manila 

workshop by GHK sponsored by Asian Development Bank & UNCDF, November 2003, page 10. 

26


________________________________________________________________________ 

The above mentioned tasks with regard to monitoring indicate that the UPs only 

physically supervise the ongoing activities of schemes/projects while ignoring all the 

principles of monitoring methods. Some of the major drawbacks in this connection are 

as follows: 

- Lack of knowledge of technical skills in measuring the progress. 

- Lack of knowledge and capacity for participatory monitoring process with the 

participation of stakeholders. 

- Poor skills in writing and finalizing the monitoring report. 

6.3 Financial management 

Local Government Act- 1983 , article 43 & 53, including the amendment in 1993, has 

given authority to Union Parishads (UPs) for collecting funds locally by imposing tax , 

rate and fees on houses, businesses, markets, water bodies etc. However, UPs are not 

able to collect sufficient revenue from the local sources and they usually have to depend 

on the funds of ADP which are mainly allocated by the Upazilas. Sometimes they receive 

development funds like Test Relief (TR), Khabikha (Food for Work) etc. But this is much 

below the demand as reflected in the following sentence. “It is the most serious problem 

faced by UPs. The UP implements some major development projects with the annual 

government grants. The government also permits UPs to levy taxes and fees on a limited 

number of resources. Owing to various factors, UPs do not, or are unable to, fully 

exercise their taxation powers. On the other hand, due to delays in the release of grant 

funds by government, UPs cannot perform their functions properly”. 12 

The Finance Committee is one of the Standing Committees at UP level which is 

constituted of 5-7 members including UP members, Chairman and representatives from 

the civil society or community. UPs have to submit their annual budget and expenditure 

to the DC for approval. Local Government Act-83 & 93 categorically mentions the ways 

for protecting and using UPs’ funds. Therefore, UPs need to establish a financial 

management system which safeguards the operation of their development 

projects/schemes and office management. 

Study findings reveal that as a rule, 

Secretary and Chairman of UPs receive 

training on financial management. 

Usually, UP Secretary conducts a 

number of tasks based on UP’s financial 

guide book which include mainly cash 

book, ledger etc. 

However, despite receiving orientation 

on financial management, Chairmen and 

members of UPs face problems in 

reviewing financial statements and 

“Committee for Accelerating & Strengthening 

Local Government”, November 2007, mentioned 

that it has been proved, based on the different 

research findings and sources of information, that 

the management of Audits and Accounts of the 

Local Governments is very weak. Remarking on the 

weak management system of the Audit and 

Accounts of the local government institutions, the 

Committee suggested finding the weak areas of the 

Accounts & Audit of the LGIs for taking initiatives 

based on the recommended proposals made by the 

LG Commissions. 

budget of UPs as they do not have sufficient knowledge of the key principles of financial 

management. As a result they fall behind in performing the following tasks: 

12 Local Government in Bangladesh, Kamal Siddiki, revised edition 2005, page 161. 

27


________________________________________________________________________ 

- UP members are unable to make cost estimates for planning and designing 

development projects. Despite having had training, UP Chairmen depend on their 

Secretaries for handling issues related to financial management. 

- UP members face constraints while preparing the annual budget and reviewing 

financial statement and also while conducting the internal audit system and in all 

these matters in which they depend exclusively upon the UP Secretary. 

- UP Chairmen and members face difficulties in replying/clarifying the objections 

raised in the statement of audit reports due to lack of knowledge on financial 

management. 

6.4 Status of training of UP officials 

Table 2: Training received by UP officials 

Name of the training 

received by the Chairmen 

Training on the 

implementation process of 

RMP 

No. 


UPs 

Name of the 

training received by 

members 

24 Training on the 

implementation 

process of RMP 

No. 


UPs* 


training received 

by Secretary 

30 Training on the 


process of RMP 

28 Birth & Death 

Registration 

Birth & Death Registration 24 Birth & Death 

Registration 

26 

Training on LGIs 22 Training on VGD 26 Training on VGD 26 

Financial Management 21 Different project 24 Financial 

24 


training 

Management 

Disaster Management 21 Water Supply and 20 Office 

24 

Sanitation 

Management 

Office Management 20 Disaster Management 20 Disaster 

Management 

20 

Water supply and Sanitation 14 Training on LGIs 20 Water supply and 

Sanitation 

19 

Training on VGD 16 Leadership Training 18 Marriage 

08 

(only women 

members) 

registration 

Plantation 14 Family Planning 17 Training on 01 

(only women 

Computer 

Members) 

operation 

Women & development 14 

Training on adult literacy 06 Fisheries, Agriculture 

, Poultry and 

livestock 

15 

Khas land management 06 Marriage registration 15 

Village Court 06 Prevention of early 

marriage and dowry 

15 

Marriage registration 05 Women & 

development 

15 

Family Law 10 

Awareness training 

on stop Acid 

throwing 

10 

Source: TNA at UP level 

* Although the above table indicates the numbers of UPs that received training in different areas, all 

members of the respective UP did not receive all training. 

No. 


UPs 

31 

28


________________________________________________________________________ 

As a general rule, UP members and Chairmen avail of a number of training opportunities 

which are mainly provided by the National Institute of Local Government (NILG) such 

as office and financial management, training on LGIs, VGD, Leadership (received by 

women members) etc. Besides, they have also received a number of training courses 

provided by the different Government departments, NGOs and development agencies, 

such as training in Rural Maintenance Programme (RMP), disaster management, water 

supply and sanitation, fisheries, agriculture, poultry, livestock etc. 

The above table shows that some training received both by the UP Chairmen and 

members are quite common such as training on Rural Maintenance Work (RMP), Birth & 

Death Registration, Training on LGIs, Disaster Management, Water Supply and 

Sanitation, VGD, Women & Development and Marriage registration. The TNA analyzed 

that apart from 21 UP Chairmen out of 36 and 24 Secretaries, none of the other UP 

members had received any training on Financial Management which is important for 

both of them (details discussed in the chapter 7.2: UP constraints in financial 

management). Some UP chairmen have also received training in office management, 

plantation, adult literacy, khas land management and village court, while other UP 

members were deprived of those training opportunities. Moreover, only few UP members 

have received training in family planning, family law, fisheries, agriculture, poultry and 

livestock and training on awareness of stopping acid throwing and prevention of early 

marriage and dowry. 

Despite the wide range of subjects covered in the training programmes of UP officials 

there are some gaps discovered in their needs for improving their skills. This point has 

been emphasized in the following statement: “The functions of the UP cover every 

aspects of rural social and economic life. However, the success of the Parishad in 

discharging these functions depends largely on the capacity and efficiency of UP 

functionaries such as Chairmen, members and secretaries. In order to make them 

effective, training in relevant skills is must. Unfortunately, training available to them at 

present is rather inadequate”. 13 

Finally, it can be highlighted that some important training areas on rural development are 

absent at UP level. For instance community participation & empowerment, poverty & 

livelihood, local resource identification & mobilization, natural resource management, 

participatory planning, implementation & monitoring, institutional linkages, good 

governance etc. are some of the areas which need to be focused on for future training 

programmes. 

7. Women Empowerment 

Views of the UPs’ women members: 

During the TNA, women UP members were interviewed in the 36 Unions of 12 Upazilas 

separately, away from the presence of their male counterparts. Following are some of the 

significant findings which were identified during these interviews: 

Job responsibilities: UP women members mentioned that they perform a number of 

different functions such as attending the UP’s monthly coordination meeting, 

undertaking advocacy work for the community on family planning issues, primary 


29


________________________________________________________________________ 

health care, maternal health and child, literacy, schooling for girl children, attending to 

consequences of dowry and early marriage, and looking after the welfare activities and 

disputes of domestic violence, distributing VGD/ VGF cards, and motivating 

communities especially women in Income Generating Activities (IGA) etc. Despite these 

activities, they have negligible involvement in the decision-making process regarding 

revenue collection and other important issues of the UP. 

UP women members are committed to the integration of gender issues in the participatory 

planning and implementation process of the development schemes at UP level. However, 

they informed that women members have less involvement in the planning and 

implementation process of the schemes. Some of their major difficulties can be summed 

up as follows: 

• They are denied a voice in the selection of development schemes of their UPs. 

• They suffer from lack of technical skills and knowledge for planning, 

implementation and supervision of schemes and access to opportunities for 

training to improve their skills, 

• The prevalence of a negative attitude among male UP members as well as of the 

community at large towards female members while selecting the schemes, 

• The practice of being asked to sign up for development issues and decisions 

relating to their UPs even without being informed about them beforehand. 

Interviewees informed the representatives of the TNA team that over the last 4 years, 

women members were being given responsibilities for implementing one or two 

schemes/projects in their respective Wards. However, they are compelled to take support 

from their husbands or other members of their families during the implementation of the 

schemes on different issues. Out of the 36 UPs, only 5 female members were able to 

handle the implementation of the schemes without depending on their husbands or family 

members. Respondents further communicated that they had seldom received adequate 

support from the UP members and Chairmen to implement the programmes successfully 

as well as during the process of preparing the completion report. 

Participation in UP meetings and standing committees 

Although women members attend the UP meetings regularly, as a rule most of them are not 

vocal enough to press forward their opinions on different issues as they feel hesitant in the 

presence of male counterparts. Moreover, those who are willing to participate in the discussions 

do not get due attention. It is common practice for women members to send their husbands to 

attend the UP meetings on their behalf. As a result, the significance of women members’ 

participation in the decision-making process is lost. Often women members are asked to sign up 

for the UP meeting’s minutes even though they did not attend the same. 

Among the 13 Standing Committees at UP level, 3 Committees are supposed to be 

chaired by women members. However, in practice, these Committees are not functional 

as the Chairman and male members are very reluctant to participate and take an active 

role in these committees. Secondly, due to lack of sufficient knowledge, women members 

are not able to conduct the business as Chairperson in an effective manner. “33% women 

members were given membership in special committees of UPs which dealt with food for 

work, vulnerable group feeding, culvert, bridges , family planning and social welfare, 

destitute relief etc. a large majority had no membership in any committee. Even those 

women, who were on special committees, played a limited role. They did not involve 

themselves significantly in the actual work of the committees, not did the Chairmen or 

30


________________________________________________________________________ 

male colleagues encourage them to do so. The women members, being quite new and 

inexperienced in this field, should be given special training” 14 

Social mobility, norms and values: 

Due to the prevalence of traditional culture which restricts the mobility of women 

members, very often they come to the UP meetings accompanied by their husbands or 

some of other family members. 

Violence against women: 

Women members of UPs are not able to share and solve issues of violence against women 

due to their lack of proper understanding and adequate knowledge of the legal aspects of 

such cases. They also lack skills in negotiating as well as face opposition due to the 

prevailing social negative perception about them on account of their gender. 

8. Recommendations - the way forward 

The key findings of the TNA undertaken by the REOPA-CST team highlighted a number 

of strengths in the present system of LGIs as well as some major gaps which are posing 

serious challenges for the officials of the Upazila and UPs that need to be addressed at the 

earliest for an effective delivery of development interventions. 

Major recommendations: 

Based on an analysis of the identified ‘missing links’ in the existing level of skills of the 

officials of Upazila and UPs, the following pertinent areas have been determined by the 

TNA team as essential ‘entry points’ which call for immediate attention through which 

the capacity of the relevant LGI officials could be considerably improved in the sphere of 

pro-poor investments. Some of the identified priority areas in this connection are: 

1) Training and capacity strengthening of officials of LGIs towards the urgent 

development issues 

2) Policy advocacy on major issues relating to service delivery and fiscal 

decentralization of LGIs, rural poverty, empowerment of the poor, etc 

3) Dissemination of information, networking and linkage development among the 

development partner organizations and sharing of experiences and knowledge 

through exposure visits within the country and to other countries in the region. It 

would also be important to popularize seminars on awareness raising and 

sensitization of the main actors on the key development issues to enhance the 

knowledge of local communities. 

4) Lessons learnt & best practices on the impacts of the different projects / 

schemes on the communities that could be shared as indicators for establishing a 

basis on which future interventions could be assessed. 

Details of the above mentioned recommendations are discussed in the next section 

14 Local Government in Bangladesh, Kamal Siddiki, revised edition, 2005. 

31


________________________________________________________________________ 

9. Implementation Strategy: 

The core principle of the implementation strategy requires a realistic design and plan of 

action. In this plan all the recommendations of the TNA can be operationalised with a 

view to strengthening the capacity of the LGI officials. The focus of the implementation 

strategy will be on removing significant existing gaps and adopting different interventions 

that have been mentioned in the previous chapters. 

The strategy for strengthening the capacity for LGIs can be categorized in to three stages 

as indicated in the diagram overleaf. 

Step 1: Assessment Stage: The first initiative of the Capacity Strengthening Approach is 

an assessment of the needs and demands of the officials of LGIs which have already 

identified through TNA (Chapter 8). Throughout the FGDs organized during the course 

of the TNA, officials of LGIs were given the opportunity to identify the constraints they 

are experiencing in discharging their responsibilities and the specific areas in which they 

would like to improve their skills and knowledge for improving their performance 

quality. The application of the SWOT methodology facilitated the identification of their 

internal strengths and weaknesses as well as the external opportunities and threats that are 

currently assisting them or proving to be barriers in their functioning as representatives of 

the State at the local level. 

Step 2: Delivery stage: Different recommended interventions will have to be 

implemented in different stages of the delivery cycle that would enhance the capacity of 

the LGIs officials. These must be location and context specific. 

Transformation Stage Assessment 

Capacity 

Strengthening 

Approach 

Delivery Stage: 

•Training 

•Exposure Visit 

•Policy Advocacy 

•Information Dissemination 

•Lesson learnt 

•Networking 

Step 3: Transformation stage: At this 

stage, the target groups would learn, 

develop their skills and knowledge 

gradually, which would bring about a 

change in their attitudes towards their 

delivery of the development related 

services to the rural people for promoting 

pro-poor investments. It is hoped that 

with the increasing use of dialogue and 

policy advocacy tools by policy makers, 

especially the decisions-makers at the 

national level would transform their 

present approach towards 

decentralization and move towards 

integrating new initiatives for launching 

a bottom-up strategy to meet the 

immediate demands of those functionaries 

who are in direct contact with the rural 

communities and require professional 

skills to exercise their initiatives for an 

efficient delivery of services to the communities among whom they work. 

Source: A Strategy Paper & Plan of Operation for Capacity Building of UP- SLGDP & South Asia 

Partnership (SAP) Bangladesh, January 2002. 

32


________________________________________________________________________ 

All the recommendations that have been identified during the course of the analysis of the 

survey’s findings have been summarized in the following ways: 

1) Training and capacity strengthening towards urgent development issues: 

Training is one of the major tools for human capital development through the 

acquisition of knowledge and skills. In this content, training would improve the 

performance level of the officials of the LGIs. This point has been highlighted in a 

previous paper wherein it has been mentioned: “The importance of training 

functionaries in acquiring the knowledge, skills, attitudes and orientation required for 

a better performance of the task set before them by their organizations can hardly be 

overstated. In order to devise a realistic training policy for the local government sector 

of Bangladesh, the starting point should be the identification of the major training 

problems and challenges, keeping both demand and supply in mind.” 15 As such, 

REOPA Project has identified as one of its primary responsibilities the assessment of 

needs of this category of officials and formulation of specific interventions to enhance 

their capacity for the delivery of relevant interventions. 

While designing the training interventions for the officials of the LGIs, it is essential 

to develop a participatory approach to make them geared to the immediate needs of 

the officials concerned. In some cases, the assistance of partner NGOs with 

appropriate capacity and external consultants/resource persons would be necessary to 

facilitate the training programmes as well as develop training materials especially for 

training a core group of trainers through Training of Trainers (TOT) who could 

subsequently continue the process on their own. Some of the names of the training 

programmes which could be organized are as follows: 


33


________________________________________________________________________ 

Table 3: Areas of Training for Upazila Officials 

Sl.# Name of the training Objectives of the training 

1 Participatory Project Development & 

Management in the context of REOPA 

Project 

2 Social Mobilization and Community 

Empowerment for resource management 

in the context of REOPA Project 

3 Gender Mainstreaming in development 

perspectives 

5 Poverty, Vulnerability and Livelihood 

Analysis for Effective Pro-Poor 

Investment 

6 Participatory Monitoring and Evaluation 

(PM&E) in the context of REOPA 

Project 

To familiarize the participants with the current methods 

of participatory plan and management techniques of 

rural development projects 

The participants will be able to understand the different 

elements of the social mobilization process in 

participatory planning and the strategies of community 

based resource management and the need for effective 

service delivery mechanisms. 

The participants will be able to understand with the 

significance of integrating a gender perspective in 

development issues and prepare Gender Action Plans to 

ensure the participation of women in the development 

process which would contribute to their empowerment. 

The participants will be able to understand the concept 

of poverty, vulnerability & livelihoods principles, 

framework and livelihood capacity assessment and 

strategies with regard to creating income generation 

activities. 

Transfer the knowledge and skill of PM&E to Upazila 

officials and strengthen their capacity for monitoring 

and evaluation of development projects by adopting a 

participatory approach. 

7 Cost-effective Financial Management The participants will be able to understand the cost 

effective financial management system with regard to 

budgeting, expenditure and be able to prepare financial 

statement for promoting organizational transparency and 

accountability. 

8 National goals and objectives and targets 

in the context of PRSP& MDGs & its 

challenges and indicators 

The participants will be able to understand the goals and 

objectives of MDGs and also be able to explain the 

concept of MDGs & PRSP, target indicators of MDGs, 

primary challenges and actions that are needed to 

address the goals and objectives at local level. 

34


________________________________________________________________________ 

Table 4: Identified Areas of Training for UP members & Chairmen 

Sl. # Name of the Training Objectives of the Training Program 

1 Participatory Project Planning 

Implementation & Management 

in the context of REOPA Project 

2 Current development concept and 

the role of Local Governance in 

Resource Management in the 

context of REOPA Project 

3 Women Empowerment & 

Participation at local level 

development 

4 Role of LGIs in Community 

Participation and Good 

Governance 

5 Conflict Resolution and 

Management, in the decision 

making process and achieving 

consensus 

6 Participatory Monitoring and 

Evaluation (PM&E) in the 

context of REOPA Project 

7 Financial Management & 

Budgeting 

8 Alternative Livelihood through 

small & micro entrepreneurship 

development 

9 Legal aspects in resolving local 

issues and the role of local 

institutions and CBOs 

10 Leadership Development, 

Communication and Motivational 

skills (only for women members) 

Enable participants to learn contemporary methods of 

participatory planning and management of rural 

development projects including the different steps of 

project planning, implementation and evaluation. 

Participants will be able to understand the role of local 

government in local level planning and resource 

management, the concept of local level development plan, 

the significance of the role of people’s participation in 

project planning, and the creation & rehabilitation of public 

assets including the concept of ownership by communities. 

Participants will be able to explain the key gender 

concepts, the significance of gender in development 

activities, gender discrimination, and the value of adopting 

a gender mainstreaming approach for ensuring equality and 

giving a ‘voice’ to the UP women members in 

development activities. 

Participants will be able to understand the concept and 

meaning of good governance, community empowerment 

and community participation in the LGIs to ensure 

accountability and transparency at all level of the 



techniques of motivation & conflict resolution strategies. 

Also they will be able to understand the core principles of 

participatory decision making process and the different 

steps of building a consensus. 

Explain participatory approach in community 

development and mobilization; identify the methods and 

tools of PM&E (PRA/PLA) concepts of project 

monitoring and evaluation, processes as well as the stages 

of PM&E system design. 

The participants will be able to understand the financial 

management system with regard to budgeting, expenditure 

and financial statements. 

Further details on the Training Plan are given in Annexes 9 & 10. 

2) Policy advocacy: 

The participants will be able to explain livelihood options, 

principles and assessment of existing status of social 

vulnerability for livelihood promotion and also identify the 

target households and recommend alternative income 

generating activities and other coping strategies. 

The participants will be able to understand and explain the 

state legal regulations relating to family court and social 

issues for functioning as effective Shalish, for rendering 

accountability and transparency to the community and the 

role of legal aid organizations and local institutions. 

The participants will be able to know the meaning of 

leadership qualities and how to apply the different 

techniques with respect to negotiation and, motivational 

skills in the decision making process. 

There are some issues detected during the TNA that are presently handled by officials 

of the LGIs but cannot be improved upon through training inputs. These issues are 

embedded in the policies of the Government and, therefore, require a different 

strategy for bringing about a change. This fact has been focused in the following 

35


________________________________________________________________________ 

lines: “This deteriorating or moribund situation of the local government bodies has 

attracted the attention of people from different walks of life to take up advocacy 

programmes on their behalf. The objective is to motivate/pressurize the government, 

the political leaders and the political parties to follow the provisions of the 

constitution for democratic decentralization and create responsive and accountable 

local government system in the country.” 16 This needs to be given due emphasis in 

launching relevant inputs in this direction. 

For instance, it is recommended that some policy issues must be taken up for 

discussion through policy dialogues and advocacy campaigns in order to make the 

concerned authorities realize the urgency of the situation and take necessary steps 

towards decentralization. In this connection a checklist of the priority areas as well as 

guidelines for undertaking such exercises could facilitate a sustained momentum of 

such activities and ensure a high quality of delivery. 

3) Development of networking & linkages, exposure visits and dissemination of 

information: 

In addition to policy advocacy and training inputs, capacity strengthening of the 

officials of LGIs can be considerably enhanced through the organization of 

networking facilities with other partners, exposure visits and sustained dissemination 

of information. 

Highlighted issues for raising awareness: 

Service delivery to the communities 

Community participation at UP level such as 

discussions at open budget, taking role in planning, 

implementation and monitoring of development 

schemes/projects. 

Roles & responsibilities of communities in case of 

human rights, gender issues & violence to women and 

children etc. 

Social issues such as early marriage, dowry, family 

planning, health and nutrition, HIV/AID etc. 

Public asset and maintenance, community & resource 

mobilization 

Rehabilitation & creation of public assets, 

environment, primary health care & sanitation 

Major concern of exposure visits: 

Community empowerment & participatory planning 

practice in others countries. 

Successful Local Government system in other 

countries 

Successful small entrepreneurship development and 

value chain and supply chain analysis from the 

employment generation perspective. 

An effective service 

delivery on the part of the 

officials of LGIs can be 

ensured through 

establishing networking and 

linkages among the 

different agencies, both 

private and public. 

Fundamental issues of local 

governance imply a 

partnership among the main 

actors such as local 

authorities, society, private 

sector etc. The networking 

mechanism will help in 

exchanging views and 

building relations among 

the different actors 

especially among the LGIs 

and the communities on the 

different issues related to 

the demand and supply of the different services being provided or ought to be 

provided. Since, “Local government is also a forum around which stronger local 

16 Local Government in Bangladesh, revised edition, 2005, Kamala Siddiki, page 299. 

36


________________________________________________________________________ 

democratic governance mechanism can be built, for more positive interaction between 

citizens, civil society, government departments, and the private sector.” 17 

In addition, it is also vital to disseminate relevant information through networking 

mechanisms and organize exposure visits to other similar projects/programmes both 

within the country and also in the region, through which the officials can share their 

best practices and experiences with others. This would enhance their own knowledge 

and skills which could be subsequently used in the implementation of their own 

development projects. Moreover, the dissemination of information would facilitate the 

officials of LGIs to adopt new techniques and strategies for implementing 

programmes and projects within their own jurisdiction in an innovative manner. 

Through the dissemination of information on different social and institutional issues, 

the awareness of the LGIs officials, especially of the UP members, could be raised. 

The above social and institutional issues can be discussed and shared among the 

networking partners through regular meetings or other informal means of getting 

together, participation in dialogues, use of publicity materials such as posters, 

booklets etc. 

4) Lessons learnt: 

The impacts of the different projects/schemes on the lives of communities as well as 

the successful activities of different organizations can be used as indicators to initiate 

a process of lessons-learned from the different development schemes being 

implemented at the Upazila and UP levels. This process would help the LGIs in 

familiarizing with the success stories of previous initiatives and avoiding the mistakes 

made earlier on. 

10. Conclusions 

With the aim of assessing the delivery mechanisms of LGIs in meeting the needs of core 

target groups at the local level through the implementation of development projects as 

well as conducting a review of the present level of skills and capacity of LGIs officials, 

the REOPA-CST Project undertook a TNA which involved in-depth discussions with the 

representatives of these institutions. In addition, the TNA study team conducted an 

analytical research of available secondary literature to have access to comprehensive 

information covering different dimensions of local governance. Based on the findings of 

TNA and the review of literature and references on the LGIs, it can be summed that the 

existing capacity of the LGI officials, both at Upazila and UPs levels, need to be 

strengthened. This is essential to enhance the quality of their delivery of services and also 

to improve their perception of the exact nature of duties expected from them by the rural 

communities for whom they are expected to provide the services. 

The TNA findings revealed a number of both inherent strengths and limitations which the 

officials of LGI are currently experiencing in planning, implementing and monitoring the 

different development initiatives within their jurisdiction that reflect poor performance of 

LGIs in providing better performance to the local community in connection with the propoor 

investment and Service Delivery. These issues are needed to be taken into account. 

In particular, the TNA team found that the constraints related to budgetary and financial 

17 Role of UNDP in Promoting Local Governance & Decentralization in Bangladesh - Report of the 

Initial SPPD Scoping Mission , May-June, 2002. 

37


________________________________________________________________________ 

issues are very significant concerns that consequently affect the whole planning and 

implementation process of LGIs at local level. This has a knock-on impact on the 

planning and implementation of different schemes at the local level. This is because of 

limited ADP allocations (mainly Block Grant) with slow flow process and sources of 

local revenue which seriously hamper the whole development process of LGIs for the 

rural areas with the aim of ensuring food security through pro-poor investment. Political 

interference by local MP is also observed in case of providing special grants and other 

annual allocations to UP. “Funds provided to UPs under ADP predictable in amount or 

timing, in spite of official ADP allocation formula (here formula means population, areas 

and remoteness). Rather they are prone to political manipulation. Such funds also 

represent a very small proportion of the total development budget available locally (most 

of which is channelled through line departments.” 18 . 

Second crucial issue is community and civil society participation in line with the role of 

UP Standing Committee as well as women member’s role in the planning, 

implementation and monitoring process of the development schemes. The Standing 

Committees at UP level for different development programmes such as finance, 

agriculture, health, education, sanitation etc. can seldom take any effective role in 

dealing with the officials of line agencies at Upazila to ensure Service Delivery to the 

communities due to lack of skills and knowledge about their roles and responsibilities in 

this connection. Similarly, the UP women members in the different committees such as 

food for work, Vulnerable Group Feeding (VGF), social welfare, culvert and bridges etc 

could not play an effective role in conducting business session at the LGIs to that end, 

mainly because of shallow knowledge and skills in the respective fields and secondly lack 

of encouraging coordination by male counterparts. 

It is revealed that LGIs officials received lots of training and orientation from the NILG 

and other development organizations. Apart from NILG training, Upazila officials 

received foundation training (departmental) in the respective fields. However, except only 

very few persons, none of them received training on the contemporary development 

perspectives such as poverty, vulnerability and livelihood, participatory planning, 

monitoring and evaluation, resource identification and mobilization, community 

empowerment, gender mainstreaming, environmental impact assessment, need and 

situation analysis, conflict management etc. which could have strengthened their faculty 

of skills and knowledge for delivering better services to the community in connection 

with the food security pro-poor investment. 

Considering all the above mentioned limitations and gaps, the TNA findings have 

recommended some interventions mainly training, policy dialogue, networking, exposure 

visits, dissemination of information, lesson-learned and best practices with a view to 

removing the drawbacks. It is noted that there are some inherent issues and constraints in 

the LGIs at the local as well central level of the government concerned that cannot be 

resolved over night through training alone. However, the situation can be mitigated or 

improved through training, policy dialogue and advocacy, networking, information 

dissemination and exposure visits on ‘best practices’ to similar development projects. 

18 Local Government and Service Delivery to the Poor, Bangladesh- Case Study: Asian Development 

Bank Institute & UNCDF. Paper presented 9th-13 th February 2004, page 13. 

38


________________________________________________________________________ 

It is also being recommended that the different interventions must be implemented in an 

effective and sustained manner that would guarantee the strengthening of capacity of the 

LGI officials with a view to increasing their accountability, transparency and an effective 

service delivery to the rural communities, 

“ towards a strategy of working to improve the overall policy framework for fiscal decentralization-and 

specifically for decentralized pro-poor service delivery – and thereby to indirectly improve the povertyreduction 

effectiveness of the resources of Government and of other partners which more directly allocated 

to these ends.“ 19 

The officials of the LGIs are representing the State at the local level and, therefore, they 

need to be given the necessary support and incentive to perform their tasks efficiently and 

effectively. The success of any government would depend on its delivery mechanisms of 

services targeting rural communities with pro-poor investments being extended by the 

officials of LGIs. There can be a better way to achieve this, equipping the officials of 

LGIs with the skills and knowledge required to ensure the presence of the State at the 

grassroots level towards poverty alleviation and in addressing the basic needs of the local 

population. 

The essential question for LGIs that needs to be addressed is: can LGIs be viable in a 

rural setting for delivering the services expected from them by the communities amongst 

whom they function? The main policy issue is whether and how LGIs can be strengthened 

and supported in a way, which enables them to serve their local population. There is, “no 

royal road” 20 to development. However, as the human being is the centre of all 

development and the human condition is the only final measure of development, the 

strengthening of LGIs and their officials could really convert them as real agents of 

change. 

19 Role of UNDP in Promoting Local Governance & Decentralization in Bangladesh - Report of the 

Initial SPPD Scoping Mission , May-June, 2002, page 27. 

20 Sen. (1999) “Development as Freedom,” Oxford University Press, Oxford. 

39


________________________________________________________________________ 

Annexes: 

Annex 1: Chronological changes of Local Government before independence 

Act/Ordinance 

in different 

periods 

Originated 

through 

evaluation that 

had no legal 

basis 

The Village 

Chowkidari 

Act, 1870 

The Bengal 

Local Govt. 

Act, 

1885 

The Bengal 

Village Self 

Govt. Act, 

1919 

Pakistan 

period 

The Basic 

Democracy 

Change in UP Composition Remarks 

Panchayat at village 

level 

Several villages were 

organized into a 

Union and 

Chowkidari 

Panchayat 

(Organization) was 

set up in each Union. 

-Union committees 

were formed at the 

village level 

-Local Government 

Boards at the subdivisional 

level and 

District Boards at the 

District level 

Union Committees 

were abolished and 

Union Board and 

District Board were 

set up. 

Union Council at 

Union level, Thana 

Council at Thana 

level, District 

Council at District 

level and Divisional 

Council at Divisional 

level. 

The pre-British period 

Constituted of 5 persons 

appointed by the community 

( not exactly known) 

British period 

Government appointed five 

members for the Chowkidari 

Panchayat for three years. 

Constituted of 5-9 members 

elected by the residents of the 

Union. The committee would 

elect a Chairman from 

amongst the members. 

Two thirds of the members of 

Union Board were elected and 

one third nominated. The 

Chairman was elected among 

members of the Union Boards. 

Two thirds of the UP members 

were elected directly by the 

people through ballot. The 

members used to elect a 

Chairman and one Vice 

Chairman among them. 

The Panchayats were 

responsible for appointment 

of Chowkidars (village 

police) for maintaining law 

and order. 

It was significant for two 

reasons: it set out general 

principles for development 

of local institutions in the 

future and provided the 

rationale behind functions 

of local bodies. 

The main functions of 

Union Board were 

maintenance of law and 

order, roads and bridges, 

health care, charitable 

dispensaries and primary 

school, water supply and 

assistance to the District 

Board. The Union Board 

could dispose of minor 

criminal cases and was 

given the authority to levy 

Union tax. 

Apart from the maintenance 

of law and order, the Union 

Council was given 37 

functions which are mainly: 

agriculture development, 

water supply, education, 

communications, social 

welfare etc. 

The Union Council got the 

authority to set up 

conciliation court and the 

members were given 

judicial power under the 

Muslim Family and 

Marriage Ordinance of 1961 

40


________________________________________________________________________ 

Annex 2: Chronological changes of Local Government after independence 

Act/Ordinance in 

different periods 

The President 

Order No. 7, 1972 

The President 

Order No. 7, 1973 

Local Government 

Ordinance, 1976 

Local Government 

(UP Ordinance, 

1983) 

The Local 

Government 

(Union Parishad 

Amendment Act, 

1992) 

The Local 

Government 

(Union Parishad) 

2 nd Amendment 

Act, 1992 

Source: Banglapidia 

Change in UP Composition Remarks 

Only the name was 

changed from Union 

Council to Union 

Panchayat. 

Only the name of 

Union Panchayat was 

changed to UP. 

Union Parishad and 

peasant member. 

Nomination of UP 

members. 

Election for women 

members was 

introduced. 

Incorporation of 9 

Wards instead of 3. 

Administrator was appointed. 

The UP consisted of elected 

Chairman and a Vice Chairman 

and 9 members (3 members 

from each Ward). 

Comprised one Chairman, 9 

members, three from each 

Ward, directly elected by 

voters, two women members 

and two peasant members 

nominated by the Sub- 

divisional Officer (SDO). 

Constituted of one Chairman, 9 

members (three from each 

Ward) directly elected by the 

voters, three women members 

nominated by the SDO, then 

the UZP and later on by the 

Deputy Commissioner. 

Constituted of one Chairman, 9 

members (three from each 

Ward) directly elected by the 

voters. And three women 

members from three reserved 

seats elected by UP Chairman 

and members. 

Consists of an elected 

Chairman, 9 Ward members 

(one from each Ward) and 3 

women members from reserved 

seats (one from 3 Wards 

elected by the voters of the 

UPs). 

The functions and 

source of income 

remained almost the 

same as in the BDO, 

1959. 

41


________________________________________________________________________ 

Annex 3: Local Government system in Bangladesh 

42


________________________________________________________________________ 

Annex 4: Process of conducting TNA meetings 

Group Discussions were conducted for TNA at Upazila and Union level. Concerned officials of Upazila 

and UP chairman and members were invited separately for Focus Group Discussions on Training Needs 

Assessment (TNA) in which qualitative information was gathered. 

Besides the Group Discussions, individual interviews were conducted with the people who were treated as 

Key Informants. Inconsistency with the collected information was taken out and logically matched with 

information of Group Interviews through the Key Informants interviews. 

Following steps were taken during conducting of the Training Needs Assessment (TNA) for the officials of 

Union Parishad and Upazila. 

Preparation before the TNA 

The following steps were taken before and during the conducting of TNA. 

(a) Before conducting the TNA 

• Interviewers contacted the respective Upazila Nirbahi Officer (UNOs) and UP Chairmen as well 

as members and shared the objectives and necessity of the TNA with them. 

• Prepared a schedule (date, time and venue) in consultation with the respective officials, especially 

UNO and UP chairman, for conducting TNA. 

(b) During the Group discussions 

• The day of discussion, Interviewers reached at the station (UP /UZ) one hour before of the 

scheduled time. 

• Focus Group meeting was conducted. 

• Before starting the meeting, participants were requested to introduce themselves to each other. 

• Interviewers explained to the participants the objectives of the REOPA Project and TNA in brief. 

• Names of all participants were listed along with their occupation, age, education etc. 

• Before beginning the discussions on the questionnaire, participants were asked whether they had 

received any training and orientation previously. If the answer was yes, they were requested to 

write down the names of training courses received in the following prescribed format: 

Sl 

# 


training/orientation 

Duration Training organized by Training sponsored 

by 

• Based on the pre-determined questionnaire, Interviewers started discussions on each issue and 

shared subject matter with participants. 

2 nd method 

For assessing the Training Needs, VIP Cards were provided to each person 

Then each person was asked to write down their five most important training needs in priority 

order for implementing a project like REOPA 

The VIP Cards were collected from the participants 

All the Training Needs were shown on the Flipchart from the VIP Card to avoid overlapping. 

43


________________________________________________________________________ 

During the discussion on Training Needs Assessment (TNA) following steps were taken: 

Task analysis Identified problems Assessment of 

competencies 

SWOT methods 

SWOT methods were used at the end of the session with a view to collecting information on the internal 

Strengths and Weaknesses, and external Opportunities and Threats of the UP and UZ. Through 

analyzing the SWOT, information on the different issues could be matched with topics discussed at the 

beginning of the session. 

Preparation of questionnaires: 

Training Needs 

Assessment 

The tools and techniques of Participatory Approach were followed for TNA by using an openended 

questionnaire. Following steps were taken during this process. 

• Two separate sets of draft questionnaires were prepared by CS Advisors for the target officials of 

Upazila and UP for conducting TNA. 

• The draft questionnaires were brought to the knowledge of all District Officers and Advisors in the 

monthly coordination meetings and they were asked to give comments and provide their feedback. 

• After critically reviewing and discussing the questionnaires, draft final sets were prepared and 

decisions were taken that they would be used for conducting Group Interviews at one Union and 

one Upazila level for pre-test. 

• Questionnaires were further modified and finalized based on the findings of the pre-test at Upazila 

and Union levels. 

44


________________________________________________________________________ 

Annex 5: Status of Departmental Training Received by Upazila officials 

Sl. 

# 

Name of 

Upazila 


the 

District 

(PIO) LGED 

Engineer 

Number of departmental training courses 

Agriculture 

Officer 

Fisheries 

Officer 

Livestock 

Officer 

Women 

Affairs 

Officer 

1 Sanagazi Feni 05 06 05 03 05 04 

2 Parshuram 03 05 02 00 04 02 

3 Bhahubal Hobigonj 03 06 04 04 04 * 

4 Chunarughat 03 06 02 03 05 02 

5 Assasuni Shathira, * 05 * 03 * 03 

6 Tala 04 07 06 04 06 01 

7 Betagi Barguna, 03 06 07 03 02 * 

8 Pathorghata 01 06 06 02 03 02 

9 Manohordi Narshingdi, 05 07 07 05 * 03 

10 Belabo 4 3 * 2 2 5 

11 Chawhali Sirajgonj, * 09 03 03 04 03 

12 Kamarkhond 09 00 10 03 04 * 

Status of Non-departmental Training Received by Upazila officials 

Number of non departmental training courses 

Sl. Name of Name of (PIO) LGED Agriculture Fisheries Livestock Women 

# Upazila the 

Engineer Officer Officer Officer Affairs 

District 

Officer 

1 Sanagazi Feni 00 01 00 00 00 00 

2 Parshuram 00 02 00 02 00 01 

3 Bhahubal Hobigonj 00 01 00 00 00 * 

4 Chunarughat 00 01 00 00 00 00 

5 Assasuni Shatkhira, * 00 * 00 * 01 

6 Tala 00 00 02 03 01 00 

7 Betagi Barguna, 01 01 00 00 00 * 

8 Pathorghata 03 00 03 01 02 01 

9 Manohordi Narshingdi, 00 00 00 00 * 00 

10 Belabo 00 00 * 00 00 00 

11 Chawhali Sirajgonj, * 00 00 01 00 00 

12 Kamarkhond 01 00 00 00 02 * 

Source: TNA at Upazila level 

* indicates that the officials were absent in the TNA 

00 indicates that officials who attended the TNA meeting did not receive any training 

45


________________________________________________________________________ 

Name of Training Received by Upazila Officials 

Training received by Upazila Project Implementation Officer (PIO) 

Sl. # Name of Departmental Training Name of Non-Dept. Training 

1 Community Risk Assessment Women and Development 

2 Result Based Management Basic Training of Trainers (TOT) 

3 RMP Training Training on HIV/AIDS 

4 Food for Work 

5 Bridge & Culvert Construction 

6 Disaster Management 

7 Risk Assessment & Rehabilitation 

8 Office Management 

9 VGD ,CDMP Foundation Training 

10 Training on Local Government Institution 

Training received by Upazila LGED Engineer 


1 Training on VGD Gender & Development 

2 Training on Project Management Training on LGIS and Strengthening of UP 

3 Training on Financial Management Training on Supervisory Skill 

4 Training on Monitoring & Evaluation Disaster Management 

5 Quality Control Training Co-operative Management and 

Development 

6 Road Management Training 

7 Training on PPR -2003 

8 Integrated Management 

9 Engineer Software 

10 Tree Plantation 

11 Birth Control 

12 Environmental Management 

13 Social Forestry 

Training received by Upazila Livestock Officer 


1 Rural Development Disaster Management 

2 Training for Quality Improvement Basic TOT 

3 Youth Development 

4 Training on Bird Flue prevention 

5 Training for assessment of the impact of poultry 

farm 

6 Bio-Gas Plant Production 

7 Goat Rearing & Management Training 

8 Poultry Vaccination Training 

9 Duck Production 

10 Training on Beef Fattening 

11 Milk Production 

46


________________________________________________________________________ 

Training received by Upazila Agriculture Officer 


1 Rice Production Technology Disaster Management 

2 Office Management Women & Development 

3 Farm Management Discipline and Behavioural Training 

4 Sugarcane Production Technology Basic Computer 

5 Season Long Integrated Pest Management (IPM) 

6 Training on Applied Nutrition 

7 Soil Survey and Fertility Management 

8 Training on Agriculture Planning 

9 Improved Method of Cotton Cultivation 

10 Seed production and Preservation 

11 Integrate Crop Management (ICM) 

12 Integrated Horticulture Develop Management 

13 Overseas Training on Sustainable Crop Production 

(Kamarkhond) 

Training received by Upazila Fisheries Officer 


1 Training on impact assessment of 4 th fisheries 

project 

Training on Motivational Skill 

2 Training on Poverty Assessment Training on Project Proposal 

3 Training on quality improvement of Primary 

Education 

Participatory Rapid Appraisal (PRA) 

4 Improved method of Fish culture Disaster Management 

5 Shrimp Culture and Management 

6 TOT on Shrimp Culture 

7 Overseas Training on Fisheries Extension (Tala) 

8 Training on Impact Assessment 

Training received by Upazila Women Affairs Officer 


1 Gender & Development Training on Poverty Alleviation 

2 Violence Against Women Admin & Finance 

3 Child & Women Rights 

4 Training on Quality Monitoring 

5 Family Planning & Birth Control 

6 Family Laws 

7 Entrepreneurship Development 

8 Micro-credit 

Source: TNA at Upazila level 

47


________________________________________________________________________ 

Annex 6: Status of Participants who attended FGD Session at Upazila & UP levels 

Number of different Departmental Officials who participated in FGD Sessions at UZ 

level 

Type of Official Number 

UNO 11 

PIO 10 

LGED Engineer 12 

Agri. Officer 10 

Fisheries Officer 12 

Livestock Officer 10 

Women Affairs Officer 9 

Youth Dev. Officer 7 

Social Welfare Officer 6 

Family Planning Officer 6 

BRDB Officer 4 

DPHE Engineer 4 

Total 101 

Number of UP representatives who participated in the FGD sessions at UP level 

Representatives Number 

Chairman 33 

Secretary 35 

Male Member 279 

Women Member 95 

Total 442 

Source: TNA at Upazila & UP levels 

48


________________________________________________________________________ 

Annex 7: Name of the Upazilas and Unions under the TNA 

Sl. # Name of the District Name of Upazila Name of Union 

1 Barguna 

Betagi 

Betagi Sadar 

2 Hosnabad 

3 

Bibichini 

4 Pathorghata 

Pathorghata sadar 

5 Char Duani 

6 

Kalamegha 

7 Feni 

Sanagazi 

Sanagazi Sadar 

8 Char chandia 

9 

Char darbesh 

10 Parshuram 

Marza nagar 

11 Box Mahammud 

12 

Chitholia 

13 Hobigonj 

Bhahubal 

Bhahubal 

14 Lamatashi 

15 

Vhadeshwar 

16 Chunarughat 

Paykpara 

17 Chunarughat Sadar 

18 

Mirashee 

19 Narshingdi 

Manohordi 

Daulatpur 

20 Chalakchar 

21 

Charmandali 

22 Belabo 

Baznabo 

23 Narayanpur 

24 

Amlabo 

25 Shathira 

Assasuni 

Assasuni Sadar 

26 Bardail 

27 

Budhata 

28 Tala 

Tala Sadar 

29 Surulia 

30 

Tatulia 

31 Sirajgonj 

Chawhali 

Khashkawlia 

32 Umarpur 

33 

Baghutia 

34 Kamarkhond 

Jamtail 

35 Bhadraghat 

36 

Jhawel 

49


________________________________________________________________________ 

Annex 8: Demography Information at a glance on REOPA Working Area 


district 

Barguna 

Satkhira 

Sirajgonj 

Narsingdi 

Feni 

Habigonj 

Size in 

sq. Km 

# of 

Upazilas 

# of 

Unions 

Population # of 

NGOs 

Education 

M % F % Total 

M % F % Total 

50 

Occupation & 

Opportunity 

1831.31 5 38 49.88 50.52 837955 8 45.15 35.05 40.14 Agriculture, labour, commerce, 

industry service, transport, 

construction & others 

Coastal area, Hilsha fish, 

3858.33 7 79 50.54 49.46 

1843194 

2497.92 9 79 51.14 48.86 2707011 

1140.76 6 70 50,77 49.23 1891281 

928.34 6 45 42.92 57.08 1196219 

2636.58 8 77 49.94 50.06 1757331 

Indigenous groups 

17 39.07 21.00 30.35 Agriculture, labour, commerce, 

industry service, industry service, 

transport, construction, sericulture, 

prawn, shrimp, fish food 

Sundarban, Gher culture 

& Hilsha fish 



construction 

Dairy, handicraft/handloom 



construction, fishing, handicrafts 

Vegetables & handloom 

04 48.02 33.01 40.07 Agriculture, agriculture labour, 

labour, commerce, industry 

service, transport, construction & 

others 



construction, tea garden worker 

Tea gardens, Indigenous groups 

Geographical 

Condition 

Coastal area and 

southern part of 

Bangladesh 

Plain land and 

southern part of 

Bangladesh 

Northern part of 

BD. It is extreme 

river erosion areas. 

Plain land and 

middle part of 

Bangladesh 

Plain land and east 

part of Bangladesh 

Haor and Hilly 

area. Northern part 

of Bangladesh


________________________________________________________________________ 

Annex 9: Names and contents of Training Programme for LGI officials at UZP level 

Sl. # Name and Objectives of the Training Contents of the Training Duration Facilitator 

1 Participatory Project Development & Management 

Objective: 

To familiarize the participants with the current methods 

of participatory plan and management techniques of rural 

development projects including the art of preparing 

feasibility reports of viable projects. 

2 Social Mobilization and Community Empowerment 

for Resource Management 

Objectives: 


elements of the social mobilization process in 

participatory planning and the strategies of community 

based resource management and the need for effective 

service delivery mechanisms. 

3 Gender Mainstreaming in Development Perspectives 

Objectives: 

The participants will be able to understand the 

significance of integrating a gender perspective in 

development issues and prepare Gender Action Plans to 

ensure the participation of women in the development 

process that would contribute to their empowerment. 

4 Poverty, Vulnerability and Livelihood Analysis for 

Effective Pro-Poor Investment 

Objectives: 

The participants will be able to understand the concept of 

Poverty, Vulnerability & Livelihoods principles, 

framework and livelihood capacity assessment and 

strategies with regard to create income generation 

activities. 

- Awareness building on principles of participatory planning 

- How to initiate participatory planning 

- Identify local needs, particularly of rural poor families 

- Formation of working groups & objectives 

- Deciding the strategy 

- Ensuring feasibility 

- Preparing the work plan & budget 

- Participatory planning operational steps 

- Steps for implementation 

- Monitoring parameters 

- Concept of social mobilization 

- Principle of participatory planning & operational steps 

- Community participation in planning 

- Resources mobilization/need and capacity assessment/ access to resources) 

- Community mobilization strengthening cycle 

- Community management strategy 

- Definition of Gender & Development 

- Intuitional and social aspects of gender issues 

- Gender role, discrimination, 

- Sensitivity and mainstreaming 

- Gender mainstreaming in development activities to ensure equality 

- Definition of poverty 

- Human Poverty Index 

- Root causes of extreme poverty 

- Poverty reduction strategies & livelihood promotion with the 

implementation of REOPA 

- Defining livelihood /frameworks/highlights/dynamism/ vulnerability context 

- Analyzing livelihood assets/capitals/principle/strategies 

- Analyzing household livelihood security, opportunities, risks and threats 

51 

2 days Resource person/ 

REOPA 

2 days REOPA/ PNGOs 

1 day Resource person/ 

REOPA 

2 days Resource person/ 

REOPA


________________________________________________________________________ 

Sl. # Name and Objectives of the Training Contents of the Training Duration Facilitator Remarks 

5 Participatory Monitoring and Evaluation (PM&E) 

Objective: Transfer the knowledge and skill of PM&E to 

Upazila officials and strengthen their capacity for 

monitoring and evaluation of development projects by 

adopting a participatory approach 

6 Cost effective Financial Management 

Objectives: 

The participants will be able to understand the cost 

effective financial management system with regard to 

budgeting, expenditure and be able to prepare financial 

statement for promoting organizational transparency and 

accountability. 

7 National Goals and Objectives and Targets in the 

context of PRSP& MDG & its Challenges and 

Indicators 

Objective: 

The participants will be able to understand the goals and 

objectives of MDGs and also be able to explain the 

concept of MDGs & PRSP, target indicators of MDGs, 

primary challenges and actions that are needed to address 

the goals and objectives at local level. 

- Participatory approach in community development and 

mobilization 

- Principle and advantage of PM&E 

- Methods and tools of PM&E (PRA/PLA) 

- Concept of project monitoring and evaluation 

- Process and steps of PM&E system design 

- Concept, objective and components of financial management 

- Financial management vs. accounting 

- Steps in maintaining accounts 

- Cash flow statement & management 

- Budget and budgetary control, budget variance analysis and 

report preparation 

- Preparation & analysis of financial report 

- Considerations in financial monitoring and controlling 

system 

- Dissolution of audit findings 

- Brief discussion on the goal & objective of PRSP 

- Brief discussion on the MDG 

- MDG goals, target & indicators 

- The primary challenges and actions needed to address the 

goals and objectives 

- Attaining the MDGs in Bangladesh - current status 

52 

1 day REOPA & 

PNGO 

1 day REOPA & 

PNGO 

1 day Resource 

person/ 

REOPA


________________________________________________________________________ 

Annex 10: Names and contents of Training Programme for LGI officials at UP level 


1 Participatory Project Planning Implementation & 

Management 

Objective: 

To enable the participants to learn about the 

contemporary methods of participatory planning and 

management of rural development projects including the 

different steps of project planning, implementation and 

evaluation. 

2 Current Development Concept and Role of Local 

Governance in Resource Management 

Objective: 

The participants will be able to understand the role of 

local government in the context of local level planning 

and resource management, the concept of local level 

development plan, significance of the role of people’s 

participation in project planning, and the creation & 

rehabilitation of public assets including developing the 

concept of ownership by communities. 

3 Women Empowerment & Participation at Local 

Level Development 

Objectives: 

Participants will be able to explain the key gender 

concepts , the significance of gender in development 

activities, gender discrimination, and the value of 

adopting a gender mainstreaming approach for ensuring 

equality and giving a ‘voice’ to the UP women members 

in development activities. 

4 Role of LGIs in Community Participation and Good 

Governance 

Objectives: 

Participants will be able to understand the concept and 

meaning of good governance, community empowerment 

and community participation in the LGIs to ensure 

accountability and transparency at all level of the 


- Awareness building on principles of participatory planning 

- Initiate participatory planning & identify local needs, particularly of rural poor 

families 

- Formation of working groups & objectives 

- Deciding the strategy & participatory planning operational steps 

- Steps for implementation & monitoring parameters 

- Definition of development & management 

- Role of local government in the local level planning & management 

- Local resources identification & mobilization 

- Public assets creation & rehabilitation 

- Identification of service & mechanism of establishing linkages with service 

providers 

- Participation of UP women members in development activities 

- Definition of Gender & Development 

- Intuitional and social aspects of gender issues 

- Men & women realities 

- Role of men and women in development 

- Gender sensitivity, gender discrimination 

- Women empowerment 

- Concept of good governance 

- How to make UP as transparent and accountable 

- Role of local government for local level planning, implementation and monitoring 

- Community participation , participatory decision making process and community 

empowerment 

- Development process and management of fund mobilization 

- Linkage for establishment of better service 

53 

2 days PNGO & 

REOPA 

1 day PNGO & 

REOPA 

1 day PNGO & 

REOPA 

1 day PNGO & 

REOPA


________________________________________________________________________ 


5 Conflict Resolution and Management in the Decision 

Making Process and Achieving Consensus 

Objectives: 


techniques of motivation & conflict resolution strategies. 

Also they will be able to understand the core principles 

of participatory decision making process and the different 

steps of building a consensus 

6 Participatory Monitoring and Evaluation (PM&E) 

Objective: 

Explain Participatory approach in community 

development and mobilization; identify the methods and 

tools of PM&E (PRA/PLA);concepts of project 

monitoring and evaluation, processes as well as the 

stages of PM&E system design; 

7 Financial Management & Budgeting 

Objectives: 

The participants will be able to understand the financial 

management system with regard to budgeting, 

expenditure and preparing financial statements. 

8 Alternative Livelihood through Small & Micro 

Entrepreneurship Development 

Objectives: 

The participants will be able to explain livelihood 

options, principles and assessment of existing status of 

social vulnerability for livelihood promotion and also 

identify the target households and recommend alternative 

income generating activities and other coping strategies. 

9 Legal Aspects In Resolving Local Issues and the Role 

of Local Institutions and CBOs 

Objective: 

The participants will be able to understand and explain 

the state legal regulations relating to family court and 

social issues for resolving the local disputes as an 

effective Shalish (judgment) for rendering accountability 

and transparency to the community and the role of legal 

aid organizations and local institutions. 

- Nature and types of social conflicts 

- Different conflict and the strategy for conflict resolution 

- Conflict-management styles 

- Conflict factors affecting management 

- Decision making process and steps & strategy 

- How to involve all concern to a decision a making process 

- How to activate the decision 

- Participatory approach in community development and mobilization 

- Principle and advantage of PM&E 

- Methods and tools of PM&E (PRA/PLA) 

- Concept of project monitoring and evaluation 

- Process and steps of PM&E system design 

- Concept of financial management 

- Steps in maintaining accounts, budget and classification of budget 

- Procedure of budget, budget and budgetary control 

- Preparation of financial report 

- Different accounts register 

- Audit and how to face a audit 

- Definition of poverty & livelihood 

- Root causes of extreme poverty 

- Poverty reduction strategies &livelihood promotion with the implementation of 

REOPA 

- Defining livelihood/dynamism/vulnerability context 

- Analyzing livelihood assets/capitals/principle/strategies 

- Analyzing household livelihood security, opportunities, risks and threat 

- Small & micro-enterprise development 

- State law related to social issues and family court 

- Role of UP - steps and procedures to make a good Shalish to achieve a good result 

- How to development linkage with legal aid organizations 

- Procedure to file a case 

- Role of UP women members during the Shalish, especially women issues 

54 

1 day PNGO & 

REOPA 

1 day PNGO & 

REOPA 

1 day PNGO & 

REOPA 

2 days PNGO & 

REOPA 

1day PNGO & 

REOPA


________________________________________________________________________ 

Sl. # Name and Objectives of the Training Contents of the Training Duration Facilitator Remarks 

10 Leadership Development, Communication and 

Motivational Skills 

Objective: 

The participants will be able to know the meaning of 

leadership qualities and how to apply the different 

techniques with respect to negotiation and motivational 

skills in the decision making process. 

- Concept & criteria of leadership and empowerment 

- Roles and responsibilities of women representatives in the 

local government process 

- Significant of women representation and social barriers for 

their empowerment 

- People’s expectation, decision making process 

- Facilitation and different facilitation skill, negotiation skill & 

process 

55 

2 days PNGO & 

REOPA 

Only for 

women UP 

members

Training & Capacity Needs Assessment for UP & UZP under REOPA 

_____________________________________________________________________ 

Annex 11: Sources of Books and Literature 

1. Local Government in Bangladesh - revised edition 2004-Kamal Siddiki. 

2. Reform Agenda for Field Administration and Local Government- Tofail Ahmed. 

3. Local Government in Bangladesh: An Agenda for Governance-UNDP, New York, 1996. 

4. NGOs & Local Government Reforms in Bangladesh: paper presented by Prof. Zarin Rahamna 

Khan, NGO Dialogue Workshop, and IDB Bhaban1-2 March 1999. 

5. Good Governance at District level- CIDA, Mayen Uddin Tazim, May 2001. 

6. Training Need Assessment for Rural Roads Construction and Maintenance - Sri Lanka 

Institute of Local Government, ILO and Intermediate Technology Development Group, July 

2004. 

7. Training Needs Assessment (TNA) for REB /PBS Personnel: Training Directorate-Rural 

Electrification Board (REB), NRECA & USAID, March 2007. 

8. Local government - Management of UP, Dilip Kumar Shaha, 1999. 

9. Union Parishad’s Duties and Responsibility: Training Manual: Rural Development Academy, 

Bogra, January 2004. 

10. Union Parishad’s Duties and Responsibility: Training Manual: Rural Development Academy, 

Bogra, January 2004. 

11. Role of UNDP in Promoting Local Governance & Decentralization in Bangladesh - report of 

the initial SPPD Scoping Mission: May 29-June 12, 2002.) 

12. Programme Document-CARE-Interoperation, SDC funded Local Governance Programme- 

July 2006. 

13. Development Project Proposal (DPP) for REOPA, LGD, April 2007. 

14. Government of People’s Republic of Bangladesh, web site. 

15. A Strategy Paper & Plan of Operation for Capacity Building of UP- SLDGP & South Asia 

Partnership (SAP) Bangladesh, January 2002. 

16. Sri Lanka Training Needs Assessment for Rural Roads Construction and Maintenance” by 

SLILG, ILO, ITDG - Sri Lanka, July 2004. 

17. Local Government and Service Delivery to the Poor, Bangladesh- Case Study: Asian 

Development Bank Institute & UNCDF. Paper presented 9th-13 th February 2004. 

18. Project Document: Local Governance Support Programme-Learning and Innovation 

Component (LGSP-LIC) - Government of the People’s Republic of Bangladesh & UNDP 

UNCDF: January 2007. 

19. NGOs & Local Government Reforms in Bangladesh: paper presented by Prof. Zarin Rahamna 

Khan, NGO Dialgoue Workshop, and IDB Bhaban1-2 March 1999. 

56

Published by: 

Capacity Strengthening Team (CST) of REOPA 

House #16, Road #71, Gulshan-2, Dhaka-1212 

Tel: +880-2-8811645, 8813180, 8811374 

Web page: http://www.undp.org.bd/projects/proj_detail.php?pid=57

Capacity Training Needs Assessment of UP & UZP - nirapad

Create successful ePaper yourself

Delete template?

Save as template?