Bangladesh Mahila Parishad - Norad

88) Sustainability and the potential for lasting positive impact. Financial sustainability andautonomy have been overarching concerns of BMP. The basic dilemma thatunderlies all of BMP’s work is how to balance expansion and high impactagainst becoming overly reliant on donor funding. BMP’s focus is in areasthat are low cost, but where impacts are lasting, such as the formulation ofnew laws, awareness-building, and transformation of gender relations.9) How Norwegian and Danish support is aligned to avoid duplication and overlaps. TheDanish project is focused at the sub-national level whereas the politicalcomponent of the Norwegian project is focused at the national level. TheNorwegian project also had a more ad hoc component that provided supportfor civil society leaders to run for elections to Union Parishads (UPs). Thiscomponent needs to be clearly demarcated in relation to the Danish project.The Danish project has been set up as a separate office with staff.The team proposes a number of recommendations for consideration and discussion.1) BMP should maintain a process focus. It should capture spaces andopportunities through innovation and outreach to new groups and byframing new issues, especially issues that appeal to the younger generation.2) BMP should review its advocacy work, with a view to making it morefocused thematically and organizationally, and to better capitalize on itsnetworks and membership base.3) BMP should review the division of work between its sub-committees,especially its governance/political work in light of the Danish project, andhow to more effectively organize its work on cross-cutting issues.4) BMP should carry out a study on volunteerism to find out more about theincentive structures that motivate volunteers; why people join and what ittakes to retain them. BMP should consider reimbursing volunteers forexpenses, e.i. transport costs, in a more systematic manner. BMP could alsoreview the work load of their volunteers with a view to reducing theirworkloads, either by sharing with new recruits, or by shifting some of thework to paid staff.5) BMP should consider if other organizations have the technical expertise tocarry on BMP’s work on gender budgeting6) BMP should assess if the broad objectives of the Norwegian programmescould be broken down into annual sub-objectives, or steps that need to betaken each year, to reach the overall programme objectives.7) BMP should review its staffing needs, and assess how new staff could beaccommodated within the existing budget, especially as BMP will be unableto spend its budget by the end date. This applies to the legal, health, socialmovement and administrative sub-committees.