Bangladesh Mahila Parishad - Norad

2. Political empowerment of women is strengthened. Measures include advocacy for theadoption of direct elections of women to one third of the seats in Parliament,initiatives to increase the number of women in political party bodies to onethird, promotion of women’s constitutional rights, advocacy for andmonitoring of gender sensitive budgeting, advocacy for reintroducingNational Women Development Policy 1997, and advocacy for the effectiverole of women in local government.3. Women’s human rights movement is further intensified through networking. Measuresinclude increased networking at all levels, expansion of the numbers ofmembers involved in the Social Action Committee (SAC), and sensitizationof media. Promotion of women’s maternal, reproductive and sexual healthrights, including those of young girls.4. BMP is effectively functioning as a lobby and advocacy agent. Measures includemobilization of civil society to work for women’s rights, continued advocacyfor the implementation of CEDAW, end engagement with the media.5. BMP is further strengthened and developed through capacity building towardssustainability and institutionalization. The professional capacity of the BMPorganisers and leaders should be strengthened, new leadership should beincluded, and the staff should have increased capacity. Transparency andaccountability in financial management should be achieved through training,updating of software, monitoring and reviews by external experts.In the programme document BMP states that its main strengths are its organizersand workers, and capacity-building of its workers is the main objective of its capacitystrengthening. Moreover, according to the project document, the budget for theperiod 2010-14 places specific emphasis on support to branches, staff capacityenhancement, organisational development, IT use and development, staff capacitydevelopment in the areas of research, monitoring, evaluation, and report writing, andfinally, strengthening of the financial system. A number of specific measures werelisted in the project document.The project document suggests three measures to strengthen institution-building atthe national level: modest salary increases, recruitment of new staff, and training andskills development for the core volunteer members. At the sub-national level theproject document proposes increased support to branches to carry out legal activism.The project document also stresses the development of monitoring and reportingsystems, and refers to the introduction of data collection forms as a specific measure.This document also refers to the formulation of progress indicators for use at thebranch level to monitor progress towards strengthening the capacity of branches, andwomen’s changing conditions at the local level.The report is divided into three sections. First we assess the project activities, results,and impact. Secondly, we describe and assess the work of BMP as an organization,and the measures taken during the period 2010-12 to strengthen the capacity of theorganization. Finally, we assess financial management and procurement procedures.11