Bangladesh Mahila Parishad - Norad

4 Capacity building and organizationalstrengthening294.1 Planning, budgeting, implementation, monitoring andlearningThe current project document was the result of a long and participatory processinvolving members as well as external consultants. 200 members of BMP took partin a two day workshop in Dhaka on October 24-25, 2008. The programmecomponents, the assigning of implementation to specific sub-committees, and thebudget were described in the programme document. Each component was treated asseparate for budget purposes and there have not been any transfer of funds betweencomponents, but funds have been carried forward within components. There will beunspent funds at the end of the project period because the start of the project wasdelayed until September 2012 due to delays in programme approval.Annual planning involves detailed planning by each sub-committee of the activities tobe carried out throughout the year. Plans are subsequently placed before the centralcommittee who makes final decisions. Planning at the national and district levelshould take place in parallel. Numerical targets are set for the regular programmeactivities for the sub-committees, such as training programmes. In addition, on aregular basis BMP organises various events such as seminars, roundtables,discussions, and demonstrations during UN designated days. Events are designed tohave an impact on the advocacy work carried out by BMP. Annual plans are brokeninto monthly plans that are worked out by the sub-committees and reviewed by thecentral committee at its monthly meetings. Annual plans for the branches are madein December/January and quarterly review meetings are held throughout the year.All sub-committees monitor their programmes at the national and district level. Reportsshould be sent every month from the districts to the head office and consolidatedreports are prepared for the central committee every month. Action points emergingfrom these reports should be discussed at the monthly central committee meetingsand feed-back be given to the districts. During the annual council meeting there is areview of all districts. In practice reports from districts may be delayed for variousreasons. As for the training programmes, there are quarterly review meetings ofprogress at the sub-committee level and reports are submitted to the centralcommittee.In summary, planning and decision-making at BMP is done collectively by thenational conference, national council, central committee, and the sub-committees