Bangladesh Mahila Parishad - Norad

385 Discussion and conclusionBMP frames its struggle for women’s human rights as a fight against patriarchy. InBMP’s strategy, changing patriarchy implies changing mindsets by creating individualand social awareness based on an alternative vision of society built on genderequality, humanity and human rights. In addition to changing awareness BMP strivesto increase women’s influence and power through changing laws and practices in the areaof women’s rights, and increasing women’s representation in politics, and in theadministration. These are the two mains routes used by BMP towards achievingwomen’s human rights and the legal route has been the broadest, and BMP hasallocated the most personnel and financial resources in this area. BMP combinesmobilization nation-wide with expert based advocacy. This is a combination that isdifficult to achieve, and it is powerful when successful. Most donor-funded civilsociety organizations are either based in rural areas, or in the capital city.Alternatively, they may strive to achieve a rural as well as an urban presence throughan umbrella model, but links between the local and the national level often are weak.In the case of BMP, the organization has been able to build these important links.Due to the complexity of its change theory, BMP is also a complex organization. It isa social movement intent on mobilizing for social change, and as a social movementit needs to respond to its members’ needs, and to those of the communities in whichit works. At the same time it responds to the government’s requests for expert adviceboth in policy-making and in policy-implementation. Being a rights-basedorganization, BMP intends to build awareness and capacity of right holders to claimtheir rights, and to strengthen the accountability of duty bearers. Rights-basedorganizations have no, or limited, involvement in service-delivery, but focuses onenabling their target groups to access government services or entitlements, as well asfacilitating access to the services of other organizations. Thirdly, BMP does politicalmobilization and political accountability work at the local and national level in orderto encourage civil society leaders to step into politics, and also to broaden women’spolitical representation. In this regard, it has similarities to political campaignorganizations. Finally, BMP is also a donor funded organization with paid staff,which binds it to a set of formal reporting requirements, and exposes it to changes indonor policies and priorities.BMP’s strategy has been adapted to its complex mission. Its approach is holistic inthat it works in many aspects of women’s rights; its commitment to women’s rights islong term, and it takes a step by step approach to sensitive issues.