Bangladesh was one of the three sites of the first pilot projects of Reflect and the approach has now spread very rapidly through the country, with 56 different organisations implementing Reflect and nearly 45,000 regular participants in around 2000 Reflect circles and post circles. Most of these participants are women. In addition to the basic and 'post' circles, the coordination unit also oversees the establishment and running of spouses fora and Lokokendra, or community based organisations developed out of circle activities.
There are thirty established Lokokendra (People's centres), building on established circle activity to retain interaction, analysis and group action. The Lokokendra work to resolve local issues through organisation, arbitration and holding public hearings and meetings with government officials and local people. Many Reflect participants are so interested in creating such spaces that they are planning to establish Lokokendra without any support from any external agency including AAB. Two such non-funded Lokokendras are working at present and it is expected that others will be established soon.
Spouse or guardian forums are formed within three months of the Reflect circle to ensure strengthened coordination between the circles and the wider community. In particular, the forums help to integrate husbands with developing initiatives being taken up by female Reflect participants, working on issues of gender, assisting with problem solving and implementation of action points decided by the circles.
Growth of Reflect in Bangladesh: After the initial pilot, to operate and coordinate Reflect as a regular programme in Bangladesh, ActionAid Bangladesh set up a Reflect Coordination Unit (RCU) in November 1995. By 1996 5 NGOs, as well as ActionAid, were implementing Reflect at the grassroots levels in different parts of the country.
By 1997 the number of partners had risen to 15. A Trainers’ Forum was established to develop the capacity of the Reflect trainers by sharing new ideas and innovations and setting up strategies and actions for encountering problems at grassroots level. Most importantly, it was at this time that Reflect practitioners, through field-based experience, started to internalise Reflect as more than a literacy approach, rather as an approach with strong potential for sustainable development and social change.
In 1998 Reflect not only spread geographically, but also reached different types of people, women and men, girls and boys, indigenous communities, urban and rural and different occupational groups. Apart from NGOs, the government and UNDP have become interested in Reflect. The Rural Development Academy of the government has adopted Reflect for their rural development programmes and the Directorate of Non-formal Education is interested in using the Reflect approach.
Developments in 2000 oriented Reflect much more towards linking with action and continuing education. Gender training was introduced in 2001 and in 2003 there was a mid-term review of Reflect, a literacy festival, national trainers' convention and a National seminar on Reflect.
In 2004, Reflect is increasingly being seen as an operating system for AA Bangladesh, and a workshop will be held later in the year to look at this. There have been moves to integrate Reflect into disaster preparedness work of AA Bangladesh and partners. Another workshop is planned for Reflect in urban contexts. Research will be done in 2004 to explore the impact of Reflect practice on issues that effect the lives of the poor.
The new challenge for Reflect in Bangladesh is to place more emphasis on generating group purpose and understanding information needs. Learning from the relatively long experience of using Reflect in Bangladesh has shown that it can be used very effectively to create a local base for promoting rights, if facilitators and trainers understand the need to create the space for analysis equired for effective rigths-based work. In particular, the aim is to:
- reach beyond circle activities by involving participants with other rights based networks of local grassroots associations of the poor; and
- take up the socio-economic and political problems of Ethnic communities as a separate agenda beyond Reflect and instil their demands through governance campaign.
Governance has been a major issue addressed by Reflect - working to build people's constituency through access to information and other resources, voter education and opening dialogue with election candidates, or between teenage Reflect participants and the city corporation on their needs from health facilities. Other issues linked into the Reflect process have included disaster management and food rights.
Training: Every year the Reflect Coordination Unit conduct two training of trainers, two trainings on monitoring, two gender refreshers, 2 basic circle evaluations and post circle trainings and 1 PRA training.
Networks: Bangladesh Facilitators' Forum was initiated in 2000 and formalised in 2001 with its own budget. It is managed in a participatory model with a rotating coordinating committee, meeting twice a year to enable faclilitators to share problems and solutions and provide inputs and information for the trainers' forum. Changes decided by the Facilitators' forum are rolled out through refresher trainings.
The Bangladesh Trainers' Forum was initiated in 1997 with three regional forums and meet four times per year. It is the 'eye' and the 'heart' of trainers, through which they learn new skills and providing feedback to facilitators and implementing organisations.
The Forum of Participatory Education (FPEd) was initiated in 1997 to provide a space for the Managers and Directors of Reflect implementing organisations to meet, share issues on Reflect and participatory education and organise seminars to disseminate learning and popularise Reflect.
The MMA Practitioners' Circle was initiated in 1997 to develop and collate experiences of the participatory learning process and provide feedback to Reflect training and participatory education fora.
Reflect implementing organisations include, in Dhaka: Assistance for Slum Dwellers, Fellowship for the Advancement of the Visually Handicapped, Promotional Research Advocacy Training Action Yard, SANGJOG, Save the Children USA, South Asia Partnership,and the Village Education Resource Centre, Gram Bikash Snagstha in Bogra and Noakhali Rural Action Society in Maitdee, Noakhali.
Rapantar, an NGO which works in Khulna and Bagerhat districts is using 'POT' (a traditional form of theatre) as a powerful way of carrying messages to the community. The Reflect discussions/action points are incorporated into the POT and used to mobilise people for futher advocacy. For more information contact Natasha Azim
ActionAid Bangladesh have shifted from Service Delivery to a rights based approach in their work. In line with this they are working with VERC (Village Education Resource Centre) to link Reflect Action points to working with the Union Parishad (local government). They will be using Reflect to help to strengthen people's capacity to negotiate for their rights and hold government/service providers accountable. By using Reflect communities will analyse their local situation and make community plans - the aim is then to establish effective linkages beween government service providers and government institutions at grassroots level. For more information contact Natasha Azim
Reflect and local planning: There is increased pressure for decentralisation of national government activities in Bangladesh, and a recognition that top-down planning is not effective - it does not moblise people or encourage them to participate in local development activities. Moreover, the desired changes in peoples' lives are not brought about, and plans often do not reflect the needs of local people. Recently there has been a move to encourage bottom-up planning - starting with 5 year village development plans which can be used to design Union Development plans. These plans will then feed into Upazilla Development Plans. There will be an integration of bottom-up and top-down planning. ActionAid Bangladesh intend to use Reflect to begin discussions at the village level. Action points which arise out of a Reflect discussion will be fed into village plans and thus begin the process of bottom-up planning. For more information contact Natasha Azim
See also:
- Bangladesh Reflect seminar: promoting and popularising Reflect
article in Education Action 17 (May 2003) Reflect and Sex Workers- article in Education Action 16 (October 2002) An Autopsy of Reflect in practice as a participatory approach
- article in Education Action 14 (April 2001) From Bangladesh to Brazil: Resonances in Reflect training,
- article in Education Action 13 (September 2000) National Reflect Dissemination in Bangladesh,
- articles in PLA Notes 32 (1998) Reflect, Savings and credit in Bangladesh,
- Empowering Trainers, an experience from Bangladesh
- Beyond the bounded communty Reflect in Urban Settings
- article in education action 8 (1998) Resistance to slum eviction in Dhaka, Bangladesh
- Report - The Experiences of Three Reflect Pilot Projects in Uganda, Bangladesh and El Salvador
Contact: Zaki Hasan ActionAid Bangladesh, House 32, Road 43, Gulshan 2, Dhaka-1212, Bangladesh
