Asia-Pacific Journal of Rural Development Vol. XV, No. 2,December 2005 Institutional Mechanism for Rural Development: The Role of NGOs with Special Reference to the Bangladesh Rural Advancement Committee (BRAC) 1 Abdul-Muyeed Chowdhury and Mehnaz Rabbani 2 Abstract Along with the government, NGOs have emerged as one of the most effective institutions in poverty alleviation interventions in Bangladesh. Staning with their relief and rehabilitation role after independence in 1971, NGOs have vastly expanded their programmes and proved to become effective change agents in the society. These organisations now fonn an integral pan of the institutional structure for addressing poverty alleviation as well as rural development, gender equality, environment protection, disaster management, human rights and other social issues. The NGOs, with their concern in bringing about a positive change in the lives of the poor, largely follow a 'process by which the members of a society develop themselves and their institutions in ways that enhance their ability to mobilise and arrange resources to produce sustainable and justly distributed improvements in their quality of life consistent with their own aspirations. The Bangladesh Rural Advancement Committee (BRAC), established in 1972, started its Rural Development Programme (RDP) in 1986. The RDP aims to assist the landless people to organise themselves into village 01'ganisat1ons (VOs) for their socio-etonomic development and usually operates for four years in a newly intervened area in order to create the framework required for the institution building of VOs and empowering the poor within the organisations. Then the area is taken over by the Rural Credit Programme (RCP) of BRAC which operates since 1990 mostly covering institution building, sector programme, credit operations and support services. Institution building aims at empowering the poor and promoting social awareness education among the members of the VOs. BRAC works closely and collaborates actively with local governments and local communities and assists in facilitating access of public services as well as in complimenting public services wherever necessary, for the rural poor. By collaborating with the local communities and the government for over thirty years, BRAC has made significant contributions towards rural institutional building and creating pro-poor rural institutions for effective implementation of rural development and poverty alleviation policies. 1.0 Introduction In three decades of its independence, Bangladesh has tried out several models of rural development, some more successful than the others, to develop her rural institutions and infrastructure to promote the growth of the agro-based rural economy for alleviating poverty. The persistent quest for achieving pro-poor growth for alleviating poverty has 1 The paper is a revised and updated version of an earlier draft presented in a National Seminar on Revisiting the Institutional Framework for Promoting Rural Development in Bangladesh organised by the Centre on Integrated Rural Development for Asia and the Pacific (CIRDAP) on 22 August 2005. The useful comments received from the participants are gratefully acknowledged. 2 Executive Director and Research Associate, respectively of the Bangladesh Rural Advancement Committee (BRAC). 65