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Evaluation Report

Diversity and Indigenous Peoples Leadership Project

Evaluated By: Mahmudul Hasan Sumon,

Assistant Professor, Department of Anthropology Jahangirnagar University, Bangladesh

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Table of Contents Acknowledgements……………………………………………………………….4 Acronyms………………………………………………………………………….5 Executive Summary……………………………………………………………..6-9

1. 0 Introduction 1. 1 Introduction to the Evaluation……………………………………………... 10 1. 2 Background………………………………………………………………….11 1. 3 Purpose of Evaluation……………………………………………………….11 1. 4 Approach…………………………………………………………………….11 1.5 Project Outcomes: AGUP and SIPPL……………………………………….12 1. 6 Oxfam’s approach to Indigenous rights and change………………………………………………...………………………….12

2.0 Community based organization 2. 1 Achievement………………………………………………………………..14 2. 1. 1 Activating CBOs and TSS………………………………………………..14 2. 1. 2 Formation of Union Parishad special standing committee……………….17 2. 1. 3 Development of new adibashi led organizations…………………………18 2. 1. 4 Popularization of the term adivasi/ adibashi……………………………...19 2. 2 Challenges and Improvement Opportunities………………………………..20 2. 2. 1 Lack of motivation of staffs………………………………………………20 2. 2. 2 Lack of motivation of CBOs/ TSS to work independently………………21 2. 2. 3 Effectiveness of the UP standing committee…….……………………….21 2. 2. 4 A general lack of innovation…………………….………………………..21

3.0 Land rights of the adibashis including rights to communal land 3.1 Achievement…………………………………………………………………22 3. 1. 1 Facilitation of different trainings and meetings for ensuring rights based approach………………………………………………………………………....22 3. 1. 2 Accessing legal services………………………………………………….24 3. 1. 3 Safeguarding communal land…………………………………………….24 3. 1. 4 National level advocacy………………………………………………….24 3. 1. 5 Initiative for drafting law for adibashi…………………………………....25 3. 1. 6 Campaign for land commission…………………………………………..26 3. 1. 7 Supportive research/ publication………………………………………….27 3. 2 Challenges and Improvement Opportunities………………………………..27 3. 2. 1 Contextualization of activities …………………………………………...27

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3. 2. 2 Disparity in new and old partners in terms of land related activities……..29 3. 2. 3 Stagnancy in policy advocacy/ campaign………………………………...30

4. 0 Bilingual education

4. 1 Achievement………………………………………………………………...30 4. 1. 1 Continuation of the PPS………………………………………………….31 4. 1. 2 Successful use of bilingual books………………………………………...32 4. 1. 3 Establishment of Mother Forum………………………………………….32 4. 1. 4 PPS having a moduler effect……………………………………………...33 4. 1. 5 Development of language centers………………………………………...33 4. 2 Challenges and Improvement Opportunities………………………………..33 4. 2. 1 Under resourced schools………………………………………………….33 4. 2. 2 School time Tiffin………………………………………………………...33

5. 0 Women leadership, voice and agency 5. 1 Achievement………………………………………………………………...33 5. 1. 1 New women lead organization and leadership…………………………...34 5. 1. 2 New women network……………………………………………………..35 5. 2. 3 Rapid responses in case of human rights violation……………………….35 5. 2 Challenges and Improvement Opportunities………………………………..37 5. 2. 1 Early days of women’s organization……………………………………...37 5. 2. 2 Much emphasis on new networks………………………………………...37

6.0 Recommendations and conclusion

6. 1 Recommendations…………………………………………………………...38 6.2 Genral recommendation……………………………………………………...39 Annex 1 ………………………………………………………………………….39 Annex 2…………………………………………………………………………..41 Annex 3…………………………………………………………………………..42 Reference ………………………………………………………………………..44

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Acknowledgements I wish to thank all the adibashi colleagues and friends who took part in this review. My heartfelt thanks to all program participants and traditional adibashi leaders whom we met in different working areas and all the Executive Directors of partner organizations, Program Coordinators and Staffs, CBO members and other women and men. Thanks are also due to two of my students who worked in this project as Research Assistants, Tanzina Nazia and Jafar Sadik. Last but not the least; my thanks go to the Oxfam staffs related to this project for taking a very active interest in the evaluation process. Especially, Saikat Biswas, Uzzal Azim, Pobitra Manda and Jui Chakma for participating and contributing in the evaluation process in various capacities. I also thank MB Akter for his interest in this evaluation.

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Acronyms AGUP Adibashi Gono Unnayan Project CBO Community Based Organization DC District Commissioner ED Executive Director GOB Government of Bangladesh HMRKP Hajong Mata Rashimoni Kallayan Parishad PASKOP Patra Shampraday Kalyan Parishad PC Project Coordinator RDC Research and Development Collective RBA Rights Based Approach SIPPL Support to Indigenous People’s in Plain Land TSS Traditional Social Structure UNO Upazila Nirbahi Officer UP Union Parishad VGD Vulnerable Group Development VGF Vulnerable Group Feeding

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Executive Summary This report is an outcome of an evaluation work of Oxfam’s two projects on Indigenous people’s rights and development, implemented in 12 districts of Bangladesh. The evaluation aimed at assessing the impact of the project in the lives of the adibashi people living in different parts of the country. The method of the evaluation was empirical. The field visit for the evaluation was carried out in three phases, from 13-17 January 2013, 12-15 February 2013 and 11-15 March 2013 and covered a total of 8 partner-organizations and its program areas out of 17 organizations. For data collection, the team apart from few Key Informant interviews relied mainly on Focus Group Discussion (FGDs) and direct observation considering the usefulness and efficacy of both the research tools in short time field research. The evaluations also considered Oxfam’s internal documentation, research reports and publications as a mode of triangulation. The evaluation reveals that the program is generally relevant and useful considering the overall marginalized condition of the adibashi people in the plain land areas of Bangladesh. Adibashi groups in the project areas live under severe conditions of poverty with a high degree of social exclusion, economic marginalisation and exploitation, as well as political and cultural discrimination. Adibashi communities are generally characterized by high rates of landlessness, high illiteracy rate; adibashi households are more often than not devoid of any homestead plot, or live on government khas land often having a de facto land ownership status. The evaluation shows that Oxfam through its partner organizations has been very instrumental in implementing the Right Based Approach of the program. It focused on trainings and other sensitizing activities. Trainings on human rights, land management and rights of the adibashi groups, women’s rights and gender were held in order to successfully carry out the objectives of the project. The projects generally emphasized on rights based approach to development. Emphasis was given on social mobilization and raising voice. Adibashi people were seen organizing in many places on special days such as World Indigenous Day or International Women’s Day and it was getting popular. A collective identity in the name of adibashi has been constructed in recent years and this has become popular in day to day discourses. In different areas adibashi platforms/ networks were vocal in demanding for constitutional recognition of adibashi people in Bangladesh. A consistent voice is also there for a land commission in the plains of Bangladesh to address the enormous problem of land appropriation of the adibashi people which took place in many parts of the country. The project emphasized on building specialized committees at the local government level to bring into fore the specific needs and concerns of the adibashi people. This greater participation of adibashi people at the UP enabled a better accessibility to government’s safety net programs. Adibashi women and men were seen to be interested to access services of the state. Through specific

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channeling of UP standing committees, it was also seen that specific concerns of the adibashi people were pronounced at the local government structures. In some cases, women and men were seen taking active interest in local government elections. A total of 56 adibashi candidates out of 63 UPs participated in local government elections in recent years. It was also reported that local government structures are now more visited by the adibashi people, which is a change in attitude considering the history of adibashi people’s relationship with colonial government structures. Through CBOs, the project intended to organize people at the village level. Ordinarily, CBO activities focused on education support, medical support, support in organizing social festival and resolving community problems, linkage with local government, organizing monthly meetings and income generating activities as well as savings and small loan disbursement. In women led CBOs savings activities were often not done in cash but with handful of uncooked rice locally called savings by mushti chal. In some cases CBO activities were seen to be viable in generating economic activities (aquaculture or agriculture). However, these were exceptions in the context of adibashi people of Bangladesh. In most cases, it appeared that the savings were not very big enough for the CBOs to generate economic activity. Often the CBOs were in want of one time fund from the organizations (i.e. in the form of solidarity fund). With regard to ensuring land rights of the adibashi people, the project was instrumental in accessing their rights to government khas land. In few cases the project was successful in securing the land rights of the adibashi people. The project has given emphasis on women’s rights issues. The project considers gender equality as a cross cutting issue and gender equality aspects have been considered in project design, budgeting and implementation level. However, the evaluation considers adibashi women’s organization to be at an early stage and much needs to be done. The project has shown new ventures being taken up at the national level. Most importantly this includes the formation of Parliamentary Caucus and Oxfam’s role in it. Oxfam’s effort also includes the development of some legal frameworks with regard to adibashi people’s rights and agency with the help and coordination of the civil society. Through the project a number of relevant researches, advocacy level meetings and international conferences have been held at the national level. It is believed that several of its publications will go a long way in establishing the rights of the adibashi people in Bangladesh. Notable among these publications are a research based book on the appropriation of land of the plain land adibashi people of the country. On this particular area, there was a dearth of research. Another important publication which will facilitate an understanding of the legal aspects of adibashi people is compiled in a large volume. This latter publication will be helpful in facilitating a rights based movement in the country.

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The project through its regular partner organizations and strategic partners in Dhaka has developed a framework to rapidly address the different cases and issue of violation of rights of the adibashis in the country. The project also supports the compilation and publication of a yearly human rights report solely devoted to the issue of violations of human rights of the adibashi people in Bangladesh. Based on secondary news paper documentation this report comprises cases of both the hill and the plain area. Recent participation of the adibashi representatives at the UPR is also an indication that there activities are leaving a mark beyond the national level. The evaluation concludes that Rights Based objective of Oxfam is relevant as long as it is a blend of some service related activity and some rights based activity. Amongst the direct beneficiaries of these projects, namely CBO/ TSS members as well as frontline staffs of partner organizations, we found a consistent concern to incorporate some activities which they think will “improve the economic situation” of the people concerned. A change is taking place in terms of attitude and world-view of the adibashi people. This is clearly evident with regard to Oxfam’s two projects under review when CBO members showed greater awareness for education mentioning that they are now more interested to send their children in the schools. A collective identity and a sense of belonging within the umbrella term “adibashi” are clearly visible in the day to day discourses of ordinary people in the project area. This is also a clear indication of the overall relevance of the project in this region. The Pre-Primary School component of the program is seen to be more successful in terms of ownership of the community. There is clear indication that this kind of institution building tends to have greater appeal to the adibashi women and men. This institution building may include schools and other types of CBOs such as club for the youth or food bank groups etc. It is believed that a holistic approach, geared to a particular locality wherein a community lives will produce greater solidarity and cohesion among the adibashis of today’s generation. The evaluation concludes that the training activities of the program need to be more reflective in terms of the needs of the adibashi people. Considering the high illiteracy rate, language difficulty, adibashi men and women find it difficult to comprehend the purposes of these trainings. However, the study finds that the younger generations of the adibashi communities are usually more energetic and receptive to new ideas. The evaluation critically analyses the gender equality and women’s empowerment issue as it is a cross cutting theme for the project. It is evident that the project is taking various steps and activities in regard to gender equality (i.e. women led CBO, priority to girl student in PPS, women’s capacity building on leadership through Mothers Forum, Community Food Bank, gender and leadership training for women, gender budgeting, developing adibashi women leadership both at local and national level (BIWN at national level, Adibashi Nari Jote, Adibashi

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Nari Shakti, Federation in Sylhet at the regional level), adibasi women’s participation in UP election, priority to women led organization, consideration of gender equality in distributing khas land etc). The evaluation findings show that in some cases gender has acquired the meaning of inclusion of more female in different stage of the program level. But there is a need to give more emphasis on the power relationship, social exclusion, economic marginalization, and patriarchy amongst the adibashi people, as these are the core issues that need to be addressed to bring the qualitative change in regard to gender equality. The present evaluation also observes that there are signs of middle class formation amongst the adibashi communities in plain areas and this development needs to be considered in future approaches to intervention and change. Oxfam through its objectives and projects need to understand that adibashi people are not a homogenous category and there are issues of inter-sections which need to be addressed in future.

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1. 0 Introduction 1. 1 Introduction to the Evaluation This report presents the findings of the project end review of Oxfam’s two projects (which were implemented consecutively), namely Anagrasar Gono Unnayan Project1 (AGUP), funded by DANIDA and Support to Indigenous Peoples in Plain Land (SIPPL) SIPPL funded by Royal Danish Embassy. Both the projects were run under Oxfam’s Diversity and Indigenous Peoples Leadership Project. Oxfam begun implementing the former project from 2007-2010 and the latter from 2011-2014 (with a period of six months transition period). The projects were implemented in 12 districts of Bangladesh, namely Dinajpur, Naogaon, Rajshahi, Chapainawabgonj, Natore, Sirajgonj, Tangail, Netrokona, Sherpur, Mymensingh, Sylhet and Moulvibazar. The evaluation is intended to give Oxfam and its development partners an opportunity to explore the effectiveness of the different interventions along with its contribution to make a positive change amongst targeted communities (i.e. mainly amongst a number of plain land ethnic communities other than the Bengalis increasingly known by the generic term adibashi)2. 1.2 Background Oxfam’s project intervention in bringing change into the lives of the indigenous communities of Bangladesh begun in 2001. In response to the overall plea in the development community to work among the indigenous people, Oxfam, Bangladesh Program initially responded to the situation with a project called Indigenous people’s Development Program (IPDP)3. This first intervention began with only three of Oxfam partners from the districts of northwestern parts of the country namely BSDO at Naogaon, AUS at Rajshahi and BDO at Chapainababganj. Since then Oxfam has been intervening to address the adibashi rights issues with special attention on plain land areas through its local partners. With the coming of DANIDA in supporting Oxfam’s project in 2006, the coverage of the program increased4. DANIDA decided to handover its partners to Oxfam and facilitated the process through a nine month piloting in 2006-07. This integration strengthened Oxfam’s capacity of funding projects and subsequently increased the

1 The project staffs confirmed that the tern anagrasar (backward) was used to side step some of the bureaucratic problems associated with the term adivasi or adibashi at the NGO beauro office. 2 See Annex 1 for the full TORs. 3 See Sumon et al (2003) for an evaluation of Oxfam’s IPDP project. 4 Since 2001, the Human Rights and Good Governance Programme (HRGG) of the Embassy of Denmark has targeted part of its support directly to indigenous peoples (HRGG) of Bangladesh. For a review of Danish support and approach to indigenous people in Bangladesh see Stidsen et al (2011)

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number of partners and project area. The project was renamed AGUP5 and later SIPPL. These projects remained under the broad rubrics of Oxfam’s Diversity and Indigenous People’s Leadership Project. Subsequently, Oxfam developed activities towards achieving these goals and has been working since then. During the period 2007-2014 Oxfam’s intervention program covered new areas of mid northern districts as well as some northeastern districts of Bangladesh where Patra, Hajong, Garo, Monipuri, Dalu, Koch and Khasi people live along with some other small ethnic groups and communities. 1. 3 Purpose of Evaluation The purpose of this evaluation is to review Oxfam’s recent involvement with Diversity and Indigenous Peoples Leadership Project in Bangladesh with the following objectives.

-To measure the effectiveness of Oxfam interventions at specific community level and at the national level policy environment -To understand how the interventions are contributing to make a positive change over time in the life of the targeted communities including its sustainability -To identify the existing gaps, barriers and challenges in order to get better result -To come up with specific recommendation for way forward

1. 4 Methods The evaluation team consisting of 1 lead researcher and 2 Research Assistants used a range of methods to conduct the evaluation, including review of internal documents, Oxfam publications, meetings and individual discussions with Oxfam staffs, and other key stakeholders. The review team also made field visits to three different zones of its working area to observe the project activities, practices and processes. The evaluation team used semi-structured interviews and Focused Group Discussion with key stakeholders of the project (executive bodies of partners NGOs, female leaders of local CBOs, members of UP standing committee, Pre-primary school teachers, lawyers). Where appropriate, the team relied on observation of school activities as part of its endeavor to better appreciate and evaluate the project activities. As a mode of triangulation, the study team also reviewed internal documents of Oxfam for a comprehensive view of the project. (See Annex 2 for a full outline of the methods used in the evaluation).

5 Due to GOB’s reservation on the term adibashi, Oxfam in recent activities had to drop the term from its project title. AGUP is an example where the word anagrashar has been used instead of adibashi.

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1.5 Project Outcomes: AGUP and SIPPL Oxfam’s intervention in recent years has been through two different projects. In the project period September 2007 to December 2010, AGUP had three objectives

1. Enhancing capacity of Adibashi community organizations to assert their rights 2. Land rights of the Adibashis including rights to communal land 3. Right to bilingual education

After AGUP’s completion in 2010, Oxfam was able to implement another project in association with its development partner Royal Danish Embassy titled SIPPL with the following slightly different objectives:

1. Capacity development of adibashi population at different level and local CBOs to claim their rights and entitlements from government and different service providers.

2. Ensuring that Adibashi children have greater access to bilingual

pre-primary education before formal education provided by NGOs and Government respectively.

3. Strengthening women leadership to protect women rights and

ending violence against women The current evaluation will measure the effectiveness of these different interventions at the community level. It will also assess the impact of these interventions on the policy level, discuss sustainability and identify gaps and opportunities. It will cover four broad themes/ or area of intervention which broadly covers the two different projects under review, and will discuss the effectiveness of the project in these areas. These areas are: community based organization, land rights, bilingual education and women’s right. 1. 6 Oxfam’s approach to Indigenous rights and change Since 2001, Oxfam has been working amongst the adibashi population of the plain areas of Bangladesh with an approach best known as Rights Based Approach (RBA) in development literature. The current interventions of Oxfam, developed in close association with its development partners, are not exception to this6. This approach has meant that Oxfam over the years has given ample stress on training, awareness building and activities to enable voice of the indigenous people. From a review of policy documents, it appeared that much of Oxfam’s intervention with regard to the indigenous people of the plain land area is driven by a concern at the donor level. Oxfam has worked within the limits of these policy prescriptions and adopted a rights based approach. 6 See Arens and Haider (2007)

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Somewhat exceptionally, however, Oxfam’s approach to right to education/ bilingual education has been service delivery oriented in the sense that by lending fund to provide free pre-primary school service, the organization was providing a service to the community in a more direct way. The organization occasionally provided some one off funds to different CBOs which also fall in the service delivery category (i.e. Solidarity fund etc; a total of 47 CBOs received Solidarity fund from Oxfam). However, most of the other activities of the project are rights based oriented where it is expected that the beneficiaries of the project will independently or collectively assert to the different bodies of the state, both at the local, regional and national level for their rights and identity. It is through rights based approach that Oxfam envisages change. In its program documents, change is measured through accounting for differential access to different private and public services before and after the project. It is envisaged that through the successful implementation of the projects, adibashi voices, concerns and demand for rights and identity are more heard in the local, regional and national level.

2.0 Community based organization The formation of CBOs is a core activity of the projects under review. It is aimed at social unity, cohesion and voice. It begins with group formation ideally with 25-30 members. The CBOs, as we have observed, are formed according to convenience of geographic proximity. Some groups consist solely of male members; some female and some are mixed often having both husband and wife from the same family. In forming the groups, the partner organization’s frontline staffs take the major initiative. They have specific guidelines to follow. CBOs usually sit once in a week or fortnightly or according to the convenience of the members7 for discussion, savings and soft loan disbursement arrangements (which includes loans for income generation activities and also loan for stopping advance labor sale). Usually there, is a chairperson along with secretary and cashier for each of the CBOs. CBOs which are more established often have bank accounts and laser books for savings and borrowing purposes. From the Oxfam program personnel, CBOs which have had bank accounts are considered “good” CBOs. Also CBOs which can continue to have long term savings are considered positive examples of CBO organization while those which frequently “break” their savings are considered as failure or less successful. CBO members work in close liaison with the projects frontline program staffs. CBO members are often the first batch of people who are recruited for different programs and activisms.

7 CBO members often told that during agricultural seasons, it is not possible or feasible to sit on a weekly basis. During these periods, CBOs operate according to the convenience of the mem

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Output of Objective 1 in AGUP has been defined to enhance the capacity of adibashi organizations at the community, regional and national level. In the later project (i. e. SIPPL), the objective to develop the capacity development of CBOs remained intact. Accordingly, in both the projects, a number of activities, indicators and targets have been set. There were of course differences as far as activities were concerned but the overall goal of the project remained the same. Following is an overarching discussion of the achievements of these interventions. 2. 1 Achievement 2. 1. 1 Activating CBOs and TSS Community organizing through the work of CBOs effectively enhances confidence building and collective agency. These activities necessitate adibashi women and men to mix people in the locality, such as various establishments of the local government, a space which has been historically antagonistic towards the adibashis and thus avoided by the adibashi people in general in the past. It has often been the case that when adibashi people in the subcontinent encountered the government (i.e. colonial government), they often found themselves rebelling against it. Oxfam through its interventions was instrumental in activating CBOs and TSS in the project area during the implementation of both AGUP and SIPPL. This has been a strategy taken up is some of Oxfam’s earlier projects as well. In some cases in the early stage of project implementation it helped to form new CBOs with a view to improve the capacity of adibashi people to organize. In other places, it helped to revive certain forms of traditional structures of self governance (referred as TSS in project documents) which were on the verge of collapse (i.e. gao bura among the Hajangs in Netrakona is a relevant case). It also incorporated previous CBOs linked with its partner organizations (where appropriate) as part of the project (Madhupur). As of 2010, according to Annual Report 2010 the project was able to form 494 CBOs throughout its working area to facilitate adivasi voice and agency8.

8 See presentation titled “Diversity and Indigenous Peoples Leadership Project” (nd)

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Figure 1 Map of Bangladesh showing Oxfam’s working area Figure 1 Map of Bangladesh showing Oxfam working area in green

Organizing through CBOs and other mechanisms of the projects completely changed the scene where poor adibashi women and men are required to work with the government offices and thus the “mainstream” people. Before this intervention, adibashi people were not very aware of these safety net programs. According to program staffs, in some work areas, this intervention has ensured adibashi people in the lists (of safety net programs) and often CBO members were directly communicating with the local government structure in order to receive these benefits. Amongst the adibashi people, this is a welcome strategy as adibashis of today are well aware of the nation-state and its mechanisms. Such direct interaction with different state structures (for various reasons and purposes such as VGD, VGF and other components of government’s safety net program) at the local level enhanced their capacity to meet and mix with the “mainstream” Bengali community in the locality. Often this involved greater socialization which

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helps in a positive way to remove prevailing exclusionary and negative attitudes/ practices towards the adibashis. CBOs through their group formation approach were able to develop savings as well as loan programs among the members of the group. CBOs run by women often developed their savings by creating a food bank (mushti chal in Bengali). Often in the cases of successful CBOs, the members were able to maintain a formal bank account. In extremely successful cases the members of CBOs were able to lease land/ pond for agriculture/ aquaculture. It appeared that for agricultural purposes, adibashi people’s reliance on local money lenders have decreased to some extent due to the project’s initiative in some areas (north west in particular). On the other hand, TSS, traditionally a self-government institutional structure found amongst all the different adibashi groups, plays a more sacral role in the community and identity building process. Traditionally a male space, through the program, different partners have tried to incorporate female members in this traditional body of social structure. The project has had a limited success in reviving these local forms of self governance due to various reasons, which are beyond the scope of this discussion. As of 2010 a total of 192 TSS was revived after Oxfam’s intervention.

Box 1: New beginning of Jayenshahi Adibashi Parishad Established in the 1960s, Jayenshahi Adivasi Unnayan Sangstha started its organizing around issues related to the Forest department in Madhupur district. The organization presently has 15 section committees. In 1978 it formed some of its section committees. The organization was inactive in between but was revived and strengthened through participation in the Eco park movement in 2003. Senior members of the organization stress that the organizations should remain like a social organization and need not to work like an “NGO”. This they say because of the long history of struggle of the organization. The organization has had its experience of working with NGOs too in the early 1980s. From the organization’s senior members, a sense was given that with the coming of NGOs, there is often withering away of people’s support. In recent years, however, the organization has gotten itself involved with a number of NGO projects. It has formed some CBOs in 2008 and has been involved with Oxfam’s SIPPL project in the past years. Currently, the organization is having 8 CBOs among which 2 are new as part of their activities with Oxfam. The key members of the organization including the chairman (who is also working as PC of the Oxfam project) think that with the coming of projects, certain changes in the organizational structure took place. For example, because of assessment in 2007, the organization reviewed their constitutions, which led to election. He himself has benefited from this process. Currently, the organization has a bank account, registration formalities were completed in 2010. The PC also thinks that there is new furniture and also computer facilities which has enhanced their capacity of reporting. The organization is currently led by an experienced PC and comes from a Garo ethnic background. The PC himself seemed very keen on documentation and research. The organization has developed a good collection of books and very much in course of developing a resource centre. The organization in recent times was ensuring accessibility of government funds etc. Community members are often helped with telephone numbers of the DC, UNO. Members of the UP standing committee, formed as part of the current project, on the other hand opined that they are known to

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UP Chairman and respected than before. There are other organizations working in the area whose role was being appreciated by some beneficiaries of the project9. Although housed in a small L shaped building and having space constraints, the organization was having a small corner to preserve some objects of daily use such as drums and other items of festivity associated with the Garos (especially wangala).

2. 1. 2 Formation of Union Parishad special standing committee Union Parishad special standing committee commonly referred as UP standing committee has been an innovation of Oxfam in its work areas. The idea of this committee stems from a 1985 law of local government in Bangladesh which has provisions for formation of committees according to the needs of the locality. In fact one of Oxfam’s partner organizations, namely BSDO was pioneer in developing this committee in its work area after years of local level advocacy and development of tools (i.e. developing specific UP standing committee guideline). Previously, there was no specific committee for the adibashi people in areas where there is a substantial population from adibashi background. After the piloting, this model has now been appropriated by a number of other partner organizations. According to project’s Annual Report 2011, it formed a total of 63 UP standing committees in different Union Parishads. The UP standing committee is established with the assumption that such a committee at the Union Parishad (Union Council) will give an added responsibility to the UP Chairman10 to look after issues related to the adibashi people.

Figure 2 Research team meeting adibashi members of UP standing member at the office of Chairman of No 9 Arankhola Union Parishad, Madhupur Tangail (Photo: Tanzina Nazia).

The project through its different activities created an atmosphere so that the direct beneficiaries were now more aware of their right to different government services, of which they claim that they “were not aware before”. According to Oxfam’s

9 It was apparent that some of the CBO members were also involved with different committees of other organizations. 10 My preferred term is Chairperson.

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project report, it ensured access to social safety net services of 16474 adibashi households (ibid, np). It is assumed by the project managers of Oxfam as well as frontline staffs (at the partner level) that such government services has been usefully extended to adibashi household through the new channels of UP standing committee as there is now more scope for adibashi representatives to reach out to the UP Chairman. There have been some changes in the relationship between different establishments of the government and adibashi communities. It has been widely reported during the field trip that this committee has created scopes for the adibashi people to actually come to the office of the UP and access various public services. In Sylhet, amongst the Khasi people living in Punji (i.e. beneficiaries of IPDS and Prochesta), for example, this committee enhanced the capacity of female leaders of the Punji to attend meeting with the UP chairman. Often women leaders/ representatives told that they have never “thought of coming to these offices”. There were clear indications during consultation that this committee increased the day to day relationship with local government structure. During the fieldtrip we have met adibashi women who were confident and did not hesitate to show their grievances with UP female members. In Netrokona, we met female CBO leaders who grew in confidence due to their link up with the UP members. From informal chats it was apparent that UP standing committees were mostly working to prepare list for government’s safety net program. As adibashis, they would often try to incorporate more adibashi people in the list. However, to what extent they are implement these lists in the end is a separate issue. In Madhupur, too it was felt that some of the UP standing committees were active. In all areas, the committee mostly dealt with preparing list for the safety net program and inclusion of adibashi people in the standing committee ensured that needy adibashi people were now on the list. In addition to this, the committee members opined that they are often involved with different local issues that concern the adibashi people’s well being. This committee created a formal channel through which adibashi people from the locality could vent their voice and grievances. 2. 1. 3 Development of new adibashi led organizations Oxfam has been intervening amongst the plain land adibashi people since 2001. However, the recent two interventions under review have effectively incorporated new ethnic groups in its effort. This has given rise to leadership amongst the Hajangs in central northern Bangladesh and also Patras in northeastern Bangladesh. Both of these ethnic groups remained beyond the reach of development previously. As such amongst the educated Hajangs and Patras, the intervention of the project was seen as a very welcome effort as this was for many an unprecedented event. In recent years, PASKOP and ASUS-N got NGOAB approval due to Oxfam support.

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The organization working mostly among the Hajangs is titled HMRKP (after a great leader of Hajang revolution) is run by a man of Hajang ethnic background. For Motilal Hajang, the ED of HMRKP, Oxfam’s intervention has brought changes in his own life too. He has now become a spokesperson of the Hajang community. In many different forums, he is now expected to represent the Hajang community. Thus he has found himself in recent years as a spokesperson of the Hajang community. The intervention has expanded the leadership amongst the indigenous people of the plains. In the case of Sylhet, the number of Patra adibashi community compared to other adibashi groups is very small. Nevertheless, Oxfam’s intervention in addition to the programmatic activities has also enabled people to become aware of their culture and history. Some of Gouranga Patra’s articles published in the local dailies of Sylhet is an example in this case. He is also the ED of PASKOP. In the latter’s case, the organization was very successful in using media in order to introduce the Patra community amongst the wider society. 2. 1. 4 Popularization of the term adivasi/ adibashi The term adibashi is an umbrella term for a heterogeneous set of ethnic and “tribal” groups often claimed to be the aboriginal population of Bangladesh, India and Nepal. In Bangladesh, the groups of people coming under this umbrella term were named in various other names in the past. These names varied from locality to locality. The government of Bangladesh also had different names for different ethnic groups of the country. For example, all the different ethnic groups from the CHT were generally referred as “tribal” (upajati) in the 1980s11. In north-western Bangladesh, on the other hand Santals, Oraon, Mundas often had local names with derogative connotations. The term adibashi was used amongst the population who were educated in Missionary schools. In Madhupur district too, due to influence of the Christian Missionaries, the term adibashi was used amongst the educated people as early as in the 1960s. The projects under review through its different activities such as day celebrations (i.e. World Indigenous Day and International Woman’s Day are most notable) created a congenial atmosphere for confidence building, interaction amongst different groups and the wider community. Such links and networks enabled different ethnic groups of the country (who are small in number) to come under the broad generic term adibashi. Due to many factors, different marginalized ethnic groups of Bangladesh have accepted the term adibashi. Through this term and discourse, leaders of different adibashi community have been able to network not only locally but internationally. Such networking provided a sense amongst the majoritarian community that even though the numbers of indigenous people

11 See Qureshi (1984) for details.

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are “small”, they have friends and links with national and trans-national organizations.

Box 2 Achik Michik Society: an organization for women’s rights Achik Michick (meaning Mandi women) is an organization run by women. The organization is operating since 2008. It is headed by a retired school teacher and was run by a woman of Garo ethnic background. The organizations seemed very new in development discourse (i.e. running a funded program). It woks in an area where Garo and Koch people live. The idea of forming an organization came through informal women gatherings. There was a sense among the women members of mostly Garo community that their matrilineal society may not be restored if women were not organized. In 2004, in a place called Telki these women first gathered. The death of Piren Snal (an activist who died during anti Eco park movement in Madhupur) was a reason for further motivation for this women group. The need for organizing was strongly felt. There was another event which gave them the impetus to organize. In 2004, a Japanese team arrived in the area to help women in the area. This motivated the founding members of the organization. The members of the organization claim that they have successfully defended their right to land in 2007 during the emergency period. The organization’s work area is noteworthy for it appeared that the Koch language was endangered in the area. We met Koch school-teacher who spoke Bengali and Garo but not her mother tongue. Language center teachers here were involved in teaching Koch language using a books developed by another organization. The EC members of the committee feel that they have in recent years learnt how to do work (i.e. project work) and gave a lot of credit to Oxfam staffs. This learning involved everything from how to write a proposal, to how to maintain an accounts book to report writing etc. The members of organization received leadership building training during this period. The organization is housed in a rented property. One of the strong points of the organization is that the organization has recently bought a piece of land from its own funding. This was possible by a collection of funding from a number of sources. This says something about the intention of the organization.

2. 2 Challenges and Improvement Opportunities 2. 2. 1 Motivation level of staffs Keeping the motivation level of the frontline staffs is an important challenge for all the partner organizations. It was felt in Achik Michik that the motivation level was low compared to other places. The organization seemed to have some problem with day to day management which needs to be addressed. In Sylhet we heard about the challenges often the EDs of partner organizations faced in keeping their best staffs employed for the whole project period due to “poor salary given by Oxfam” (ED of ECDO in a consultation session). Low pay was seen as a problem by some organization heads. A corollary problem of low pay is the challenge to keep quality staffs employed for the project. Also uncertainties of fund disbursement during transition period (which led to uncertainty of salary) were also a reason for lack of motivation12. Oxfam needs to take care of these issues in future.

12 This is due to bureaucratic Red Tapes at the NGO Affairs Bureau of Dhaka. According to Oxfam staffs the situation has gotten complicated due to government’s reservation of the term adivasi in recent years.

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2. 2. 2 Motivation of CBOs/ TSS to work independently In some cases a lack of motivation was evident in our visit to CBOs. Oxfam needs to thoroughly reveal its strategy to see how this lack of motivation can be changed into some positive energy. In Mandhupur for example we have had the impression that CBO members while enjoyed the model of community organizing (which enabled them to resolve collectively many local problems) also felt that the organization/ partner organizations should come up with some economic activities (by providing loans for economic activities and trainings for relevant IGA) to improve the livelihood condition of the community. In BDO working area, we have had impression that the CBO members expected more proactive role in solving the de facto status of their land occupancy. Such instances show that the CBOs were not necessarily happy with the way things were running and expected some action on the part of the implementing organization concerned. In Naogaon, the evaluation team saw frustration expressed by the CBO members and they expected redress of some of the burning questions of land from the partner organization concerned. 2. 2. 3 Effectiveness of the UP standing committee It is more likely that for electoral reasons, effectiveness of the UP standing committee will take place in areas where there is a sizable number of the adibashi population. For example, amongst the Punji in Sylhet the relationship was felt strongly as well as in Madhupur. In both these areas, the adibashi people amounted to a sizable population. 2. 2. 4 Lack of innovation as far as project implementation is concerned With regard to right-based objectives of the program, there exists a lack of imagination of how the program needs to be operationalized at the field level. It appears that the organizations are just involved in staging protest ceremonially with no follow-ups. As a result, the direct beneficiaries of the program are not able to conjure up the meaning and intent of these activities. With the exception of BSDO, which is of course an old organization compared to other organizations, the organizations generally were not innovative in project implementation. 3.0 Land rights of the adibashis including rights to communal land Historical evidence suggests that all the major political upheavals have had a heavy toll on the adivasi people living in this part of Bangladesh. Partition of the subcontinent in 1947 is one such event when adibashi people’s land properties were encroached in a mass scale. Apart from this other events such as Nachol movement (1950) in northwestern Bangladesh, communal riot of 1962, India Pakistan war of 65 and liberation war of Bangladesh in 1971 had immense impact on the minority groups of the country which included the indigenous people of the land. There is no dearth of evidence to show how land possessed and controlled

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by the different indigenous groups of the country during these periods were recorded with non-adibashi names or worse, recorded as enemy / ‘vested’ property. Recent study by Barkat et al and others have provided a broad survey of the situation, a research which was also made possible by the projects under review. It is in this broader context of land appropriation of the indigenous people that Output 2 of AGUP has been developed to ensure land rights of the adibashi people in the plain areas. In SIPPL, however, this objective was completely dropped. As per AGUP objectives, a number of activities have been developed. Following is a discussion of the achievements. 3.1 Achievements 3. 1. 1Facilitation of different trainings and meetings for ensuring rights based approach The project was successful in giving relevant training to a diverse group of adibashi population coming from different parts of the country. The trainees often included project staffs at the partner level as well members of various CBOs or TSS etc. Since land consist an important issue for the adibashi people, there were training on land rights and management. Other trainings included: savings and management, gender training, leadership training, Rights Based Approach training, Para-legal training, and orientation related to human rights issues etc. Such trainings gave frontline staffers an understanding of the project. For some new coming NGOs and their EDs, it was the beginning of a new avenue for their work, a terrain with which they were not familiar earlier (EDs of Hajangmata, Paskof and Achik Michik falls in this category). For the community leaders, on the other hand, this facilitated their day to day works related to land (i.e. updating land documents, applying for khas land and organizing protests when evicted). Through the project some of the partner organizations were able to get people enlisted for khas land (i.e. BSDO most notably). In some cases partner organizations mainly operated at the level of application for khas land. Amongst the Hajangs, for example where education level was low, the partners were often facilitating with the application for khas land (i.e. HMRKP). In some others cases political mobilization was necessary to take control of pieces of land although the adibashi people did not have legal status (i.e. BDO). According to project documentation in some areas 20% of the recipients of Khas land were now given to adibashis and female and male were in these cases joint recipients. In Rajshahi we visited some areas where the implementing partner ASUS was able to take part in the process of changing the de facto status of land occupancy into de jure. But of course this was rare. More often than not the adibashi people’s land status is de facto. CBO members today want this to be changed.

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During the implementation of AGUP, 22 batch of land training was completed which was participated by 660 CBO members. During the implementation of SIPPL, only 6 batches of people from the community level were given. During these trainings, people learnt about how to recover khas land data, how to apply or access information of land papers.

Box 3: Access to Khas land in Farshapara A total of 24 families recently got their land ownership document with the help of ASUS. This piece of land was occupied by these families for many years. During the independence war in 1971, like many other “minority” and non-Muslim population13, the adibashi people fled to India but after return they found that their land has been appropriated by the Bengali Muslims. The land was not previously registered by the adibashi groups. This was a time when one could not oppose the Bengalis and whoever did that would have to leave the area, adibashi people recalled. Even an Italian Missionary Father who was trying to get a leasing document for this group also left the area due to the influence of the Bengalis. The father was accused of converting people, said one woman. Till 2009, the land was recorded as khas in the government book. The adibashi people used to deposit an amount in the land office to get an occupancy right which lasted only for a year. In 2009, all this changed and ASUS’s presence has been instrumental in getting this land ownership document.

3. 1. 2 Accessing legal services The projects have enabled accessibility of legal services to the adibashi beneficiary groups through the establishment of legal panels. According to a project document a total of 12 panels in 12 districts have been formed. However, from different indications (such as how many cases dealt etc) it was apparent that many of the new organizations were not capacitated enough to work on legal issues. In few cases, meetings with legal panellist also confirmed that working with adibashi people with legal issues was a challenge. In fact it was also apparent that the need for legal experts cannot be generalized and it had more relevance in north-western Bangladesh where there are some burning issues related to land. 3. 1. 3 Safeguarding communal land The project has created scope for the adibashis to safeguard their traditional use pattern of the forest areas (described as communal land in the project document). This aspect of the project mainly focused on the consciousness building of the forest department in order for them to understand the value of the community forest management practiced by different adibashi groups. However, with the continued social forestry approach of the forest department in Madhupur and other areas, to what extent this intervention is successful is still a question. 3. 1. 4 National level advocacy This project unlike some earlier ones has also taken up steps to revamp its activity at the national level. Accordingly, it has worked in partnership with a number of

13 Recent research has shown that during liberation war the Hindu population had to flee the country quite disproportionately compared to the Muslim population. See Guhathakurata (2009) for details.

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platforms, organizations and research groups who can be referred as old stalwarts of indigenous activism in Bangladesh. These collaborations include work with ILO, RDC and of course platforms such as JAP and BAF. Oxfam’s intervention at this level has been mostly at the level of idea generation, planning, campaign, approach and strategic support to organize seminars, workshops and processions in Dhaka in order to persuade the government to accept some of the long standing demands of the indigenous rights groups in Bangladesh. In order for achieving land rights of the adibashis, the projects have created scopes for advocacy to recognize the adibashi people in the constitution of Bangladesh. For this end, the project worked not only amongst the partner organizations but also with a number of strategic partners who have been working in Bangladesh for a a long time. Most notable among them, are Jatio Adibashi Parshad (hereafter JAP working both at the regional level and national level), Research and Development Collective (RDC), Bangladesh Adibashi Forum (hereafter BAF) and more recently the Kapaeeng Foundation. Oxfam has developed a “flexible” funding relation with these organizations. JAP, a right based platform working amongst the adibashis in northwestern Bangladesh is a clear outcome of this process of “flexible” association with Oxfam. The other organization which benefits from this strategic partnership is BAF. In an interview, Sanjeeb Drong, General Secretary, BAF, mentioned that this approach by Oxfam where they help with small sums of funding was often the impetus for organizations like BAF to continue its work during its early days at the national level. Such support enabled BAF to regularly publish its yearly anthology on indigenous rights and also enable to celebrate World Indigenous Day every year on 9th August. JAP over the years has consistently organized a campaign for the demand for constitutional rights of the adibashi people in Bangladesh in the regional level. It has made popular a number of day celebrations amongst the indigenous people in northwestern Bangladesh (i.e. Sidhu Kanu day14 and also world indigenous day) like some other partner organizations15. Increasingly, a lot of other organizations today celebrate these days in northwest. JAP was also supported in a number of region based programs (in Naogaon and other places in northwest) such as long march and signature campaign to ensure land rights of the adibashi people. Recently, JAP has also been very instrumental in developing a student wings and networks of activism in northwestern Bangladesh. It also has formed a women front which is at the early stages of development. During the period under review, Oxfam also was able to support new organization based in Dhaka for furthering the project’s advocacy level objectives at the

14 Oxfam started to support Sindhu Kanu Day from its 150th anniversary. 15 One measure of this popularity can be found in the remark of BSDO’s ED Mr Akhter: “previously we were helping them to organize different adibashi festivals, now they don’t seek any help, they do it on their own. If required they just take money from us”.

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national level This engagement, with a group of young and educated (mostly university graduates) group of activists working under the organization name the Kapaeeng Foundation has produced a number of publications relevant for further activism. Much of the Kapaeeng Foundation’s work, concentrated on the virtual space and can be aptly described as network based. The organization in recent years has worked as a vehicle in recent times to quickly disseminate almost all the human rights violation with regard to the adibashi people in Bangladesh. And this coverage of issues includes not only the issues of human rights violations of plain land adibashis but also pahari ethnic groups (often dubbed as Hill adibashis in development literature). It has also taken initiative to organize seminars and rallies for human rights of the adibashi people in Dhaka in recent times. Of late, the Kapaeeng Foundation has been given the responsibility to compile a yearly publication (usually styled as “Human Rights Report” on Indigenous Peoples in Bangladesh) on the violation of human rights of the adibashi people in Bangladesh. It is assumed that these reports, published in English, will be quoted in international publications and already there are signs of this. Constitutional recognition is one of the core demands of the adibashis in Bangladesh. More than a decade has passed since different adibashi activists have been demanding for the constitutional recognition of the adibashi people in the country. Of late this demand has not only been limited to the adibashi organizations but also extrapolated on to a section of the civil society, progressive political groups and media. Oxfam has always been a supportive element in campaigning for this demand. It was involved in a roundtable meeting which has been organized during the constitutional amendment process to make a final recommendation. These events were attended by experts, civil society members, adibashi activist, politicians and media personnel. Parliamentary Caucus on the adibashi people with which Oxfam worked closely created high hopes in recent times in regard to the adibashi people’s long standing demand for constitutional recognition. However, at the last moment this demand could was not to be fulfilled. This created a frustration amongst the adibashi activist groups in Dhaka. A big public gathering had been organized in the central Shahid Minar comprising adibashi –Bengali people to draw attention of the government on constitutional recognition. Many of organizations and individuals expressed their solidarity in these events. This gathering also indicates that over the years the demand for constitutional recognition has become stronger among the educated adibashi people of the country (The extent of the popularity of the demand amongst the educated adibashi groups is discussed in box 4 below). 3. 1. 5 Initiative for drafting law for adibashi In course of campaign, it was felt by adibashi rights activists that there is no specific policy or law to promote, protect and fulfill the rights and development of adibashi people in Bangladesh. That is envisaged by some as the reason why adibashi people are deprived in the kind of policy supports they need.

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With a view to address this lacunae at the policy level, the parliamentary caucus on indigenous affairs took an initiative to drafting a new law styled “Bangladesh Indigenous Peoples Right Act (BIPRA). This initiative involved a number of regional consultation meetings. Oxfam has been instrumental in supporting this process by helping the civil society and parliamentary caucus members to sit in a roundtable for sharing opinion and further consultation. The drafting is still in an early stage and will need further intervention in future. ILO’s contribution and an international land conference organized by Oxfam and its “Dhaka declaration” had a contribution in these developments.

Box 4: The aftermath of 15th amendment In March 2011, a special parliamentary caucus was formed for the indigenous issues. It was anticipated by some quarters of the rights activists that this high powered body (which included people who are now in the government MPs, and somewhat sympathizers of adivasi rights issues, (most notably Rashed Khan Menon and Hasanul Haq Enu) will come up with some thing positive for the indigenous activists in Bangladesh. The anticipation had some grounds as well. Hopes were also high among key rights organizers because traditionally, the party in power, the AL is usually thought of as a political party in Bangladesh which is favorable to the “minority” issues in Bangladesh (this generally includes religious groups such as Hindus, Buddhists and Christians as well as different adibashi ethnic groups and communities in Bangladesh). However, such anticipations turned out to be wrong. The recognition of the term “adivasi” in the 15th amendment of the constitution did not come. On 30th July, 2011, the government of Bangladesh went for its 15th amendment of the constitution (which had many other “burning” issues for the party in power which is beyond the scope of this chapter; the demand for constitutional recognition of the adivasi was also on the table as a proposal). On the very same day, (a good number of activists already knew that the demand was not going to be fulfilled) indigenous activists vehemently criticized the government in different forums. A number of adibashi rights based organization organized an event in Dhaka Shahid Minar premises where the speakers among other things pointed out that by not recognizing the indigenous people as adivasis, the government is acting like a “fascist” state. The indigenous speakers from different walks of life, NGOs, and political leaders, university teachers from the northwest as well as south eastern and other regions emphasized that such non-recognition will not erode the different identities that the indigenous people have from the majority people of the country. The speakers alleged that the constitution was trying to turn the non-Bengali identities into Bengalis which “we will never allow to happen”.

3. 1. 6 Campaign for land commission The particular problems of northwestern Bangladesh with regard to land has been consistently put up at the regional and national level by JAP in the context of northwestern Bangladesh. Oxfam through its different intervention strategies have been very instrumental in providing funding support to organize around issues that concerns the adibashi people of northwestern Bangladesh. For this end, JAP has over the years consistently campaigned for a land commission in northwestern Bangladesh through many of its seminars, conferences and day celebrations in both in Dhaka and different districts of northwestern Bangladesh. These events were often participated by the high ups in the justice system, political party members and academicians.

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3. 1. 7 Supportive research/ publication Through the two projects, Oxfam has been able to fund a number of research based publications which will be helpful in future to campaign for land rights of the adibashi people. Previously, there was a lacuna of literature in this respect. Especially, there was a dearth of information on how adibashi land was appropriated in northwestern Bangladesh. Most notable among them are two books, one a survey of land appropriation in the plain land Bangladesh and another on the legal aspects and provisions for the adibashi people. These two books will strengthen adibashi activism further in the country, especially amongst the plain land adibashi groups. During the project period a total of 32 publications have been produced. The quality of these publications is commendable and few of these publications will be very helpful for further use amongst the adibashis. 3. 2 Challenges and Improvement Opportunities 3. 2. 1 Contextualization of activities Land related problems are diverse in Bangladesh. There were some strong contexts (where adivasi rights to land and settlement were violated) in Durgapur, Netrokona on which the concerned partner organizations could work more proactively. One such context is the cutting or excavating of white clay hills (for commercial purposes) in the area which not only threatened the ecological balance and biodiversity but also forced adibashi people living in the area to resettle themselves in others areas. This dislocation needs to be better addressed by the concerned partner organizations.

Figure 3 Under-aged children walking by the excavation site at Netrokona

On land issue, it appeared generally that the partner organizations’ activities for facilitating for accessing khas land was strong compared to mobilization. They mostly helped in filling up forms for getting khas land and helping in the

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application process. There was no significant social mobilization held during the program period. It appeared that for some old partners in the northwestern Bangladesh, the high period of their mobilization activities has gone past and they were now mostly reminiscing that period. In the case of BDO, we visited areas where much in terms of land related litigation needed to be done. There were cases where adibashi hamlets were having a de facto status and project beneficiaries strongly urged the concerned partner organizations to resolve these land issues as they did not see their own efforts to produce any hope. It appeared that women members were very clear in asserting that they needed to resolve the land issue and expected the concerned organizations to act proactively (i.e BDO). In Netrokona again, Lawyers from the area gave opinion that whatever land related problems and exploitation were there in the area, much of these land litigation was complete by the 1980s. In support to this opinion, one lawyer, aware of the Hajong Mata Rashimoni Kallayan Parishad (HMRKP) work opined that not much land litigations are seen in the area because adibashi people do not have land anymore. “Exploitation was completed in the 1980s”, he said. However, there was a general consensus among the program staffs that the project needed to be implemented with a mixed approach. This is the only context which the program staffs could easily relate to because of the stark visibility of poverty, generally, amongst the beneficiaries in different work areas16. Although this is somewhat contrary to the project’s overall approach, the staffs opined that there was need to develop some IGA activities: vegetable, fish culture and poultry and even social forestry came as examples in this case17.

Box 5: Hajong Mata Rashimoni Kallayan Parishad Hajong Mata Rashimoni Kallayan Parishad is a new organization led by a man of Hajang ethnic background. The program staffs are also dominated by Hajang women and men from the locality. Hajangs as an ethnic group are a new entrant in development discourse. The organization’s Executive Director, although having long history of organizing in the area (a member of Tribal Welfare Association in the past) is in an early stage of understanding NGO project activity. Currently, it has only two funded projects. One is of course Oxfam’s SIPPL project on Indigenous people’s rights. The organization also works on women’s rights issues. Like other partners, it has also implemented AGUP from January 2008-2010. The organization seemed weak in terms of developing a governance mechanism. While it had two female program staffs who were enthusiastic enough, it was not clear as to how the organization was being run on a day to day basis. PC who joined in the middle of the project (project duration 2011-2014) seemed not capable enough to understand the project’s overall goals. During documentation checks, the evaluation team realized that there was not much of a practice of document keeping. None of the important documents (except the baseline survey) was available

16 The exception is Madhupur where amongst a section of the program beneficiaries we have seen the signs of middle class formation. Of course this cannot be generalized among all the Madhupur Garos. 17 IGA was previously seen in some of the previous interventions but later on dropped on the pretext of adopting a rights based approach, suggested by IWGIA. See: Arens and Haider (2007) for a detail of the recommendations RBA.

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on display. The front display of picture of different past events also indicated that the program staffs were lacking in motivation to keep its display board updated. Meeting with the EC members of the organization (a number of who were Hajangs with only one Garo member) however showed a strong indication of ownership of the organization. It appeared that the fact that the organization was working among the Hajangs was itself the reason for the survival of the organization. The organization in recent times were running 20 CBOs but currently it claims that 12 CBOs were active (10 women CBOs and 2 Mixed). CBO members were mainly from Hajang ethnic background. The other ethnic groups, often found amongst the working area of the organization, are the Garos and Banais. The main activities of the CBOs as reported to the evaluation team were savings activities and mustichal savings18 (only in some cases). In other cases (i.e. Gavindapur) CBO was involved with leasing a pond and fish culture. The organization’s ED seemed to be aware of the SAD fund. It was envisaged the organization could work with the UNO closely to tap into this resource which comes their way once in a year and in this connection, the ED could use his past experience. CBOs received training on gender and human rights training but to extent this is useful and meaningful to the CBO members is a big question. The staffs conceived training as an important activity of the program but what was not clear is the quality of these meetings. Stress should be given on participatory learning. In fact, enough contextual analysis should be made in determining who needs what. From a brief visit to one CBO at Gopalpur, we discovered the precarious nature of their livelihood situation at the border areas of Bangladesh. It was apparent that although CBO members were involved with some form of agriculture, they were also involved in selling labor on both sides of the border. This cross border uncertain economic situation was not adequately addressed in the project. According to one participant (program staff), there is demand for some training, and IGA activities etc amongst the CBO members. During the evaluation, the organization had 9 PPS and 1 among these was run by the organization. We came to know that all the PPS’s activities came to a close in December 2012. Programme staffs seemed to be unsure about the project’s future. A good percentage of the Hajang and Garo CBO members were involved with cross-border livelihood. The full scale of this economy is not explored here. Common livelihood options were: selling vegetables in adjacent parts of India or working as day laborer through informal channels/ “jungle passports”). However there are uncertainties with regard to this. One CBO member (at Gopalpur) reported that border crossing may stop anytime and if this happens, this will threaten their livelihood condition. Conventional wisdom in the area, however, is that this border economy will continue because there is an acute demand for vegetables and some other items on the other side of the border in India. Baseline survey shows that the Hajang and Garo people living in this area are extremely poor. For 33% of the households, the average monthly per capita income was below TK 10019. As such, the CBO member suggested that the organizations/ NGOs should consider some IGA activities in the area for “economic freedom”.

3. 2. 2 Disparity in new and old partners in terms of land related activities Land related activity was seen to be relatively poorly organized by the new partner organizations whereas in the case of old partner organizations usually they had a history of such activities. In the case of BDO and BSDO for example, it was apparent that they have had their high active period of mobilization in the past (often prior to the implementation of the two projects under review). 18 There is a tradition among women of keeping a handful of uncooked rice before cooking in a separate pot. This tradition was being applied in the organization of CBOs too. 19 See Base Line Survey Report: Kalmakanda and Durgapur Upazila, p. 31.

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3. 2. 3 Stagnancy in policy advocacy/ campaign There appears to be a kind of stagnancy as far as adibashi rights based issues are concerned. The demand for constitutional recognition of the adibashi people, despite multi- pronged campaign work (BAF and RDC for example worked closely with Parliamentary Caucus, many rights organizers campaigned for constitutional recognition for almost two decades now) was turned down by the parliament’s 15th amendment. Instead, the parliament came up with propositions which further infuriated the adibashi rights organizers. The demand for a land commission (much like the CHT) in northwestern Bangladesh, demanded almost for a decade now also did not see any success. There is also demand for reviewing the strategy of BIPRA and IP ministry and separate budget for IP. The organizations concerned need to think through as to why these demands, despite programmatically asserted (in forums, workshops and seminars) is not being accepted by the government. The organizations concerned needs to review their own strategy.

4. 0 Bilingual education It has long been envisaged that the high dropout rate of adibashi children at the primary education is due to the mainstream education system (where medium of education is in Bengali). Based on this assumption Oxfam since 2001 has been very instrumental in facilitating pre-primary education (also known as PPS). Both the projects under evaluation has continued it’s almost a decade long strategy to work amongst the community for the children’s education. Pre Primary School in adibashi communities have been initiated with the aim to provide bi-lingual education to the children and create opportunity for these children to get enrolled in government and registered primary schools. Often schools are established at the heart of the intervention areas (i.e. the Adibasi paras or villages). The PPS initiative has enabled the Adivasi children to learn easily in their mother tongue and Bangla as well and to prepare themselves to adjust in the regular education program of the country which is in Bangla. The PPS teacher is a female who is recruited from the respective community. She teaches under the supervision of a project supervisor appointed by the respective organization. Each organization is responsible to set rules for teachers’ salary, training for teachers and their responsibilities and also supervises students’ attendance, guardians meetings and activities of the school managing committee (SMC) and mothers’ forum. For proper functioning of PPS education supervisor visits at least once a month, the project coordinator in two months and the Executive Director visits PPS at least once in three months.

Subjects covered in the school are Bengali, Mathematics, English and Social Study. Basic introduction to Alphabet and mathematical figures are taught here through media like games, stories, songs, etc. This is done to create an interest and eagerness for education and also to prevent dropouts. The PPS program has

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been very effective for improving the education status among adibashi children and helped them to get enrolled in formal education institutions. Usually, Pre Primary school admits 25-30 children from the community, usually belonging to the same community but often there is “mixed” communities where children from different ethnicities study. Teachers are also recruited from the respective community from which the students come. In the pre primary schools adibashi children firstly gets the benefit of having a teacher from their own community who is both adept and knowledgeable in adibashi language as well as in Bengali. Therefore, children who speak adibashi language at home get an opportunity to interact with a person who is equally able to communicate in both the languages. 4. 1 Achievement 4. 1. 1 Continuation of the PPS According to Oxfam’s Annual Report 2010 on an average the project has been able to run a total of 161 schools annually during the implementation of AGUP project20. In many cases the school was established in small rented mud houses with corrugated shit on the top. The schools were also well decorated and in some cases extremely colorful (in terms of interior decoration). This is indicative of the kind of community participation enjoyed by the schools. Teachers generally were well educated to teach at the level where they were teaching. PPS teachers always showed enthusiasm in their work. They have the benefit of training from Oxfam, follow PPS manual for their day to day activities. The teacher is recruited from the community. On our visit, children were asked to do a lot different things to show us their talent: such talent shows are of course clear indication that these schools are hugely enjoyed by the children. Generally, from related stake holders from the school we also got impression that PPS was doing a great job in keeping low the dropout rate of adivasi children at the primary education level. At the work area of BSDO in Naogaon, we have also found school teachers commenting that due to PPS education of the adibashi children, they are often doing better compared to Bengali students (who don’t have this opportunity).

20 See Annual Report AGUP 2010

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Figure 4 PPS children performing a musical at Naogaon

With regard to PPS, ECDO from Sylhet even did a thorough research to see the effect of PPS education at the primary level of education and found a positive connection. ECDO not only completed this research but also disseminated this research finding with high ups of education ministry including the top boss, the honorable Minister of Education Mr Nurul Islam Nahid. 4. 1. 2 Successful uses of PPS books Oxfam continued its good work in continuing publication of the bilingual text books. The PPS books has been publish in 6 adibashi languages i.e. Garo, Patro, Hajong, Santal, Oraon and they are being used at the pre-primary level. It is to be noted that these books were published based on extensive research done in earlier phases of the project. Linguistic expertise has been drawn at the various stages of these book productions. 4. 1. 3 Establishment of Mother Forum Establishing of mother forum has been a key to PPS’s success. It has been reported that the children of PPS comes from very poor background and often support from the community is very important for the children’s regular attendance of school. Mother Forum often bridges that gap between the school authority and community. During the school visits we have noted that in addition to school teachers the mother of the children participating in the schools often took interest in these events. The school takes initiative to ensure children’s nutrition.

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4. 1. 4 PPS having a moduler effect The Oxfam model of PPS is being replicated by others. Especially, we came to know that government is closely following this model and in this BSDO’s long experience in running PPS has been very instrumental. 4. 1. 5 Development of language centers In Madhupur, we have also seen the development of language center. There are 5 language centres in IPDS’s working area. Language centers act like a resource centers where people come for books and advice. Usually there is one teacher who does all the advising at the center. 4. 2 Challenges and Improvement Opportunities 4. 2. 1 Under resourced schools The PPS schools are under resourced. Children sit on the floor. In winter this must create extreme difficulty for the children. Such a condition may not be suited for education. It is advised that the schools improve on its sitting arrangement. 4. 2. 2 School time Tiffin PPS children come from families who are extremely poor. Often children are malnourished. The teachers of the school think that if there were school time tiffin from the authorities, the children would have been more attentive/ enthusiastic in their participation in school activities.

5. 0 Women leadership, voice and agency The Indigenous women of Bangladesh have a low socio-economic status compared to men. Most of the adibashi communities are patriarchal and dominated by men (except the Garos who are matrilineal but not matriarchal, often misunderstood by many). The adibashi women’s status is low in terms of the right to inheritance, legal and political rights, decision-making powers and so forth. The common trend of the adibashi peoples is that the sons inherit landed property (except Marma’s in the CHT, Garo people in Mymensing and Khasis in Sylhet). Generally, women cannot claim paternal property. Discriminatory inheritance laws further hinder women’s overall emancipation. Moreover, women are also severely under-represented in the traditional power structures (i.e. Manzhiram, Pargana Parishad) of different adibashi society as communities are dominated by men, women have no access there and they even do not see any reason why women should be involved there. The adivasi women are also most vulnerable and exposed to various forms of discrimination and sexual violence though they have far greater mobility and play a primary role in production (i.e. wage discrimination).

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Although gender has been a cross cutting issue in the projects under review, it has recently been revitalized in SIPPL. Women’s leadership to ensure women’s right and voice has been a recent addition in the project only to be found in SIPPL. 5. 1 Achievement 5. 1. 1 New woman led organization and leadership Oxfam has been successful in supporting women led organization amongst the indigenous people. This is a new phenomenon as far as Oxfam’s own work is concerned. The establishment of Achik Michik Society at Madhupur is a good example of this achievement where the whole organization including its executive members are women. This organization has worked to raise women’s voice in the area in recent years.

Box 6: Waljam Mohila Shanggathon: a bright example of resistence Waljam Mohila Shanggathon, village: Thanerbaid, Union: Sholakuri, Upazila: Madhupur, district Tangail. A visit to one of the CBOs generated following information: it began in 2009. People involved in the smaity were previously involved with other samities which mainly concerned savings activities only (i.e.”sanchayer samity”). The member of smaity admits that they all took micro-credit loans in the past but currently they are not with them. Some members tried to give us an impression that they have gotten rid of the micro-credit organizations. The reason for leaving previous samity was listed as follows: high rate of interest, the problem of weekly installments and problems which arise when some one fails to continue with the installments (“when we fail, the NGO people do a lot of trouble). Garmeen Bank, world vision, ASA, and CBSD (a Church NGO) were all listed as organizations operating in the area.). Waljam smaity currently has a bank account. It has a savings of BDT 30,000. However, a good percentage of this amount is given for loan amongst the member of the samity. This is given on interest: interest has been fixed at tk 50 for every 1000 for three months. Total number of member of the samity now stands at 44. Samity gives loan to only members and does not include men in the samity. Because they think that males “create problem”. Some opined that “males cannot be trusted because they do not want to refund loan”. The organization for this samity began with an incident in 2007. Members recalled that in 2007 during emergency period of Bangladesh, there were Army destroying the banana garden. No one were able to protect this because men were vulnerable. Some members of this samity decided to protest this event. They opposed this destruction by standing on the road. They even dropped their infants on the road to protest the Army injustice. For this group, this is the beginning of their realization that one has to be united. It turned out later on that the members of this group were also involved with the movement against the Eco park in 2006-7. There was a high percentage of women who were involved in this movement too. (Often males could not participate in this movement due to false cases). As a samity the members were able to lease a khas pond for pisciculture. They also planted turmeric after receiving a fund from Oxfam (due to some problem in the technique of agriculture, it was not successful). As a member of samity, they traveled to places like Dhaka and Madhupur on World Indigenous Day. Collectively they have also intervened on people’s “family related feuds” (which involved extramarital affairs of one man whose wife is known to the smaity members; the organization Achik Michik was involved in the event and leaders were called upon for a resolve). The members necessarily did not report any antagonistic relationship with the Bengalis in the area. In fact they told the team that often the Bengalis are interested to participate in day celebrations such as World Indigenous Day.

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During field visits we came to know ample examples of women groups taking different measures to address patriarchal hegemony. Cases were recorded where women’s group took strategies to even prevent Army excesses in the locality of Madhupur during the emergency period. In times when it was difficult for the men to organize, it is the women folk who strategically took position to protest, opined CBO members. In Madhupur, amongst the CBO members, the memory of anti eco park movement, where there was a huge participation of women, was very fresh. Their recollection of these events clearly indicated that women were united and were able to work collectively.

Box 7: A strong anti Eco Park stance There is a strong sense of resistance amongst the Garo people in Madupur against the idea of establishing eco-park in the area. During our conversation on various issues, the resistance movement against Eco Park came frequently. In these conversations with women and men, there was a sense that the park would have affected the livelihood of the Garo population in the areas. A woman told that had there been an eco park, indigenous people would have lost their access to the land and forestry. From the beginning, it was planned that the park would be surrounded by brick walls and barbed wire. Had this been the case, the perception among the Garo people is that it would only allow Bengali influential and the Forest department people to have accrued the benefit of the park. Amongst the Garo people there was also a sense that their women folk would be exploited in the name of eco-park and its different “amusement” facilities. In the words of one participant, “influential would have established jalsa houses...they would perhaps force the adivasis to supply rice wine…adivasi people are simple, they would easily get caught up in these exploitation...in a nutshell, there would have been chaos”. 5. 1. 2 New women network The project has facilitated the formation of CBOs led by women (i.e. Women networks in Rajshahi area with the help of ASUS). This network has organized different protest event in the northwest in recent years and in some cases their activism saw some form of success. The project also made it possible the formation of national network called Bangladesh Indigenous Women Network (BIWN). This network was the clear outcome of the national indigenous women conference held in Dhaka. This network ensured grass root level women leadership building. Example: Adivasi Nari Jote, Adibashi Nari Shokti etc. 5. 1. 3 Rapid responses in case of human rights violation Both the projects have developed an effective mechanism to rapidly respond to situations of human rights violation in the case of adibashi people. This response is however not limited to the plain land only but have incorporated issues and concerns of human rights and women’s right violation of the Chittagong Hill Tracts, traditionally a volatile area as far as ethnic politics is concerned in Bangladesh. This mechanism has enabled a group of young activists in Dhaka to take forward the issue of indigeneity in Bangladesh. This partnership has created opportunity for the Dhaka based organizations such as the Kaapaeeng Foundation to work with scholars and activists of the majority population and take the issue of

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indigenous and indigenous women’s rights issue to a wider level, nationally and internationally. The organizations seem to be in touch with some of the transnational organizations which are very instrumental in indigenous rights issues. The outcome of partnership with Oxfam is evident in a number of reports and media communications which can be effectively used nationally and internationally. Kaapaeeng Foundation’s role in Dhaka enabled citizen rights group (often consisting of Bengali scholars, researchers of renown in addition to adibashi scholars/ activists) to visit different spots of human rights violation (i.e. most notable from recent incidents include visiting the violence spot of Ramu). This strategy has produced a new front of action and activism. Especially, it enabled Civil Society Organizations to work closely with media and helped to widely disseminate information on violation of rights of the adivasi people in different places of the country.

Box 8: Adivasi Women’s Network: an inspiring case of women’s mobilization The Chairperson of Shammilita Adivasi NariJote Kalpana Tirki noted that amongst the Oraon, there was no scope for women to take part in the decision making process in their TSS known as Dighori Raja Parishad. It has always been a male dominated space. Although amongst the Oraon, says Ms Tirki, women worked on equal footing with men in many other different spheres such as agricultural field in addition to doing household chores, there was a disparity as far as TSS was concerned. In her own words: “Earlier there were no women in leadership position in Oraon community. I once asked my father that if man can lead the community why not women? That time, there were meetings of Dighori Raja Parishad held in different adivasi neighborhood. In this backdrop, I expressed my wish to my father that I want to join the meeting of Dighori Raja Parishad. Though, primarily I was not welcomed by the Parishad but gradually I created my space in the meeting. I asked the Parishad that if women can do all the hard work for their livelihood, why can’t they participate and talk together in the meeting. I also proposed the Parishad to include at least two women in the Raja Parishad. From that time in 2010, female participants started to participate in the Raja Parishd and they do participate in meetings at different levels (i.e. Union level, Thana level). Considering the emerging space of mobilization of Adivasi women, we asked ASUS to give some support to mobilize women.” The idea of developing a network for the adivasi women came through these early efforts taken by Ms Tirki and others where ASUS has been instrumental. The Adibashi Women’s Network (AWN) has been formed on 15th November 2011 with the objective to develop adivasi women and their empowerment. A 21 member committee was formed from a meeting participated by more than hundred people. In 2011 the network organized a huge protest against an atrocity perpetrated by the Bangali people towards adivasi community. In Godagari Union’s Simla village, a women aged 45 was raped by some Bengali miscreants with the help of some adivasis in the areas. This atrocity was protested by the network and later police arrested the perpetrators of the crime. The perpetrators, 2 Santal men and 1 Bengali man was given the highest penalty of death sentence. One under aged involved in the crime was give life imprisonment.

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The network has taken a number of activities since then. One notable incident in 2011 was the incident which took place in JIban para where an adibashi village came under attack by some miscreants. Houses were burnt and women were harassed. Police were lenient on the miscreants (who were adibashis) and the women network staged a protest. In another event the network staged a protest against eviction of a group of adibashi households living in a hamlet. There is no doubt that patriarchal practice exists in Oraon community like the greater Bengali society. Usually, Oraon men spend their time in the evening by having tea and log adda/ chit chat in local bazars. It is a very common scenario in local level all over the Bangladeshi society. Men actually extend their adda till the mid-night. In some cases, if their wives make barriers to their husbands to go out in the evening, they even get violent. Female partners are generally not happy with this practice of their male counterparts. Once, the members of Adivasi Nari Jote made a plan to have tea and adda in the local bazar in order to protest their male counterpart’s careless behavior. When their respective male counterpart asked why they were there, the women replied why the males can’t have tea in their homes (and thereby take some responsibility of household chores) This network has successfully organized on IWD in 2013. Some members of the network also participated in the local UP election and won (from villages numerically dominated by adivasis). ASUS apart from providing the members of the group some necessary training also helped in linking up this network with some of the national and transnational organizations, which helped to build confidence among the members of the network. The network is currently taking actions collectively against any violence and atrocity against the adivasi community (i.e. violence against women, eviction from the land). In some cases, their continuous effort ensured the exemplary punishment of the perpetrators. The network recognizes ASUS for extending their support in the form of financial and technical support (i.e. provided office room, provided training on gender and leadership development, made the link with the different national women’s network). According to the some network members, “now we are more confident than earlier to make our counterpart and neighborhood understand about our work. We can also make sure our easy access in different important events in family and community. 5 .2 Challenges and Improvement Opportunities 5. 2. 1 Early days of women’s organization Adibashi women’s rights activism is still in its early days. Much time should be given for these networks to further grow and effectively contribute in creating a women’s voice in the area. 5. 2. 2 Much emphasis on new networks There is too much emphasis on formation of new networks but we wonder whether there is any scope to activate the existing networks. At least in Rajshahi JAP is involved in the formation of a platform organized by the women. The project could think of using existing platforms/ organizations to further strengthen its activity at the regional level.

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6.0 Recommendations and conclusion Following part of the report consists of two types of recommendations. The first section deals with recommendations made to Oxfam and the second part deals with some general recommendation on adivasi right discourse. 6.1 Recommendations for Oxfam

1. CBO activities of the project should be strengthened. Apart from rights based activities, emphasis should be given to economic activities which will improve the livelihood situation of the adibashi people. Some form of IGA with appropriate supervision is likely to improve the livelihood condition of the key beneficiaries of the project. Oxfam is advised to review its donor driven RBA and adopt a mixed approach as this is likely to increase ownership of the project amongst the direct beneficiaries.

2. Land right is a challenging area of intervention. This area consistently needs to be addressed and should not be dropped.

3. A thorough local need based operationalization of the project is needed. In this case, diversified approach is expected because local contexts are diverse. This should start from the project design. The project staffs need to have a clear sense of what is needed in their own contexts/ localities. A bottom up project development strategy needs to be adopted. On the other hand Oxfam should also appreciate bottom up approach.

4. The stalemate with regard to some policy advocacy needs to be reviewed (constitutional recognition and demand for land commission etc). The implementing organizations/ partners need to review their own strategy as to why they are not very successful at this stage.

5. Project staffs at the local level need to be more innovative in program implementation and should systematically develop tools for data collection and assessment.

6. There is a need to systematically use the base line survey. This systematic use of baseline survey will help in documenting the program activities and its impacts. Internal documentation of the projects are too focused on numbers (i.e. how many meeting are done, how many people were present etc) but not on understanding how such practices are bringing change. In this case, it is advised that Oxfam circulates its own research report styled “How Change Happens: Interdisciplinary Perspectives for Human Development by Roman Krznaric. This document shows the different paradigms of change theory.

7. PPS is all together a success story which came out of this program and is highly recommended for future initiatives with extended capacity in terms of resource for teaching material and other facilities. Adibashi people easily identify this school as their own and to some extent higher level of ownership is seen. The project should cash on it by developing innovative activities around it to generate more community participation, solidarity and identity.

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8. For education, the project should enhance its capacity in supporting meritorious students who are eager to pursue higher education after 12 years of schooling. To address these needs a budget allocation can be made during the project development in future.

9. More provisions for solidarity fund can bring some momentum in CBO activity.

10. It is advised that Oxfam develops a section to deal with legal cases to help the communities.

11. Oxfam’s monitoring of the program needs to be strengthened, capacitated with better evaluation and monitoring tools and regular field visits.

6.2 General Recommendations

1. Long term intensive research for further learning and understanding the change process in society should be done. Development organizations should give emphasis in collaborating with universities/ educational bodies for such activities.

2. A review needs to be done as to why the traditional structure of the self governance of the adibashi people is deemed necessary for the project as this contradicts with the overall object of the project which is of course to incorporate the adibashi people into the state governance.

3. There are many strengths, values and practices among the different adibashi communities. Initiative may be undertaken to document / study these for their further nurturing and wider sharing, which will increase confidence among the adibashi communities and uphold their positive images in the country. However, there is a need to depart from ceremonial aspects of adibashi people’s being and focus more on hardcore issues such as land appropriation and marginalized livelihood condition.

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Annex 1 TOR Evaluation of Diversity and Indigenous Peoples Leadership Project Genesis The indigenous communities are the most politically marginalized and socio-economically disadvantaged people in Bangladesh. The key aspects of this marginalization include gradual dispossession of their land, which impacted negatively not only on their livelihood concerns, but also heavily accentuated their identity crisis, including the process of acculturation. Continuous denial of land rights, entitlements, access to local resources and opportunity are keeping them out of the whole development process. Oxfam has been intervening to addressing the issue from the grassroots to policy level special attention on plain land areas through its local partners since 2001. An evaluation is intended to conduct to explore the effectiveness of the different interventions along with its contribution to make a positive change amongst targeted communities. Objective of the evaluation · To measure the effectiveness of Oxfam interventions at specific community level and how much effectively influencing the national level policy environment. · How the interventions are contributed to make a positive change over time in the life of the targeted communities including its sustainability. · identify the existing gaps, barriers and challenges to getting better result · Specific outline to way forward Outcome of the assignment: - A clear directive evidence based report with be come out where the objective of the evaluation has been clearly reflected - A document fro wider dissemination and further fund mobilisation on relevant area Methodology The assignment will be focused on qualitative and quantitative analysis both Tools might be use such as; · Literature review ( Project proposals, Log frame, target indicators, Periodical reports, case studies, database, publications and published other relevant documents) · Analyse the previous study and evaluation reports during the last 5 years. · Analysed , cross check and evaluate the preserve data · FGD with the Indigenous men, women and traditional leaders · KII ( partners and beneficiaries) · Guideline / checklist for information collection · Other effective appropriate techniques

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Assignment overview · The consultant will be design the evaluation framework , develop the tools and finalise the field visit plan with prior discussion with assigned person of Oxfam · Conduct the field work and analysis the findings · Share the key findings and seeking feedback · Prepare final report and submission Field work coverage Santal, Oraon, Pahan, Munda community of northern districts (One trip for field work) Hajang, Garo community of Birishiri-Susang Durgapur ( One trip for field work) Parta, Khasi community of Sylhet and Mulovibazar (One trip for field work) Key task · Prepare an evaluation framework consult with relevant tools and process (questionnaires, FGD guideline, lifeline analytical questions, documentation of individual and collective changes at family to state level), · Get approval of the evaluation framework from Oxfam · Review the earlier evaluation reports and related documents. · Conduct field visit, interview, collect case study and data, analysis and prepare the reader friendly report · Prepare the draft report share for feedback · Incorporating the feedback and finalise the report Time frame December 10, 2012 to February 28, 2013 Key competency needed 1. Outstanding experience on porgarmme evaluation for the marginalised communities especially for the ethnic minorities 2. Relevant university degree (PhD preferred) for the lead consultants 3. Expertise and proven track record in qualitative and quantitative analysis in Right Based Programme 4. Strong understanding and specific experience to working with indigenous communities considering their distinct culture, norms, customs etc 5. Strong analytical ability with writing skills including gender analysis

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Proposal Deadline to submit the detail proposal on 15th December, 2012 including mentioning the per day honorarium rate of the consultant with other cost (if any) in BDT. Travel, accommodation and food expenses will be cover the Oxfam. · A detail proposal with methodology along with the CV of the consultant · A detailed activity plan considering deliverable · Per day rate for consultant · Per day rate for an volunteers/ assistant if needed Contract person Saikat Biswas. Email: sbiswas@Oxfam.org.uk, Cell: 01713480305 Uzaal Azim. Email: uazim@oxfam.org.uk Cell: 01713041969 Diversity and Indigenous Peoples Leadership Project Oxfam, House-4, Road-3, Block-I, Banani, Dhaka 1219 Possible reference might be check: 1. Life and Land of adibashi, Dr. Abul Barakat and Dr. Sadeka Halim 2. The hidden matrix, Dr. Eshani Chakrabarty and Ayub Ali 3. Base line survey report: Not myth but reality, Dr. Shahed Hasan edited 4. Study conducted by Kriti Nishan Chakma 5. Draft report on Indigenous Women Leadership by Dr. Eshani Chakrabarty 6. Log frame, Project proposal and indicators 7. Different annual reports, partners report, case studies and database 8. Other relevant literatures Annex 2 Methodology of the review An extensive review of Oxfam’s internal documents and record keeping system will be done for the review. This literature review will include not only the project documents (i.e. evaluation reports and project presentations etc) but also a number of publications that the project has published in recent years. For the review of the operation of the project, fieldwork will be conducted with the help of Oxfam’s Dhaka office staffs. The fieldwork schedule will be developed considering the three different regions of the country where the organization has expanded its activities along with its partners in recent years. As far as fieldwork is concerned, we hope to take up a naturalistic approach. This means that we will develop checklist for different stakeholders with some very general questions on the program and their experience with the program in accordance with the present review’s objectives. Tools which we intend to use during the fieldwork are: Observation, one to one in-depth interviewing with relevant project personnel, documentation check and FGDs (only with non-beneficiary groups). When appropriate, we also want to use case study method to review best practices, which we may encounter in the field. In-depth interviewing will be conducted with members of frontline staffers, and in each case we also

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intend to keep a gender balance in selecting the informants. Observation will be used manly for some selected school visits. In relation to this review we also intend to include local leaders/ teachers and eminent personalities for interviewing who may not be direct beneficiaries of the program but are related with the issues and concerns of the adivasis. The idea is to generate data on how these development initiatives are perceived by the wider community. In such cases we hope to use some Focus Group Discussions (FGDs). Checklist for these FGDs and interviews will be developed prior to the fieldwork in Dhaka. In analyzing the out comes of the field data we will follow the commonly used anthropological method often known as Grounded Theory Method. Accordingly, considering the short span of the fieldwork we will employ random and theoretical sampling for this study. Annex 3 Technical design of the review Date & days Place/ group Activity Remark 12.12.12-14.12.12 (2 days)

Dhaka Development of proposal for review (to be submitted on 15th December 2012)

Proposal is developed based on one meeting with the Program Manager at Oxfam GB office in Dhaka. Accordingly, Program Manager provided the TOR and other necessary documents for developing the proposals / technical design for the review.

7 days (most likely starting from the end of December or when appropriated by the employing agency)

Dhaka -Literature review -Development of research tools for in-depth interviewing and Focus Group discussions -Preparation for the fieldtrips -Liaison with Oxfam Dhaka Staffs for organizing the fieldtrips

Lead researcher would like to have 2 days of work at this stage from one volunteer.

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5 days (Fieldwork in northwestern Bangladesh)

Different work areas in northwestern Rajshahi division. Santal, Oraon, Pahan, Munda community of northern districts

-Meeting project staffs at different partner organizations -Field visits at their work area -conducting interviews and FGDs with representative groups of the program beneficiaries and non beneficiaries -Maintaining field diary

Lead researcher will be accompanied with the Oxfam project staffs and one volunteer.

4 days (Fieldwork in mid northern areas of Bangladesh)

Hajang, Garo community of Birishiri-Susang Durgapur area

-Meeting project staffs at different partner organizations -Field visits at their work area -conducting interviews and FGDs with representative groups of the program beneficiaries and non beneficiaries -Maintaining field diary

,,

3 days (Fieldwork in northeastern zone of Sylhet)

Partra, and Khasi community of Moulavibazar

Meeting project staffs at different partner organizations -Field visits at their work area -conducting interviews and FGDs with representative groups of the program beneficiaries and non-beneficiaries

,,

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-Maintaining field diary

3 days Dhaka Data cleaning, organizing and expansion

Volunteer is needed at this stage

10 days Dhaka Writing up the report

No volunteer needed

33 days (work for lead researcher) 11 days work by the student volunteer

Reference cited Arens, Jenneke and Haider, Iftekar. (2007). Working for the future of Adibashis

in Bangladesh. IWGIA Base Line Survey Report: Kalmakanda and Durgapur Upazila by Partners in

Health and Development Guhathakurata, M. (2009). Minorities, Migration and National Identity in

Bangladesh: Negotiating Power. The Journal of Social Studies 121, 120-121.

Qureshi, M. S. ed. (1984). Tribal Cultures in Bangladesh. Rajshahi: IBS.

Stidsen, Sille et al (2011). Lessons learned from the Danish Support ti Indigenous Peoples in Bangladesh 2001-2010. Embassy of Denmark, Dhaka.

Sumon, Mahmudul et al. (2003) Review of Indigenous People’s Development Programme of Oxfam GB in three districts of northwestern Bangladesh.