The role of NGO savings and credit schemes in improving the quality of life of the urban poor in four slum and squatter settlements in Dhaka city | |
| Author | Alamgir, Farzana |
| Call Number | AIT Thesis no.HS-99-02 |
| Subject(s) | Non-governmental organizations Urban poor--Bangladesh--Dhaka |
| Note | A thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Science, School of Environment, Resources and Development |
| Publisher | Asian Institute of Technology |
| Abstract | Only around the late 1980s, the Government and Non-Government Organizations (NGOs) of Bangladesh started to recognize the extent and severity of urban poverty. To solve this problem they have taken up different types of savings and credit schemes. This research is done to analyze and assess the effectiveness of two of these schemes in improving the Quality of Life (QOL) of the participating poor households. For this study, two leading NGOs working in Dhaka have was selected, named Proshika and Shakti Foundation, and a questionnaire survey of the participating residents was conducted in four slum and squatter settlements under these two organizations. The analysis was mainly based on the 'before' and 'after' credit taking situation for which some multivariate analysis was done. To get another comparison and a better picture of the change in the people's QOL, a small sample of 35 households were drawn from slum and squatter residents that are not under influence of any NGO activities, as a control group. The two NGO schemes studied are distinct in their goals along with organizational and operational aspects. The scheme of Proshika concentrates on both social development and economic development with greater emphasis on the social development. The scheme of Shakti primarily concentrates on the economic development of its members through an elaborate scheme for savings and credit. The four settlements studied also had distinct features which also influenced the effectiveness of the schemes in improving the Quality of Life of the members. The results indicate that the present schemes do have a positive impact on the quality of life of their members to a certain extent. As the focus of the two schemes are different, their impacts on the Quality of Life of the members were also different. In other words, the members of Proshika were found to be more aware socially, health wise, hygiene wise and more educated compared to the members of Shakti Foundation. On the other hand, the members of Shakti were found to be more economically better off, hence their food intake was more compared to Proshika. Another important finding of this research is that the present schemes are not very effective or can be said that, are not exactly designed to facilitate the poorest of the poor. Instead, they are beneficial to those who were slightly better off and have a small running business in which he/she can invest the loan money. It has been found that, proper and close monitoring of the investment of the loan money is very important to ensure economic development of the poor people. The results also indicate that economic development alone, without any social development, can not bring a significant improvement to the Quality of Life of the people, although it has been found that with higher income, the standard of living of the people does rise to some extent. Finally, an integrated development scheme is proposed where social and economic developments have been given the same emphasis. Moreover, a credit scheme is proposed to reach and facilitate the poorest among the poor, at the same time, encourage the entrepreneurs among the poor which will lead to the improvement of the Quality of Life of the target groups. |
| Year | 1999 |
| Type | Thesis |
| School | School of Environment, Resources, and Development |
| Department | Other Field of Studies (No Department) |
| Academic Program/FoS | Human Settlement (HS) |
| Chairperson(s) | Archer, Ray W.;Amin, A.T. M Nurul; |
| Examination Committee(s) | Morishita, H.; |
| Scholarship Donor(s) | DAAD, Germany (German Academic Exchange Service.); |
| Degree | Thesis (M.Sc.) - Asian Institute of Technology, 1999 |