News

03/11/2008

Supporting security in Bangladesh

On 18 December, Bangladesh will hold long awaited parliamentary elections. With a history of conflict and insecurity in Bangladesh, there is real potential for violence around the ballot. To get a better understanding of peoples’ concerns and needs, in early November Saferworld visited a number of towns and villages in Bangladesh to interview community members, local and international NGOs, government officials and representatives from international donors about developments in the country’s security and justice system, focusing on policing. Saferworld also conducted an evaluation of two ‘community-safety’ sites it has been helping to pilot. Both these activities will go toward informing our future work in Bangladesh and how we can best support peace and security in the country.

The interviews found that beyond financial constraints, staff shortages and a lack of equipment, the Bangladesh Police face several key challenges to reform. There is a legal and cultural legacy dating back to the nineteenth century when the role of the police was mostly limited to maintaining order and ensuring tax collection. A centralised and hierarchical structure also tends to exclude low ranking officers from the on-going reform process and there is widespread corruption due to both political interference at the top and low salaries at the bottom.

Against this backdrop, several police and justice reform programmes have been initiated in the country. Most notable is the ‘Police Reform Programme’ (supported by the UK’s Department for International Development and the European Commission and run by the UN Development Programme) which includes a national strategy for ‘community-based policing’ that the Bangladesh Police intend to promote.

“Reform of the police can not come from the institution alone,” said Edouard Belloncle, Security and Justice Sector Development Adviser at Saferworld. “It will also need broader political will and participation – including from communities.”

Saferworld has supported security and justice sector reforms in the Horn of Africa and East Europe, and has helped pilot community-based policing initiatives in Kenya, Moldova and Bosnia. Saferworld will build on these experiences to offer support to the on-going police reform process in Bangladesh so as to improve cooperation, trust and dialogue between the police and the public.

But promoting an effective and accountable police service is not the only way to help people feel secure. Saferworld has been piloting two ‘community-safety’ sites in Bangladesh, in partnership with BRAC and ChangeMaker, which aim to help local people identify the issues making communities unsafe and develop their own solutions to these problems.

The evaluation of the sites in the Kamarangir Char slum of Dhaka and the rural village of Hajirgol in Kishoregani involved interviewing the community members involved, staff from the local implementing agencies, the police and local government officials to assess the impact and success of the projects to date.

Although it’s too soon to consider their long term benefits, both pilot sites are already having a positive impact in their communities, including a reduction in reported security problems, more community participation in addressing their own safety concerns, and better cooperation between the police, local government and communities.

“The Hajirgol site has become a showcase for our local partner BRAC’s work to promote greater community participation and ownership,” said Chamila Hemmathagama, Project Coordinator on Saferworld’s Asia programme. “And the Kamarangir Char slum project has not only provided safety for children of working parents, but also enabled their families to pursue fulltime employment and so allowed them a steady income.”