Sangam Diaspora

With the Mahatma Gandhi Fellowship, this summer I investigated the work of an NGO to localize the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) in Bangladesh. As a Bangladeshi, I have been interested in issues related to human development in my homeland for many years. I worked with a grassroots Bangladeshi NGO named Unnayan Shamannay (“Coordinated Development”). What I valued most about this NGO was its emphasis on working with local people. Unnayan Shamannay had been facilitating an MDG project since 2005 that had contributed to reduced school drop out rates, improved maternal care, increased agricultural yield, reduced maternal mortality rates, and increased awareness of the MDGs. Due to these improvements, I was interested in understanding the mechanisms of this project that had led to success.

Based on academic analysis and personal interviews, I found that local ownership, emphasis on female participation, local budget allocations, and participatory dialogue were the components of this model that had led to improvements in these unions. Following my research, I helped Unnayan Shamannay write a report to the United Nations Development Programme on “Localizing MDGs in Bangladesh” for expansion of the project to further unions in Bangladesh.

Inspired by my work this summer, I plan to attend the Johns Hopkins School of Public Health to study maternal and child mortality with the goal of working in the field of human development in Bangladesh.

-Shefa Sikder