The overall sustainability of civil society organizations (CSOs) in Bangladesh remained unchanged in 2021, with declines in four dimensions and no notable change in the remaining three.
According to the Civil Society Organization Sustainability Index (CSOSI) Global Report 2021 released on Wednesday, the situation prevailed with ongoing crises such as legal complications, restrictions on expression, bureaucratic complications, funding uncertainty and the Covid-19 pandemic disrupting the normal operation of CSOs.
The 2021 CSO Sustainability Index for Bangladesh, as it is called, shows that the overall sustainability index for last year remained static at 4.0, the same as that of 2020.
The figure was 3.5, the best, in 2015, a year after Bangladesh was included in the annual estimate.
CourtesyThe scores continued to decline for the next five years.
Of the seven dimensions measured for scoring, four declined and three remained unchanged in 2021.
As in the previous years, the overall situation of CSOs especially focused on democracy, good governance and human rights in Bangladesh remained in the grip of the authorities.
They faced obstacles and bureaucratic harassment in legal processes, including complicated registration, renewal issues and delayed approval for foreign support, according to the global index, published by USAID on Wednesday.
USAID covered 73 countries this year for the CSOSI.
A pool of experts suggested the scores for each country based on publicly available information and data. A US-based editorial panel finalized the score before producing the report.
The CSO sector includes self-governing formal and informal organizations, usually of non-profit nature, such as non-government organizations, community-based organizations, faith-based organizations, social movements, trade unions, women's groups, research institutes and think tanks.
The levels of sustainability are organized into three broad clusters: Sustainability Enhanced (1.0 to 3.0), Sustainability Evolving (3.1 to 5.0) and Sustainability Impeded (5.1 to 7.0).
The United States Agency for International Development (USAID) developed the index and has been producing the reports since 1997. Bangladesh first came under this indexing in 2014.
The report says that the NGO Affairs Bureau (NGOAB) increasingly delayed foreign grant approvals in 2021, imposing new conditionalities in the process.
This happened despite the fact that the CSO sector in Bangladesh has long depended heavily on foreign and local donors, including government, multilateral institutions like the World Bank, Asian Development Bank and UN, and bilateral donors like USAID, FCDO, UKAid, Sida, etc.
The financial viability of the CSO sector remained unchanged overall in 2021.
Though the number of foreign funds approved by the NGOAB increased, CSOs received notably less of it in 2021 than they did in 2020.
“CSOs were hesitant to carry out advocacy campaigns that may challenge the government, especially in regards to policymaking, and the public image of CSOs deteriorated slightly with an increase of negative media coverage,” it reads.
“The organizational capacity of CSOs also declined slightly in 2021 as funding cuts limited CSOs' ability to retain full-time, qualified staff. Financial viability, service provision, and the infrastructure supporting the sector remained unchanged in 2021,” the index adds.
It says that the legal environment for CSOs, governed by several regulatory frameworks, declined moderately in 2021 while restrictions on civic space more broadly continued to impede CSOs' ability to operate.
CSOs register under various government departments, making it difficult to determine the total number of CSOs in the country.
The study, from publicly available documents, found that there are more than 58,000 organizations registered under the Department of Social Services, over 15,00 under the Department of Women Affairs, and 9,000 trade unions and 2,261 Bangladeshi entities under the NGO Affairs Bureau.
Increasing restrictions on civic space more broadly also posed challenges for CSO operations, especially media, in 2021. As in previous years, the Digital Security Act was used to severely limit freedom of expression, stifling dissent and perceived criticism, the report says.
Arrests and government crackdowns for allegedly spreading rumours and misinformation on social media, particularly in response to criticism of the government's handling of Covid-19, continued in 2021. Most of the arrests were based on the DSA, the report says.
The latest report, citing another study, said the state of civic space in Bangladesh remained “repressed”.
In 2021, the authorities cancelled the registrations of 21 NGOs, a significant increase from the three whose registration had been revoked in 2020 for legal non-compliance or irregularities.
Human rights violations continued to be a concern, and CSOs, unions and the media faced increasing obstacles to their ability to operate freely.
CSO advocacy deteriorated slightly in 2021 as CSOs continued to have limited access to government decision-making processes and engaged in greater self-censorship.
Typically, CSOs participate in steering committee meetings of various ministries as well as district and sub-district coordination meetings.
Media coverage continued to be mixed in 2021 but deteriorated overall. The public perception of CSOs remained largely negative in 2021, unchanged since 2020.
