Government-NGO Partnership in TB Control in Bangladesh

Elgin Saha
Executive Director, HEED Bangladesh

INTRODUCTION

At the end of 1971 Bangladesh emerged as an independent nation through a nine months long war of independence from Pakistan. After many years of closed (economy, political, social and religious) orientation only recently the country is poised again to taste the fruit of independence through its open market economy policy.

There had been always a tension between government organisations (GO) and non government organisations (NGOs) in Bangladesh, over the issues of recognition at large, as to who performs better in local support system. It took some time for us to recognise that the NGOs can not take the role which a State can. Equally the government started realising that in certain areas NGO delivery system is much more effective. So, recently a realisation took place between the government & NGOs that both need to develop a partnership between to make their effort more effective and impactful. It is to complement but not to compete with each other.

One of our biggest programmes is our TB-Leprosy Control Programme. We have signed one Memorandum of Understanding with the government, by which we have taken the responsibility to take care of TB & Leprosy patients in Sylhet Division (4 Districts - 7.5 million Population). According to the MOU, Govt. is providing space (room and building for us at each District and Thana level), drugs (from WHO) and co-ordinates technical support. We as NGO have the full responsibility along with the government to identify patients, ensure treatment and follow-up. For this we have to involve the community and DOTS (Directly Observed Treatment, Short Course) system. We have developed some incentive scheme to ensure the local community's participation, which is giving us quite an encouraging results.

BENEFITS

PROBLEMS

CHALLENGES AND SOLUTIONS