Old Age Allowance (OAA) was not consistently provided, with issues of discrimination, lack of information and corruption. The challenge was therefore to improve existing community services such as OAA and strengthen Old People Groups (OPG) and Old People Committees (OPCs) so that they can ensure them-selves the wellbeing of rural and urban older people. As an example of the challenge, monitoring data collected through the OCM revealed that older people were travelling long distances to collect their allowance only to find that the bank had changed the distribution day. Other instances included bribery and exclusion of certain older people groups.

Older people in general, Older people with vulnerabilities, Both older and younger people

Health, Information and Communication, Social protection

Government, Civil Society Organization, Older People's Association

Older people helped to implement the project

From 2006-11, older citizen monitoring activities involved a total of 410 older citizen monitoring groups across six districts in Bangladesh which were financially supported by Cordaid and Irish Aid. OCM groups were supported by RIC to collect information on the means-tested Old Age and Widows’ Allowances, older people’s access to health facilities and microcredit, and they used the data collected to inform their discussions with local decision makers.

Older community members have become more organised and increased their capacity with operations and leadership development. Those involved are positive about their engagement and are empowered to claim their rights and raise their voice for their entitlements. Consequently, the work of the OPCs is continuing beyond the life of the original programmes. OPC activity with older women has also improved their self-confidence and self-respect. The work has resulted in an intergenerational understanding directly helping the older population and indirectly proving to be beneficial to their families as well. Older people are much more aware of their health issues and the frequency of older people visiting health centres has increased. There is greater transparency in the distribution of the OAA as OCM groups nominated vulnerable people for selection rather than leaving the local council to select beneficiaries. Banks now set regular days for distributing allowances. OCM work also helped to reduce incidences of bribery within the delivery of the OAA. Advocacy work informed by OCM data contributed to an increase in the OAA budget from 6,000 million taka (US$77 million) (2008-2009 fiscal year) to 8,910 million taka (US$114 million) (2010-11 fiscal year), and a corresponding increase in the number of older people receiving the benefit. Older people now regularly work with government institutions and NGOs, and through advocacy can play an active role in the establishment of older people’s rights in Bangladesh. The government, in turn, better recognise older people’s contributions and appreciate the role they play in communities.

In projects setting up community-based structures it typically takes time to achieve a good level of ownership, and balanced leadership – It is necessary to first build the capacity and confidence of older people through training and facilitation. In addition, in contexts like Bangladesh, it can be hard to achieve gender balance as often males dominate functions such as monitoring and identification of beneficiaries, especially when it requires interacting with Government officials. In other instances, it can be harder to attract men if the issues worked on are linked to health care, self-help or service delivery, that are often associated with ‘women issues’. It is therefore important to take time and be deliberate in attracting and training a mix of participants from different gender but also social and economic backgrounds. This can be done through peer identification and pro-actively reaching out to specific groups who typically are excluded from structured activities.

(1) A bottom-up approach is a lot more effective than a top-down one. Through this activity, the OCM work lead to the development of an older people’s movement, the ownership of which lay with the older people and the communities themselves. It was built from the grassroots rather than being imposed from the top down. Under the banner ‘Old Age Allowance is not a mercy, it is our right’, group members participated in awareness raising about entitlements, and training on how to undertake situation assessments and data collection. (2) Older women have to be specifically supported. Older women were actively encouraged to participate through separate leadership training, and some launched a campaign to end the practice of dowry giving. With support from RIC, the groups also kick-started microcredit and savings schemes with the aim of becoming financially sustainable. (3) Older People Committees can be very pro-active and initiate campaign activities based on needs. Local initiatives provide social security to older people, assisting in relief distribution during disasters and in organising religious festivals. OPCs often work to link older people to local services, including health and social welfare. OPCs always take a role in protesting against discrimination against older people in economic, social and political spaces, and raise awareness of ageism. They also work to strengthen the voices of older people, including through undertaking arbitration work in communities. OPCs tend to have more strength in undertaking this kind of activity in rural areas where communities are very close.

The set-up rules of the Old People Groups and Committees (OPGs and OPCs) are very important to their ability to be inclusive and sustainable. The older people's committees (OPCs) include a fairly equal number of older women and men, and the criteria for forming group committees includes having at least 40% older women. Most older people who are engaged are from poorer economic groups, with low rates of literacy. Those who are educated often take on the leadership of the groups. Older people with disabilities are included and are prioritised. Once OPCs are set-up, the running is completely lead by the older people themselves. RIC only supports with facilitation.