UNDP defends its decision to work with Bangladesh organisation run by prime minister’s family
Last week an article published by Netra News raised questions about the appropriateness of BRAC’s Executive Director agreeing to be a member of the advisory board of a new magazine published by the Centre for Research and Information, a highly partisan, pro-Awami League organisation which is governed by two members of the prime minister’s family, Sheikh Hasina’s daughter Saima Wajed Putul and nephew, Radwan Mujib Siddiq Bobby and involves a third, Radwan’s sister, Azmina. (After writing that article, Netra News was told that BRAC would no longer “entertain any media requests [from Netra News]” though this threat was subsequently removed.)
However, perhaps, even more surprising was the launch last week of a project on ‘Women’s Safety in Public Places’ involving CRI and the United Nation’s Development Programme (UNDP).
UN organisations have to work with government of all shades and flavours — however it does not usually (and surely should not) involve itself with highly partisan pro-governing party organisations, unless it had to do so or at the same time is working with similarly partisan pro-opposition parties.
And in this case the UNDP certainly did not have to do so.
If the UNDP wanted to work on women and youth, it could choose from many independent non-government organisations in Bangladesh who have far more experience of working on both of these issues. Does the UNDP not realise that its neutrality appears compromised when it chooses to work with an organisation run by two members of the Awami League’s ruling family?
Moreover, if the launch is anything to go by, the programme is being used by the Awami League to position the prime minister’s daughter, Saima Wazed Putul — the main speaker at the launch - as the saviour of Bangladeshi women.
Perhaps UNDP has been blinded by the fact that CRI’s key trustee, Radwan Siddiq, is the Strategic Adviser (Governance)* for UNDP, and has worked for them for a number of years. In the first place, it has always seemed rather inappropriate, for UNDP to employ someone like Siddiq, whose partisanship and relationship with the prime minister is evident. But then having done so, to then go on to sign a memorandum of understanding with the partisan organisation which Siddiq runs, suggests UNDP — and Siddiq — are in conflict of interest territory. Should the UNDP be working so closely with an organisation run by one of its consultants?
One UN official told Netra News, off the record, that they were “amazed” at the tie up between the two organisations. Another UN official said that “Working with CRI is okay if balanced with other voices, which it is not.” That person went to say that: “To have Siddiq on the UNDP payroll at the same as working with CRI is extraordinary.”
Apart from the question of who runs CRI, it is difficult to understand why UNDP’s Human Rights Programme would seek to work with an organisation like CRI whose whole ethos is directed at either minimising or covering up human rights violations involving the current government. That surely is not an appropriate partner for UNDP’s human rights programme to be working with.
Netra News asked the UNDP to explain itself. It said:
“Before we make any partnership with anyone, we perform UNDP’s global due diligence, which is a rigorous process, and only if the result is satisfactory, UNDP makes partnership with any identity, with an aim to connect widely to achieve the certain goal. In this case, our partnership with CRI is to connect with youth to bring the desired results, not driven by any politics.”
However, UNDP’s own document, ‘Managing Partnerships” states that one of the risks that the UNDP needs to review before partnering with another non-governmental organisation is “reputational compromises” including “UN neutrality”. It appears that UNDP may not have properly considered this before partnering with CRI.
UNDP went on to state that its involvement with CRI came about because it worked closely with the National Human Rights Commission’s who was working with CRI
“Our, Human Rights Programme (HRP) has been working with the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) for long to build the capacity of existing human rights architecture in Bangladesh. Our primary interest in this case is to support NHRC’s leadership to run a youth-led, nation-wide campaign on women’s safety jointly with Young-Bangla, a youth platform of CRI and also Jubo-Bangla, a youth platform of UNDP’s HRP. Our Human Rights Team is embedded within the NHRC.”
It is of course another question as to why the supposedly independent NHRC is working with CRI — but unfortunately NHRC is a barely independent entity, and one would expect little better from it.
One of the paradoxical consequences of a restricted freedom of expression environment in Bangladesh is that it is not only the government that gains — but also an organisations like UNDP which seeks a less restricted media environment in the country which benefits,. Whilst UNDP does good work and is no doubt filled with people with good intentions, it — along with BRAC — need to be subject to far more media scrutiny and accountability than it currently gets.
* Radwan Siddiq’s official position within the UNDP has been updated from his Linked-in page
// David Bergman
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