Assessment of BRAC’s enhancing social capital project

Abstract

BRAC embraces a holistic approach towards development that is integrated with village organization (VO). To uphold and maintain the integrity and norms of BRAC VOs, Community Empowerment Programme (CEP) of BRAC initiated the Enhancing Social Capital (ESC) project in 2010. This study aimed to assess the progress in VO discipline in ESC project areas. We used a quasi-experimental design to understand the achievements of this project. Both quantitative and qualitative techniques were used to collect data from 264 VOs representing experimental and control group. The findings reveal that experimental VOs were performing better than control ones, particularly in sanitation, family planning, VO discipline, participation in local shalish, etc. The location of VO sometimes constrained project’s staff in attending VO activities in time. Thus, coordination between ESC and micro-finance staff should be improved to achieve ESC project objectives.