NGOs and Evaluation: the BRAC Experience by

Bangladesh is one of the poorer countries in the world. Because of the multitude of problems, both natural and man-made that Bangladesh has had to face ever since its inception, we perhaps lost sight of the positive aspects of the fact that by putting our heads together we have also achieved ‘miracles’. The 75 million people at independence that turned into 120 million in 1997 have managed to survive on a land mass and with resources that would have been depleted overnight almost by any other people. Despite its growth in population, the country has, in 25 years, become nearly self-sufficient in food grains. Seventy percent of the newborn children are now immunized, and fertility rates have greatly fallen. Infrastructure has been set in place, and the country has reaffirmed its commitment to democracy. Bangladesh was determined to confound the doom-sayers and those who had carelessly and unkindly called it a ‘basket case’. The need for development that emerged with independence, and the willingness of outsiders to help Bangladesh generated a community of development organizations, that is, non-government organizations (NGO) unparallel else where. Bangladesh ha